Cafe Nookie, Surry Hills

Fancy a Nookie?

While noodlies, Sydney food blog prides itself on being the expert at ‘hole in the wall’ eateries, Cafe Nookies still manages to amaze us. Weekdays between 7am and 3pm, you’ll find Tina Chen with a bright smile on her dial serving up coffee, sandwiches, pies and pastries. How she manages inside this shoe box is a minor miracle.

What’s even more amazing is that Tina gave up a career in tax planning to pursue her passion, being independent and owning her own food business.

Originally from China, Tina’s only been in Australia for around five years, she came to study at Macquarie University. To support herself, she worked at cafes in Annandale and Chippendale where she learnt to to make coffee and began to dream of running her own cafe. Friendly and cheerful, Tina was a darling of both customers and suppliers a like.

“Earlier this year, a meat supplier said to me: Tina, there’s a little cafe for sale in Surry Hills, you should take a look” says Tina. And the rest, as they say, is history. Since June, she’s been the proud owner of Cafe Nookie. When she talks about her coffee, Tina’s already happy face beams even brighter; her pride obvious when recounting how the punters queue up to get a Nookie caffeine fix each morning.

Noodlies has sampled the latte and it’s a particularly strong, satisfying aromatic hit. The beef and beetroot mixed grain roll is a tasty bite, it’s a balanced treat – no strong flavours, instead everything combines brilliantly, thanks to the subtle mayo dressing.