Cafe Giulia

Chippendale was my suburb for years and years. I moved out and overnight it turned cool. Go figure. Anyway back in those benighted days, café giulia was the beacon of cool. Pre hipster bearded barista, middle eastern food on the menu, a grungy vibe. Plus ça change, plus ça reste la même.
Food 3.5
Coffee 3.5
Service 3.5
Ambience 3.5
Location 3.5
Noise 3

Small place, but very nice one, I would highly recommend. I went there around 7 am for the breakfast, it was decently full, but not I could still find a place to sit down and enjoy my meal. The staff is very friendly and attentive. I would definitely recommend the «Slider».
When I am back in Sydney, I will for sure pay them another visit. BTW they are very close to The Old Clare hotel — which is very nice place to stay. :-)

Hands down best café in Chippendale. The coffee is decent but you really go here for an incredible breakfast or burger for lunch. I’d recommend trying the strawberry and mint frappé.

Had a «whaaaaaaat?» moment when I realised I hadn’t reviewed Café Giulia yet. What is wrong with you, self. I have been coming here for so long one of the owners knows me to talk to. (Fun fact: back in the day her husband co-​owned a café with the now-​owner of my favourite café ever.) It is the place I always bring visitors to when I want to impress them/​overwhelm them with the vast menu. I always ALWAYS get the haloumi bagel with mushrooms and ask them to add an egg for me, which staff do because they’re awesome, and a friend swears by the corn fritters. It’s a deservedly popular place — I once saw Christina Ricci, Ruby Rose, and Jack Thompson eating here when they were shooting a movie in the neighbourhood — so get in early if there’s a few of you as finding a table can be competitive! I usually opt to sit along the bench in the window, but there’s also a garden-​y bit out back. Relaxed vibe; good food.

Great food, good for a hangover. Generous servings for the price. Huge menu and plenty of seating make this an ideal inner city diner experience. Definitely a new favourite

Ordered «Guilia eggs» with bacon — basically eggs scrambled with haloumi, tomato, onion, mint & parmesan with toast.
On positive side, meal was tasty & coffee was ok.
Negatives were indifferent service, no table service (which meant till area in this narrow café was constantly congested). For the number of staff everything seemed so disorganised.
Overall disappointing for a place that’s been here for a number of years.

Not off to a good start, lousy customer service. Waiting in line, who decides who is first was dubious.
Next, just as I thought it was my turn to order the phone rings, so no «excuse me while I answer this», she just did, there were other people who could have answered the phone, or taken our order.
Phone order taken for a large order, still no one serving the order line.
Eventually someone else came over and took my order.
Coffee arrived, tasteless mug of weak latte. I know I order a weak coffee, but I do expect it to have a coffee taste. At least it was hot as ordered. Most large/​mugs of coffee have ²⁄₃ shots, so was expecting at least 1 shot, very doubtful in this case, maybe a shot shared between 2 cups.
Partner had the Giulia Eggs with bacon.
Toast was bread warmed in a grill, not toast as expected. Should not have to ask for well done toast.
He said it was tasty, and edible. Nothing special.
I had the Brekky Special, Corn Fritters with poached eggs, hollandaise sauce, bacon and a side of Avocado, which was bruised (bruised avo is awful), and at $ 4 for ½ an avo I expect a decent one.
Corn fritters were stodgy snd tasteless.
Hollandaise sauce was tasty, but that was all the flavour in the meal.
Both meals were very large servings, quantity instead of quality. I would liked a smaller meal, that had tastier elements.
2 stars, 1 for hot coffee and 1 for the tasty meal my partner had.
Won’t be back.
Wouldn’t recommend.

Love this place and the neighbourhood. Great coffee and small serve breakfasts for those with smaller appetites. There is a nice patio area around the back. While it always seemed busy, service was efficient and we always managed to find a seat. We kept coming back during our time in Sydney despite other choices.

I am here every two or three days. I live over the road, so it’s an easy choice.
Lovely staff (although when it gets busy they can be understandably short), consistently good food and just chilled, nice environment.
For a delicious veggie burger order the Giulia burger without meat but with haloumi and a pickle. So great.
The french toast is delicious.
Be sure to wave to me as you visit!

Great brunch food. I was visiting Sydney on business and a friend bought me here. Good coffee, nice to be in a ‘neighbourhood’ away from center of city and hotels, — loved the relaxed atmosphere and good old antipodean café brunch fare I miss.

Free WiFi, standard $ 4 coffee, and the brekky muffins are a great deal! Stuffed with your choice of fillings for $ 5.50

On the main criteria of a good strong long black coffee within 2 blocks — they pass with flying colours. Real pro.
Sitting outside at the bak is kind of nice but it still feels a bit ‘greasy spoon’. Sometimes that is exactly what you need, but this is not on my go to list to bring a client

Delicious and super creamy jersey milk coffees! It’s like a dessert. Oh yum! Five stars for that milk!
Food is fair — they do breakfast and lunch. Place is always super packed with a long line by the order counter on my visits. Tucked away & easy to miss from the outside.

Ah, Café Giulia, the heart of Chippendale. Things may have changed a lot over the past few years, industrial has turned residential, other cafes have moved in, but this local institution remains as consistently excellent as ever. There’s always a brilliant breakfast bagel to be had — I recommend the haloumi with avocado and mushroom ($ 10.50-ish), eaten with your hands — and Sydney perennial, the breakfast roll, finished with house-​made tomato relish ($ 7.90-ish).
Those with a sweet tooth should try the Belgian waffles, served with rhubarb, ricotta, and a whole bottle of maple syrup ($ 16.90), if eaten correctly, manage to toe the line between rounded meal and sweetness overdose. Juices, burgers, big breakfasts and pastas, they’re all recommended. I’m yet to have a dud meal.
The staff has remained as unchanged as the menu. This seems to have been a problem for other reviewers, but I’ve never found them to be unpleasant. Brief, yes, but when you’re being consistently slammed as they are, it’s not hard to understand why.

I’ve been here a few times and love the value for money of the food.
And it’s always come out wonderfully awesome and I’ve eaten everything and then requested to be rolled home.
This time however I asked for poached eggs and got hard boiled sunny side up eggs. Was told that this was what poached meant. Much to the surprise of myself since I’ve been ordering poached eggs for a very long time and been getting the runny middle bit and not hard boiled. Apparently I was meant to ask for runny. My mistake! Next time I know better. To eat runny eggs here don’t ask for poached, ask for runny. Duly noted Mr Chef.
Otherwise the food and service is great. Sometimes you might have to wait for a table, but if you have a small group there are patrons willing to share if you’re willing to ask!
I would have given it more stars if it hadn’t have been for the eggs debate.

A great little café for Chippendale and Darlington locals. Excellent for weekend breakfasts and weekday lunches, it can sometimes get a little busy but there’s usually somewhere to sit and service is fast.
With an enormous chalkboard choosing is almost impossible, but don’t be afraid to fall into regularity and order the same thing every time. For me, avocado and haloumi bagel for breakfast, lentil soup for lunch.
It takes a little getting used to, but there are quite expensive lavish options as well as cheap options. The cheap items aren’t side meals or entrees, they’re pretty reasonable meals by themselves. If you’re still reeling from the night before, stick to a breakfast burger or turkish toast, otherwise go for the eggs and the $ 4 extras.
Don’t expect the service to be cosy, but it’s certainly not bad. The staff are efficient and they leave you alone, which is great if you’re like me and find the BFF act a bit of a bore. This is especially good if you have your laptop and have work to do — you don’t feel like you’re intruding if you just want to sit there all day (and they have free wifi!)

I went her for breakfast a few weeks ago and it was great. Great coffee, service was a bit slow but we didn’t mind that as we were enjoying a relaxing Sunday morning.
When the food arrived it looked and tasted great. The portions were massive. It was really good so I forced myself to finish but I missed out on enjoying any dinner that day as I was still too full! Not a bad complaint really!

Café Giulia has been a fall-​back breakfast option for me for years, always a satisfying option for a hungover sunday morning. They have been fairly consistent over that time — unfortunately my hangovers have become worse with age.
The brekky-​brunch-​lunch selection is large, and notoriously hard to make decisions about, particularly with a foggy brain. Popular choices include the hash-​browns, corn fritters, anything involving poached eggs, and their juices & smoothies are always impressive: thick with fruit and other goodness. Giulia’s coffees are good, but not phenomenal.
It’s a busy, crowded sort of joint, and often you have to stand in a long line to order. You will have to fight for a table on a weekend, no question. The food arrives pretty swiftly though; they seem to have a fairly efficient system worked out in their open-​kitchen. Occasionally their meals can seem a bit slapdash though, a bit haphazard. My friends took to asking for «soft poached» eggs after a few hard-​poached yolk disappointments. We want the goo!
One of the things I like about Giulia is the diversity in meal sizes. If you’re not that hungry you can order a breakfast muffin (by that they mean English muffin), with a poached egg and spinach and halloumi, or something like that. These meals are smaller and served on annoyingly small plates — but you don’t pay much for them — $ 7.90 or $ 8.90, depending on what you order.

Good value for money but not much passion is this place… Staff Attitude leaves little to be desired but they get the job done. Super close to my house so will probably return, or if the weather is nice walk up to the short list in Darlington– nicer folk and they do a regular T/​A instead of only large… Weird how you can only get a large from Guilia’s???
Smoked Salmon bagel and the burgers are extremely generous portions though so do feel like its a old mix of good coffee/​food just no WOW factor…
However they must have bad ventilation because I always walk out smelling like fried bacon… Mmmmm. Bacon,

Having had a quick glance at map of places I wanted to visit, I picked Café Gulia out of the air and wandered over. Walking inside it looked alot like cafes and diners that I frequented in NYC (might have been the somewhat Hipsterish waitstaff…).
After ordering my dbl mac I quickly noticed the powerpoints located under most of the tables and so whipped out my laptop and phone charger for a bit of friendly #powerwhoring (massive tick). Unfortunately when the dbl mac arrived (which looked a hell of alot like a piccolo latte…) it was a bit more burnt than I would have liked.
Normally this would have been the end of the experience … but being that I had heard this café was known for its food, I had to try something. Seeing they had a burger, and with bacon and egg no less, my decision was made. The burger arrived like a tower of food (with no chips, they are apparently extra), and the egg looked perfectly cooked. With the first bite it started to ooze with warm yolk… YUM! Finger licking good…
Café Summary
— — — — — — — —
Passion for Coffee — ⁴⁄₁₀
Coffee beans - (unsure)
Crema (1=burnt, 10=velvet) — ³⁄₁₀
Special coffees avail? — N/​A