Rustic Pearl

Wow, just wow. I went here to try the lobster eggs Benedict and it was simply the most delicious thing ever. I can’t comment on any other items because my friends and I all got the same thing. The venue is small but quaint with a few outdoor tables.

A sunny morning, quiet street, a table by the window overlooking The Clock, a pub on the other end of the road, something smell a lot like spring. The Caffè macchiato that was ordered first came over rather quickly, not as good as the other blend available in Sydney, commercial dark roast is never a favourite. The second cup, a cold brew Turkish with a slice of lemon and orange and a piece mint however, is excellent, so is the lobster Benedict, adding to the flavours are additional orders of wilted baby spinach and grilled mushrooms. Excellent place for a morning rendezvous with your loved ones.

Rustic Pearl is located in the heart of Surry Hills. This area is renowned for some smashing and spectacular restaurants and this place my friends is a must go to venue for any Surry Hills checklist.
I was dying to try this place for a while now but every time I got here I just arrived after they shut :(. So this time I chose Saturday to pop by and make it happen. I arrived into the place and was surprised about how small it was inside. They got about 5 tables inside and maybe 3 outside. So the whole place sits about 15 – 20 people. We popped our names on the list to be seated. We were waiting about 10 minutes to be seated which was great.
We were seated inside and the décor was simplistic but quirky with some cool paintings and cool gadgets and things like retro vintage Nokia phones and Superman toys.
I had just finished lunch was so wasn’t enough room for anymore food so I was only interested in drinks. I had heard this place did an AWESOME hot chocolate so that was a must for me. I ordered the Hot Chocolate and my friend decided to go for a chocolate smoothie.
This was a Belgian Dark Chocolate served in a Bowl because sometimes a cup just isn’t good enough. The Chocolate comes with an option to have it flavoured with with a rose water or citrus & orange blossom. I decided to go rose this time. The combination blended beautifully and each sip out of the cup was a taste of heaven. Another worthy candidate for Sydney’s too hot chocolate offerings.
My friend ordered a Chocomolé Smoothie. This is basically an Avocado blended with cocoa and honey topped with pistachio. Boy was this a good pick. It’s beautifully displayed and the blend is a killer combo because it’s just so refreshing and different then any other chocolate smoothies I’ve tried. The guy who was sitting next to us came in and ordered one too. He was like man I’ve been dreaming about the Chocomolé.
The food coming out of the kitchen looked impressed here as well and
«I will be Back» (sorry couldn’t help it was at Terminator today).

Highly recommended the lobster Benedict with the homemade lemonade!
Even though the restaurant is small, it’s quite comfortable! Excellent attention and the quality of the food worth the price!

The sucuk bruschetta was the best thing I have ever had for breakfast and gets five stars all on its own. The potato omelette was good, the coffee was fine and the service was excellent. The kind of place where you walk out the door and instantly start thinking about taking others there.

Rustic Pearl, another cute little café in the middle of one of Sydney’s buzzing brunch capital, Surry Hills.
As I enjoy cooking and do cook quite regularly, I have to admit I get more excited when I see «food that I don’t make myself» on the menu. To me, Rustic Pearl is one of those brunch spots that not only offers the usual eggs-​on-​toast but also something extra for picky breakfast snobs like myself.
Must try: Homemade lemonade with fresh seasonal fruit — they make it so pretty for you!

From Order To Table: Good timing. Like when you just start cleaning the house before someone gets home and they think you’ve been doing it all day.
Service-​ometer: Silver service.
Stomachability: Heaven. It is actually heaven. Like imagine when one of those super famous pop stars are singing about how much they love someone, and that someone has gone away about mid-​chorus. And then when the final verse comes they’ve finally rekindled their love with this person and the song is really upbeat and you just can’t imagine how they fit this really beautiful love story into three and a half minutes. If I was talented enough, I would write a song like this about my breakfast here and my mid-​chorus was me singing about mid-​breakfast where I realized I had already eaten half and that there was only another half left.
Digest suggest: Anytime. You could go here anytime.
In honor of my ‘Stomachablity’, I have changed the words for the first half of Lady Gaga’s ‘Love Game’ to really explain my dining experience at Rustic Pearl:
Let’s have some fun,
This food is sick,
I want another bite of your Lobster Benedict.
I wanna eat you,
But if I do then I might miss you babe.
It’s well spiced and reputed
And my taste buds have concluded
Guess you could try and say,
The best café.
Best Café.
[Pre-​chorus:]
Coff-​ee, so love-​ly
Just want to sip you every minute
Maybe three seconds is enough for my heart to quit it
Let’s have some fun,
This food is sick
I want another bite of your lobster benedict
Don’t think too much, just use this script;
«I’d like to order your Lobster Benedict»
[Chorus:]
How about the gozleme?
How about the gozleme?
Would you like more wagyu in your gozleme?
Wagyu gozleme.
Also order the gozleme.
–drops mic–

Fantastic food, I had the potato omelette and the gf had the bosphorus. Would recommend both with their great mix of flavours.
Only disappointment was our drinks came out after we finished our food. Not sure how it could take longer to chop open a coconut and blend a juice than cook our meals.
Good service otherwise, would come back.

This place has been on my hit list for a long time. I always see it driving by and always mentally remind myself that I need to try them out. Finally, I made it! And boy was it worth the wait! I had the sucuk bruschetta. Taste wise, it was fantastic. Fresh rocket, tomatoes and avocado, melted mozzarella over the top, sweet pomegranate molasses and a soft boiled organic egg that was sufficiently oozy enough to fulfil my yolkporn desires ;) Unfortunately, the piece of toast underneath got soggy pretty quickly. Granted, I took a minute or two on photos and I’m a somewhat slow eater. But still don’t think the toast should have soaked through. Maybe the molasses needs to be on the side. Otherwise, the flavours were brilliant and I thoroughly enjoyed the meal. Can’t wait to go back and try their lobster benedict!

One of the best on CROWN St for sure. The background music was cute and food delicious. Lobster benedict was a nice change for breakfast. Couldn’t have it veery weekend but It was definitely a good pick to try.
Coffee was decent here too.
A couple of drawbacks — the service wasn’t great. Staff rushed us through our meal and weren’t super friendly. Also, the café is super tiny so you are really squeezed in. Having said that, I’d still go back.

Had lunch here while visiting Surry Hills, what drew me in was I noted that they use house made beetroot pickle in their salad, surely an indicator that they care about the food they serve! Started with a glass of Ayran, a lightly salted yogurt smoothly served with fresh mint, yum! I ordered the beetroot and apple salad which also contained walnuts, goats cheese and baby rocket, it did not disappoint and was great. Also had the peach and almond mousse dessert, again it was delicious. To round it off a great Turkish coffee, minimally sweetened, as requested, perfect! Great value, friendly staff and great food, heaven…

Right up there with some of the best cafes in Surry Hills — my favourite area for brunch in Sydney.
I had the Aegean breakfast and highly reccommend it — so tasty and flavoursome, and it’s unlikely you’ll find anything like it in another café, it’s a very unique combination of items, including a jar of homemade capsicum relish. I also had an avocado smoothie — something I grew up with but lots of Aussies find odd — open your mind and try it, you will be knocked off your socks!
My favourite thing about this place was the brunch menu, which I found quite unique with a large variety of options that made it hard to make a decision.
It’s very busy on weekends though, so you may have to wait for a table, but you know the old cliché… wait, and good things WILL come to your table.

Got me.
Right up in here, *taps chest with closed fist*, it got me. Took me right back to Istanbul, and the Turkish breakfasts I had on rooftops overlooking the city with the Blue Mosque in the background and the call to prayer floating out over the city and all the men down on the streets waiting to trick me into buying carpets.
The Aegean brekkie was simplicity itself, with a neat little hard-​boiled egg, olives, tomato and a jar of well spicy capsicum relish. The sulcuk bruschetta laden with Turkish sausage (…ladies) and eggs and rocket and hollandaise was the dog’s bollocks too, and I’m not sure why that means good but it does, trust me here.
Shoot for the outside table if you can get it, inside ones are small and cramped (and authentic, I’m guessing), oh and go for a thick, dark, small, smoky, sweet, Turkish coffee with Turkish delight chunk on the side.
Total winner. But busy on a weekend, ye cats.

I’m such a fan. I was recently reminded of how much I like this café here, especially the brunch menu.
They are so wonderful with detail here. Your water glass comes with a slice of lemon and a mint leaf, beautiful dishes, and the food presentation is an Instagrammer’s dream. It’s cosy, but not cramped and comfortable… love that when it comes to a Surry Hills café.
The only not-​so-​great thing is the wait time on food, but unsure if that’s a regular theme. Worth the wait.

Most people would rate this place but to me it lacked a little umpff, especially when you’re competing with big boys like 458 that’s just down the road.
The artistic drinks was eye candy but the tongue said otherwise. What looks good doesn’t necessary taste the same. We got the chocolate avocado smoothie, may I suggest you less the chocolate and just go straight avocado smoothie. I imagine it’ll taste better.
Missus got the Wagyu Beef Omelette (a big fan of wagyu beef) and it wasn’t too bad. The beef wasn’t tough but the egg was a little overcooked and the tomato salsa just didn’t really cut it right — bit of a weird combo there. I had the braised Organic Eggs with Ocean Trout. The problem with this dish was the trout was cooking on top of the eggs. Once the trout was half cooked the fish taste was über strong which ruined the whole dish. Too much spinach, which means too much iron, which means your teeth goes funny.
Ah, one cool touch this place has is they call you when your table is ready. So you can stroll along Crown St and the library next door while you wait for that call.

This place was a cute whole in the wall.
Nice vibe, sweet service and yummy food.
We would definitely recommend it to friends.
Low key and not too expensive for lunch.
I LIKE!
Sarah, San Francisco

Charming little café with a Turkish influence. The food was great and we had food envy with the other tables that is until our food arrived and it was delicious. I had a chargrilled sucuka salad and it was fabulous. Move over chorizo, the sucuk is here. Very flavourful and tasty. My partner ordered the gozeleme and they were really well made and not the oily variety you get in food fairs. The drinks were refreshing and well made with lemonade out of fresh fruits, and banana smoothie with shavings of cinnamon on top. It’s a great brunch place… Have a nice meal then go relax in the sun in the park opposite :). Oh loved the paintings on the wall … Made the whole place come to life !

Great atmosphere, friendly staff & delicious breakfast & coffee-​what more could you ask for???

Loved this new little café in Surry Hills. A definite step up from the old pizza/​gelato place that used to be here. The food was fresh and original and the décor was comfortable and cozy. We even bought some delicious Turkish Delight to take home with us.
We loved the coffee, the lemonade with fresh fruit, the Veal Ragu was awesome (though maybe not for you if you prefer al dente) and the Australian King Prawn Salad (the heads were nice for presentation, but did interfere a bit with eatability).

LOVE IT!
The service was fantastic (our waitress knew her shit!)
The drinks were delicious and looked pretty and the food was damn fine. Great addition to Crown Street and a good change from all the tired looking cafes. Got a great sense of style.
Will be back to try more.