The best coffee when travelling thread !

[rick130]

While I'm sitting in my local, sipping a latte I thought;

List up your favourite coffee shops when travelling/staying somewhere. :D

Uralla, NSW. The New England Highway.

The Galloping Gourmet. Super coffee, passionately extracted by Lachie. The girls do a great job too.
The cakes are homemade and super nice too.

Byron Bay.

Bayleaf in Marvel St.

There's good coffee around Byron, but my favourite place is Bayleaf.
Grunge, organic atmosphere, eclectic music, great food. I love the place.
Apparently if you're a soy drinker they don't use Bonsoy, but I have cows juice in my milk coffee's when out so that isn't an issue for me.

Not for those that are into the antiseptic, clinical type of cafe experience though :D

If you're coffee'd out in Byron and into being really healthy and/or a veggo;

The Concious Caffe make fantastic non dairy, non soy smoothies using ingredients like frozen, organic banana's and berries, raw Cacao, etc. as well as a having a great veggo menu.
I'm not veggo and I eat there.

[p38arover]

Emu Heights (Penrith area):

Zokoko, Unit 3, 84–90 Old Bathurst Road, Emu Heights, https://www.zokoko.com/

Zokoko are the only chocolate manufacturer, other than Haighs, to manufacture chocolate starting with the beans. Michelle Morgan runs it whilst her husband, Dean, runs the other side to their operation, Morgan's Coffee, a roaster in the same complex. Morgans Handcrafted Coffee (http://www.morganscoffee.com/home.php)

In Penrith itself, the only decent coffee we've found is at Skipton's Cafe, Skipton's Arcade in High St. They also use Morgan's coffee.

In Springwood in the Blue Mountains, try the Pink Papaya in Townhouse Plaza, Macquarie Road. Probably the best coffee in Springwood (and I tried a lot of places when I worked there!). Oddly enough, they use Morgan's coffee, too.

Melbourne CBD - almost everyone has good coffee, unlike Sydney CBD.

Places to avoid - anywhere that has coffee with a mountain of foam on top and anywhere full of old farts.

[SBD4]

Nikita in Leura is not too bad.

[OffTrack]

Melbourne CBD - almost everyone has good coffee, unlike Sydney CBD.


Pellegrini's at the top end of Bourke St is an old favourite - nothing pretentious about this place. They also do a mean granita. If you are up for pasta try to get a seat at the table in the kitchen :)

DiBella's roasting warehouse in Leveson St, Nth Melbourne does fantastic coffee and beans, and food is good. The service seems to have become a bit ht and miss in recent months. ( http://www.beanhunter.com/cafes/review/di-bella-roasting-house )

Dancing Goat Cafe (close to King Street, Melb.) does excellent coffee. ( http://www.beanhunter.com/cafes/review/dancing-goat )

Auction Rooms in Nth Melbourne does great coffee and worth a visit. ( http://www.beanhunter.com/cafes/review/auction-rooms ) Nice and close to British Car Components (http://britcar.com.au).

The Boyz Cafe in Charlton (VIC) always does excellent coffee and great cakes. We always schedule that as our coffee stop on the way to Ouyen/Mildura.

Wood Street Cafe in Donald (VIC) is another pleasant surprise in Western Vic.

[PAT303]

The best coffee I've ever had was at the cafe overlooking lake Jindabyne,the best coffee I've had in WA was from the coffee cat trailer at Esperance,I've had a few from there and everyone was perfect,they also have oat bicky's that are the bomb.The worst coffee is a hard one,the list is loooooong. Pat

[Chucaro]

In Hobart Villino Expresso is the best, the owner roast and mix his own coffee :)
When in Melbourne I go to the Monarch cake shop in St Kilda, the cakes are fantastic :cool:

I just wait for a coffee forum section in AULRO :angel:

PS: If someone nominate Mccafe as the best coffee should be shot :D

[p38arover]

PS: If someone nominate Mccafe as the best coffee should be shot :D

It was almost the best coffee I came across in the USA!

[uttanutta]

Goondiwindi - "Laurenz" Main Street on the left heading west. Lauren and her Mother Vanessa, run a brilliant cafe, great coffee and Lauren being a "Chef" and her mum a "Pastry Chef" the food is delectable as well. The cakes and slices are unbelievable.

[Lotz-A-Landies]

Someone needs to write an AULRO Coffee app for our smart phones. That way we can all enter our local recommended café and our Land Rover friends can enjoy. :)

[Lotz-A-Landies]

PS: If someone nominate Mccafe as the best coffee should be shot :D
It was almost the best coffee I came across in the USA!In the absence of other coffee shops it can be the most reliable.

I have been in Horsham to be told that the Expresso machine is only used to froth the milk and the coffee is instant and in another place the shop actually put instant coffee in the coffee filter group of an expresso machine. At least MaCafé doesn't do that.

[rick130]

In the absence of other coffee shops it can be the most reliable.

I have been in Horsham to be told that the Expresso machine is only used to froth the milk and the coffee is instant and in another place the shop actually put instant coffee in the coffee filter group of an expresso machine. At least MaCafé doesn't do that.

But it really does depend on the Macca's store and staff what you get.

I know a McCafé Barista very well and while she's a coffee snob, most of the café staff don't know/don't care.

Actually they do know, most all have been trained how to at least do the milk properly, so it falls under the 'don't care' label and most of them are really nice people, but they aren't coffee drinkers.

There's even a Macca's café co-ordinator on coffee snobs, so some do care, but.....

A heavily aerated, peaky, spooned out froth with no crema isn't how you make a cappuccino or latté, but that's what you'll get from a lot of Macca's.

Most of their machines are fully automatic too, and the settings can't be altered by the store/staff, only the service guys, which makes things difficult when the grinds wrong and you can't change it.
I had one the other day as my favourite café in that town was closed and it was badly over-extracted but the milk was excellent.
I should've got her to make me another and short pull it.

As my friend says, the majority of her clientele are only after the caffeine hit anyway, they never remove the lid from their takeaways.
To me, half the experience is the aroma.

A little tip when at McCafé, ask for the milk to be spun if you are unsure.
I know, I know, it should be anyway, but it can save some grief.

[p38arover]

At nearly every McCafe I've been into, the "barista" (and I use that term loosely!) puts the milk jug under the steam wand, turns on the steam, then goes away to do other things.

[dullbird]

well I can honestly say If I need to have a coffee and Im not near a favoured cafe I always go to Maccas simply because I find there coffee OK and very consistant between stores...so I dont know which maccas you guys are going too..

I stopped going to Mac cafe at one stage because the coffee was appauling then those ads came on the TV about if you dont like it we will give you another! I dont know what they did but it work I have not had a bad coffee from Maccas since.

[PAT303]

Your all going to laugh but I carry the instant coffee in the self heating cans when I'm out in the never never,I'll have a few on board when I do the crossing to the Alice in two weeks. Pat

[disco2_dan]

Gourmet deli leura does a great latte, also I was at jervis bay the other week and I went to a small cafe there and I can't remember for the life of me what it's name was but they definatly done one of the top 5 lattes I've ever had

[dullbird]

Quintessential Coffee shop in Picton does a very good coffee.

and of course Loop line pies in Thirlmere should you ever come up to visit the train museum its just up the road about 150meters also does a good coffee

[jerryd]

Your all going to laugh but I carry the instant coffee in the self heating cans when I'm out in the never never,I'll have a few on board when I do the crossing to the Alice in two weeks. Pat


I'm self sufficient too, tastes better and saves $$$ :D

[Ratel10mm]

Gold Coast:
The BEST (& most consistent quality as well as consistently the best) coffee on the Gold Coast is found at the coffee stand in 232 Robina Town Centre drive. The stand is in the main foyer on the ground floor.
Visitors car parks for the building are accessed at the rear via Waterfront Place.
They're open 07.00-15.00 Mon to Fri only as their main trade is the occupants of the building & their clients.
http://http://maps.apple.com/?lsp=9902&sll=-28.074468,153.379543&q=2%20Waterfront%20Place,%20Robina%20QLD%204226,%2 0Australia
I can't recall the name of the business - since I used to work for 1 of the occupants of the building I never paid attention to it. However, as field staff I'd make a point of waiting to get my coffee until I had to visit the office. It is that good.

Nearly as good, but a bit less consistent is Plantation House Cafe at West Burleigh, 1/43 Tallebudgera Creek Rd, West Burleigh. They have the advantage of being open on Saturday, and the food is excellent.

The Merlo Coffee shop at Ferry Road Markets, Southport is good too. And of course has a great range of coffees.