While the decor of this cafe has been left to the memories of time I soon discovered that it was…read moreall part of this cafe's charm. A broken floorboard, dusty wooden model airplane above the counter accompanied by a half dozen black and dusty ceramic jack-o'-lanterns, old wooden tables, mismatched plants strewn about the place. It really does feel like a higglety pigglety kind of a cafe, however what awaits for you in the kitchen will never disappoint. The service is always very nice. The staff are very accommodating, always have a smile and always looking to help. During the day you'll find small pockets of people gathered for lunch or a coffee. During the late nights I've walked passed here and heard the roar of a hundred different voices from the local Korean young adults hanging out for a drink and a meal. They do serve alcohol and there is an big outside area for smokers. Every meal I've had here has never disappointed me. Their chai latte is always perfectly creamy. Their pancakes are always cooked well and the ice-cream compliments it beautifully. Their toasted cheese melt with onion and bacon was just magical, with the salty yet mellowness of the cheese inhibiting the sharpness of the onion. And the avocado and bacon sandwich was perfect down to the last bite. All fresh. All yummy. All filling. And all at very affordable prices. I learnt that this place use to be a nursery, selling plants and the like. The outside will very much remind you of such an environment with the small pebbles all over the ground and collection of pot plants. Inside the dark wooden tones does feel welcoming despite the worn and weathered look. I wouldn't bring a woman here on a first date. With first impressions it can really make you feel like you've made a mistake. But if you're with someone that knows and trusts you then jump in head first and don't look back. Here's hoping Pumpkin stays a part of Strathfield for years to come.

Interesting place is the first point I shall say. I expected a bit more then I actually got. My…read morefriend and I went here after dinner to have a slushee and wind down the night. The service was unreal and not in a good way. We walked in and found a place on the patio to have a seat. It was prob close to 20 mins before we got a menu and another 30 to get our drinks. Now this place had people but I wouldnt say it was overly packed. I must add the peach slushee I had ordered was tasty and exactly what I expected. Good size and the chuncks of peach brought it to another level. The concept of this place is cool, trendy, and leaves you with an impression that is worth the visit. Sadly the service let me down that night and because of it I wouldnt recomend it to anyone. When we were ready to leave we tried to get the attention of our server who never came around once to see how we were doing. After 40 mintues of waiting we decided to walk up to the booth and pay in person. I was enjoying girl catch up time so the long wait wasn't on purpose but if the servers were on the ball there would have been a lot more money to be made. All in all I will not return!

I was taken here by a friend who happens to live in the area. It's an out of the way cafe…read morefrequented mostly by what seems to be locals in the area. Apparently it was started by someone who used to own a pharmacy and hence the name ;-) It's a gorgeous cafe with comfy seating and super friendly staff. They have a nice looking food menu and breakfast served all day. Plenty of drink options too including fabulous coffee. They serve great fruit bread and sourdough. It's not German bread but will do. What is with all the sourdough in this town ?? You can have hundreds of other types :-) I will definitely be back here. It's a lovely cafe with great coffee and food. The staff are very friendly and prices are good.

Like the fit out of this place and then buzz is nice. Menu is small but appealing and the caffeine…read moreis excellent. But. Maybe the fact they had been in the paper the previous week caught them unawares, as they were heaving, but the service was seriously slow. Although we got our water quickly it took an age to get our coffee and then another age to get our breakfast and then a third age for a second cup. Sigh. The food was good - I had a most excellent brownie while I waited for breakfast, which was nice porridge with trendy bits. The avo on toast with an egg was evidently ok but covered in waaay too much kale (cold) which kinda spoiled it. The drip coffee seemed to be the hold up, plus only one seemingly slow barista. They need a lesson in smashing out the coffees. Still, great coffee, nice food, handy location. Will be back.

The coffee is good, but the breakfast I had this morning is not as good as the picture shows. Much…read moreless fruit. However, the service is very nice and the containers are creative:) It's a special cafe in West Ryde.

I used to think that drinks in jars only lived in a 10km radius of the CBD but alas they've…read moremigrated west and are now found in the innocent 'burbs in unlikely hipster cafes like Element 6. Thankfully this place isn't just looks - backed up by a creative menu and good coffee, E6 is a gem in the rough, shabby chic amongst actual shabby. I loved the internationally inspired menu with dishes like Huevos Rancheros, an 'Ode to Borough Markets' cheese toastie, coconut sticky rice porridge and my fave, fried eggs with tomato herb salad and dukkah on beetroot spread and flatbread - YUM!! The coffee's probably the best espresso style coffee in this neck of the woods, which isn't a hard feat but they don't let that be an excuse, treating the 5 Senses beans with respect and producing a great cup, whether the milk, black or iced. It's great to have just one more option on my short list of local cafe gems but if I were you, I wouldn't make a special trip here if I lived further afield - keeps the line shorter for me!

Food quality Ok Service is appalling. If you want to ruin…read moreyour dining experience with slow and bad service please come here. Otherwise go somewhere else.

There's something a little bit secretive about The Little Marionette…read more It would be easy to mistake the Annandale cafe for an empty shopfront or an abandoned house. In fact, with no signage on the building, you could walk straight past without even registering it was there. That is, if it weren't for the smell of coffee beans wafting through the windows and the throngs of milling hipsters spilling onto the footpath. Once you step your way through the dogs and fixie bicycles leaning against signposts, the staff greet you with a laidback "Hey", despite how busy they must be. The sky blue mural on the roof (complete with clouds) gives the impression that this tiny shoe-box of a cafe is far more expansive than in reality, and indeed it is when compared to its hole-in-the-wall predecessor in Balmain. There's a floor to ceiling bookshelf stacked with Little Golden Books, travel guides and encyclopedias, and if you lift the right book the entire wall revolves revealing a hidden second room packed with giant green leather couches. Whilst moose heads are no longer mounted on the walls, you still get the feeling that you've stumbled into a hunter's trophy room to discuss covert matters over cuban cigars. Local indie artists trickle through the stereo and, it seems, the same indie artists are squatting on the arms of the couches, knocking back one little coffee after another. In the roasting room out the back stacks of hessian bags are being emptied into the giant copper roaster by a couple of guys in flannelette shirts, rolled up jeans and caps akin to those your grandad wore, and the smell of the roasting beans is just as sweet and warming as the coffee itself. With beans from Africa, Indonesia and South America, you take your pick between house blends and a daily differing bean (today it's a Honduras). The coffee is a bit hit and miss depending on who's pulling the strings, but even at its worst it's still a good eight out of ten (it's a ten plus the rest of the time). So, get in on the secret. Be mysterious and important. Pull the fire stoker and sneak away to the hidden room, order your second coffee and discuss world events (or last night's Game of Thrones episode) in a hushed voice.

Cafe Ella in Darlington has some tough competition in its neighbourhood, and I think it's going to…read moretake a lot of work before it can pose any kind of threat. As we walked in we were notified by the friendly waitress that there were no menus on the tables. This in itself would be fine, except that the menu written on the chalk board at the front of the cafe was scrawled almost illegibly, and with no order whatsoever - breakfast items were hidden amongst lunch items, and figuring out exactly what was on offer was an effort in itself. Thwarted by the challenge, we opted instead for one of their cakes, which was nice enough. The coffee was average, and when we asked if they took Eftpos, we were informed that they did not, and that the nearest ATM was a 15 minute walk away. The problem with Cafe Ella lies not only in its haphazard menu, but more so in the fact that it can't beat its competition. With the bustling Shortlist cafe only two doors down, any passer-by would look at the dreary, empty Cafe Ella and suspect that they must be doing something wrong. Whilst we decided to give them a go in the spirit of trying somewhere new, I know where I will be heading next time I'm in the area and it won't be to Ella.

I read the last review and felt instinctively like I need to defend Cafe Ella!…read more Rachel C. is right about the coffee -- it's Vittoria, and not amazing. It's not bad though, it sort of depends on who the barista is on the day. (Denise is great.) I will say this for Ella: it's super friendly, and the chalk-board menu is iconic (same as its sister cafe, Cafe Giulia). The menu is not as extensive as Cafe Giulia, but given the kitchen is small, they do a good job. Cafe Ella's servings of food are always generous, messily presented, and fresh. The muffins and cakes are rich and delicious, and they do a good blueberry bagel with ricotta. They don't have Eftpos, but there's a pub 1 minute away with an ATM. Cafe Ella is not as self-consciously trendy as one of its neighbours, Shortlist, but the staff at Ella make an effort to remember your name (and your coffee order). Cafe Ella has a lovely, quiet upstairs area and they're happy for you to sit there and read for hours. It's a place where you can feel at home.

I still miss Bar Milazzo (which used to be in this place) but the coffee here is good, the folks…read moreare friendly and the bacon and egg Pannini was fast and tasty. The egg was a bit overcooked - actually it was utterly overcooked but I have never worked out if that is is my problem. I wonder if perhaps other people don't like runny egg yolks in their breaky snacks? Discuss. The things that bumped this spot to 4 stars were; 1 The guys have the obligatory beany and dreadlocks thing going (but I don't think they are the owners?) 2 I was given a glass of water without even looking at anyone. Very cool. 3 The woman on the cash register dances when one of the dumb songs that Marcus C wrote about comes on. He is right, the music is 80's 90's and Cat Stevens. I think its actually a radio station? An odd one. 4 The coffee is good, if not as good as Corduroy, Paramount CP, and Single Origin.

This cafe has opened up where another cafe was - hopefully they have better luck! As this little…read morecafe is quite cool. The coffee here is from the Grounds in Alexandria. And is quite good. Probably not as good as Central Roasters around the corner, but still good. I think the plus of this cafe compared to Central Roasters, is that Ruby Black has food. Ruby Black does sandwiches on order - the menu changes every so often. Each sandwich is quite nice, but to big. So if you are starving maybe don't order the sandwiches from here. They also have pastries on offer if you want that kind of thing. They have around 5 to 6 tables, so seating is quite limited - majority of customers get take-away rather then sitting there. So I have never had a hard time finding a place to sit. The staff here are also extremely friendly which is always great. I was given a glass of water without even asking for it - I know it is small, but it is cool when the staff is attentive.

I haven't returned to this place for a while But places…read morelike this get rather busy around lunchtime I free uncomfortable at this place and one thing it gets rather noisy

A trendy cafe across from the station attached to Castle Towers. We stopped in for coffee and…read morebreakfast on a Sunday morning, it was busy but was able to score a table out front. The cappuccino was top notch. I had The Baron, a fancy bacon egg roll with avo and garlic, it was messy and bloody fantastic. My wife had the Mister Francesco, really well made fritters, she summed it up with "it shits on any other fritters I have had", so thumbs up on that as well.

Great little cafe across from the national art school - it's a reincarnation of an older cafe and I…read morelike this 'version' even better. The coffee's strong and the doors all open up to have the indoor cafe spill outside to the sidewalk. They have free wifi which is nice if you have time to sit around or want somewhere different to work on your computer. There are an abundance of nearby cafes including one down the street on the corner and a hidden one across the street in a courtyard in the national art school itself, but I think Little Zara has the best coffee among those three!

I have been coming here almost daily after a friend recommended it to me.. The coffee is always…read morefresh and presented perfectly with none of the wanky hipster vitriol that has flowed from Melbourne to permeate Sydney ugh. The best part of this place is the host/owner. Who always greets you with a good morning, a smile and knows when to chew your ear off and have a laugh or take your que that your wanting a slow quiet start to the day. The food is fresh and tasty, everything from the daily evolving $8 breaky bun to more substantial robust little Zara big breaky or a burger. I like this place because the coffee is great , the food is great cafe food, it's easy, friendly and I forget where I am and just concentrate of getting my day started. Hope you enjoy and say g'day to Myles ;)