Ellen — Restaurant in Sydney

We were tipped off to visit Ellen by seeing some pics on some fellow foodies IG. The cafe is below a boutique apartment complex and close to Sydney Park. Being in a quiet street, it was easy to find a car park.

The cafe has indoor and outdoor seating and they are very dog friendly, can even take the dog inside. We found the staff to be really welcoming and efficient with taking coffee orders and delivering the menus.

The food at this cafe is out of this world good. The fabulous chef has worked at Tetsuya, Rockpool and Cedrics and can certainly deliver on the taste and presentation. For a cafe, to see food that could pass for a fine dining establishment but at cafe prices is just incredible. Whilst the menu is short (limited) each menu item is high quality and interesting. We liked that there were also two specials on the day of visit, and it was these dishes which we tried.

The smoked duck special was slivers of the smoked duck served almost in the appearance like a flower in olive oil, topped with radish and served with grilled crispy sourdough. A beautiful light dish.

We then had the chicken ballotine / roulade, which is a chicken that has been boned and stuffed with a tasty filling and a light crispy skin. Served with a light salad and green sauce, this was beautiful.

As a side, we had some fries with seaweed salt seasoning that are so moreish, you keep going back for more.

We returned for a second visit to try their breakfast choices; the scrambled eggs with bacon and toast, as well as a really lovely light prawn dish with avocado.

Whilst you’re there be sure to have a pastry by lode; whether it be the pain au chocolate, blueberry pastry with blueberry compote and fresh blueberries or some of the other varieties.

The coffee is also impressive; smooth and well balanced, and some excellent latte art. The cold brew was outstanding and the well developed flavours shone through, exciting the palate. We love that they roast their own coffee.

We really enjoyed this cafe and most certainly...

Love the location good sun. The coffee was delivered perfectly!

The fish burger - the fish steak fried up was fantastic.

Good ingredients.

However, it did get buried under the sauce - better to recraft a tartare sauce for fish and leave the special sauce pickle cheese onion mustard for a cheeseburger (similar to what Cedric’s had for its wagyu beef, maccas for its cheeseburger it just works better). And the bun, can someone please get you some pretty buns!

The octopus, w potatoes and picked chillies, it was swimming in capers vinaigrette with chives. I almost felt like it came from a jar. The octopus texture can be a wee bit more cooked to give it a less soft gooey squishy finish- a bit of crunch on the tentacles would be great.

The crab pasta was good, average, the flavour of the sauce was not as tangy as I expected and more Asian fusion.

But to be honest it’s a cafe right? Like a few comments it should stick to cafe priced items and dishes. The shop location and ambience is more akin to a cafe.

Staff had a vibe which I can say for some may appear rude or odd, too chill and floating around, not your usual friendly talkative type. I didn’t mind it, but reading fr the comments sounds like some do.

All I can say is Read the room.

Overall, I enjoyed the experience of trying the new cafe, and would be keen to revisit in the future when menus...

❌The tastes and balance of dishes are terrible. 👌Nothing wrong with the atmosphere and service, the food is simply bad in taste and small in portion🤏🏻, especially at ~💲40 pp. ⏬️The two specials we order today have the same cooking principle: A string taste asian-western fusion base + some seafood + fried carbs + herbs. ❌This combo is greasy and too savoury as a brunch, with no veggies or others to neutralise the spiciness and grease. I had a stomachache 20mins after the meal. ❌Furthermore, the mackerel is half raw with its meat mostly red. I have very high tolerance of “fishy” flavours, but this fish has no umami to come with that unbearable fishy taste. Plus, the redness usually means the blood is retained in the meat and in such case half-raw is the worst choice of cooking method. ❌In order to cover that fishy taste, they used extra strong sauces. Which in result stimulates secretion of gastric acid, leading to stomachache. ❌The iced mocha has no taste of coffee nor chocolate syrup at $7, worst ice mocha I’ve had. Even dare coffee milk at coles tastes better. ❌The canelé was $6.5 each, tiny in portion as well. Temperature and ratio were not controlled well. The crust was over-coked, and the inside is dry-soft with too many air bubbles, tasting like raw dough. Overall, horrible experience at this prize. Would never...