Kurumac Cafe, Marrickville

My favourite café north of bridge has opened an offshoot in Marrickville. You’ll find the new Kurumac Café in the Addison Road area, which is also home to other great coffee shops like Coffee Alchemy. Kurumac is Japanese for Coolmac. Yes, you’ve guess that right, it’s by the same awesome team behind Coolmac Café in Kirribilli.

Pastries by Bread and Butter Project

Kurumac is a partnership between my homies Eugene Leung and Dika Prianata. The space is very Japanese in terms of minimalism and clean lines. Everything from décor to fittings are smooth and crisp. Then there’s the uber cool murals done by artist Ar-chive. Head chef Jun brings his Japanese café style flair to Marrickville with his Japanese café classics with a twist. I visited them twice this past week.

Their coffee is sourced from Campos. For filter coffee lovers out there, they have a rotating batch ($5) on offer. They had a fruity Kenya available on batch during my visit. They use the Campos Superior blend for their milk coffee. I had a piccolo latte ($4) and it had a full body with milk chocolate notes.

The onigiri rice ball set ($14) comes with miso soup and tamagoyaki. You get two sushi rice balls where 1 is stuffed with avocado and the other with tanaka or Japanese pickled mustard greens. Simple yet addictive! The tamagoyaki were fluffy, slightly sweet and flavoursome.

The grilled salmon congee ($17) is a must try from their all day menu. It’s a Japanese style congee with perfectly cooked grilled salmon and umami packed juicy ikura. To top all of that, it also comes with crispiest and super tasty salmon skin.

The curry scrambled eggs and tempura prawns ($19) on toast was another favourite of mine. Delightful fluffy eggs with Japanese curry and crisped tempura. The creamy chilli sauce also had notes of umami.

The ox tongue curry with koshihikari rice ($24) is available during lunch. The ox tongue was tender and buttery, which is nicely complimented by Jun’s very own Japanese curry blend and dollops of cream. The fragrant koshihikari rice was perfect for mopping up all that delicious curry.

Another dish that y’all need to try is the tempura eel with green tea broth rice ($23) a.k.a. ochazuke. There’s just another whole level of depth to the flavours when you have rice poured with green tea broth and paired with tempura eel. You get earthy, sweet and umami notes and the contrast of textures just works so well.

They have a few beverages that uses Mapo Newtown (my current favourite gelato shop in Sydney) gelato. Their hojicha gelato milkshake was insanely good. There’s a nice balance of that roasted tea and creamy milky goodness.

 

Wagyu beef, udon and prawn fritter

Kurumac is the best of 2 worlds: Japanese flavours and good Australian vibes. Another awesome thing about their spot is that there’s a lot of street parking in the area.

Kurumac

107 Addison Road

Marrickville NSW

Instagram:

Opening hours:

7am to 4pm - 7 days

Crafted Addiction - Marrickville, Sydney

Circa Espresso in Parramatta is not only an established icon in the Sydney cafe scene but it also breeds top-notch alumnus. Take Stitch Coffee roasters and Meraki Merchants for instance. Another ex-Circa barista has recently opened a cafe in Marrickville.

The new Crafted Addiction is located near Marrickville train station. Owner and head barista Yianni designed the shop with old Circa offshoot Three Ropes in mind. The space has a mediterranean vibe to it and some vintage fittings. The food has Modern Australian, Greek and Asian influences.

The coffee here is amazing! Yianni himself roasts the house blend. It is heavy on Ethiopian coffee and nicely blended with some coffee from Peru. It tasted quite bold and fruity in my flat white. Stitch Coffee roasts all the single origin coffees used in the shop. The Colombian coffee I had as an espresso tasted sweet and vibrant with notes of red wine. 

Classic dishes like eggs benedict ($17) is available. You get a choice of either smoked salmon or beef bacon. The lovely salmon came with the usual hollandaise and spinach on toast.

Another classic available with a twist is their pancakes ($18). Stacks of soft pancakes topped with poached pear, calebaut chocolate, and blueberries with earl grey syrup and pear cream on the side. I feel like the pancakes needed to be a bit more fluffy but nevertheless the combination of flavours worked well. Be warned, this dish is massive!

The mixed mushroom broth ($18) udon dish is available for breakfast and lunch. It came with spring onions, swiss brown, enoki, udon and a choice of onsen egg or tofu. I opted for the egg of course. I'm a fan of anything-mushroom broth and this one was just one big comforting bowl of goodness. Majority of the flavours were a good balance of sweet and notes of sour flavour with light umami. The noodles were also perfectly cooked and had a nice chew to it. 

There's more on the menu that I would like to try like sagnaki prawns and Marrickville fried chicken burger. You guys definitely need to check them out for superb coffee, delicious food and excellent service.

Crafted Addtiction

Shop 6/359 Illawara Road, 

Marrickville NSW 2020

Hours:

Monday to Friday 6am to 4pm

Saturday to Sunday 7am to 4pm

Alt Cafe, Blacktown

The city of Blacktown is slowly transforming into a Western Sydney culinary destination. There are places like Mr Ping’s Eatery, Black Bear BBQ, Green Peppercorn, Ketchup Canteen and the occasional food trucks & stalls of the Aussie Night Market. Now, another specialty eatery has joined the scene.

My prayers for a specialty cafe in Blacktown have been answered when I recently found out about ALT Cafe. They are located in the heart of Lalor Park. I really like what Osheen (head barista and owner) and his crew has done with the cafe. The space has a minimalistic look and a sleek Synesso machine that acts like a centrepiece. I love their coffee and the fact that they carry beans from the Reformatory Caffeine Lab. It’s a small all-day menu that has awesome offerings like a 300gram patty cheeseburger, a massive bacon & egg roll, French toast and more.

The house blend is the Loma blend from Reformatory. The flavours come through sweet and nutty in milk in a piccolo latte and flat white ($3.50). It had medium body and the textured milk temperature was perfect!

The OG breakfast burger ($9) here is one of the best bacon & egg rolls I’ve had. Y’all know I believe in the whole perfection in simplicity thing. The combo of texture and flavours of perfectly crisped bacon, egg, avocado and tomato relish in soft light brioche was just amazing.

The cheeseburger ($15) is massive! 300grams beef patty, sexy melted swiss and American cheese, mustard and tomato relish in a soft light brioche.  It reminds me of a Japanese style burger where the patties are smoky and peppery with a nice hint of sweetness and lots of umami. I really liked this burger but I think it could do with a smaller patty for better ratio. Nevertheless, it was ace! It’s also a steal for the price as it already comes with perfectly seasoned crisped medium thick hot chips. 

They also have a harissa fried chicken burger ($16) available on the menu, which also comes with hot chips. It has deep fried chicken breast fillet with slaw and lime mayo in a light brioche.

You can also get other usual cafe staples here like a French toast ($15). Their version comes with a salted caramel praline sauce, acai berry and fairy floss.

It’s really great to have more brunch options out in Western Sydney. I’m really looking forward to all the awesome things Alt will be doing in the Blacktown scene. Check them out when you’re in the area.

Alt Cafe
55 Turner St
Blacktown NSW
Hours:
Mon to Fri 6am to 3pm
Sat to Sun 7am to 3pm
(last order at 2pm)