Malika Bakehouse Botany — Restaurant in Sydney

Malika is a cafe in Botany, occupying the site which was once Deluca. The fit out isn’t a great deal different, just a new splash of orange paint and some green inspired art works. It is now a Turkish inspired cafe or Bakehouse with ready to go baked goods, brunch meals and coffee.

Coffee remains here using the Deluca house blend for their Espresso, Cold Brew, Batch Brew, Single Origin and Turkish Coffee. There’s also loose leaf pots of tea and cold drinks.

The breakfast menu highlights a few made to order sandwiches, all made on sesame Turkish Bagels. We try the Sucuk, Cheese, Fried Egg, Harissa option. The filling was delicious and paired well inside the freshly baked bagel.

There’s also all day brunch menu options such as a green bowl, Gozleme and avo on toast. We try the Menemen, or chilli scrambled eggs on Turkish toast. A nice light meal and a good option for egg lovers.

We also ordered the baked muesli, which is a blend of dried figs, coconut, almonds, apricots, topped with fresh Pomegranate Arils and Berries (blueberries and strawberries) sitting atop a Turkish Delight yoghurt. The size is appropriate for breakfast and presented nicely. I did recommend this could be offered with coconut yoghurt to suit vegan diners since there aren’t many vegan options here yet.

If you’re after something more on the go, the counter showcases a range of baked goods, specials varying daily such as

Poppy Scroll Tahini Scroll Feta Pogaça Spiced Potato Pogaça Sucuk Pogaça Spinach, Feta & Ricotta Börek Cheese Parsley Flaky Börek Sesame Simit (Turkish Bagel) Pistachio Baklava

These are good because you can buy and eat quickly.

We do like the cafe. It has a nice vibe and friendly staff. The food options are on the higher end of prices for cafes these days (ie $18 for muesli) so we probably won’t be able to eat here often, but understand the need for these higher price points given the hospitality struggles post covid.

1631 Botany...

Back before Covid (when pretty much everyone had jobs) I worked near the cafe in Botany. It was a go-to place for coffee every morning (for me and several of my colleagues) before work, based on the awesome people that work there, the great atmosphere, but mostly because the coffee is so good. (The food is fantastic too). So... six months later and I've moved to rural NSW and my nearest town has average cafes with average coffee; nothing that I would buy as beans to brew my own coffee with. What's a guy to do? Luckily for me Deluca Coffee ship their coffee beans by courier and I have them two days after I order! It's not cheap - a kilo of beans costs me $50 including (Express Post as standard) shipping, and lasts me about a month. But I have yet to find another coffee that I and my family like as much as Deluca. When we're on the road we are always disappointed by the coffee we drink at various cafes (including in Sydney, when we can't get to Deluca at Botany). We do have a pretty decent coffee machine (Breville Oracle) but really, we have NEVER sat at a cafe and said "this is as good as Deluca!" I try and order on a Wednesday if I remember as it is their roasting day and I get the absolute freshest batch. If I miss roasting day I email them and request that they hold off shipping until the next roasting day, which they are happy to do. Their communication is absolutely perfect and they actually have a sense of humour (yes, that's you, Leah!!!). Just really good people to do business with. But at the end of the day, it's all about the coffee. ...

Cute local cafe with a Turkish spin - love the bright orange walls and the wide open windows letting in natural light, and the option for outdoor porch seating. The brunch menu is quite pricey (prices in mid-$20s and even $30+). We stuck to a sandwich and baked goods (check out their wide range of Turkish baked goods on display). The Turkish coffee ($7) is tiny and cute - strong and quite acidic, and comes with a piece of white pistachio Turkish Delight which was a nice touch to get to try it. The sucuk breakfast sandwich ($14) is casual and tasty. The knafeh ($17ish) takes about 20 minutes to prepare - it comes with a scoop of milk ice cream. Unfortunately, it cooled down quite quickly so the cheese was no longer stretchy inside. The knafeh itself is not sweet (which I appreciate in contrast to being drowned in syrup) and relies on the ice cream which is not that sweet either. However, it was in need of a drizzle of syrup for some added sweetness and also moisture, as it was quite dry especially when the cheese inside was no...