Urban Bites

Urban Bites @ Newtown

Where: Urban Bites, 70-72 King St, Newtown NSW 2042

Coffee Bean: Vittoria Coffee

So for our very first coffee blog post, we decided to start at Urban Bites at Newtown. It offers what is probably the quintessential ‘Newtown café experience’ – it’s kind of a grungy, hot, creative mess of a place. The décor is the epitome of edgy hipster-dom (yes, distinct from the ‘earthy hipster-dom’ in Glebe). Staff dress casual, usually only identifiable by a tea towel hanging out the back of their pants.

Urban Bites is a 15-minute walk from Newtown Station and a 5-minute stroll away from the University of Sydney. We walked to Urban Bites from Newtown Station. It was a bloody hot Saturday in the middle of summer and King Street was filled with throngs of people.

Unfortunately, Urban Bites doesn’t seem to have air conditioning (or it certainly wasn’t going when we were there). Naturally, at 11am on a Saturday, it was pretty busy in the café. The heat was palpable and the interior cramped. Urban Bites does have a pretty roomy outside seating, but we were wary of cigarette smoke (no offence to any smokers) and opted to stay inside.

There were a couple of minutes of confusion when we wanted to order. Do we go to the counter or wait to be served? The staff didn’t seem to notice us until we hailed them, though to be fair it was pretty busy. Maybe they just missed us.

We both opted for breakfast foods (best meal of the day). Julia ordered the eggs benedict (with added bacon) and a café latté. Erin got scrambled eggs and bacon, which came with a grilled tomato and sourdough toast, and a piccolo latte.

A definite plus: despite the general business, the food came out really quickly. It took five minutes, maybe.

Piccolo Latté

The coffees were good. Vittoria Coffee has been said to be bland, but in piccolo-form it definitely packs a punch, and the latté was nice and flavoursome as well. It was strong with vague oaky flavours and an aftertaste that was bitter but not unpleasant. The coffee itself was nicely poured with latte art, and at a nice hot-but-not-too-hot temperature. However, $3.00 seems a little pricey for a piccolo latte (but then again, this is Sydney).

The eggs benedict were pretty good—I must mention that they poached those eggs perfectly. Nothing is more disappointing than cracking open your eggs benedict and seeing cooked yolk inside. The eggs seemed just the right amount of gooey-ness, which was fantastic, though the rest were pretty standard: nice hollandaise sauce, nice spinach, nice bread and nice bacon. Overall, an enjoyable dish, at around $13, including the added bacon.

Eggs Benedict

Scrambled eggs and bacon was enjoyable, though pretty basic. I guess there’s a limited amount you can do with bacon and eggs. But it could have been executed better. The bacon wasn’t too crispy (if you like your bacon crispy, you should specify. I’m sure they’d be happy to accommodate you). The eggs were so and so. Cooked nicely, but a bit bland. I would have preferred if they had added some herbs or paprika or something. The dish was a little over 12 bucks – which is probably too much given what you get. The dish wasn’t bad: it was nice enough and a big serving. It just wasn’t ‘wow.’

Urban Bites doesn’t boast fine cuisine – but fine cuisine really isn’t its thing. The point is, you walk into Urban Bites and feel welcome. It’s not just the LGBT flag flying proudly in the front window or the kitschy festive reindeer or the friendliness of the staff. It’s the unpretentious ambience of the place. It’s more about the company you bring than the food you eat. That said, the food is hearty and decent—good “café food”. You leave feeling full, satisfied and relaxed.

Yays:

•  Urban Bites has a nice vibe. It isn’t pretentious and neither is the food.
• Food comes out quickly.
•  Friendly staff.
• Close to Sydney Uni.

Nays:

• The menus we were given were a little bit dirty. It’s not the end of the world, but sort of gross and the kind of thing that could easily be remedied by a quick wipe-down with a damp cloth.
• Neither the coffee nor food is ‘omg amazing good.’
• The staff aren’t always attentive.
• Quite busy on weekends.
• No air conditioning and can get quite hot.

Overall experience:

70% -- Credit!