Six To Try: The Best Pancakes in Sydney

Shrove Tuesday, otherwise known as Pancake Day, falls on the day before lent. In 2026, Shrove Tuesday is February 17. But, whether you observe the day or not, it is a good day for a sweet brekkie. This half-dozen pancakes – some fluffy, some stacked, some as big as a plate – are a cut above the rest.

Cafe Lewi, Lewisham

Two fine-dining chefs – chef couple Isabella Leva Laureti and John Laureti – opened their sweet little inner west cafe in late 2025. It’s a local favourite already, in no small part to its $17 plate-sized pancake. The fluffy round is thick and cake-y, served with a whiff of crème fraiche, diced mango and little jug of maple. Add bacon or berries, if you like.

Bills, Surry Hills, Darlinghurst, Bondi, Double Bay

You could consider Bill Granger’s ricotta hotcakes the Sydney pancake. They are a big reason Australia’s cafe culture is world renowned – a fixture on the Bills menu since 1992, and so adored they’ll never leave. The splodgy, squishy beauties arrive in threes, crowned with a melty circle of honeycomb butter and sliced banana. The power play? Dining with a mate, and splitting the iconic hotcakes and the corn fritters.

Happyfield, Haberfield

These pancakes are adored – and “proper”. They’re a half-pinky thick, foldable and squishy, available as a trio ($18) or a stack of four to 15 ($5 per pancake). People queue for the perfected rounds, which arrive with Pepe Saya butter and maple syrup imported from Canada. Or, with fried eggs and bacon in the savoury stack, or cream and blueberries if you go sweet.

AP Bread & Wine, Darlinghurst

The all-day brekkie menu at the AP team’s Darlo outpost is a riot. It’s all saucy egg muffins and stuffed-full avo bagels, eggs swimming in chicken broth and anchovies criss-crossing over eggs on toast. But the whopping oat pancake – topped with whipped honey butter and drenched in kithul syrup – is something special. The $20 pancake is deep espresso-brown (like the rest of AP’s bread), with slightly crunchy edges.

Valentina’s, Marrickville

In 2025, 14,793 of these plate-fillers were eaten in this inner west diner. By anyone's maths, that’s a popular pancake. The $16 cakes arrive as singles, served simply: dusted with icing sugar, with butter and maple syrup. You can add house-made blueberry sauce, bacon or fried chicken if you want all-out diner vibes, but it’s just as outstanding on its lonesome.

Theeca, Darlinghurst

The open concept kitchen here lets you catch a glimpse of chefs ladling thick batter into pans to craft this cafe-slash-bar’s pancakes. This is the brekkie-cake the internet’s obsessed with: fluffy with an even-gold colour, topped with a generous helping of whipped crème fraiche and a spoonful of blackberries. It’s $29.50, and worth getting for the table if you can’t decide between it and the snacky breakfast plate.