The great café revolution that has swept the outskirts of Sydney CBD for the past few years hasn’t quite cleaned up the clutter in the annoyingly one-way streets around Town Hall and Wynyard. Sure, there’s some excellent long-established institutions that have withstood the test of time, but for the most, it’s often a gamble walking into one of these city haunts. Luckily there are a few which sit above your standard CBD café, like Vicolo on Kent St, a worthy Italian breakfast, brunch, and lunch spot that’s set in a historic classical Victoria era warehouse.
The rustic, unsophisticated fit-out looks like the type of dimly lit and moody haunt you’d find in the inner-west, bright and chirpy on the outside with an intimate warmth on the inside. The space isn’t over run with tables either, everything is nice and spaced out, maybe which is why this place has been so popular for the CBD worker crowd; a frequent for business lunches.
Resting against the beautiful brickwork are shelves stocked full of wines and and a busy counter top display of fresh pastries and sandwiches. This place is popular for their coffee too, so a large space (right near the entrance) is dedicated to the coffee machine, which pumps out consistent quality thanks to a discerning selection of coffee beans. Hot and cold coffees are handed out frequently with a large queue that doesn’t seem to ever die down, but that’s the front of the space.
The lunch menu is small but dishes are generously large, matching up to the price with satisfying items like the various daily specials, and permanent dishes like the Rustic Porchetta Roll ($14.20) which is full of thinly sliced roasted pork which has been stuffed with fresh Italian herbs, juicy grilled eggplant, and topped with aioli. A few pieces of salt crackling are served up alongside the roll as well as a big bowl of chips. In terms of both value and flavour, there’s a lot to love here. The bread is smooth and fresh, and the richness of pork is balanced with the fresh eggplant and herbs.
The Burrata Salad ($18) comes with San Daniele proscuitto, heirloom tomatoes, red onion, and croutons, a hearty bowl that’s topped with the creamy mozzarella, trickling out onto the thin, flavour-full proscuitto and the fresh tomatoes. It’s a bit thicker than I usually like my burrata, but it’d be hard to go past this on any subsequent visits.
Of course, pasta is one of the keys here, and the Tagliatelle al Ragu ($20) with slow braised veal and freshly grated parmesan is a fairly good showing of Vicolo’s mains. The pasta is firm and there’s a lot of it, shaped into a massive mound of steaming hot sauce and some soft chunks of veal.
It’s not hard to see why this place is frequently packed with the long-lunch loving business folk; it’s a good, reliable café in an area that doesn’t necessarily have the best track record.
Vicolo Cafe
Address: 346 – 348 Kent St. Sydney NSW 2000
Contact: 02 8084 8475
Website: cafevicolo.com.au
Hours: Monday-Friday; 6:30am – 4pm
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