Bourke Street Bakery

Zayni has a terrible sweet tooth, and Sonia’s the total opposite. But we have found that we all love the chocolate tarts at Bourke Street Bakery (I should get a picture of those tarts). When we used to live in Ultimo, there was a Bourke St Bakery branch on Broadway St. Then I discovered the original bakery in Surry Hills while on a photography trip in the city one Sunday afternoon.

If you zoomed in on the corner where the bakery was, you would feel as though you were in the Village in New York, or somewhere in Lincoln Park in Chicago. I especially love the loaves of bread on display on the window of the shop.

It’s an awesome breakfast/hang out place. If the tables run out, there’s always the park across the street. A perfect Saturday morning ritual: fresh sausage rolls from the bakery and eating them on the grass in the park under the sun.

Bourke Street Bakery,
633 Bourke St,
Surry Hills 2010 NSW

Cafe Giulia’s

There’s just something about this place that compels us to come back every time. The service isn’t necessarily 5-star. If you try to get your own cutlery, prepare to get snapped at by the surly chef. The service can sometimes be spotty because the some of the wait staff are foreigners on a working holiday and they either don’t speak English very well, mess up your order or totally ignore you when you want some more pepper or butter (remember, you’re not allowed to touch anything on the counter).

But, we come back every time.

I remember my first morning there about a year ago. I had just arrived to Sydney and Zayni got very excited and said that we have to go to her favorite breakfast place. I was still a bit jetlagged, very tired and finding it very hard to believe that there were so many Asians in Sydney. Giulia’s was my culinary introduction to the harbor city and it made the list as one of my favorite places to eat.

Try the salmon omellete, chicken omellete, fish burger, or Zayni’s favorite, the kafta. Or the special that Sonia never tried but has always drooled over them: corn fritters, avocado bacon and poached eggs.

Cafe Giulia’s
92 Abercrombie St,
Chippendale 2008 NSW