Cafe Topiary

Grabbed a couple breakfasts this morning, The deck out the front seems never to have enough tables for the size of the deck which is shame as inside is very noisy. We thought we were reasonably lucky when got a seat on the porch area but to our surprise another couple sat at a table behind us that was really close and only really enough for one person as there wasn’t any room for the second person. This was a bit unusual.
The food was reasonable except a little greasy from the bacon and hash brown looked like had seen better days (so we didn’t eat them). The coffee was well made and still Campos so it had plenty of flavour.

Not bad coffee (Campos), I’ve only had the one meal as of this writing. I ordered a fish and chips, the staff were quite nice and polite. Food came quite fast from memory.
Meal was about medium size, not too big not too small. Chips were solid, again not too many but that is probably a good thing.

Make sure you have the time…
No matter when I stop here, the wait it always painful — the coffee is fine & I’m sure it’s nice to sit & have a drawn out brunch, but if I want a takeaway I want it fast!!!

(Beware how to make dbl mac in this review. Some what ranty)…
Wandering down a somewhat unkempt street across from the Epping Coles I noticed a stairway going up to a wooden platform that almost hides a café behind it. Honestly, I love the effort that has gone into the design of this place. Somehow you get transported to somewhere peaceful and relaxing (I especially loved and quickly grabbed one of the comfy chairs near the door).
The coffee they use here is Campos, so they have a few extra brownie points to start with, and while they were able to extract a fairly good crema, it was ruined with too much milk. This is certainly not uncommon, unfortunately, and likely only an issue for people like me who drink macchiatos.
After my second milky dbl of the day, I am feeling a little like a broken record I think justification is in order. For me, a dbl mac is one of the harder coffees to make well. Most people fail immediatly by over espressing the coffee to stretch a single into a dbl rather than making two singles. All this does is stress the bean making the consistency more watery and the flavour more bitter.
Then coffee crema comes down to alot of things. The pressure in the machine, the temp of the cup and portafilter and how tight the coffee was packed. Also harder if you use to singles as the first shot might burn the second.
Finally the milk. I think when people hear double, they think «large» but it is incorrect. The milk (a dot of froth and teaspoon of milk) performs an essential function of stopping the coffee crema from burning. If you can not see a dark espresso colour at the bottom you’ve added too much.
So why order the hardest coffee to make from unsuspecting cafes? Other than being a bastard, when someone gets it right it is fantastic. It is also a great way to measure the skills of who ever is making the coffee. Anyone can make a cap or latte, as most issues are covered up by the milk. The great thing though is that if they can make a dbl mac well, their caps and lattes will be amazing.
Café Summary
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Passion for Coffee — ⁷⁄₁₀
Coffee beans — Campos
Crema (1=burnt, 10=velvet) — ⁷⁄₁₀
Special coffees avail? — N/​A
Special Features
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Toilets