Sydney’s Best Cafe Openings of 2020

During lockdown – and even now, when many of us are still working from home – popping into a local cafe for a takeaway coffee added a hint of normalcy to days that felt anything but. And this year we scored several new kids on the block that are building on Sydney’s already stellar cafe game, including an outstanding Sri Lankan-style eatery, a good-looking joint run by a former Momofuku Seiobo chef and a sunny corner spot that’s already become a neighbourhood favourite. But this year there have also been a few glorious spins on the casual-dining genre: a CBD venue that’s a little bit restaurant, a little bit cafe and a little bit grocery store; a new contender for the best bagels in Sydney; and a truly excellent sandwich shop.

And if you missed Broadsheet Sydney’s best restaurant openings of 2020, you can find it here.

The Fold, Dulwich Hill
When they opened The Fold back in July, the De Hoedt family cautiously introduced a couple of Sri Lankan dishes – including hoppers and pan-fried rice milk – to their menu. But mostly they stuck with familiar breakfast fare, such as avocado toast and bacon-and-egg rolls. Yet those lesser-known dishes proved popular – so now they’ve gone full Sri Lankan. A range of hoppers is served with fillings such as devilled beef, curry, poached eggs and even shakshuka. There’s also rathu kiri bath (red milk rice) and pol roti (coconut flat bread), both served with your choice of curry. And while the cafe menu is a thing of beauty and flavour on its own, the pastry cabinet is its equal – three members of the family are pastry chefs at top Sydney restaurants, which means incredible spiced cakes, a notoriously difficult-to-make Japanese-style cotton cheesecake and impressive tarts.

Fabbrica, CBD
This isn’t really a cafe, it’s not a restaurant either, and it’s not exactly a deli – it’s a bit of everything. You can pick up a bottle of vino, by-the-weight handmade fresh pasta and produce to take home. Or you can grab one of the daily sandwich specials or baked pastas to eat in the courtyard along with a glass of wine or an espresso. It’s brought to us by a bunch of hospo heavyweights also behind CBD goodie Ragazzi, and we love it because it delivers all those things you adore about delis in Rome. We also like that it’s open until 8pm (or 9pm Thursdays and Fridays) for a post-work drink.

Happyfield, Haberfield
Haberfield’s new sunshine-yellow-hued cafe feels a little like an American diner, with its vinyl booths, filter coffee and stacks of pancakes served with real Canadian maple syrup. And a lot of thought has gone into those pancakes – its owner tells us that the perfect pancake can be folded twice and is no more than a half-pinky thick. But the real standout is the atmosphere – Broadsheet writer Pilar Mitchell says it’s “one of the most uplifting places I've ever had the pleasure of spending a weekday morning”. And isn’t that exactly what we all need after this year?

Lox in a Box, Bondi

The opening of this hole-in-the-wall takeaway bagelry was fantastic news for fans of the holed bread item. Its chewy bagels are from nearby Wellington Cake Shop (where Leslie Brull has been making Hungarian baked goods for 40 years) and stuffed with smoky cured salmon, grass-fed salt beef or veggies. They are pretty damn great, and not only because they also come with a side of crisps and pickles. Egg-salad fans will be into Lox’s house-made egg dip, and its schmears are great too. You can also get babka and on Fridays generous Shabbat boxes (a traditional Jewish entrée pack with challah, egg dip, chopped liver, pickles, lox and more). A recent makeover of the footpath and tiny park area out the front also means there’s some nice shady spots to eat your tasty goods.

Mayflower, Darlinghurst
This art deco corner block house once housed a florist, so co-owners Kevin Ly and Christian Lee have tapped into that past to guide Mayflower's pretty fit-out. The result: dramatic floral installations and pendant lights with dried flowers encased in resin. These, including the musk-pink stools tucked beneath onyx stone tables, create a very striking space. The food, by former Momofuku Seiobo chef Jihwan Choi, is equally good looking, and also tasty. By day it’s toasties with truffles inside and shaved over the top; eggs benedict with caviar; and kingfish sashimi with pomelo, nori paste and dashi. At night it’s toothfish with miso and shiokoji. And calamari with kaffir lime salt and fermented kombu soy sauce. It’s probably more accurate to call Mayflower a cafe-restaurant hybrid – but either way it’s a surprisingly good little package.

Smalls Deli, Potts Point

This is the kind of place you want in your neighbourhood. It’s serving baguettes, paninis and sourdough sandwiches made to order and packed with fresh ingredients, including house-made pickles, free-range salami and slowly ripened cheeses. It’s run by an Emily Van Loon and ex-Dear Sainte Eloise chef, Ben Shemesh, and everything is damn good. We particularly like the croque monsieur – a melty, gooey, warming stack of double-smoked ham, gruyère and comte cheeses, bechamel sauce, and Dijon mustard, packed between two slices of bread. Oof.

Stix, Marrickville
A lot of places around town boast a farm-to-plate ethos. But we bet very few of them source the produce for their entire menu from their very own farm. Stix – in a former loading dock in deepest industrial Marrickville – gets pretty much everything (bar seafood) from its farm in the Hawkesbury. Not only is the produce tip-top, but the dishes themselves are exciting, too: prawn okonomiyaki (pancake) is topped with blackfish, and an omelette is taken to the next level with miso eggplant and ginger-shallot dressing. It’s fresh, interesting food and a welcome addition to the already-excellent inner-west cafe scene.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Wholegreen Bakery, CBD
Everything at this CBD bakehouse – a spinoff of the Waverly bakery – is gluten free. We’re talking sausage rolls, croissants, pasta, cakes and bread. It’s welcome news for Sydney’s coeliac community, which doesn’t tend to be well catered for in the baked-goods department. Even if digesting gluten isn’t a problem for you, Wholegreen is worth a visit – its pastries are as good as any you’ll find nearby.

Sevens Specialty Coffee, CBD
Sevens is our ultimate lobby cafe. Not only does it pay way more attention to coffee than venues double its size, but it’s serving food from some of our favourites: bagels from Dulwich Hill’s Small Talk, pastries from Tuga and smoked meats from LP’s. It’s small, but it’s rocking.