cavalier 2.0

great tasting hot coffee and a treat of frenchtoastat breakfast!
my cup was a little under filled perhaps so it was easy to transport from barista to table.
also the 10%surcharge for a sunday was a first time for me. maybe we will just come on a saturday instead!
lovely atmosphere and friendly attentive staff

i enjoyed cavalier so much, from the service to the actual dishes. their menu wasn’t too big, so it really showed they did each dish really well. the beef cheeks were super tender and the flavour of the smoked potato was amazing which pair perfectly. the whole dish was delicious packed full of flavour but with the portion size, it was a good size.


the toasties - i ordered the bolognese and the lamb, cavalier really so their toasties well and it is their speciality after all. the fillings were super moist but the bread remained really crispy. it can be a quick snack or to sit down and enjoy.

finally, the dessert really hit the spot. the textures and flavour was irreplaceable as the dulce was not too strong but i really recommend sharing the frenchtoastwith 1 or 2 other people as it’s quite sweet.


the service was great, i couldn’t fault it as they staff were quite attentive even when we were sitting outside and we didn’t have to wait long for our dishes!

foods weee simple n good. truffle addition each dish is $12🤣 too bad no more tiramisu grenchtoastwhen i came! but the new space looks great. my stroller cn fit easily in there:)

good bu not great coffee ... asked for large cup and was offered it in a takeaway. no thanks. (and this is meant to be "specialty coffee!!" darktoastcame only with some sort of cashew peppery stuff and the cost was ridiculous. no butter on offer. no jam or anything just their special xxx cashew stuff. very nervous over attentive staff who kept asking "is it alright' sorry but cant see this place surviving

it's a small cafe with 5 or 6 four seater tables inside and a couple of outdoor. there is no decoration or a special interior but it has very friendly staff. i like the open chicken salad yummy and healthy but kids don't. the tiramisu frenchtoastis not bad or kind of special. coffee is fragrant just not hot enough for me. kids finished the ham cheese toast.

tirimisu frenchtoastand hot chocolate are gold for sweet creamy lovers. definitely worth a try for people to try this little cafe. @moziie

highly recommend their tiramisu frenchtoast(layers of different flavour and texture) and their macaroni and cheese with black truffle (strong hearty flavour). we spent around 20 minutes lining for the cafe on a saturday noon, but it was worth the wait. very friendly and helpful staff.

off the main strip of crows nest, and really not a big space, but it was weekday lunch so easy enough to get a spot. short yet interesting menu, there were a number of things i wanted to try, but i could not get pass the creme caramel french toast. a bit odd looking when it came out, you can hardly see the "toast" under the cloud of cream on top. it was all deconstructed with the two type of cream on top, thetoast& a warm caramel sauce on the bottom. thetoastwas nice & crispy on the outside, but still fluffy (you can still see the whiteness) inside. the best bit was the hidden marmalade under all that cream! the service was friendly & quick. the coffee was pretty good too. will definitely be back!

i came here during truffle season, where they offered truffle coffee and their dishes topped with truffle. i ordered the mocha with truffle milk, topped with a pinch of salt and slice of truffle to start the day off, and it was a very interesting and beautiful elegant taste! i absolutely loved it! food-wise i ordered the 3 cheese mushroom macaroni, spanner crab & tiramisu french toast, all topped with truffle, which was a tad pricier. my favourite dishes was their spanner crab and frenchtoastbut the portion for the spanner crab was a quite a small and a bit overpriced. regardless, i can definitely see myself coming back here for some more of the truffle milk coffees during the truffle season and trying their other dishes.  read more about each dish in detail on my blog -->

the trout was so fresh with a hint of saltiness. i love the trout so much but i'm not quite a fan of the egg, it was a bit too raw for me, it was too yolky. they garnished the dish with bit of caviar which added saltiness to the dish. overall it was quite a pleasant dish for me.
i saw them making the cream on top of thetoastfrom scratch then blow torched it. it was an amazing cream that brought sweetness to the sour lemon sauce. thetoastwas fluffy in the middle and crispy on both side. the lemon sauce was not that sour as i thought it would be, i can taste sweet and sour at the same time. love theirtoastflavor this month (they kept on changing thetoastmenu every now and then).
read more: grabandbites.blogspot.com.au/2016/11/cavalier-specialty-coffee-st-leonards.html

cavalier specialty coffee first came under my radar after seeing some mouth-watering pictures of their tiramisu frenchtoaston instagram. after finding out that it was actually located within walking distance from work, i was eager to bookmark this cafe and on the first chance of a window of free-time, i headed out to st leonards to locate this mysterious cafe. it turned out that the cafe was practically down the road from work.

if you want delicious cafe food which looks amazing but comes in very small portions and if you don't mind sitting snugly beside strangers at adjacent tables, then this is the place for you! the spanner crab looked amazing on the plate and tasted amazing but it was literally two mouthfuls of food served with a tiny piece of dark rye. you'd leave feeling hungry if that's all you choose to order. the tiramisu frenchtoastwas heavenly - it was like eating tiramisu flavoured clouds that melted in our mouths! although the food tastes great here, we consider the dishes overpriced given the unsatisfying portion sizes. it was good to experience, but probably not a cafe we'd return to regularly.

a top little cafe in crows nest that i had been inspired to go to from instagram posts. it is in a back street so you would have to know its there to find, probably wouldn't just walk by. it was thriving on a early saturday morning and even busier by the time we left.
wooden interior, ceramic plates and cups and bronze tea pots. i very much liked the styling. luckily there was a table so we didn't have to wait at all. there were some awesome looking pastries on the counter for sale. i, however was after 1 thing - truffle!
i ordered the truffle hot chocolate and hubby got the mocha. it was a delicious hot chocolate, not too sweet, with art on the top and a small piece of truffle. it made it a bit salty as you would expect. it's a $5 addition of truffle to your drink. worth a try, though i probably would have enjoyed the hot chocolate anyway bare.
the menu had a number of choices i would love trying. benedict, rye, pasta, and an amazing tiramisu frenchtoast(can i say this looked incredible, but was a bit early for sweets for me).
i went for the healthy option and got a poached chicken salad. it was some soft pumpkin with lots of alfalfa, grains, seeds, nuts and herbs with a small piece of poached chicken. doesn't sound that amazing on paper but it was incredibly delicious! !
my husband got the spanner crab which was beautifully presented with two eggs, poached exactly how they should be with onion, a mint sauce and this was super tasty. he ordered the add on of truffle (which costs $10) and thought that the dish was nice enough and didn't need the truffle add on in this case as it didn't add to the dish. the plates were quite small servings and we are big eaters and considering another choice. we spoke to the employee about which dish worked best with the truffle and he suggested either the tiramisu frenchtoastor mac and cheese. he said both were good with the truffle so we went for the mac and cheese with truffle. this was a delicious serving (good size) with a mushroom flavoured paste, cheese and truffle. this was lovely and the truffle added great taste. i would recommend a visit here. all employees were happy, polite, asked us how things were without being obtrusive and the atmosphere was enjoyable. by the time we left there was a line up so its clearly very popular.
it is priced liked any sydney cafe these days, unless you add truffle (truffle is rare and hence expensive, so we spent a small fortune. but no complaints here as we very much enjoyed it). a little slow, but it was very busy and the dishes were beautifully presented so i don't mind as it was clear they were made with care. menu changes regularly so i'll go back again 😘

went here for brunch and we ordered basically everything on the brunch menu to share. best dishes: mac and cheese (we added truffle on top, yum!), beef cheeks, tiramisu frenchtoastand the crab dish. beautiful presentation, great flavours and balance of textures. i also ordered the truffle mocha which was sweet and salty with a hint of truffle (and topped with truffle), i thought it worked really well and it complemented the tiramisu french toast, i loved it!

customer service was also so lovely. will definitely return and recommend to all foodie friends!

the last time i experienced a swanky breakfast was at the grand harbour hotel in hong kong where their inclusive breakfast incredibly included lobster benedict and fluffy frenchtoastwith a thin coating of toffee. bring on the view of hong kong harbour as the backdrop and it was pretty hard to top. cavalier comes awfully close.

being a specialist coffee cafe, we were recommended the special brew experience where the waiter would bring out a special variety of single origin beans and describe the product all while being filtered and weighed on a scale at the table. they pride themselves on beans from marvel street coffee roasters from byron bay where its all about the best variety of beans at the time of year over anything else. the rowandan coffee was described as a light coffee with a cherry finish of the back palate perfect for the afternoon. true to form, the coffee served black, was smooth and reflected a cherry aftertaste and something different to your run of the mill bean. 

the signature dish here at cavalier (oldskool newskool salmon) was no surprise to me having been shared on instagram many many times as was the price. a visit was just a matter of time like many sydneysiders who have them on their 'to do list' but figured the expectation was never going to be exceeded after so much has been said about them or this dish. the dish really cannot be faulted as every element had a purpose and so meticulously crafted it tasted as good as it looked. you almost felt that your tastebuds were not ready for such a refined experience at that time of day. there is no doubt this is fine dining material with an insane price to match ($20) but whether it has its place as a regular breakfast item i would go back for is questionable as its not very filling for $20 (yes i sound ungrateful). 

there was a new autumn salad with cous cous garden greens on a bed of white sweet potato puree with some sort of crispy grains to add that crunch contrast. we added an extra of poached chicken and the course was complete.

we sat on the table closest to the opened french doors and really the only complaint was the dreaded fly who wouldn't leave me alone. the service was excellent and the food impeccable. with the well deserved recognition it has earned, i think they should really seek out a bigger and more comfortable establishment to showcase the chefs talent and potential.