Goldie's Dulwich Hill, Cali-Mex Brunch & Sydney's Best Fish Burger?

Goldie's is a popular Inner West neighbourhood cafe in Dulwich Hill. Their secret weapons are the owners and chefs who have worked at creative, upscale restaurants like Bloodwood in Newtown. That means the offerings are a cut above and many things are made from scratch including their house cured salmon and sauces.

I pop my head around the door as Mr NQN is working from home along with me. "Do you want to go for a quick lunch?" I ask him. A short while later, we are headed to Goldie's on Marrickville Road in Dulwich Hill. We have Teddy and Milo in tow and take a seat outside. The cafe is decked out in rose and pastel pink with terracotta accents and is inspired by a Palm Springs aesthetic. There's also a good sized indoor section with a display of their homemade condiments and seasonings.

Goldie's is named after Palm Springs resident Goldie Hawn and the cafe serves a Cali-Mex breakfast and brunch that lasts all day long. It has been on my list for a long time ever since it opened 2 years ago but better late than never!

Goldie's owners are Sarah McWilliam (former head chef at Bloodwood) and Nicole Matak and the head chef is Indy Hocking (from Clove Lane & Bloodwood). Sarah and Nicole have been friends for 19 years and travelled the world together. In 2016 Sarah opened up Meet Gerard; after selling it she went on to work at Newtown's Bloodwood working with Claire Van Vuuren and it was there that she met Indy.

The dishes at Goldie's range from healthier options like the Cali Bowl and Sunrise Avo to a filling breakfast burrito or a half sweet, half savoury pancake plate. They also bake their own muffins fresh (today's is a delicious banana bread blueberry muffin that I took away with me) and make their own pickles, jams, cookies, syrups, granola, chilli oil and Bloody Mary mix.

We start with drinks and they're doing a freshly squeezed mandarin, lemon and mint juice that is fantastic. While it is served chilled, it's just pure juice, no additional ice and the lemon and mint add to the flavour. Mr NQN also has a maple oat iced coffee which is gorgeously sweet with a strong sweet aroma of maple syrup. As for me I have a strawberry iced matcha made with house made strawberry syrup.

There's one little thing that you might miss on the menu and that's the hash browns that are little squares of house made hash browns served with pots of spicy mayo and salsa verde. You definitely want at least one per person because they're so crispy good especially when dunked in both sauces.

The Goldie lox croissant features a crisp butter croissant layered with their house made lox or house cured salmon with a herb rich cream cheese, lots of chives and pickled onion. The herb cream cheese and onion balance the rich butteriness of the croissant and house cured salmon very nicely.

I cannot resist a good chicken caesar wrap and this one is a beauty. It's filled with crunchy chicken schnitzel, bacon, lettuce, parmesan, caesar dressing with pangrattato on the ends. It comes with crinkle cut chips and damn it's good. This is all about textures from the crunchy chicken to the soft tortilla but it's also huge too.

The item that they're probably most known for is their fish burger. The fish fillet changes and it's a thick, moist fish fillet coated in a wonderfully crunchy golden batter. It's on a soft milk bun with American cheese, zickles (their own zucchini pickles), lettuce and special sauce. It's bright, zingy, crunchy, crispy and soft and damn if this isn't one of the best fish burgers in Sydney.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you have a favourite fish burger in Sydney?

This meal was independently paid for.