Benzin Cafe — Restaurant in Sydney

(3.5 stars) Benzin Café is Daniel Karjadi's first boutique café. Growing up with a father heavily involved in franchise chains, including Jamaica Blue and Muffin Break, Daniel has considerable café experience up his sleeves. At the four-month-old Benzin, Daniel is but one of a triumvirate of owners (including his brother); with the name coming about through them all identifying as petrolheads.

Sensibly then, they’ve chosen to open in Dural, where there’s more space to go around, for things like parking. The large format space sits under a childcare centre, with underground parking beneath, plus a long driveway and apron where folks can show off your own pimped ride. This attracts in car club meetups on Sundays, so if you’re interested in cars, that's the best time to visit.

In keeping with the theme, the interior has an industrial feel with concrete walls, made more interesting with a shiny grid of nine classic wheels and automobile-themed art. All the grey is kept from being gloomy with plenty of natural light, with plenty of folks taking advantage of the bench seats that line the walls of the sizeable open-plan room.

With beverages a big part of the Benzin offering, a jittery caffeinated ‘fill her up’ car mural by Lithgow-based artist, Le Grizz, makes the perfect backdrop to their cement grey La Marzocco machine. We pass up the Gabriel Coffee in favour of a PB & B Shake ($9) teaming smooth peanut butter - cleverly placed on the inside rim of the glass - with banana into an enjoyable milkshake with a nicely adult salty edge. A well-presented Booster Juice ($8) looks healthier than it tastes, with flecks of green spinach dominated by mango and banana with a hint of lime. I reckon it could do with more lime to balance the fruit's natural sweetness, but I’m a bit of a sour freak these days.

In terms of eats, Benzin have a contemporary Australian all-day brunch and lunch menu with enough global influences to keep things interesting. Served with shoestring fries, the Katsu Sandwich ($17) gives you three white-bread finger sandwiches with the crusts cut off filled with chicken katsu, rainbow ‘slaw, a scrape of Dijon mustard and Bulldog tonkatsu sauce. It’d be improved with Japanese white bread that has a pillowy softness that’s very hard to match.

Presented on a metal rack, a pair of Pulled Beef Tacos ($18) win by using aromatic and tasty rendang-inspired, pulled beef. The long fibres suit the over-stuffed taco that sits somewhere between soft and hard through toasting, however there’s too much of it to be pretty eating, so I’d suggest eating some out before you tackle it hands-on. Even keeping the toppings – guacamole, black beans and salsa – on the side, it’s messy business with juice and fried shallots flying everywhere.

Portions are slightly on the small side, perhaps to allow you to indulge in a Sonoma treat for the road – that is, if you’re allowed to eat inside the pimped-out vehicle you’ve “gone drivin’” in, as the cafe's closed...

Having been to Benzin Cafe on 2 x separate occasions now with different people, I don’t know what it is but both times, I’ve felt like my food choices were a letdown! The first time, I ordered the Salmon Soba Noodle Salad. It seemed very promising on the menu but when it came, it was bland!!! There was no dressing. I had to ask for dressing. Also, I didn’t like that the noodles were cut up! What’s with that?! I love slurping noodles!

My husband got the Rendang Nachos the first time and enjoyed it.

We shared an Iced Milo and loved that. Delicious!

My Mum had the Brekkie Tacos and enjoyed that.

On the second occasion, I ordered the Katsu Sandwich with Chips. The chips were nice but I didn’t like the thick chicken Katsu very much. I felt it was just a bit too thick for the sandwich. My husband enjoyed his Hainanese Chicken Salad.

The ambience and layout of the cafe is very generous and spacious. With plenty of space and natural light, it is a very welcoming environment. I love that the fit out is quite modern along with its own private bathroom.

The car inside the cafe changes from time to time and there is also a motorcycle in the window.

The service seemed to be attentive and the waitstaff were quite kind and generous. We were allowed to bring our own birthday cake to the premises.

Definitely a car enthusiast’s cafe as I have seen on their IG how many done-up cars come here!

Maybe next time I will finally get a dish I...

The atmosphere looks awesome, and clearly busy so they’re doing something right. I went to go and get a takeout, and on walking in, asked if T/A was available, which I was told it was, and advised to line up.

I waited 20 minutes to be served as the person at the register, walked off. By the time she came back to the register, it was 10 deep. After the staff member was ready to take my order, I’m told that there is a 45 minute wait (even though it was Take-out). At that point, I decided to cancel the order as you don’t expect to wait that long for a takeout and there’s a reason why I’m doing a takeout.

They were busy but there were plenty of staff, who looked like they didn’t know what they were doing and they came off as chaotic. It would have also been good, on coming into the cafe, to be told of the wait for coffee and food, before I waited 20 minutes to be served.

Pros: great atmosphere, but I couldn’t tell you anymore

Cons: Service!! the staff were in a state of chaos. The whole thing needs to be more organised, there were plenty of staff but they seemed to be doing a little of everything with no one taking responsibility for anything ie someone taking orders.

Be upfront on the wait time on entering the cafe. It’s not rocket science from a customer...