A local favorite for a light lunch, afternoon or high tea. Charming indoor and garden settings…read more Friendly and family run. Offers a good selection leaf teas, nice coffee and some excellent cakes, all served on an eclectic collection of assorted real China crockery (only way to take tea in my humble opinion). You can browse the home wares or plant nursery too. Lovely on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Great nursery and garden. Lots of variety. Excellent place to get all your gardening needs.read more

Great place for gardenware. Excellent selection of plants even for those without a green thumb…read more Such a lovely place.

Open seven days a week they provide a large selection of different plants. Anything from shrubs to…read morevegetable plants, trees to annuals and perennials. If you buy in bulk, you can negotiate a discount. Most of the plants are well priced .one problem I did have after purchasing about 40 plants for a hedge was that I was told they will have a batch the following Thursday. If I would like to return to buy more, so I stopped by on the Friday and they had none and it was driving one hour round-trip wasted. I was told to give them a call and they will get more in after numerous phone calls I gave up..

If you like textiles, fabrics, design and gorgeous things then chances are you probably already…read morelove Chee Soon & Fitzgerald. This tiny interiors store on Crown Street stocks everything from furniture, wallpaper, lamps, bags and purses, cards, wrapping papers and all sorts of small design pieces. There's a good selection of designers wares including Marimekko and Georg Jensen as well as beautiful pieces by the stores own CSF brand. The owners are passionate and love to talk you through the pieces and the history of the store.

Textiles! Furniture!…read moreDecorative arts! These dapper chaps have been celebrating life and furnishings for 18 years, first at Surry Hills and then at the vanguard of the Redfern revival. As friendly as they are urbane, as urbane as they are storied, there's that much great fabric and lampshades and interesting schtuff in their little shop I feel like one of those kids with melted chocolate all over their hands that goes around touching everything. Massrs Chee Soon & Fitzgerald are also well down for a chat, pick their brains about the history of Surry Hills and the inner west, they're a font of artsy knowledge.

Smallish local presence for the second-bigest hardware chain in Australia. It's usually got the…read morestuff I need, but I don't usually require (or know how to use) anything too specialised. Staff are OK.

Well. When it comes to tools and other hardware, I have no idea what I'm doing. But I managed to…read morewalk out of Bunnings today with an extension cord and outdoor shades. How did I manage to survive and find the things I needed? I'm sure you'd know that Bunnings is massive (not as labyrinth-y like ikea but still... tricky to find specific items). The staff members were very friendly to guide me to the exact location of the items I needed and im very satisfied by the customer service. Thanks :)

I defy any male humanoid not to like Bunnings just a teensy bit. It's like a supermarket - nay, a…read moredepartment store - for dudes, a huge, oversized candy shop filled with stuff that builds and chops. Or, as Stewy would say: "Good lord, it's like the spice rack in my fantasy kitchen." Except that's not something a bloke would say really, not unless they wanted to get beaten up with tyre irons. I've been to the Chatty store three times in the last three days for plywood, cable ties, spotlights, power boards, clamps, extension cords, you name it. They recognise me now. We share knowing nods. It's nice. I really dig the whole ease of it all. No big fuss, no knocking out half your day to get supplies. Pull in to the oversized carpark (it's like Texas all up in this place), trot upstairs, grab one of the billion people on hand to help you, and get out. No muss, no fuss. I also like how all the staff are all pretty much slightly different versions of your dad or your uncle (the good uncle, not the one that touches up cousins at Christmas lunches). Oh, and one Saturday morning the North Sydney Men's Choir was doing a sausage sizzle in the car park and tried to recruit me because they needed more altos or sopranos or whoever the high-pitched, non-baritone guys are. I politely declined.

The best Bunnings I've ever shopped at... Just don't ask where anything is! There are staff…read moreeverywhere who are more than happy to answer your questions and if you happen to ask where something is located you will get a very confident answer including the Isle number... Although that may not be where it is at all. Don't let that put you off though, with more parking than your average supermarket and two floors of hardware, DIY and renovation goodies your sure find what your after... Eventually

If you're ever stuck mindlessly trawling the industrial backwater of south Penrith (a fate I wish…read moreall far away from) you might stumble across this oddity. Clover Fields make nice, natural soap that you usually see in health food stores. This is the factory outlet for their soap and, well, junk. Outside on the sun-bleached tables you can pick up a 'sonic cleanser' for dentures for $1. Inside it gets weirder. Clawfoot bath candles. The frog section. Next to the Penguin and Fairy sections. Novelty pens shaped like pizza (all sold out of the baguette ones). A squeaky severed hand, an anti-aging cookbook and a beginner's cheese-making kit. Bread-shaped magnets for a gag gift for the gluten intolerant. The soap's nice (like the green tea one) and I guess the junky stuff would be good for stocking fillers for the kids. But weird.