Cafe hopping Surry Hills
Surry Hills in Sydney is a great place to explore cafes, with some of the best brunch spots in the city. Think – Sunday brunch with friends in a effortlessly cool cafe with perfect natural light for your IG post. That’s Surry Hills for me.
There’s a lot of great finds in this small neighbourhood just outside the city centre, and it was time to visit a few new cafes that have opened up during the last year or so. (We’re just explore one street to be exact, but it’s such a tasty one)
Mensch Bagel
475 Crown St, Surry Hills NSW
The story of Mensch Bagel is one you can’t help but fall in love with. Self-taught bagel expert, Mike fell in love with New York style bagels at the famous Russ & Daughters, and the pandemic in 2020 was the catalyst to kickstart Mensch Bagel.
Mensch Bagel serves a range of diferent filled bagels and plain ones, but if you’ve never hada bagel before then you have got to start with their Gravlax – their take on the classic smoked slamon and cream cheese bagel.
All the bagels are baked and pouched in house, fresh. Every order is made fresh to order, and every bagel looks exactly like how the photographs. A.k.a They’re very generous with the fillings.
Yo-Chi
435 Crown St, Surry Hills NSW
Yo-Chi is a self-serve frozen yoghurt joint that has a large range of options to suit your needs. Yo-Chi has several locations dotted around Australia, and their only spot in NSW currently is in Surry Hills.
You can find gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan options which makes Yo-chi a great place to go if you have special dietary needs. But they also have a wide selection of base yoghurt flavours to choose from.
The place is pretty big with a lot of seats, and the layout was comfortable. It’s a simple frozen yoghurt concept executed well. Would definitely come again.
Lode Pies & Pastries
487 Crown St, Surry Hills NSW
Lode Pies & Pastries was the reason I got out of bed early today. I’ve heard many things about this place, some good, some great, some bad. But after hearing everything, it simply made me feel intense curiosity to try it for myself.
Lode Pies & Pastries make only a limited amount of each item everyday, and they close once everything is sold. This meant long lines when they first opened. However, I was lucky and didn’t find the famous lines snaking out of their cute pink storefront.
Though, by the time I got there – a lot of the items were sold out and I quickly got the last of everything I could get my hands on. This included:
- Chicken & Leek pie
- Ham & Cheese Scroll
- Blueberry Tart
I didn’t manage to get my hands on their signature items, but the 3 items I did try were all well made and designed. You could tell someone or some people really put some time in creating the flavours here.
However, if I was being objective about the whole experience that Lode Pies & Pastries is famous for…I don’t know if I would go again. They only do take away which means depending on where you live the pastries might not have that fresh out of the oven crispness – which is something you want if you’re paying $10 for a pie.
I think it’s definitely a must try once in your life if you love pastries and live in Sydney though, I just might not be able to justify this as a weekly thing.
