We appear to be having a problem with certain names. And by we, I mean my friend Celia. “Don’t mention the ‘B’ word!!” she says to me dramatically feigning nausea. I’m having lunch with Celia who I’ve known for years and Tania and I’m only learning now that she can’t stand bananas and even the mere mention of them are enough to transform her into Greta Garbo.
A couple of weeks ago, Tania suggested Cowbell 808 on the quieter end of Bourke Street in Surry Hills. The quieter end means that there is free parking, somewhat of a miracle in the Surry Hills area and it means that on this week day we don’t have to queue. I’m always curious about names and we find out that Cowbell 808 is named after a Roland TR-808 drum machine with Cowbell being one of the sounds that it made.
The music theme is echoed all over this one month old cafe with a graffiti style image of a drum machine, a collection of vinyl – yes vinyl, under the register. Customers are welcomed to leaf through it and select a record to play. Even the Cowbell 808 logo incorporates a vinyl record. The bathroom looks like my bedroom as a teenager with 80′s record covers covering the walls. Recognise any from your collection?
Some eateries in Surry Hills are a bit too cool for school but there is a friendly, genuine greeting when I walk in. Tania is already there and Celia follows soon after. We take a look at the menu which has food on one side and drinks on the back and a separate tea menu featuring Rabbit Hole Teas. There’s a rich chocolatey smell of brownies perfuming the air.
Root Beer and Sugar Cane Cola $4.50 each
Celia and I go for some ‘soda pops’ and I choose the root beer by an American brand called Jones which is sweet and heady with vanilla while she goes for the sugar cane cola.
Bananacolada $7
The ‘b’ word item is the banana yogurt that scared Celia so. The bananacolada is pieces of roasted banana and lime juice on top of a house made coconut yogurt served in a mason jar. The yogurt is thick, creamy and rich in coconut cream and is made with a regular dairy yogurt base. It’s on the tart side as it is unsweetened and also has a squeeze of lime. I prefer sweeter yogurt so I would have loved a palm sugar caramel on the side to go with it but if you’re a fan of tart yogurts, this would be for you.
Fried chicken and cauliflower slaw $16
The fried chicken came as three pieces of boneless chicken coated in a crunchy besan flour batter and a pool of lightly spicy house made harissa which gives it a nice kick of spice. With it is a delicious cauliflower slaw with red onion, toasted sunflower seeds and celery. The spicy chilli powder seems just on one piece (we’re not sure why) and isn’t particularly hot but we all enjoy this dish.
Cowbell 808 burger $18
The Cowbell 808 burger is a classic burger on a soft house made made bun. The beef patty was well seasoned with a covering of melted cheese and soft lettuce. Tomato sauce, mustard and pickles completed the burger as well as a serve of fantastically crunchy onion rings.
Fat stacked hotcakes with mascarpone, espresso syrup and bacon ice cream $14. Taken on a Sigma 17-50mm F2.8 EX DC OS lens, focal length 35mm, ISO 250, 1/60s.
We asked for the pancakes to be served as dessert after the savoury dishes. The ricotta hotcakes are moist and less floury than pancakes, with a soft, spongey eggy interior. On top of these two are an espresso syrup which had a molassey taste to it as well as a scoop of …wait for it…bacon ice cream! Actually they were nice enough to give us two scoops as they saw that we were dividing everything into three. So what is bacon ice cream like? It’s delicious! There are small cubes of salty bacon that are really like the salt in salted caramel except there is more flavour and texture with bacon cubes. The ice cream is indeed sweet and the whole shebang is rich and indulgent and quite madcap which is why we all liked it. And you can bet I’m going to have a crack at bacon ice cream now that the weather is warming up 
Chocolate frownie
Not a typo, they call their flourless brownies frownies. Not made with almond meal but instead a gluten free mix of flours, it is somewhere in between a brownie and a rich, chocolatey cake. They use Callebaut 70% chocolate in it which gives it a rich dark chocolate flavour.
I cant resist one last visit to the facilities to snap a picture of their shrine to the 80′s music wall and then the three of us go off on another adventure. The bill comes with some Starburst lollies and we chew them and feel like teenagers again.
So tell me Dear Reader, is there a food that you cannot stand or cannot even utter the word? And what decade do you like best for music? And who was your favourite artist or song?
Cowbell 808
616 Bourke Street, Surry Hills, NSW
Tel: +61 (02) 9698 5044
Open 7 days from 7am-3.30pm
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49 Comments | Add your own
I would be happy with any or all of these dishes.
The food I cannot stand is raw celery. I called it the vegetable from hell when I was a teenager and will still call it that and other things, if provoked
Darn it, woman, you make me sound like a drama queen. Oh hang on, maybe I am.
Lovely lunch, and wasn’t it a great spot? Loved the food, and just the nicest people. The chocolate frownie was astonishingly good for gf, but the bacon icecream was really something else!
Oh My Goodness I want those hotcakes now. They look super good. I like this type of dining and I also like how they call the brownies frownies
How, oh how you tuck away all that food and still keep looking so gorgeous????
I can’t stand corn tortilla. Just cannot!
Free parking? In Surry Hills? That does sound too good to be true. I had the Simply Red album – that’s one cover I recognise. The food here looks wonderful. I would definitely have ordered the fried chicken – who can resist! xx
ORANGE CHOCOLATE BLERK!
Can’t wait to see your take on bacon ice cream. Peanut butter too? Somehow?
Frownie recipe too please Lorraine! xo
Oh wow never seen this cafe before but when in Surry Hills definitely will keep a look out! The food is breath taking
And those frownies? Too adorable!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Great review. I am seriously
craving that bacon ice cream.
Guess I’ll have to book a flight
pronto!
It all looks great, but those hot cakes look AWESOME! I must make that ice cream! Mind you, I slept very badly last night due to lactose InTolerant bad dreams and indigestion after late night ice cream indulgence
I knew the risks….. But it was worth it 
I never would have picked Celia as a banana-hater!
I can’t stand cucumber. Just the smell of it makes me feel ill.
Wow, what a cool place. I love that you can look through the records to choose something to play. My favourite band is Tower of Power who have been a band touring internationally for 43 years do they span decades. My most favourite song of theirs is Knock Yourself Out … The live 22 minute version- awesome!
I look forward to the bacon ice cream recipe… It looks delicious
Great looking place, the fried chicken and the banana colada look fab. I spotted the dark side of the moon album, a definite reminder of a summer spent in France listening round the camp fire. Brown trout is my food hate, why eat a fish that tastes of muddy water? GG
so this is where you got those pancakes!! I was totally just in sydney & totally wish I had these
I LOVE the 50s-60s era music. Actually I love all eras from 50-90s. Amazing.
Heidi xo
Brussel Sprouts and Squash.
Yuck Yuck Yuck Yuck Yuck Yuck!
I even tell my step-sons that they are allowed to use the word “hate” in reference to Brussel Sprouts (hate is an otherwise banned word!) The food at Cowbell however looks divine….would love to try that Bacon Ice cream!
Urgh capsicum or unaffectionaly called crapsicum is what I hate, I can taste it in anything and I hate paprika too.
The bacon ice cream sounds cool but alas I don’t eat pigs either (for animal welfare reasons).
Wow! What a great place… In a scary time warp sort of way. The food looks like a real blast for the taste buds too. Lol at the simply red albumn on the wall
OMG I am WILLING to fly all the way to Sydney just for that Bacon Ice-cream
That’s so cool hehe I’d love to try!
This cafe has done a great job decorating, it looks just like the places I went to in NYC hehe!
I don’t know if you will laugh…but i can’t stand Tomato sauce, even saying it makes me feel sick…simply never liked it from the start but i’m weird~ I will be able to eat foods with tomato sauce hehe WEIRD i know
The only thing I really really hate is tinned tuna. Bleuch, wouldn’t even feed it to my cat.
Love the 80s music – I guess you always like the music you grow up with!
I’ll wait patiently for your bacon ice-cream post. As much as I hate winter and feeling cold, I’m certain that’s something I could happily eat all year long!
Food I can’t stand – Veal! When I was a kid, we’d head to Bowral with about 20 other families from our school for a weeks holiday. One night we all ate veal and I remember half the kids getting sick, it was like that scene from Bridesmaids or the Exorcist. Ever since then I just can’t bring myself to have veal. I can’t even think about it too long without wanting to gag.
ANYWAY, please make that bacon ice cream and share it with us! I can’t stop thinking about it since I saw your photo.
That seems like a nice place to hang out with friends. Stalked pancakes and cane sugar soda sound very inviting to me. I think I am getting hungry for some chicken too. I am not fond of sweets though, and sometimes I can’t stand even a thought of it…
Laughed as I started reading your friend’s dislike of Bananas! I detest them, husband loves them and I was thrilled when there was a banana shortage last year as it meant our house was a banana free zone for months! I buy them for other half but have to put plastic bag over my hand to pick them up! Banana skins have to be taken out of house or the smell makes me sick. My 2 adult children never eat them either! My other dislike is liquorice, smell makes me shudder…
The hotcakes look incredible!! Not even Gelato Messina has served up BACON icecream before! Epic. Wonderful post
Mmm that yoghurt has my name on it! I’m a late 80s baby so the 90s does it for me every time… Spice Girls..Backstreet Boys… Mariah.. corny but love it! hehe
oh my… the hot cakes looks superb!
bacon?! BACON?!?! eat ALL the bacon!!
It’s bananas for me too. Have never eaten them, even as a child. I knew I was a good mother when I mashed them with honey for my babies, whilst trying not to heave! Can’t stand the taste, smell, feel, texture….and yes that includes banana cake, banana smoothies, banoffee pie….I can tell if it’s got banana in it. That’s it. I’m done.
OMG, we have a Cow Bell not to far from us! Very meaty it is.
I won’t eat bunny, I mean rabbit. I hate that gelatinous crap that comes out of okra. Other than that, I’m good to go.
This place looks so funky L. I love quirky, retro reminders, especially from the 80′s – Oh who didn’t I love??? The Pretenders, Fleetwood Mac, (The Mac.) UB40, Duran Duran and Michael Jackson. (Only his old stuff though.) I also love 70′s rock too. I just love the nostalgia of when I was a kid growing up in the 80′s.
I could eat those pancakes with the bacon ice cream as my entire meal. Hey, it has just about every food group in one lovely bite.
The word “sensual” makes me want to punch my self in the ears! *shudder*…it’s such a creepy sounding word. Banana’s on the other hand I adore.
The food, the clicks on the wall, the little surfs and little red TV.. Everything is what I love…
And that burger just made me very hungry Lorraine!!
B/W I just read the recipe of ur sesame bread, I have to try that one for sure…
Celia and Lucy B are perfectly normal. Anything banana-related makes me heave. Artificial banana flavouring – another story eg. paddlepops and those fake banana lollies, can put a few of them away.
I think I could live at this place
Escargot is not on my plate – ever. I only tried it once but it was like eating small rubber balls.
Looks delicious! I really like that last photo…. wonder what he ate for lunch…
I have a slight disliking for carrots, but only because a little piece got stuck in my nose while laughing too hard when I was young….. about during the time when groups like “Bananarama” and “Blondie” and “bon jovi” were big (70′s and 80′s music need to come back – the cheesier the better!)
Drooling over the hotcakes, for midnight snack. No joke
Wild. Love it. Gotta go.
I HATE potato. Always have, always will. Had to get over it from the prep perspective when had a child, but it doesn’t mean I have to eat it. Reasonable easy to avoid – thankfully.
Great post!
I also happened to visit this place about 2 weeks back, their food is great, and you’re lucky to get an extra large scoop of that bacon ice cream!!! gotta love bacon ice cream 
What sticks in my mind about this place is its super duper great service, the waitress is just lovely! I really liked the music of this place, even though I couldn’t really relate to it, and the interior design is really cool.
That photo of the pancake stack is divine – so hard to keep up with the new cafes in Surrey Hills – glad you are doing it for us Lorraine!
The onion rings does look pretty good compared to the ones I had. NICE!
The food looks as much fun as does the place itself! Those sodas…also fun. Clever and creative–all of it.
I’ll show my 62 years when I say
Bob Dylan and the 70s…yep, my favorites. And no, there is no food I can’t eat!
I love the interior, and if the food is as good as it looks, I’m there
I’ve really never met a food I didn’t like. I’m pretty easy to get along with as long with…
As far as music, I’m going to show my age here, I’m stuck in the 60′s.
My favorite artist is Eric Clapton with “Layla” my favorite song..
Yep, I’m old…
xxoo,
RMW
OH WOW! Got into work today and raced to look up this review… posted on the boyfriends facebook wall last week that this is next on our hit list! Iwant it all and I want it now!!!
YUMMMMMM!!!!!! Thank you once again for making me drool my lady! Your gorgeous! XXX
Cowbell 808 has me singing – “You just call out my name and I know wherever I am-I’ll come running to see you again” – from You’ve Got A Friend by Carol King. A favourite tune that resonates well with what could possibly be the beginning of a wonderful foodie relationship. There’s not a lot I would not eat but durian would have to be a major contender.(Just left Brissie for two years in Singapore and I still have issues with the vile smell of this very popular fruit over here)
Those hotcakes!! Im drooling!!!
NQN – you’re a woman after my own heart! BACON ICE CREAM. YUM! Beenw anting to g here for a while, I’m thinking now it’s a must. xxx
I bought a bacon and egg roll for breakfast here. $10!!!!
They made me wait outside while it was made and then when I got home it was full of unhealthy blobs of FAT.
The ham had obviously been cut off the bone and the staff were too lazy to remove the huge amount of FAT in the meat – YUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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