The Milk Bar By Cafe Ish

I recently met owner/​proprietor Josh Nicholls. Love his passion and enthusiasm. He’s a real «knockabout bloke» and the day I visited, weekday lunch time, it was very busy. The Milk Bar by Café Ish focuses a variety of burgers, fries, doughnuts and shakes. It’s on a very busy street. Regent St Redfern right opposite the train station. Great vibe.

We stopped in here for a burger and shake on the weekend.
I got the cheeseburger works with a choc shake.
The tomato and mustard were spot on and almost took me back to In-​n-​out burger in the states… ahhhh cheeese… glorious cheese. These people were good, excellent amount of yellow gooey and dripping goodness right there. Beef patty was cooked really well.
Flavors in the burger was excellent.
I split the twice cooked fries with my hubby and we slam dunked those into tomato sauce.
My hubby got the grilled chicken burger and he didn’t complain so i have to say it must have been pretty good.
I inhaled my shake it was good, it had the right shakeness to it, i had to work to suck it up the straw that is good… the chocolate was excellent.
I like this place, i will be coming back again.
On a side note, there is a decent amount of seating.
The staff that worked on the weekend were excellent. VERY friendly, cleaned up the table for us so we could eat in, checked in and asked if everything was ok.
price for what we had was really good, i definitely thought i was getting value for money.

Alas, I didn’t think it would come to this but y’all gotta know. First time I came here I ordered the $ 7.50 cheeseburger and some water and it was great (hard to f*ck up, let’s be honest). I was broke as all hell then, and so obviously had to return with my best mate when I had some dosh to get exactly what I wanted. Eek, you know that feeling when you brag about a place to a friend and you feel so let down when you get there because it’s not half what you made it out to be? Yeah. We ordered at the front. Anything other than the cheese burger is basically overpriced. Like literally the cheeseburger classic is 3 bucks more expensive then the normal cheeseburger because it has lettuce and tomato. I’m a big mac and cheese fan and they don’t ever have it, have asked multiple times, not sure why they keep it on the menu?
We ordered our burgers– my friend asked for no mustard, not tomato. Guess what was on the burger. Mustard and tomato. Cool. I ordered the bad boy baconater with no peanut butter, they managed that but somehow forgot the aioli that normally goes in it. Mind you, when I go up to let them know about these things, they treat me like a nuisance and give me a confused look. I just wanna fuckin enjoy my lunch break with what I ordered, go get me that and we’ll be sweet. We’ve finished our burgers… but our chips and onion rings still haven’t arrived. I’m realising this is going down hill so with my last bit of hope I decide to not bring it up and wait, I mean surely they haven’t forgotten. Eventually go up to the front because me and my mate are gonna be late back to work, but there’s no chips or onion rings cooking for us at all. Apparently chef numb nuts didn’t see it on the docket.
The lady doesn’t say sorry, my lunch break ends in 10 minutes and I let them know not to worry about it and just give me a refund. They (chef and waitress) keep resisting and insist that I wait and they’ll be ready in a minute. I don’t want to but they’re really not giving me a choice at this stage. About 3 minutes later we get thick twice cooked chips, which probably would’ve been great if it wasn’t for the fact they weren’t cooked. You know what’s not a nice post-​meal nibble? Fucking raw potato. I take em back and let her know that there is no benefit to me to get chips in a short amount of time if they aren’t cooked and demand a refund. This nice sweet little server instantly starts being a b*tch, she chucks the money at me and doesn’t even apologise. I considered a donut but let’s face it what’s the point of knowing the donuts are made there when they look like they been sitting there for 4 days? Just go Krispy’s at around 1030pm bro, cheaper and better!
All in all, the actual burger bun and patty have a lot of potential, however, it’s the service here that’s a joke and makes everything not worth it. It’s like 14 year olds tryna run a restaurant. No professionality, and as all Sydney-​siders know, the burger game is too fuckin intense out here for you to be dilly dallying about. Don’t waste time here, it’s expensive af and there’s plenty of other burger places that’ll treat u how u deserve, boo.

Service was quick, burgs were awesome and the chips were different but also great!
The milkshakes are also very creative. Give the snickers a try.

I had a Baconator, chips and a Bananarama milkshake. I love fake banana taste and the milkshake had oodles of it. I never want to have another milkshake. The chips were coated in a light tempura and melted in your mouth — divine. Now the burger — the maple bacon made the burger quite sweet tasting with quite a sweet sauce as well. I was looking for a meaty punch that just wasn’t there. Still, it was a good burger and it did what good burgers should do — not fall apart when you bite into it. I would definitely eat there again, but I’m keen to try a different burger next time.

This place gets a bad rap, I didn’t encounter any vitriol or bad service at all… so perhaps it’s a consistency issue?
While the burgers start off pretty cheap, they are on the smaller side… so be prepared to order more food. I guess this applies for all their food in general. PORTION CONTROL! Great if you’re on a diet and still want to eat relatively unhealthy food.
I ordered a Milk Bar Original and added extra cheese (because why not?) and it hit the spot. I also ordered the sticky wings, which were just OK.
Didn’t get a chance to try their shakes, but wouldn’t hesitate to come back if I were in the area and was craving a burger.

The New menu concentrates on what Josh does best. Burgers and chips. The chips are handcut and twice fried and are absolutely amazing. It’s great to be able to get old favourites like onion rings, potato scallops and Mac and cheese as sides too. Of course there’s always the selection of amazing house made pastries and donuts. How can you select just one? the brunch menu is small and changes regularly. This is one of my faves spots for brunch or lunch. Always a winner

Travelled all the way to Redfern to go here said on the website opens at 8 got there wasn’t open said on the door 9 and was there at 9:30 still not open

Horribly overpriced for what it is. The big selling point is all the different milkshake options, but when they run out of glasses and have to serve them in milkshake cups that are barely half full you start to wish for your $ 7.50 back. At $ 10 you’d expect the falafel burger to shine, but it was really dry and in dire need of some sort of sauce. The waiter was good, if a little eccentric, but the food took about half an hour and the food arrived long after the shakes were finished. I won’t be back in a hurry, and certainly not before I get a better paying job!

You have to be better then this to succeed in this area. Coffee is average and the avocado smash is a car crash without texture. This is my second attempt here as I do want to support my local area but this place needs to find its love for food again as the location is not great.

No one in café, coffee ordered, ten minutes later staff are chatting in kitchen. I ask about my coffee and i can see the order is there but there is no urgency to do anything about it. She goes back to chatting with her friend. Maybe I should make the coffee.

Having heard raves about their rich milk shakes and their soft shell crab omelette, my friend and I decided to visit the café this past Saturday afternoon.
We were seated at a large table and once we had sat down, our waitress politely asked if we wouldn’t mind moving to a smaller table as there was a larger group that had just arrived. We said sure and were shown to the Pac-​Man table opposite the open kitchen.
Chef-​owner Josh Nicholls (who was working the line in the open kitchen) had just prepared and set on the kitchen counter one of his soft-​shell crab dishes for delivery to a customer. I made an off-​handed comment, directed to my friend but within earshot of Nicholls, about my friend (who is a soft-​shell crab fiend) wanting to eat the soft-​shell crab that had just been set out right then and there. With a smile, and clearly in jest.
Nicholls then proceeded to cuss me out, saying, «Don’t fucking talk to me. Just leave me the fuck alone, sit down, and order your food. If you don’t like it, you can just get the fuck out.» I’m sorry, what? He then repeated these statements and yanked the soft-​shell crab dish back. The only reason I can surmise for his reaction was in thinking I was suggesting that my friend actually grab the dish and eat it. But I was neither talking to him, nor was serious (obviously).
Realizing he was serious and not joking, my friend and I proceeded to leave. On the way out, my friend remarked (also in earshot of the rest of the restaurant) to the chef that he should never ever speak to a customer like that, especially when I was not speaking to him in the first place. Oddly enough, not a single staff member came up to apologize to us – they clearly have had to deal with the chef’s tantrums in the past and have resolved to deal with it in this unpalatable fashion.
How we were mistreated is really a shame, because I’ve been to the Milk Bar before and liked what I got. Do an internet search — Nicholls apparently has a reputation for going off on other customers this way, too. Highly suggest avoiding.

IF YOU CANT STAND THE HEAT, STAY OUT OF THE KITCHEN!!!
Having heard about their milk shakes and soft shell crab dish, my friend and I had decided to visit the place on a Saturday. It was an absolute horrible experience and I do hope that if you do read this, please take my advice and spend yr hard earned money elsewhere and let this place close!
We were seated at a large table and once we had sat down, the waitress asked if we mind moving to a smaller table as there was a group of 5 which just came. We said sure and was shown to a table opposite the «kitchen»
My friend saw the chef preparing a soft shell crab dish and was saying to me that don’t I wish that I could just eat that dish right there and then…
What happened next was totally unexpected
The «chef» (whom I assume is also the owner) started to verbally abuse my friend and went on a crazy tirade littered with the «F» word.
Yelling «Leave me the F alone and just sit the F down and order yr food and dont talk to me… If u don F like it, just get the F out of here»
Never have I ever seen such attitude from an establishment and worst, my friend was NOT even talking to this egoistic loser!
No one should ever be subjected to such treatment especially when you are a PAYING CUSTOMER!
I stood up and told him that he was the RUDEST person that we have ever encountered and that he should never ever speak to anyone like that especially when NO ONE WAS EVEN TALKING TO HIM IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!
We stood up and left the place and on the way out, an Asian lady whom we assumed is the wife/​co-​owner just came and said «GO GO GO!» with no apology whatsoever for the rudeness of her husband.
From the other diners’ review, this place doesn’t exactly serve the best of anything in Redfern and with and ego and manners like that, I HOPE HISTORY DO REPEAT ITSELF AND THIS CAFE LIKE THEIR PREVIOUS ONE CLOSE SOON!!!
DO NOT GO THERE ! They ruined an otherwise perfectly good Saturday out!!!

Finally got around to Red Fern to try this place out — and we loved it! PacMan tables, amazing milk shakes, and delicious burgers… what’s not to like?! Also — the Soft Shell Crab Omelette is a MUST TRY.

Had the double cheeseburger/​fries/​caramel milkshake. Delivered big time on everything. They were a bit understaffed but gave double milkshake portion to compensate. Will be back soon to eat crab omelette thing.
They should put the tables end to end on weekend, people were waiting but some of the tables, which could seat 6, only had 2 – 3 people each. Better as two big long tables w communal seating.

New Ish reminds me nothing of the old Ish except that I enjoy them both, so that’s good enough for me.
The cheeseburgers here are SO good. They are huge — I had the bacon, double cheeseburger and skipped the chips because I knew I wouldn’t have room for anything else. It’s legit. Next time I want to try the milkshakes. If they are anything like the burgers, I would have to guess they are amazing too.
Very cute space with lollies at the counter, and jukebox. I shall be back Ish, soon-​ish.

Café Ish was a damn fine little café in Surry Hills, but they closed up shop and have opted to set up a milkbar instead. A milkbar! Yay!
Milk Bar by Café Ish is in a once-​forgotten, swiftly gentrifying strip of Regent Street, Redfern. At the Milk Bar, there are a few things to note. They bake «absolutely bloody everything» (their terminology, not mine), and it’s all absolutely bloody tasty. Seriously good stuff. Tarts! Nut Tart! Jam Tart! Lemon Tart! Best to come here very hungry, and on a sugar low.
One of the main benefits of the Milk Bar is it’s sooooo cheap! Cheese burgers are $ 5!!! they’re small but tasty fare indeed. The patties are meaty and don’t taste processed, and usually served with some well cooked onions and tasty sauce. You can have everything doubled up for $ 9, and then add other extras — so it’s kind of a build-​you-​own burger situation.
Another big deal: they have generously made milkshakes — weird and wonderful flavours like the choc-​coconutty «bounty» or the caramel miso shake, or salted peanut butter and jelly, or Super choc, or Orient express (with green tea ice cream in it). Like I said, come here on a sugar low, and Milk Bar will sort you out.
One note: the space itself is pretty awful. They don’t seem to have sorted out the exhaust fan situation so it’s smoky, smells like hot chip oil, and right now kinda cold. They’ve only been open 2 weeks so that might be something they get sorted with time. The other option is to sit outside on Regent street, which is sunny but very busy with road traffic. Look, I’m not complaining much, it is so delightful to have such a cheap, amazing quality café nearby. The owners are sometimes a bit stressed, but they’re very sweet and they mean well. And they can cook.
NB: Cash only right now.
Oh right — AND THEY HAVE A JUKE BOX!