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On our last day in Sydney, we again enjoyed the city's fine sights and tastes. We spent our time in Surry Hills and The Rocks, making sure we squeezed in that one last place we really wished to see. My mum had her eye on the famous hotcakes at Bill Granger's restaurant, Sylvia wanted to eat at the vegan Shift Eatery and I was keen to wander about The Rocks (see above photo).
One of the first impressive sights we saw after alighting from the bus in Surry Hills was the Bondi Boulangerie with its rainbow croissants in their window display. I am sorry to say we did not have time to go in. The rainbow represents diversity and colour of the LBGTQI community who are at the centre of the recent Mardi Gras celebrations in Sydney.
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Instead we had breakfast at Bills Surry Hill (355 Crown Street). It is the second of Bill Granger's restaurants to be opened in the 1990s. He is credited as being the first person to offer avocado on toast at his first restaurant in Darlinghurst. Today there are 19 cafes around the world and during his lifetime he was one of Australia's celebrity cooks. He died in 2023 but his passion for good simple food lives on in his books and his restaurants.
I liked the bright flowers painted on the front of Bills Surry Hills that brightened the view from the inside which reached beyond to the outdoor tables and the terrace houses across the road.
I ordered the intriguing Green kimchi and cavolo nero pancake, cucumber, basil and red shiso salad, ginger dressing ($25). It was mostly vegetable. More like a fritter than a pancake. The kale made it very green, the kimchi made it a bit spicy and the cucumber salad was cooling. A great combination!
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My mum and dad shared Bill's famous Ricotta hotcakes, banana and honeycomb butter ($32.5). They loved the amazingly light hotcakes with the delicious topping. Sylvia, as the vegan on the table, did not fancy the avocado on toast (which now comes with lime and coriander) nor the granola nor the sago bowl. She opted for the simple sourdough toast with strawberry lemongrass jam, which she really enjoyed, though she was sad it was before the lunch menu that included a mushroom and crispy tofu fried rice.
There were coffees for all but me. Sylvia was most displeased at the lack of foam on her cappuccino but I really enjoyed the peach and jasmine soda.
We walked down to another icon of Surry Hills, the Bourke Street Bakery (633 Bourke St). We were too full to buy food to eat but my mum bought a sausage roll for later and we bought a loaf each of their lovely bread to take home on the plane. There were a few vegan savoury pastries and breads but nothing in the way of sweet food. I also wrote a post on our visit to our visit to Bourke Street Bakery in 2018.
My dad and I enjoyed looking around the area while Sylvia and my mum had a rest at the tables and chairs outside the bakery by the mural of the baker. I enjoy how the terrace houses in Sydney are same same but different. They have much steeper roofs and less fancy Victorian flourishes. Each city's architecture has its charms. Surry Hills is also fascinating as the location for the Ruth Park's book, The Harp in the South, based on her time living there when it was a slum suburb in the 1940s. Now it is a fashionable place to live with prices to match!
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Then we took the light rail to Central Station. I don't have a great grasp of Sydney's suburbs and was surprised to find that Central Station is on the border of Surry Hills. We had lunch at Shift Eatery (Shop 4/241 Commercial St), a vegan cafe and deli.
They had lots of interesting vegan groceries for sale including The Red Balloon's gelatine-free vegan Mello Jello jubes, Mama Meegz M'z Gems (candy coated chocolate buttons like smarties or M&Ms), and - most intriguingly - Primal Spirits Vegan Jerky made from shitake with two flavours: mequite & lime and hot, spicy, sweet, savoury.
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We started with drinks. Sylvia had an iced soy matcha and I had the excellent Herbs of Life peach and apricot kombucha.
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I sat facing the walkway from the front door and on the wall was a Llama called Tahini from Moo to Ewe Animal Sanctuary. He looked so gorgeous, I wanted to meet him, or at least smuggle his photo out in my Crumpler bag!
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Fiinally we spent a short amount of time in The Rocks. This area of Sydney fascinates me because it is another inner city area of Sydney that was formerly slums and now is very desirable. This important heritage area was saved from demolition by the activism of Jack Mundey of the Builders' Labourers Federation and their Green bans.
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My dad and I had a walk around the area to see some of the older houses, including Susannah Place: a terrace of 4 homes that has been set up as a museum. It is tour group only and our timing was too tight to do a tour. However, the back of the building evokes the spirit of the slums that make it easy to imagine housewives hanging out washing and small kids playing the street.
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Although many house in The Rocks were saved by Green Bans, many nearby homes were pulled down to make way for the magnificent Sydney Harbour Bridge. One of the structures build around the same time as the Bridge (1932) was the Bridge Stairs for people to climb to reach the pedestrian walkway over the bridge that is still there today. It is s fine piece of architecture for some steps.
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While we went walking my mum and Sylvia rested at the Tea Cosy tearooms. They are now at 7 Atherden Street, just around the corner from their location on 33 George Street where they were during our visit to The Tea Cosy tearooms in 2019. I love the knitted bunch of yellow flowers at the entrance. In the background of the photo of them you can see the tables with knitted blankets and baskets of knitting.
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Sylvia took this photo of the knitting on their table. My mum refreshed her memory about how to knit and she was very proud to contribute a few rows to the communal knitting project on the table. While they both had expected to get drinks there, neither fancied one and were too full for scones, but the cafe kindly gave them water while they sat out the front admiring the view that you can see more clearly on the top photo of my post.
Then it was time to head back to pick up our suitcases and head to Central Station to catch one last double decker train to Sydney Airport. We had a small meal there - I had a Mexican bowl and a Dubai chocolate brookie that were very good. Sylvia discovered the delights of the vegan Grande Melt at Mad Mex. My parents had KFC and rice paper rolls. Before long we were back at Avalon Airport, picking up our car to drive home to Melbourne. It was a joy to see Sydney again, albeit briefly!
More posts on Green Gourmet Giraffe on our trip to Sydney:
