"History will be kind to us, because we will write it"
Whether it’s your morning pick-me-up, social lubricant, or lifelong passion, few things are more evocative than coffee. And as the Canberra days turn colder, the city’s cafés will see a growing flock of people come through their doors in search of a warming espresso beverage. Luckily for Canberrans, there’s no better time than now to find a great coffee and café experience in our city.
Two years ago, Tim Riley created Decaf Sucks, along with the rest of the caffeine-loving crowd at Icelab, as a place for them all to record their coffee drinking journeys. It has since become a vibrant and considerably useful resource for location-based café and coffee reviews. It is a place for all Canberra caffiends to help each other find the good coffee and avoid the bad.
Since it is homegrown here in Canberra, it also has the internet’s best coverage of cafés in our city, with 66 people having contributed over 335 reviews for 174 different cafés. Today, let’s take a tour of some of Canberra’s standout cafés, based on the opinions of the Decaf Sucks reviewers.
The hottest café in Canberra right now would have to be Lonsdale Street Roasters in Braddon. They’ve hit on a mix of great in-house roasted coffee, simple and well made food from a wood oven, and an always-bustling friendly atmosphere. Heading into Civic, we have Bean in the City, a hole in the wall that is big on coffee, as well as selling the best portuguese tarts in the city. Over in the west of the city, head into Harvest (the newest member of the Kingston Grind, Group 7 and Tonicfamily) and give one of their syphon or cold press coffees a try.
If you’re in the south of the city, be sure to try Lava in Weston, for what could be the best coffee south of the lake. Or if you’re after a meal and a place to hang out a while, head to A Bite To Eat, A Drink As Well, where you can enjoy the expansive space filled with raw brick, comfy lounges and 1970s-kitsch furniture, or soak up the sun in the courtyard out the back. It’s also a good place for a beer if your visit lingers into the afternoon.
You needn’t despair if you ever find yourself hankering for a caffeine hit in Fyshwick, since you can just head to Ona Coffee on Wollongong St, where they are serious about good coffee. Heading back north, the Belconnen Fresh Food Markets offers a couple of good coffee options among the fruit and veg, in Beppe’s Tuscan Kitchen and As Nature Intended.
Finally, there’s no dearth of decent coffee if you’re heading for a drive outside Canberra. Try Cork Street Gallery Cafe in Gundaroo for a rustic outdoor dining area, where you can enjoy some delicious pizza with your coffee. In Bungendore, The Provincial Pantry has received much high praise from the Decaf Sucks reviewers, and The Albion in Braidwood looks to be the pick of a town that is already bursting with tasty food and drink options.
While that should certainly keep you busy for a while, we’ve only just scratched the surface. There’s plenty of other good coffee to discover in Canberra, and Decaf Sucks can help you do it. Visit the site in your desktop browser and you can enter a location to see all the reviews for cafés in that area. If you’re out and about, visit Decaf Sucks on your iPhone for an optimised experience that can show you the cafés around your precise location.
Tim and the lads from Icelab made Decaf Sucks as simple as possible for people to contribute, and are keen to get more people writing some reviews. All you need is an opinion to share and a star rating, nothing more. Better still, logging in is easy through connecting your Twitter or Facebook accounts. Your reviews will not only serve as a handy coffee diary, but also could be instrumental in helping introduce other people to fantastic new café experiences, whether in Canberra or further afield.
For all those times when you’re happy to stay at home, Decaf Sucks can also help you to drink great coffee. Last year they launched their coffee bean subscription service:Dispatch, from Decaf Sucks. They’ve teamed up with the Lonsdale Street Roasters to deliver a fresh and tasty bag of coffee beans to your door every month. They introduce different beans every month, making Dispatch a great way to discover new coffee flavours. It’s an easy way to keep your cupboard stocked with fresh beans, and also makes for excellent gift idea. Check it out.
Do you agree with Decaf Sucks’ top drops? Who do you think makes the best coffee in the Capital region?
First published on HerCanberra.
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Without a doubt it is the Lonsdale Street Roasters. Not only is the coffee made well, the range of really good blends and single origin roasts is great. Further, the coffee is great value at $3.50 for a large where others will charge you at least $4 for the same. I am also a big fan of the food with their toasted panini sandwiches being well thought through and different from the mainstream. In fact, one of my biggest regrets in taking a job in Belconnen is that I can’t visit the Roasters for coffee in the morning.
Deja Brew and Dobinsons for myself.
Croissant D’or, while technically a bakery, do my fave coffee in the interchange.
It’s coffee FFS, far to much coffee w@nk@ge going on these days. get a cup of Nescafe and be done with it.
Nescafe isn’t coffee.
It’s the essence of coffee.
When I want a beer, I don’t want to drink the ‘essence of beer’.
Pommy bastard said :
I agree. The same goes for tea. Buy the cheapest and ignore the whole “PG tips” nonsense.
Personally, I’m a tea girl…I know, I’m a freak.
This is off the beaten track, but the best and most consistently good coffee I’ve found in the region is from a plant nursery in Pialligo. Serious.
There’s an asian guy at a nursery called Silver Hills, just up from Stonehenge, who makes really, really good coffee. Just coffee, they usually have a cake or two in a case, and that’s it.
They got a mention in that occasional coffee column in the Canberra Times Food supplement, too.
Pommy bastard said :
Only when you stop with the beer “nonsense” and start drinking VB.
Pommy bastard said :
There’s a fair bit of barrista coffee out there which is worse than instant. That’s the sad thing.
Me! I brought home a Senseo coffee maker from Europe. Yum!
Pommy bastard said :
Not a coffee drinker are you?
I’ve got two words for you: International Roast.
Pommy bastard said :
Little wonder the coffee and food in England is sh**te.
The Fish Shack in Civic make a good, hot and strong coffee in one size only.
colourful sydney racing identity said :
Ah, got me there. Hardly ever touch the stuff unless I’m at a cafe which I know cannot make a decent cup of Rosy Lee.
[sheer horror] twice in Australia I have been presented with a cup of warm water with a tea bag NEXT to it, in lieu of a “cup of tea” [/sheer horror]
Double Shott Deakin Shops
few things are more evocative than coffee
Just off hand I can think of hundreds….
There’s a little known place on the eighth floor of AMP House in Hobart Place. It’s just next to a solicitor’s office and apparently does enough business just from the building to do quite well. The name is Mahreeah Kwanza or something like that which means Sacred Coffee in Swahili. The Kenyan dude who runs it has an exclusive arrangement with his brother who manages one of the largest coffee exporting franchises in Kenya. He imports his water from a spring in the Tallaganda State Forest which has the same specific properties as the Nakuru water close to where the coffee is originally grown. When you get out of the lifts turn left and follow the corridor around, hours are 8.30 to 3.30 Mon-Fri. If you can find a better coffee in Canberra I’d like to know where.
I do – consistently good with a bit of latte art thrown in as well.
Beppes at the Belconnen markets make a great coffee.
Didn’t Bean in the City close?
Special G said :
I’d heard that, too…but am assured that it was open just the other day…
So many to choose from in Canberra….Bean in the city was/is my favourite… are they still there?
georgesgenitals said :
I’ve got two words for you, nut if I use them my comment will be moderated
I’m happy to confirm that Bean in the City is open and trading as usual. I walked past there this morning to check. It was hard work resisting the portuguese tart
The only way to judge how good a coffee shop is by a straight single shot espresso (short black) – it’s the base of all other coffee drinks with nothing to hide or dilute the flavour. I’ve been to many coffee places that people claim make the “best coffee” only to be served a short black that is bitter dishwater.
As mentioned before, for consistently outstanding coffee, Silver Hills nursery in Pialligo is the hidden gem of Canberra – I think part of that is probably because only 2 guys make the coffee – with other places it can be a gamble as to who happens to be on the machine.
Note to those Barrista/Cafe owner/operators:
If you can’t consistently deliver an espresso in under 3 minutes, you should not be in the business.
Delissio in Braddon makes a damn good coffee.
georgesgenitals said :
My dear Genitals, International Roast tastes like someone boiled a turd in a sock. I think Int. Roast is a new drink which shouldn’t be called “coffee” at all. I propose to call it “brown”.
To whit:
“Would anyone like a coffee? Oh, I’m sorry, we only have International Roast left. Would anyone like a cup of brown?”
boneymaloney said :
Best enjoyed as an accompaniment to a serving of soylent green?
Russ said :
Too true. Most so called coffee ‘snobs’ drink lattes or cappuccinos. These are basically glorified warm, coffee-flavoured milkshakes. To decide on a coffee it really should be black. Otherwise it is like trying to decide which is the nicest of 6 different glasses of red wine, after you have added lemonade and ice to each glass.
You don’t like black coffee? Then you don’t really like coffee at all – you actually like coffee-flavoured milk…
dpm said :
What a load of BS. A good cappucino should have a coffee base and a small amount frothy milk on top. The milkshakes you refer to come from poor skills and a trend started by franchises such as Starbucks and Gloria Jeans for adding flavouring to coffee.