In 2010, Sydney’s cafe scene was nowhere near as strong as it is now. When you found somewhere like Room Ten – the Potts Point hole-in-the-wall known for standout coffee and simple salads and sandwiches – you held onto it. But now, the team wants to set Room Ten apart. And give Pina, its sibling eatery directly opposite, a run for its queue.

“I have to compete with my own shop,” owner Andrew Hardjasudarma tells Broadsheet, laughing. “At the moment it looks like I’m playing chess with myself. It’s like, shit, what do I do? Should I strip back like [we were] a long time ago? Should I do something new?”

He did a bit of both: gutting Room Ten’s teeny interior, adding more kitchen space and relaying the floor. Then head chef (and Hardjasudarma’s wife) Yuvi Thu spruced up the menu.

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On the surface, the line-up isn’t too different. The hefty salads remain. As do the sandwiches, with a few newcomers. But now there are the cooked brekkies you’d find at other daytime eateries – but with the incredibly refined Room Ten spin.

There are XO eggs, fennel-tinged porchetta rolls and an exclusive carb – Baker Bleu’s bubbly village bread. “It’s time for rebirth, to put Room Ten back on the map again. I really want to fight with Pina itself.”

The new menu’s got plenty of oomph and the cafe is well worth a revisit. Here’s what to order.

Dippy eggs with prosciutto-wrapped soldiers

This nostalgic brekkie shows off the Room Ten approach: start with something simple, then take it up a few notches. Two boiled eggs arrive on little silver thrones, ready for your server to crack the top off with a silver egg cracker. Bright orange yolks are waiting for a sprinkle of house-made chilli, and there’s a dish of punchy soy butter to give your toast an umami lift.

Want even more? Add San Danielle prosciutto, then wrap those toast soldiers in the ribbons.

Omelette wrap

One of the menu holdovers is a riff on a brekkie burrito, with all the fixings you love: bacon, egg, avocado, cheddar, refried beans, tomato, coriander and a side of tomatillo salsa. Wrapped up in Lebanese bread from Baalbek Bakery, it’s hefty, smoky and sweet, with a nice heat from the salsa and jalapeno-tequila relish. There are no mods allowed, as it’s cooked across the lane at Pina then finished in the new kitchen. There are only 20 available each day and they typically sell out by midday – so go in early.

Porchetta roll

This ugly-delicious sandwich is the dish Hardjasudarma wants you to order. “When thinking about porchetta, everyone’s thinking about the same kind of porchetta.” Whole Beast Butchery’s version has a strong fennel profile, and it’s sliced into thin layers, then revved up with the spicy, deeply savoury house chilli oil. It’s cut with house-pickled green tomatoes and loaded onto the crispy Baker Bleu bread.

Schnitzel sandwich

An immense Haverick Meats chicken breast is brined in buttermilk overnight, then crumbed in panko before being fried to order. It gets added to Baker Bleu’s village bread with a gooey layer of Ocello provolone dolce, house-made piri piri sauce, mayo, lettuce and tomato. The toasted bread backdrops the juicy schnitzel, with a truly satisfying crunch.