Fried chicken bagels with Kewpie and tonkatsu sauce, beef-stuffed kare pan, and excellent coffee. It’s all calling from a fresh trio of eateries and cafes in Sydney’s south and west. Here’s where to go, and what to know.

Gramme Espresso, Mascot

Early in the morning, sun pours through the front window of Gramme Espresso, the brand new cafe from Mascot. It’s a minimal space run by Mitch and Tayla Hennessy, a husband-and-wife team passionate about good coffee and good food. Throughout the day, a steady stream of tradies, commuters, cyclists and locals pass through, picking up fresh cold-pressed juices, matcha lattes, milkshakes and coffee made with award-winning White Horse beans.

Barista Mitch has been brewing for over a decade, and his ambition is to make black coffee “super approachable”, starting with a fruity strawberry cold brew.

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“It’s an easy introduction to drinking black coffee and hopefully will translate into a few more open minds when it comes to trying filter,” he tells Broadsheet.

The food menu is small but mighty, with Bread and Butter Project pastries, stacks of house-made chocolate chip cookies and tasty sangas. Of those, there’s a funky option with rockmelon, prosciutto and goat’s cheese and mortadella toasties with pickled peppers and Swiss cheese. Then there’s the irresistible Le Hot Toasty, with ham and Red Leicester cheese sandwiched between golden slices of brioche.

828 Botany Road, Mascot
Mon to Fri 6am–2pm
Sat 7am–midday

@gramme.espresso

Azuki Bakery, Wolli Creek

Azuki Bakery, with its beef kare pan (curry bread) and crisp custard puffs, has a cult following in Newtown. But the compact King Street shop is limiting, owner Shunsuke Hashimoto tells Broadsheet. “Sometimes there’s not enough space for customers to sit and eat, and when we’re really busy, we can’t make enough products.”

After seven years on Enmore Road, Hashimoto has opened a sibling shop in Wolli Creek. The new store offers plenty of space for him to flex his creativity and, in turn, introduce a new neighbourhood to his Japanese pastries. Try exclusive-to-Wolli-Creek egg sandos; onigiri pan; airy, fluffy cheesecakes; and bruléed French toast with caramelised sugar custard and yuzu. Sesame lattes, hojicha, and yuzu and honey sodas round off the drinks menu alongside matcha and coffee.

Hashimoto puts Azuki’s success down to the marriage of Japanese ingredients with more-familiar European pastries. “If we want to introduce green-tea flavour, we make green-tea cheesecake,” he says. “For wasabi, we put it in our pork katsu sando.”

Although the menu spans cultures, Azuki is quintessentially Japanese. “We wanted to bring Japanese culture to Sydney,” Hashimoto says. “Not just food, but also the way we live, serve and the way we cook and eat.”

Shop 1/9–11 Arncliffe Street, Wolli Creek
Mon 9am–4pm
Thu to Sun 9am–4pm

@azuki.bakery.wollicreek

Roman’s Deli, Georges Hall

Ordering at this new food truck should be easy. There are only six choices: three sandwiches, three bagels. But faced with the options, you might have to sit down on one of the green, cushion-topped milk crates to ponder your options for a few minutes. Will it be the sell-out Reuben made with Wagyu pastrami, caramelised onion, sauerkraut and chipotle mayonnaise? The Japanese-leaning fried chicken bagel with Kewpie and tonkatsu sauce? Or maybe the portobello mushroom melt?

Sitting there, it’s easy to forget you’re in a petrol station carpark. Owners Serwan Roman and Andrew Vu fitted the outdoor space with plenty of greenery, the British racing green of Roman’s Deli branding is everywhere, and music pumps from speakers as staff serve sandwiches, coffees and house-made lemonades.

“It’s a humble set-up, but we’re always having a laugh together, and we want people to have a good time,” Roman tells Broadsheet. “You can sit outside the food truck, or a lot of customers take their food down to the boat ramp by the river or to the park for a picnic.”

250 Henry Lawson Drive, Georges Hall

Wed to Fri 7am–3pm
Sat & Sun 8am–3pm

@romans.deli