I won’t often get up before 9am on a weekend except in exceptional circumstances. My friend M is one of them. She has two spirited sons that won’t wait for a brunch and so I found myself setting the alarm for the ungodly hour of 7.30am one Saturday morning. I had all of the best intentions, to walk to Awaba Cafe. However I was confronted by two things: a bitterly cold 11degree weather and what I refer to without any affection, the “Hill of Death”: i.e. Awaba Street.
If you’ve ever tried walking all the way up Awaba Street from Balmoral Beach you’ll know what I mean. And if you haven’t and have simply driven up and down it, I have no doubt that you’re having a chuckle at me because it doesn’t seem very steep-but don’t laugh until you’ve walked it. They even have an annual run called “The Balmoral Burn” which is simply running up Awaba Street. I’ve walked it myself, once and once only and that was enough for me. I knew it would be hard so I ditched the heels and wore ballet flats and even then I found myself going slowly and rather gingerly down the hill. I passed puffing, red faced and sweaty people all looking like they’d trade in their first born for a taxi ride up the hill. When I was nearing the bottom, there was a man, red and sweaty shirt off pushing a baby stroller up a hill. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that it got worse.
I reach my destination and M and her kids are there waiting already. Awaba Cafe is a sleek all white building with open windows to make the most of the spectacular beach view. It hasn’t aged a bit since I last came here years ago. It’s about three quarters full, mostly full of families and young couples. The kids are of the well behaved variety and there’s no tantrums to be had here today.
Cappucino $3.30
Although the staff are busy and bustling, the coffees take a while to arrive (mine isn’t quite hot enough) and the boys are getting very hungry. Thankfully the food arrives after about 25 minutes.
Scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, chives & toast $16.50
My eggs are a generous serve, although mysteriously cold-but given how long it took to arrive I am reluctant to send it back. I wonder how long they had been sitting on the countertop. The salmon rose is also generous but with a few too many grey bits tucked in under the bottom.
Buttermilk flapjacks with berry compote & maple syrup $14.00
Scrambled eggs with grilled bacon & toast $14.50
French sourdough toast with triple berry jam $6.50
M reports that her toast and her jam is pretty ordinary, just like what she would have at home. If only home included a view like this…
Awaba Cafe
67 The Esplanade Balmoral Beach, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02)9969 2104
Opening hours:
Breakfast 7.30am-11.15am 7 days
Lunch 12.00pm-3pm 7 days
Dinner 6pm-9.30pm Thursday, Friday and Saturday only
http://www.awabacafe.com.au
Vegetarian options: A few if you include the side salads
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9 Comments | Add your own
I won’t walk up that hill let alone run up it! There are some crazy fit people out there!
hmmm cold eggs and lukewarm coffee. That is just not on. There are some good cafes up on military road but no real view unfortunately unless you count people watching. I also love seeing some very fancy dogs as well. I hope its another beautiful saturday morning for you!
Oohhhh we took a look at this place on Fathers day and it looked very nice but had to wait an hour so we moved on to Beaches -__- but those flapjacks look so enticing mmmmmm.
I hate hills! Unless I’m going down them. I have to walk up one very steep one every afternoon when I get off the bus. Yes, I, like you, do not have my license. Everytime I walk up that hill it makes me more determined to get it, but once I’m at the top of the hill I’m like, Meh, it’s good exercise.
Anyhoo, I wanted to tell you about this dream I had last night!! In my dream I was walking through this sort of patisserie/cafe (there were pastas, too, so I can’t just say it was a patisserie), where everything was behind these gorgeous gold and glass displays and there were lots of ppl behind the counters who would come forward and explain what everything was (there were like 20 chefs, one for each dish that they cooked), and the best thing was the place was the size of BigW! I was just walking and walking around all these amazing displays and thinking, “I wonder if Josie_Honey knows about this. I can’t wait to tell her.” Oh and they sold DVDs… yeah…All the Harry Potter movies (including one that I didn’t remember watching-even though I’ve watched them all- so I was really excited to buy it, and for some reason I remember there was a 4-pack (yes, FOUR, even though in reality there’s only 3) of the Mighty Duck movies)… I remember thinking, Oh, so this is what Costco is going to be like. I was so disappointed to wake up
BTW, if I had order french sourdough toast, I would have thought it’d be french toast made with sourdough. Still looks great though. I just would have been really amused.
I tried breakfast in many places before in Sydney, the only good places are the bills and Cafe Chianti (next to Myer CBD entry door).
I tried breakfast in Coffee Club, twice and these were very disappointing. Too much sauce and taste too ordinary.
The Sebel Yarra Valley’s breakfast (in Melbourne) is a good one, provide real banana mixed with passion fruit instead just banana chips for muesli, also provide local jams and local honey.
I’m still looking for extraordinary breakfast places in Sydney, seem only the bills is the extraordinary one (in my opinion).
Hi Maria-I know, I look at them as crazy too
I think a lot of places with a view don’t really try with their food, there is another lace on Balmoral Beach that did a most uninspiring breakfast. I think Bather’s is the place for both food and a view! Thanks, I did, I hope yours was a great one!
Hi FFichiban-I didn’t get to try them but from the pleased reactions and comments from the eater he was onto a winner
Hi Javs-My sister in law is the same, she likes it for exercise value. I suppose if one works in an office or a similar environment, it’s especially good exercise
Lol I LOVE your dream! So it might be a fantasy store of yours. If so, please do open it and I shall certainly patronise it often. Sometimes waking up from dreams sucks!
Yes I would have thought exactly the same thing about the French sourdough toast come to think of it!
Hi Lilia-I enjoyed my breakfast at Bills too but haven’t tried Cafe Chianti.
To me, a 5 star hotel breakfast is usually excellent as the range is wide and cooked fairly fresh. I did find that teh Park Hyatt’s breakfast wasn’t as good as I thought it would be (unripe fruit served, small range). But then you cannot say no to the view…
breakfast simply has to be my favorite meal–there’s just so much to love. although, when it comes down to it, who’s stopping me from having pancakes for supper? i love your pictures (and well-behaved kids…).
Hi grace-I’m one of those people that don’t really eat breakfast only if it’s eaten out. But I love breakfast food so I am happy if a place serves breakfast all day. Well behaved kids are really the best kind aren’t they?
That view (from what I can see) IS lovely! The flapjacks appeal to me the most here..but I don’t do sweets for brekky usually.
Hi Maria-The view is great, I like sweets for breakfast but for me scrambled eggs are number 1!
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