Hot List Update: Cafe Cressida and Ursula’s Are Added

This week’s Hot List activity

• Added: Cafe Cressida, Ursula’s
• Most trending restaurant: Attenzione
• Most trending bar: Letra House
• Most trending cafe: Superfreak

At a time when simple, classic dining is having a major resurgence, why not bring back a beloved 25-year dish? That’s the question Phil Wood and Lis Davies are asking at their bright, playful Cafe Cressida in Woollahra, which opened very quietly – i.e. no announcement on Instagram – late last week and joined The Hot List today.

The Queens Court terrace was once known as Caffe Agostini, and proprietor Margie Agostini’s orange cake reigned supreme among the area’s lunching ladies. “The whole community was fond of Agostini’s orange cake – it was really, really famous,” Wood told us. He, by the way, is the acclaimed chef behind Paddington’s Ursula’s (also with Davies) and held a number of high-profile roles prior, including head chef at Victoria’s Point Leo Estate) winery.

This is the calibre of chef you want recreating a classic as faithfully as possible, which is what he decided to do, rather than mess with a winner. This crowd-pleasing, ego-free approach defines the rest of the menu. There’s a a summery yoghurt and honeycomb passionfruit cup; a gruyere, parmesan, sauerkraut and Dijon toastie on Iggy’s sourdough; and a hearty full breakfast of scrambled eggs, crisp bacon, LP’s parsley-pecorino sausage and roasted tomatoes.

The good, simple vibes continue until 4pm Monday to Wednesday, and until dinner for the rest of the week. Expect pastas, salads and other everyday dishes executed just so. There are obvious echoes of a dressed-down Ursula’s here, from the playful characters daubed on the walls to the colour-in menus provided for kids.