Valentine Cafe Glenwood Sydney Gluten-Free Dairy-Free
Sometimes there are hidden gems in the outer suburbs too. One of those hidden gems is known as Valentine Cafe and it is hidden away at the edge of a sports centre in a suburb an hour from Sydney City known as Glenwood.
I found Valentine Cafe quite by surprise while on the hunt for food. I’m not good with motion sickness though I’ve found that a full stomach and looking ahead are the best solutions for my body type and, after visiting a friend in Glenwood, was eager to find a food place in the predominantly homes-only suburb before jumping on a bus back.
From the outside you would think it is just a sports centre with a soccer field but, after walking through the gates and across the carpark, we realised appearances were definitely deceiving. You can imagine my surprise when I discovered this place was selling dairy-free and gluten-free meals and slices, as well as six beans coffee.
At Valentine Cafe I ordered a fish and those with me ordered a steak sandwich and a meat burger. The burgers were the old style that I thought had disappeared from Sydney decades ago. Large and satisfying!
My fish was amazing. Just the right amount of oil, salt and heat made it a delicious treat.
But the best was yet to come. The 6 bean coffee had me hold my mouth open in surprise for at least 2 seconds. After years of admittedly still good, but only slightly above standard coffee in the CBD, to have something that tasted this amazing in the outer suburbs completely blew me away.
In Sydney City there isn’t that much variety. Most cafes sell Vittoria or Andronicus. There are some coffee places that have others, but to find a place that has a great barista who is able to bring the nuances in a rare coffee bean are few and far between.
Occasionally you’ll find an amazing coffee in the city, and then the barista will change and the new staff member would just press the button and not do anything with the beans. Or you’ll get coffee served in plastic or cardboard which sucks the life out of the flavour.
I certainly wasn’t expecting anything of high quality and flavour as the long black that I enjoyed that day. Nuances of vanilla, spice, mocha, nutmeg and even cinnamon could be detected.
I spoke with one of the ladies behind the counter and she said we were lucky to be there on that day as usually they have about 300 people there due to all the school soccer matches. So I guess they go through a lot of coffee and any of the baristas would now have a huge amount of experience.
If you’ve never thought about drinking coffee for the flavour, (as many of us just drink it to stay awake) I thoroughly recommend going on a taste test of cups of coffee around your city. Make notes about which places are selling what and only taste the coffee black. You’ll soon begin to taste the nuances and differences and be able to find your favourite coffee place.
It looks like I’ll need to check out more coffee places in the outer suburbs!
