Chill Out Cafe, Union St, Pyrmont

Yesterday, on our way home from W’s morning Qi Gong session up on the cliff overlooking Pyrmont Point, we saw a new cafe in Union St which was actually open for breakfast during this end-of-year holiday period. After inquiring about the availability of muesli (not on the menu), we decided to forego the mango and other fruit awaiting us at home and enjoy a last city breakfast before heading back to the bush for a quiet New Year’s Eve. The place was packed, with one table left on the cafe side of the pavement, away from the other tables and any potential passive smoking problems.

Unlike our breakfast experience at one of our regular haunts the day before, where table service does not exist and where we had waited 50 minutes for our meal which, when it came, was missing some of its vital parts, we were attended by no less than four helpful and friendly waiting staff during the course of our stay.

We were eventually told (the first person to take our order had only arrived from Italy the day before and had trouble understanding our exacting requests) that the muesli came with yoghurt and fruit salad. So W, who is not eating dairy products (except on special occasions) asked for soy milk instead. Our breakfasts arrived on large plates with fruit salad in one bowl and (for C) musli and yoghurt in a second. W received a very small bowl containing the muesli and a large bowl with the soy milk, somewhat out of proportion to the amount of muesli. C, used to plain yoghurt wherever she has a breakfast like this, was surprised and a bit disappointed to find that the yoghurt tasted very sweet. She mentioned this to the maitre d’it when she came to inquire if everything had been satisfactory, but was reassured that the yoghurt was indeed natural, and made by a Greek man especially for the cafe. C remained unconvinced.

The muesli and fruit salad was a fairly standard $10, and the coffee, which was excellent, was $2.20, much cheaper than most around the city. We look forward to returning, next time to sample a cooked egg breakfast. Chill Out Cafe is also open for lunch and dinner.