The Shed Cafe & Catering Parramatta

Friendly staff, pleasant covered outdoor seating, fresh tasty food. Really nice coffee.

Usually order from here every single day to my work place the same order. Smashed avo with poached eggs and iced coffee. Comes all the way from parramatta to homebush still has plenty of ice and has something white in the coffee so I always have to mix it before I drink it, as you can see the hazelnut syrup at the bottom. Tastes amazing. However today I ordered on my day off and I live in parramatta so I was expecting it to taste even fresher but the coffee came with no ice? Very watery and not like how it usually taste pretty disappointing. It was just one solid colour with nothing to mix and tasted not sweet at all very odd because it always meets my expectations when it travels over an hour to get to me… but today locally ended up bad. The lady on the phone had closed uber while I was making the order and she very kindly reopened the ordering system so I could place my order, they close at 1:30 and it was 1pm the delivery system shut. However I still expected the standard to stay the same so would have rather not paid for coffee that did not meet it usual standard.

TL;DR - Amazing big breakfast option, needs better teapots and milk container. Came here for an early breakfast before Jury Duty summons, and as usual, went for my standard review fare of a big breakfast option (theirs is called The Big One, $26 at time of writing) and an Earl Grey Tea ($4.20) with milk. I love that they asked if I wanted milk with it, as not everywhere asks, nor does everywhere provide it by default. Wait time was a little longer than average from most places, 19 minutes (typically around 15min from other places), but I don't mind a slightly longer wait if its well cooked. I can't say it was because they were busy, since it was right at open, and only one pair of sit-down customers were before me at 6:54am, before their advertised 7am open. Tea came out in a lovely heavy duty cast iron teapot, with their own custom cup and saucer set, with what looked to be a small cafe glass. A really well packed amount of loose leaf in it, and filled up high so the tea was rich in flavour depth. Some negatives were that the first cup pour was terrible. The very short stubby spout of the teapot does not give a good pour at all and it resulted in tea coming down the side of the pot, into the sauce and onto the table with lots of drip run. The second and third cups (not a full cup for the third pour, but about 80% of a cup), poured fine because you could get enough angle without tea coming out of the top. Unfortunately the milk in the small cup also isn't great, its a cup made to drink from, not to pour from, so perhaps an improvement would be a small jug with a pouring beak on it, kind of thing. The breakfast itself was delightful. One of the best I've had in a while now. Great portion size for the price. A great range of items ; half a kransky, good amount of bacon, good pile of spinach, a few well cooked softened cherry tomatoes, a small amount of lovely mushrooms, my preference of scrambled eggs, and one hash brown on top of a slice of buttered sourdough. The eggs were slightly dense, but it had a good amount of texture, and wasn't over-seasoned, which helped balance the salt from the kransky and bacon. The hash brown I kept for last, and it maintained its really crunchy crust fabulously. I really enjoyed this plate today, and kudos to the kitchen that made it. As for atmosphere, nice seats, salt and pepper in paper packets instead of shakers is a little not as nice for the experience, and unfortunately also the stands that hold the table/order number and the salt/pepper/sugar were a bit dirty/dusty/grimy, so thats where the loss of 1 star was from. Overall, my early visit was a great meal, and it was good to see also a number of people coming by for sit-down catch ups at 7:30am with people, even a lady with a laptop having a work call at that time with her breakfast. Would consider coming again for sure if I was after a good feed in the area for breakfast.

Open space and a lot of seats are available. The staff is friendly. A cosy place to get a coffee break or quick chat here. Food is overall tasty but not quite impressive to me. The Egg Benedict has good presentation but is on the salty side, and for each bites I have, I look at the salt satchels on the table, and wonder whether it's my own taste being bland or it's indeed a salty plate. The coffee is mediocre.

According to Google, The Shed was the place to go for brekkie in Parramatta and it wasn't wrong! It would have to be the best breakfast I've had in a long time....and I've had a few. I ordered "The Big One" that came with 2 eggs (your way), bacon, chorizo, spinach, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, hash brown and sourdough. Ok.....I was hungry! 😛 They were happy to swap the chorizo for halloumi too...thanks! The mushrooms were perfectly cooked with cracked pepper and seasoning, bacon just right and the poached eggs nice and runny. The only thing I would say is maybe put the spinach on the side rather than on the sourdough as it made it go soggy. Still tasted amazing though 😊 A variety of non-dairy milk is available for your beverage of choice and I even went back for a second lactose free chai. There are a number of stores in NSW and ACT so Google them like I did and hopefully there is one near you. You won't be disappointed.