Corellis Cafe Gallery

This used to be my favourite café in King Street, but I won’t be returning after my meal today. Ordered breakfast burrito, had to wait 20 minutes after ordering in an empty café for food to arrive, requested poached egg arrived as fried, half the ingredients listed as inclusions were missing, the ingredients that were there added up to a greasy and heavy mess that left me feeling queasy. To their credit, the café knocked a few dollars off the price when the shortcoming was pointed out, but then noticed ‘free coffee’ with breakfast advertised on blackboard out the front which was not offered or even mentioned to us. Very disappointed, and I can’t even explain the experience away as them being too busy

Excellent coffee, good food but watch the portion sizes — it’s HUGE. I had the eggs benny over turkish bread with holandaise sauce. To be honest, it was an excessive amount of sauce for my liking and couldn’t even finish it at the end (this is rare)!! Can’t complain because it was good. Maybe consider sharing if you’re not super starving?

This is a great little café come restaurant. I have many a happy meal here with a variety of friends. and dates! Yes, good atmosphere, not expensive, interesting food and a friendly atmosphere. There is always someone interesting sitting at the next table to strike up a conversation. A great place to eat and to have conversations.

The portions are pretty generous and quality is generally okay. I’ve only came because of the entertainment book «buy one get one free» offer.
I ordered the Byron bay brekkie and struggled to finish the whole dish. The salmon was fresh and the poached eggs were made to perfection. I find it a little too bland for my taste buds. It felt healthy with the avocado, but it tastes like something that I can make easily at home. I’ve had better food for this price.
The chorizo brekkie was better but the chorizo was really really salty, which is the other extreme from the Byron brekkie. We mixed the two brekkies and created something more balanced.
The chai is pretty good. It comes in a big pot so it’s enough for two. Make sure you ask for honey :)

Good menu, great value, generous portions. Love the shakes. Open late. Service isn’t amazing, but they are nice.

The food here has been quite delightful. The deserts and open sammiches make me happy. Definitely worth a try if you’re near here.
The only reason I’m giving it a 3 is because service is pretty much non-​existent and when it is existent it’s never really been service, more so someone coming out and grunting at you, taking your order and hoping that they bring it out later. Most times I usually end up going in and ordering myself because you never seem to get a menu after sitting and a lot of times, I just don’t have the time to wait to be waited on.
Seating outside is spacious, however do expect other people to smoke and lots of people walking past plus traffic.
Inside is a bit more cosier. If you can call being squished cosy. I opt outside only because I like my space and feel like sitting inside means that I’m literally in the next person’s lap.

The food here was nice but we were made to wait about 30 minutes for it. There were also a lot of flies in the café.

Did Someone already mention that the portions here are HUGE!!?
Nachos, cake and chai, muesli or anything with Haloumi!
Do it!

This place is always busy but for the life of me I can’t see why. The coffee is only so-​so (surely the cardinal sin for a café in Newtown), the service is hit and miss, and although the food looks great, it’s been disappointing.
I give it another go every 6 months or so, the crowds and ambience pulls me back in, but no luck I’m afraid.

Nice spot for a cuppa and fag with mates. Service is very hit and miss. I do find myself here often so I hesitate to mention anything that may come out as negative. In saying that I cant think of anything that really makes Corellis stand out against the heavy café competition in the area…

There’s something to be said about attentive service. One shouldn’t have to wait what felt like 20 minutes before being asked if you’d like to order. The place was moderately busy but most of the folks had already gotten their food. Perhaps they could sense the vibe that we weren’t exactly on a tight schedule, but I still appreciate being asked if I’m ready to order (especially if it spurs your friends on to hurry up and make a decision!).
I have this terrible habit of finding Spaghetti Bolognaise on the menu and if it’s there I’ll order it. Experience tells me that every time I choose something else and somebody else orders it, I get major Food Envy. So somewhat reluctantly, I ordered the Spag Bol considering there were some very nice options on the menu e.g. their all-​day breakfast options = the Byron Breakfast (poached eggs, roasted tomatoes, smoked salmon, avo, wasabi mayo, sourdough — $ 14.50); Corn Fritters (with bacon, tomato relish, and toast $ 12.50). My boyf ordered his spag bol too (mainly cos he knew he’d get major food envy if he didn’t order it and he is not one ot share his spag bol!) with a side of Chorizo (delicious! managed to guilt him into sharing one) and my friend ordered the Chorizo breakfast (which looked kinda boring to be honest but everything looks like second class next to spag bol).
As an aside, someone really needs to tell me how they deal with buyer’s remorse when their food comes out. I would say it’s ok if it’s at a restaurant you regularly frequent, but what if it’s a place that you’re not likely to visit again? Constant source of bother for me.
So back to the topic at hand, which is the Spaghetti Bolognaise. First things first, I was very happy with the portion size, it came out in a big bowl (TICK! You want to make sure you get a proper opportunity to mix the cheese and bolognaise together) with bread and butter on the side (Unneccessary — it’s bolognaise!), had plenty of parmesan melting nicely on top of the sauce, and the spaghetti was mostly al dente, but as i progressed further into my slurpy saucy goodness it got decidedly less so. There was plenty of bolognaise left over, so probably could have done with more spaghetti in some people’s opinions but I love the sauce! My only real gripe is that the bolognaise felt slightly oily as I got towards the bottom.
I have a feeling I will be doing plenty of bolognaise reviews. I can’t wait to sample Jamie’s Italian for his signature bolognaise. I can’t say this is the best bolognaise I’ve ever had, but it hit the spot and I didn’t leave feeling too full (TICK!) and had splatters of sauce speckled on my jumper which strangely didn’t annoy me so much.
So why three stars? Corelli’s lost points due to 1) slower than acceptable wait service (but the kitchen is small so don’t expect your food to come out ASAP) 2) the side of chorizo came out a good 5 minutes before the spag bol came out. 3) Unlikely to come back when there are many better cafes around Newtown.
I know these are all first world problems, but dammit I am on a life-​long quest to find the ultimate spaghetti bolognaise!

We must have visited after rush hour, because we had no problem grabbing a table and our waiter was speedy and attentive. The coffee wasn’t great — I’d still opt for Café Newtown for a proper coffee — but I can definitely vouch for the BLATs. I was feeling a bit fragile that lunchtime and the fresh turkish bread and crispy bacon combo was just what the doctor ordered.
Though the place is a bit grimy and rundown, it’s still a good spot to meet friends. We weren’t rushed through our meal at all, which was appreciated. And I only juuuust stopped myself from ordering a slice of cake — which now I’ve read Sage’s review, I really wish I hadn’t!

For a while Corelli’s was the place to meet for my group of friends. It suited us to a tee, this rag tag group of individuals so hip to the culture of Newtown.
The food was gourmet; salads with avocado, beetroot, prosciutto. Though I rarely ate here, but rather enjoyed a spot of coffee when I came. It opened early, it closed late, it suited our needs no matter what.
And then we just stopped coming. But why? I’ll tell you why. It’s a very, I want to say, ‘grungy’ place. Cracked tiles and a cluttered kitchen. It’s cramped inside and it’s kind of ‘alternative’. I like my café’s clean and minimalist, I don’t want to feel claustrophobic in them.
I recall one evening we were walking up from New Theatre after a night of watching short films at the Newtown Flicks Festival and we took a seat out the front and ordered some drinks. The cool night air was soft and conducive to good conversation. The coffee was good, not the best, but good.
People change and tastes alter, and this is one place that I’ve left behind on my journey through life. My journey towards my horrible and most certain demise. My pathway towards oncoming death.
And to those who say, «Leave no man behind!» I say, «It’s a café.»

Corellis is a little bit hit and miss. Coffee is okay and hot chocolates are great, served with a tiny teddy bikkie. The breakfast is uninspiring and service is at times really slow. I have taken a seat outside and then waited, and waited, for someone to come and give me a menu, let alone take my order. I have often jumped up to get my own menus.
Being right next to the traffic the outside tables are a bit grimy, as is to be expected. Given this expectation however, you would think there would be lots of cleaning happening. People are also able to smoke at these outside tables which I am pretty sure is illegal and stinks.
Sitting inside is quite cosy, especially if the weather is bad outside. Not much room for moving between tables so best just to sit back and wait for the staff to come to you. The cakes are pretty good, try the caramel rounds.

I have mixed feelings about Corelli’s. We sat outside in the sun and despite being on King Street, didn’t find it too loud or distracting. The waitress was really lovely, had a positive and relaxed attitude and was always smiling. We ordered a couple of fresh juices ($ 5.90), which were enjoyable but served in relatively small glasses compared to other places I have been and filled to the brim with ice. For the price I was paying, I was disappointed.
For mains we ordered Grilled Haloumi Salad ($ 15.50) (
) and Roast Pumpkin Tart ($ 14.90) (
) but it never seemed to appear. After about 40 minutes wait we asked the waiter what was up and she said it was on her way. Miraculously it appeared in front of us within the next 5 minutes and it was easy to see why it came so quickly. Both plates were filled to the brim with the same salad (obviously premade) and the tart probably needed only 3 minutes to heat up, the grilled haloumi even less. We both really enjoyed the tart but the haloumi salad was less than inspiring. I think the price we paid for each meal was astronomically high and would deem that $ 7 – 8 would be more relative to what we received.
Overall the experience was fine, but with prices like these, it will be awhile before I go back.

This place has a winter’s day warm escape vibe to it, which is why I can imagine it being such a popular joint. The café apparently won Best Café is 2008’s Best of Sydney awards, but upon walking in and ordering my breakfast, I was unsure as to why. The staff weren’t particularly friendly (and in fact on a previous visit here they’d been flat out rude) and the corn fritters which had appealed to me on the menu were pre-​made, sitting in a stack in their display fridge.
The Vittoria coffee umbrellas out the front deterred me from ordering a coffee (a bad that I’m unable to shake). So when the waitress came to take my order, I aked for the Byron breakfast with corn fritters instead of toast — I should have been disuaded by the fritters position in the fridge, but now I couldn’t shake the craving.
I think this would be a nice place to come for a steaming pot of chai and a selection of their gluten free cupcakes. However, I don’t think I will come here again for breakfast. Whilst my friend’s meal was ok (Haloumi, spinach, tomato and pesto on toast) and my eggs were cooked quite well, the presentation was poor — it may seem petty to comment on poor presentation but this is an element of any food experience that makes an impression, like it or not. Furthermore, the corn fritter (which turned out to be $ 4 extra) was chewy and tasteless — my own fault for not trusting my instinct.
Just as we were standing to leave, the chef began swearing at the waitress, loud enough for the entire café to hear, insisting that she «pay for the f*&$ up» she’d made.
This place has a good rep, so maybe my experience was the exception, not the rule. Either that or a lot has changed since 2008.

Ever heard of the woman that ate chocolate all the way through her diet and lost weight? How you ask? It is all in the size of the portions that’s how. Chicken Cearsar and a piece of cake was on the menu at Corellis. Only 2 problems — 1. couldn’t decide which cake to go sticky date or Berry Cheesecake. 2. No room for more — the slices of cake were very generous. Cake and Salad, Yin and Yang, Beauty and Beast the key to divine harmony is balance without darkness we wouldn’t experience light in the same way. This café is rustic in hue and offers seating inside and en plein air. It is hip but casual. You could tie your dog to the table out the front whilst you had a coffee type thing, if you can imagine? The vibe is definitely friendly and it seems like a nice hub to meet new people in, that’s what I got from it anyway. And what better way to meet people but to have a gorgeous puppy escort you to coffee next weekend?

Corelli’s in Newtown is a café known by most locals. Its got great value for money dishes, big servings, good selection of cakes and desserts and its close by to the station and far away from the busiest parts of newtown for you to have a relaxing break. The ricotta hotcakes are great for breakfast as is the big breakkie. Large breakfast dishes such as the hotcakes and the big breakkie range are around the $ 12-​$ 16 mark.
Recommend coming here for breakfast and for a dessert late at night, if you’re having dessert get the carrot cake or the crumble. The lunch and dinner usually looks good too, but haven’t had the opportunity to try them yet, so you’ll have to tell me.