Equium Social — Restaurant in Newcastle-Maitland

2024 edit Have downgraded 5 star to 2 star now. New staff are quite rude and pretentious, wait times have become terrible, prices continue to rise and servings have shrunk. Music too loud for brunch or lunch with friends - can’t even hear each other speak.

2022 edit: This was previously a 5 star review for past 3 years, but last few weekend visits have made me need to edit this to a 3 star. Equium is my local and I go at least weekly. The food remains the best cafe food you can get in Newcastle, But quality of service has significantly dropped over recent months particularly on weekends. On weekdays it generally remains a 5 star cafe if you go early enough and avoid rush hour.

Previously you could order ahead online or by phone (in fact their website still encourages you to call ahead to order takeaway). But past few times I’ve tried to call to order takeaway on the way to work they have haven’t answered the phone, despite over 10 minutes of trying to call while driving on the way. This hasn’t been a one off experience, but a repeated problem. Similarly I’ve ordered in the cafe and had them recently forget items on the order, or get the order wrong. While the food and coffee remains great, they need to get basic customer service right to get back to being a 5 star cafe. Place also gets so busy and loud you can’t hear conversation across the table or the staff trying to take your order across the counter - some sound absorption panels would go a long way!

Original review: Best food and coffee in Newcastle! Lovely cafe with really friendly staff. Food is delicious and there’s a great range of vegetarian options. Greta pastries, and the crumpets are definitely worth...

From the moment you walk in the door you know you are in for great food and a wonderful experience.

The team at Equium social clearly love what they do and it comes across in both the ‘vibe’ and the coffee and food served.

We love our single origin filter coffee so it was awesome to have a choice of two on batch brew, we chose Ethiopian, and selected the alternative Mexican option as a v60 pour over… the wait for which is always truly worth it! Both were rich and flavoursome with the v60 process showcasing the flavour of the single origin beans

Now onto breakfast! Hubby and I like to share and so a great selection of sweet and savory made decisions a challenge, but we settled on the ricotta hotcakes which were light and fluffy and served with a ‘cloud’ of cream, syrup and topped with fresh strawberries.

For our savory option we opted for the vegetable hash with the added poached egg. The hash was crispy and lightly fried, topped with seeds for added crunch. Served on a bed of avocado and pea smash… yum! and a bed of mixed leaves with a chimichurri dressing made it mwah! (chefs kiss)

Thanks team for a great experience…...

I would like to address this as a 2-star review purely on quality, concept and context of food, not that it was a bad experience or poor service, an exclusive review only on the dish itself- Laksa Eggs;

The "laksa" itself is not really laksa; pumpkin and chick peas tgt made it entirely a hummus (curry-flavoured hummus) instead of laksa broth or laksa dressing or paste; texture was really thick and heavy, and most importantly the taste itself doesnt resemble as laksa at all since theres none fragrance, spice elements or warmth in homage to a laksa. Will appreciate if there's hints of acidity on the laksa element such as proper amount of citrus oils/juice like lime or lime leafs to be a bit more exciting and cutting the heavy-ness of the laksa bottom.

Insufficient amount/proportion of salad when ur expecting that much "laksa" on the bottom.

Fried egg was great.

Roti: not crispy and still mostly doughy which is .

Its a very filling dish for sure, but for the dish's context, cultural-elemental appropriation and understanding is subpar. Really hope Equium's concepts on dishes can be well-executed...