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

Roastville, Marrickville

When one mentions Marrickville to me, there are two things that come to mind: pork rolls and coffee roasters. But the latter has been around for years within the industrial area. In the heart of this suburb, a new boutique roastery/cafe called Roastville has recently opened. 

So what drew me to this place? The fact that John of He Needs Food gave it a thumbs up (all his coffee and food recommendations never disappoint), they roast their own coffee beans and that they serve fried chicken & kimchi waffles for lunch (more on that later!). Although the cafe has an industrial look which is quite a common look for cafes nowadays, the warm and unpretentious atmosphere really shines. There's a nice small courtyard in front and as you enter the cafe you are greeted with a cabinet full of housemade pastries and cakes. The coffee here is straight up bangin'. 

Flat white

I had a gorgeous flat white ($3.50) that was fruity and vibrant. Their house blend had medium body with well-balanced acidity. The textured milk had the perfect temperature too.

We opted for their two lunch mains:

 

Fried chicken and kimchi waffles

We've seen the classic fried chicken and waffles with maple syrup around. Roastville has taken that classic to another level with their fried chicken and kimchi waffles ($17). The crispy crumbed fried chicken was delicious and juicy. It could do without the parmesan rocket salad but it was still nice even with it. As per John's advice, I was quick with my photo taking and digged into the kimchi waffles before it got soggy. It tasted like a Kimchijeon (Korean Kimchi Pancake), which was amazing! The tangy garlicky sriracha sauce and mayo worked well with the fried chicken and waffle. The serving was generous too.

Braised beef cheeks with celeriac puree, baby carrots and mushrooms

Then there's the mind-blowing braised beef cheeks with celeriac puree, baby carrots and field mushrooms ($19)! Every component in this dish was amazing and complimented each other well. The beef cheeks were super tender, tasty and buttery. The celeriac puree was so fluffy & creamy. The carrots and mushrooms were sweet and perfectly cooked. The flavoursome braising sauce also went nicely with the celeriac puree. 

I loved the awesome coffee, generous servings of delicious food and excellent service at Roastville. They have all the makings of a great cafe. Roastville is no doubt a great addition to the Marrickville coffee scene.

Roastville

157 Victoria Road, 

Marrickville NSW

Hours:

Monday to Friday 6pm-4pm

Saturday & Sunday 7pm-4pm