The Paramount Coffee Project

Visited the café for the first time. There’s seating inside and out. Paid street parking available directly outside the café. Inside is nicely decorated and has a good atmosphere. Ordered a BK roll with American cheese and avocado toast with fried egg. Food was good. Total came to $55 for the four items.

Overrated. $35pp for brunch and coffee (on a regular Saturday). Wasn't bad bad, but plenty of places around Surry Hills cheaper and better. Not impressed. Avo on toast was tiny and not spectacularly flavoursome. Tomatoes were fresh, but the small slice toast was hard, dry and cold. The extra $4 fried egg looked sad. Burgers on the menu looked better, but not worth $10 more than the typical brunch place around Surry Hills. 20min wait for 11:30am on Saturday. Won't do itemized bill splits. Only equal splits. Tiny table - had to take our coffee cups away to fit the food plates. Note all the surcharges: weekend surcharge, public holiday surcharge, card surcharge.

Went to PCP for brunch during June long weekend - the place is busy as not many cafes open on public holiday. The menu is fusion of Asian/American style cafe styled food, deco is industrial chic style with high ceiling. We ordered the Fried Chicken Waffles and BKE Roll plus couple of coffees. Food was delicious and service was adequate. Beware of their 20% surcharge on public holiday.

Ordered 3 items, All three were delicious. Mushroom toastie - great flavour , perfect with coffee. Crumbed Eggs on Toast- seems like a popular item. Pulled pork was juicy. Filling altogether. Banana and Walnut Bread - great side and perfectly sweet and crunchy coz of the walnuts. Highly recommend. Coffee was not too bad either. Expected better since it’s a “coffee project”

According to an article published by the Financial Times in February this year, the Paramount Coffee Project in Sydney is one of the best independent coffee shops in the world. That is a good reason to pay them a visit. The café is in a heritage-listed building formerly home to Paramount Pictures in the inner-city district of Surry Hills. On my way from the CBD to Surry Hills I literally passed hundreds of cafés, as stated in the FT article. Of course, I had very high expectations, as I do not visit one of the best cafés in the world. So, how good was my experience? I truly enjoyed the building itself, the architecture, and the interior design. I especially liked the exposed concrete in combination with the untreated bricks in the walls, the white tiles and the simple metal chairs and wooden tables inside and the concrete table on the outside. Sleek, simple, and giving space to the coffee and food offering. Yet, the coolest object was the vending machine in the lobby, called the lobby boy. I ordered their single origin espresso as a double from Honduras and a batch brew from Colombia. I started with the tasty looking espresso: it was well balanced with flavors of blood oranges, dark stone fruits and spices in the finish. The body was bold, the texture dense and the finish long-lasting sweet like nectarines. The filter coffee from Colombia came with a crisp, citric acidity, the cup was clean and sweet, with citrus flavors of orange and grapefruits and a lingering aftertaste. The cup and the range server were very cute. I liked the 4x4 truck with the gigantic banana in the back. It would have been great to taste a coffee with a banana flavour. That would have been a great match to elevate the multi-sensory experience. The vessel worked perfectly with the concrete table. I could not resist and ordered scrambled eggs on sourdough bread. That is a very Aussie thing, and filter coffee works very well with warm scrambled eggs and crispy bread. Thank you for the nice tip FT! It was a great experience. When you go an visit this place, also look out for the great wall paintings (e.g. “Return to Sender” and enjoy the Vanessa Megan Blood Orange Foaming Soap when you wash your hands in the toilet. It is all about the details, and it is definitely not only about coffee. And maybe you find my signed book, that I have been hiding in the café. Live is too short to not have some fun.