Short Black Espresso Bar — Restaurant in Sydney

The first thing you notice when you take up position beside the coffee machine to wait for your takeaway, is the plethora of jugs, all with warm residue milk that was surplus from previous orders… a giant Petri dish of spawning bacteria!

Their policy was to use leftover milk, rather than rinse out the jug after every pour, so they could grub 10c… in the process, BUTCHERING EVERY COFFEE.

This is such a cheap-shot on customers! Its lazy technique to pour more milk than you need for the order you are currently doing… just pour sufficient milk into the jug to do the current order with approx 70ml to spare… and that 70ml, worth 10c, should then go down the sink.

The second thing you notice, is the sub-standard flavour of the first sip… and the second… and then, the foul, sour taste lingers in your mouth long after you finish your morning coffee.

When I asked the young barista to use “no reheated milk in my coffee”, ie empty the slops out of the jug before pouring fresh milk in it, she was very obliging. Her coffees were exquisite! She made the best coffee I can remember, after consuming on average, 2 or 3 strong piccolos daily, for the last 55 years, in many countries around the world.

The other barista was the operator of the cafe. He had serious anger management issues, plus a fierce determination to remain a minimalist in his vocation. He constantly refused to dispatch the 10c worth of slops down the sink. When I asked him for the umteenth time for 100% fresh, cold milk in the jug. He then became threateningly aggravated… totally defiant… obsessed with butchering what would otherwise have been an exquisite coffee.

I left for the last time with a sour taste in my mouth… both literally and figuratively 😂

EXTRACT FROM ChatGPT ON THE SUBJECT Leaving previously heated milk in a coffee jug and topping it up with fresh cold milk can create an unhygienic situation because the new milk will be at a different temperature than the previously heated milk. Bacteria can start to grow in the lukewarm milk and can contaminate the newly...

We used to often come to Short Black for brunch. Both coffee and food quality were just on top!

This time, I and my partner ordered avocado smash and smoked salmon sandwich. I also ordered coffee, which tasted really good. Barista was amazing and her service was just on top. However, food was disappointing. The bread was super super dry and kept falling apart for both avo smash and sandwich. I ordered SMOKED salmon sandwich, they have brought me GRILLED salmon in the sandwich. First time, I told to waitress that it was grilled, she took it to chef and came back saying that it was SMOKED! It was obviously grilled or fried with butter.

Second time , they brought food to me, the girl kind of just threw plate on the table and walked away saying nothing when I was polite at all times and even said thank you to the last waitress despite being already so disappointed . I even apologised for causing a bit of trouble for chef. I spend $50.00 for this ridiculous situation??? We ended not even finishing half of our plates. It was below...

Coffee was good but the food just wasn't amazing. I had the croissant benny special but the croissant was more like a supermarket croissant than a real croissant you would expect from a cafe for that price. This croissant had the texture of bread with indicates improper lamination, margarine used instead of butter or poor proofing. Croissants should be have a shatteringly crisp, flaky exterior that creates many crumbs when broken, honeycomb-like interior structure with many visible air pockets, distinct layers that can be peeled apart and a rich, buttery flavour. This croissant has none of these attributes. I write these extra comments in response to the owner with a photo included to let the reader be the judge. I appreciate the 50% discount offer from the owner but I urge the owner to reconsider their supplier in this case and understand want defines a...