Matinee Coffee, Marrickville

Matinee Coffee is a cafe on Addison Street in Marrickville. It serves up delicious cafe style food in a setting inspired by Australian milk bars of years past. Almost everything is made in house including the must-try pastries and there is a spacious outdoor seating so you can bring your pupper along!

It was a dog and human play date between Sammie, her dog Teddy Roo and me and Teddy Elliott. We had just visited a dog treat cafe and with the dogs fed, it's time for Sammie and I to go to lunch. I looked for a place within walking distance before realising that Matinee Coffee, which had been on my hit list for ages, would be perfect.

I like Marrickville a lot and harbour dreams of living in the inner west/inner city. I'm going to just put it out there: Marrickville and Redfern are my dream suburbs to live in and hopefully, like "The Secret", voicing this out loud will mean that we will find the perfect house in either of these suburbs. Wish me luck!

Matinee Coffee is a gorgeous retro looking cafe with bright orange laminate tables and a bar with open kitchen that resembles a cross between an American diner or an Australian milk bar. The owner is Charles Cameron from Brewtown in Newtown and the chef is Ben Treharne from Waterview cafe in Bicentennial Park.

We take a seat at an outside table. Service is warm and friendly and the cafe is also licensed so cocktails, wine and beer are options. They automatically bring sparkling water and I do a double take. This little gesture makes me very happy (I can't remember the last time we received complimentary sparkling water). The menu has everything from avo toast to a breakfast burger but also has more interesting items like pork ropa vieja and Persian rice pilaf. Vegans and vegetarians also have good options.

With a name like Matinee Coffee, coffee is clearly their thing but I am more a tea drinker. I order a masala chai which is a peppery blend, a very strong emphasis on the pepper, while Sammie chooses a Creaming Soda strong in vanilla.

Sammie and I both honed in on the vegan felafel hoagie sandwich (which also comes in a salad bowl but bread FTW!). There are three enormous felafels inside the hoagie. They're not the crunchy traditional style felafels. Their version is softer and made with a quinoa, cumin and coriander base which is still very tasty indeed. It comes with a Napolitana tomato sauce, vegan cheese, basil and kalamata olives. The bread from Thoroughbread Bakery is soft and perfect for this and I add some of the habanero hot sauce already on the table (another big tick for actually spicy hot sauce) and spread a little mayonnaise on it effectively deveganising it but I gotta be me.

I'm also rather smitten with the summer seafood spaghetti which is a definite step above a typical cafe pasta offering. The house made saffron spaghetti is paired with prawns, luscious hot smoked salmon, kale, garlic and chilli butter with a shaving of bottarga on top. There's such a generosity with the seafood and the saffron spaghetti makes this feel special.

Ok hear me out: not all chips have to be crunchy (controversial I know). This is when I really appreciate the beauty of English style chips. These are hand-cut house made thick chips and they're absolutely wonderful and moreish. They come with tomato sauce and a garlicky aioli (I really need both with chips). And you Dear Reader may find yourself polishing off pretty much the whole bowl as I did here but don't say I didn't warn you ;)

Considering all the pastries are made in-house we want to try at least one. Alas the baklava scroll was sold out (it's best to come early for your pick of pastries as we arrived at 1:45pm) and there are just over half a dozen offerings in the pastry cabinet.

The pastries are by Nick Yang formerly of the Four Seasons Hotel. I choose a crème brûlée Danish with squiggles of burnt custard on top and a generous filling of thick vanilla custard so soft against the crispy laminated Danish dough. Yet another reason to want to live here...

So tell me Dear Reader, do you ask for tomato sauce or garlic aioli with your chips or both? What do you look for in a suburb to live in?

This meal was independently paid for.

Matinee Coffee

23-29 Addison Rd, Marrickville NSW 2204
Open 7 days 7am–3pm
Phone: (02) 9519 7591
www.matineecoffee.com