Devon Cafe, Surry Hills

Brought to you by a husband and wife team, Devon Cafe is lead by a formidable ex-legion of Guillaume chefs right at the helm. Stirring double the trouble, Devon has two ex-Guillaume chefs. One from Guillaume at Bennelong and the other from Bistro Guillaume, Melbourne.

Meeting with Derek (husband) & Noni (wife), you quickly begin to understand their passion and love behind their food. They intend to push if not, merge the boundaries between fine dining and casual cafe culture, turning their food-baby-love-child (Devon) into something really special. 

For coffee lovers out there, you will be happy to know that Devon Cafe uses a house blend of alchemy beans for a full cup of coffee while they use the 5 senses coffee blend for espressos. Both said to be the best for both types of coffee.

Derek provides a little teaser of the black rice pudding (my asian cousin – $10). I pull it up to my nose and notice how sweet and fragrant the pudding is. To taste it, warms you from the belly up. The black rice is more textured and contains a firmer bite than regular rice puddings. Each little spoonful makes me even more eager for what is next to come!

The baked eggs (two chicks in basque – $14) are simply gorgeous prepared in true Guillaume style. The eggs are cooked at an even 63 degrees for an hour in a water bath (sous vide). The resultant texture is soft yolk, soft white that is perfectly formed and cooked through. A gentle poke will make each egg go blurrgghh… Have everything all together in one full swoop and eat. It’s the goats curd that brings the magic.

“For me?”

Hard to think that the citrus cured salmon ($17.50) was for little old me, especially how I was about to hack my way through this beauty.  I’m reminded by Noni that a lot of love went into this dish. Everything from the brioche, salmon, dill cream was all prepared on site. Ok, I might just give it a few more seconds to live. The salmon is wonderfully flavoured, lovely and silky. It is made even better with the delectable dill cream sauce. I am absolutely enamoured with the flavour and textures that I am forced to savour the salmon.

This decadent dish (little lost bread –  $16) contains all sorts of bad mojo that it just has to be good. This should really be eaten naked to impress upon myself how wicked this really is. Laced with toasty brioche, hot nutella, crunchy peanut brittle, chunks of rhubarb jam, drops of rhubarb sauce, peanut butter ice cream & warm buttered banana. Dear god, my mouth is full just by saying it. Can you imagine what it is like to eat?

This is Sydney’s best kept secret, which is never very long in my books! Each dish is marked with a culinary marksmanship known only to Guillaume diners yet it is served in a casual setting with great prices to boot. Staff are absolutely gorgeous where everything is served straight from the heart. There is wonderful food and great coffee to be had, don’t you think it’s about time to get in on this little secret?

Foodpornnation would like to say a big thank you to the team at Devon Cafe for their gracious hospitality and for hosting me as their guest.