Gnome Cafe

Hole in a wall. Tiny space but definitely worth going there for the breakfast or lunch. They have the loveliest menu. All the usual stuff but with a bit of a twist. Like it a lot. Service is good. Coffee is good. Such a gem of a place.

Coffee: Toby's Estate Passion: 7/10. Crema: 6/10. It is really strange visiting this cafe after so long. It had held up quite well in terms of fond memories of cafes in Surry Hills from the time that I was a scout for Yelp, but... I can not say I was excited with what I had today. I started off with a $5 aeropress of Costa Rica Granitas de Altura that, being $5 a cup, I was quite hopeful for a great experience. Well.... it tasted like someone had watered down an espresso they had pulled a with no crema, and no exceptional taste. The only positive was that due to the lack of taste I am unable to say it tasted bad, but is was certainly very average. To make sure the next coffee had a bit of a kick, I went for a Casablanca House Blend espresso, which had a kick, but certainly didn't rate close to the coffees I have been luck enough to be drinking. It did seem to be a cafe filled with latte drinkers and as such, they are probably really happy with the coffee available, but... it didn't do it for me today. So I feel a little ripped off, in the same way I feel watching one of my favourite childhood shows Monkey Magic now and seeing how bad the "effects" were. I know the people here can make awesome coffee, they have the right equipment, so I guess I can only blame the Toby's Estate beans. With the appearance of so many awesome cafe options in Sydney, if you end up here you will be fine (and the food looks great), but if it is awesome coffee you want, perhaps you might want to look elsewhere.... **sigh** N.B. There is #powerwhoring available at multiple tables inside but you will need to keep "paying rent" as space/tables are quite limited. There is no public WiFi available

Polite, friendly staff and great coffee. Soak up the sun on brisk winter days here.

Quite simple food, but delicious nonetheless! It's very impressive that they cook at all in such a small kitchen space! The staff are friendly - not too much of the surry hills attitude one receives sometimes - the only tricky bit is finding a seat during the peak brunch times.

A perfect little spot for weekend brunch and surprisingly…also a pretty chill spot to have a drink in the evening! Gnome checks all the boxes for a Surry Hills cafe – good food, good coffee, good people watching and drinks. The cheese plate and the meatballs are some of our favourites.