Kepos Street Kitchen — Restaurant in Sydney

I never had a chance to get in this beautiful cafe before because there was always a queue around lunch over any weekend. Today I had great pleasure to dine in, as it was a bit late lunch during weekdays and cafe had a spot for us! Lucky🥳

We ordered Persian eggplant and burrata with pine nuts, and meatball sub. Both were great and very flavoursome, especially Persian eggplant was superb, I never had anything like this before, and would like recipe please. Eggplant was not soggy but soft with velvety texture, went well with sourdough and the burrata cheese. Everything went perfectly well in my mouth. The meatball sub was great with enough sauce to eat with half footlong sub, which was well toasted. One downside was drink, the iced strawberry match latte was very disappointing… it was strawberry jam dropped into the milk with ice cubes, which was almost melt as the drink was sitting on the bench for at least 10 min, then matcha was poured when it arrived to the table. So you can imagine very watery milk that was not mixed with matcha with strawberry jam that never blends in together, and surprisingly costed $12. I wont recommend it to anyone. Then I ordered dessert as they looked really good, carrot cake was amazing with real ingredients!!! It was the best, power of home made cakes??? Excellent. The atmosphere was good. They have little outdoor setting and blankets as well, with places inside. They sell some food like Tiramisu, dips and others that can be sold in the containers, but no price written - whatever that means, they looked nice and I believe it will be nice. The service was excellent as well, staff was friendly and helpful and did make difference to our whole experience as they looked confident. I would visit here again, as the experience...

I was supposed to be having lunch here with a friend just now, we rocked up and took our place in the line to get a table. One of the servers came out and started grabbing names and numbers for when tables became free, she got to the two Asian women in front of us and took their names, got to me and my friend (we’re both brown) took my name and got to the white lady behind us who I overheard give her name and say she’s waiting for friend to come join her, the server then says to her “well if you can be flexible I can give you a table outside” to which she says yes and immediately gets taken to her table and handed table water and menus. Mind you it’s very lightly raining but the table she’s been seated to is the only free table under cover. Note, she did not ask the two Asian women in front of me or me and my friend. Normally I wouldn’t be one to let something like this anger me so much, but it happens far too much in the so called “inclusive” inner Sydney suburbs, overlooked at the line in the bar that I’ve been waiting at for 15 mins while the white person who just rocked up gets served before me, have staff follow in retail shops but the white person who’s sketchy in appearance but is free to roam the shop unaccompanied. Call it unconscious bias, racial bias, whatever you want but it’s simply unacceptable. How do you celebrate middle eastern food when you can’t treat your ethnic customers with some respect?! Do better. Maybe you can learn a thing or two from the cafe across the road (Bourke & Phillip St Brunch) where I ended up taking my business, where the customer experience is...

Excellence is a virtue often claimed, or remarked upon with a passing lack of attention to its meaning, but scrub those off-handed tips of the hat, and delve deeply into what truly is an extraordinary experience, a frolic with flavour, a little slice of excellence. Make that a big slice. The Kepos classics have regulars returning in droves - felafel, hummous, shakshuka, limonana - but it’s sometimes the deft and nuanced touches that will thrill you most.

Eggplant risotto.

No, I wasn’t sure either - not only is its vibe a little west of Tel Aviv, but it bespeaks an error waiting to be exposed.

Yet, one bite, one small and tentative bite, is all it takes to be both convinced and enthralled. Creamy, rich, elegantly savoury, and rice perfectly al dente.

Risotto is a simple skill in its core principles, but the majority of practitioners swerve wildly and miss its mark completely. Not here, and not under Michael Rantissi’s careful and passionate eye.

Michael is personable, joyful and engaging, but don’t be fooled. Beneath that sunny exterior is a passionate tinkerer, a studious chef, and yes, a man whose joy in the process and hospitality of food is...