Places where you can get a decent feed or cup of coffee when you're far from home ...
(This page is under construction. All suggestions are welcome ...)
Berry is one of those towns that you drive through and think, there
should be good coffee here! There is, but there's much more bad
coffee. So ignore the street sign propaganda and head straight for
The Emporium Food Co. on the main street at the Kiama end of
town. Strong and none-too-sweet ice coffees and fine hot coffee
and cookies too (try the sticky date or ginger ones)
Blackheath. Wattle Cafe: great strong coffee (locally grown!). Savouries can be a bit dull.
Blackheath. The rhubarb crumble at the Blackheath bakery is to die for and I imagine the same goes for
their other sweets. {also see entry for Mt Victoria}
Bourke. Riverside Hotel (Nth Bourke). DO NOT EAT THE STEAK, use it to patch your tyres instead.
Bourke. North Bourke Caravan Park (over river, on road to Cunnamulla) has open shelters which you could sleep under without need for a tent.
Bulahdelah. Detours Cafe - great place for coffee/cake. Specials are the
Logcutters Loaf, Blueberry muffins and the burgers. Mmmmmmmm. Well placed as
the first stop from sydney town.
Canberra. Zafferelli's Pizza and Pasta in Dickson. Stylish restaurant with very cheap pizzas/ pastas and amazingly quick,
friendly service. Caters for all budgets from low to the gourmet
traveeler. The only place to use real recycled paper for pizza
boxes! Turn left into Dickson off Northbourne as you enter Canberra
from the North.
Condobolin .... forget it, but the toilet at the servo by the river is always clean.
Cooma. The Food Factory. Very popular stopover- their extravagent
gourmet pizza selection is scibbled on the walls around the shop.
Look for the red sign on the main street.
Dubbo. Echidna Cafe, main drag. Reported to have good food (by proprietor of Lords Place Cafe, Orange)
Glasshouse Mountains Township. Glasshouse Mountains Bakery has Amazing Cakes
& Pies. The best sausage rolls I've ever had!
Goulburn. Last coffee 'til Canberra. The Rimbolin cafe restaurant in Goulburn is the only place to stop
for coffee if travelling between Sydney and that village in the ACT. The opening hours are somewhat erratic and subject to frequent handwritten amendments but they do good coffee in pleasant surrounds with an enormous bathroom! There's even a map of aboriginal tribal boundaries plus areas where circumcision and excision were practised! It's at about 380 Auburn St - the main street - on the right hand side of south bound travellers, just after the main drag comes into view.
Griffith. Cafe Bassano in the main drag has very good italian.
Holbrook. Bakery on east side of main drag has reasonable coffee, but the cakes are singularly uninspiring.
Gundagai (district). The Caltex Roadhouse at Dog on the Tuckerbox has an espresso machine. The Italian proprietor will make an exceptional and strong short black, with excellent creme.
Lake Cargelligo. The Royal Hotel does a good steak when you get tired of
gnawing on mallee roots & limp vegies. (I'm sure someone said they had
good G & T, too).
Narramine. (name unknown; small coffee shop near entrance of the mini-mall on the main drag). They have an espresso machine, and they're not afraid to use it for more than boiling water (and will, in fact, make a strong and smooth coffee).
Nerriga. Nerriga Pub: friendly publican serves leaf tea and even complimentary biscuits! Deep verandah to escape heat or rain.
Orange. Lord's Place Cafe, Lord's Place, Orange. Coffee's about the best you'll get for miles around and the food's rumoured to be quite good. Unfortunately, this cafe is rarely open...
Orange. REDS Coffee & Eats, shop 8, Orange Arcade (Opens on to the main street [Summer St], with some tables on the sidewalk; left side of street as you go west. An alternative to Lord's Place, serving a very good espresso, and pretty good main courses (sweets are as yet untried).
Orange Coffee Grinder cafe, upstairs in Metro Plaza, main drag. The good people here use Vittoria coffee and will make a quite good and strong long black or flat white on request.
Mt Victoria. The unamed cafe- Look for a small cafe raised above
the road on your right as you head to Sydney. Big, warm fire and
big, warm cheap meals. Open after 7pm so a good alternative to
the Wattle cafe in Blackheath for the latecomers.
Tenterfield. Evergreene Coffee Loung: excellent everything, including
soups, mostly vegetarian. Seems to be attached to a health food shop.
(visited last in 1996)
Tibooburra. TJ's. Burgers are disappointing. The Corner County Cafe is reputed to be worthwhile but remains untested. Note: do not expect to buy good fresh vegies or (any) fresh meat in Tibooburra.
Waarnaring. "Best burgers in the west" is what the one shop claims, and so far they have not been proved wrong.
Wellington. Cactus Cafe (35 Warne St: turn east at the roundabout, away from the river). The food is said to be excellent, though this needs to be verified by a lab member...
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This page is maintained by Ian Wright. Last updated Februray 2000
