Sydney

Up South is the cafe Bondi's matcha croissant queue forms for, and the line genuinely does wrap the block by 9am on a weekend. Get the pistachio crookie before the day's batch goes — it sells through faster than anything else on the counter.

Order Iced Strawberry Matcha, Iced Pistachio Matcha, matcha croissant, pistachio croissant (the crookie!)

Neil Perry's Double Bay room opens at 7am and trades on a burger that landed on a World's Best list — not the pedigree you expect behind a bacon and egg roll. Order the four-cheese toastie if the burger queue has already formed; it holds its own.

Order Four-cheese toastie, the famed Next Door burger, bacon and egg roll

Bote runs out of a Manly boatshed with your feet more or less over the water, pouring Mecca coffee and selling Staple pastries it doesn't pretend to bake itself. Come on a weekday morning when it's mostly dog walkers and the deck isn't a contest.

Order Coffee and pastries on the deck, feet dangling over the water

A bright yellow corner cafe doing Canadian pancake stacks in the middle of Haberfield's Italian strip is a stranger sight than it sounds, and the ex-Grounds team behind it knows exactly what it's doing. The stacks come with proper maple syrup; the acai soft-serve sundae is the order nobody photographs but everybody finishes.

Order Canadian pancake stacks with 100% maple syrup, breakfast platter for two, coddled eggs, soft-serve acai sundae

Circa took out Time Out's People's Choice for best cafe last year, and the Ottoman eggs — labne, fried eggplant, chilli oil, crisp leeks — are the dish that did it. Worth the trip west on its own; the in-house roast means the coffee isn't an afterthought either.

Order Ottoman eggs (creamy garlic labne, fried eggplant, chilli oil, crisp leeks, poached eggs), in-house roasted coffee

Speedos sits about as close to North Bondi sand as a cafe can, and the tiramisu latte is the rare novelty drink that earns its spot on the menu. The egg sandwich is the other reason the queue doesn't thin out until mid-morning.

Order Tiramisu latte, acai bowl, viral egg sandwich

Haymarket's contender for Sydney's best matcha, Chubby Cubby has the TikTok numbers to back the claim and a shokupan menu it's about to widen. Pair the matcha latte with the milk bread — the pillowy shokupan is the quiet half of the order.

Order Signature matcha drinks, Japanese shokupan (milk bread), matcha latte

From the Ursula's team, Cressida tucks a proper courtyard into Paddington's Queens Court and runs it from breakfast through dinner. The gruyere toastie on Iggy's bread is the safe pick; the prawn cocktail toasts are the one you'll talk about afterwards.

Order Gruyere toastie on Iggy's bread, silky scrambles with bacon, French toast, prawn cocktail toasts

Manteiga's chef came up through Bentley and Dinner by Heston, then built a Darlinghurst cafe around his grandfather's Bolos Lêvedos recipe. That muffin is the whole point — order the soft eggs with double-smoked bacon alongside and make a morning of it.

Order Manteiga Muffin (Bolos Lêvedos from grandfather's recipe), soft eggs with double-smoked bacon

Baking 101's cinnamon scroll sold out in three hours the day it was crowned 2025's baked good of the year, and the Stanmore queue has treated it as a standing appointment since. The room — red curtains, chandeliers, piano jazz — leans old-world without tipping into theme park.

Order Signature cinnamon scroll with vanilla cream, Scent of Stanmore carrot cake