2042 Cafe

This is my local. I don’t really know how they keep the prices relatively low, considering they use good ingredients and give large serves. The $ 8 avocado smash is lovely, as is the quinoa porridge. I do not especially love their French toast but it’s certainly massive.
The Turkish eggs with humus and parsley salad is amazing; I wouldn’t normally order something like this but it’s become a favourite. You can get the eggs scrambled instead of fried.

I have eaten at 2042 a couple of times now and have been unimpressed on both occasions.
The staff are fantastic but spread too thin on the weekends, leaving customers receiving less than wonderful service. It is very crowded on weekends and LOUD — it is popular with parents, dragging toddlers and babies in pushchairs through the café mid-​service. I am all for family restaurants but if your child is being difficult (kicking and screaming) it is your responsibility to take it outside while you talk the child down from annoy everyone within earshot levels. Actually I may not be as OK with sharing my dining experience with children as I thought I was… (discussion for another time)
On to the food. Breakfast, Ive had french toast (which is one of my breakfast benchmarks) and an omelet, which I a have a history of disappointment with and was not pleasantly surprised at 2042.
French toast: Looked great, which only added to the disappointment… The Bacon was tasteless, french toast was soggy and only lukewarm.
Omelet: I am a big eater, but the omelet I was served was unnecessarily huge, greasy and tasteless.
I am a long black drinker, and found the coffee weak on both occasions.
In saying all of this I am sure I will be back here with friends who love 2042 in spite of the weak coffee, mostly due to location and the organic-​y vego «responsible» menu.
Next time I will order my coffee strong, see how that goes…

Poor inattentive service left me scratching my head. I couldn’t understand why a café with plenty of staff and not a lot of customers just can’t be polite. Won’t be back.

I really like 2042 — it’s a shame it’s opening hours are so esoteric!
The food is really great — I’ve only ever been in for breakfast or brunch. Hit me with some Eggs Benedict please, I’ve got a hangover that could kill a herd of ox.
2042 offers very reasonably priced fare to, which is a merciful bonus in a city designed to prompt homelessness among Sydney’s hungry.
My ever-​so-​slight constructive criticism is that the service could be quicker. This is no reflection on the staff, who were great, just strictly an issue of numbers.
Keep up the good work!

Good coffee and breakfasts that are slightly different takes on the traditional bacon and eggs. Good vege options too and healthy smoothies etc. Small deli style shop where you can buy gourmet condiments etc.
Can get a bit noisy if there are lot of children — fairly common at the weekends.
Good setting that opens up to the street with a wide frontage.
Free wifi and credit cards accepted.

Been going to Café 2042 for the past 2 years now, mostly for breakfast and love the place. Staff are really friendly, coffee is really nice and they make the best eggs Benny in Newtown. Sometimes the place can be filled with a shitload of mums and babies but that’s mostly during the week.
My wife and I have taken many friends and family along as we know the food is consistent. In 2 years only ever had one bad meal and the café was packed to the brim. I love this place!

Delicious coffee, great atmosphere (like a big beach house with delicious couches to relax in) but the breakfast I had here was a little disappointing :(

Yum yum YUM! I’m so pleased to have been introduced to 2042. I adore everything about it — the comfy couches, the shabby chic décor and the delicious deli food mixed with delightful café fare. And cocktails.
2042 is light, bright and refreshingly ungrungy for the Inner West. As a visitor not a resident of Newtown, I can find some places so wilfully alternative that it’s downright unattractive. Not so 2042, which could be easily at home at any postcode — for who doesn’t love beautiful, fresh food, free wifi, friendly staff, good coffee (Danes) and cocktails? But most importantly it has an unhurried atmosphere where you can take a book, or meet friends and stay a while.
Every postcode needs a place like that.

With a new book in hand, I wandered down King Street. Nice and early for a practice run of our short play in the Short and Sweet Play Festival in Newtown.
When I say I was nice and early, I was about four hours early, so there was much time to kill before I would take to the stage as one of James Bonds more evil one eyed nemeses who had an affectionate spot for feline companionship.
I came across a Café/​Deli with a confusing name, it’s at number 403 King Street, yet it’s name is either 242 or 2402 or 2042 or the 0 and 4 are overlapping and apart of a new number, like it was from the numerical version of ‘On Beyond Zebra.‘
I took a seat on one of the comfortable couches by the front of the café and ordered a coffee. I joined a group of people who were also seated there, reading books and sipping on their caffeinated beverages.
For a few hours I sat there, learning about the ancient art of writing films, trying to grapple with structure, plot and theme whilst in the comfort of a sand coloured arm chair.
The comfort was too much and the caffeine not strong enough, I found my eyelids getting heavy, trying desperately to reconnect with its lost friend at the base of the eyeball. «Grab my hand!» shouts the top eyelid, «You come down here!» They touch, but I pull them apart, this isn’t going to be one of those happy endings where they end up together, sure they go to bed every night and touch one another, they’re in a relationship, they’re allowed to do that. But when I’m in a café in a public space, that’s the last thing I want. It’s enough that I let them get my eyeballs moist.
I pay for the delicious coffee and get up out of that comfortable chair, that peaceful literary hotspot and walk down to Sydney Park for a lie down and to let my eyelids perform that lovers embrace, if only for a moment. If only for a quickie.

I love cafes that are also delis — it gives me confidence in the food, as I think that if they sell deli-​type stuff, they’re also likely to use deli-​type ingredients in the food for the café. I wasn’t disappointed at 2042 — extremely fresh produce including gloriously creamy wheels of cheese, crusty loaves of freshly baked Sonoma bread, bowls of glossy olives and shrivelled sundried tomatoes — a picnic dream.
2042 has a relaxed, homely and friendly vibe, which I suppose is what attracts the hoards of mothers and toddlers who often come here. Everyone is well looked after, and squeezes up on the share tables with rustic benches. It makes a great place for breakfast and lunch — plenty of that delicious Sonoma bread, freshly prepared salads and delicious cakes and muffins. It’s become a firm-​favourite place of mine, and it should become yours, too.

I thought for sure that I would be with child by the time I left 2042.
I have never been surrounded my so many Mum’s/babies/prams in my life. Not in a hospital, not in a child care centre, nowhere. I’m serious.
There were 30 babies in 2042. 29 Mums, 1 Dad, and my friend and I. Oh, and a shit load of prams. It was so obvious that we didn’t belong here that, when we placed our order, the waiter assumed we were getting take aways. «No,» we replied. «We’re brave.» Surprisingly, there was limited screaming and crying. Some yes, but not the kind of racket you would expect.
It seems that big tables, big couches and plenty of pram-​manoeuvring space makes 2042 the ideal Mum’s Club setting. And the café makes the most of it, tailoring to their resident mums with share platters (Cheese, Charcutiere, Vegetarian, Antipasto, all $ 40), wines, Belgian hot chocolates and cocktails. The little deli section must be a hit here as well, with mums stocking up on their quality goods for their baby date the following day. For those of us without babies, they also have «Free High Speed Wireless Internet» — so you can look up sure-​fire forms of contraception.
Despite how overwhelming it is to be completely surrounded by the next generation, 2042 is a very nice place. The décor is that of an old country house, the products are good and the coffee is ok. The breaky menu is reasonably priced and appealing and whilst the lunch menu is very ‘Wasp-​ish’ (seared marinated kangaroo fillet with eggplant pickle and wasabi mash), it all sounds quite appealing and I can understand why the Mum’s come here. But I’m not kidding. The longer we stayed, the more babies came rolling in. It was frightening.

This café on upper King Street welcomes you in with comfy sofas, sturdy oak tables and chipper employees. I wandered in from the busy Newtown thoroughfare this afternoon and took a seat back near their kitchen. In the spacious dinning room I noticed an array of different types of people: friends meeting over coffee, businessmen huddled over their spreadsheets and students squinting at their Macbooks.
After changing my mind between a brunch and lunch item several times, I settled on the chickpea, zucchini, and potato burger with yogurt sauce. Service was quick. I barely had time to compose an email before a mountain of food was placed before me. Being the dainty eater that I am (sarcasm implied), I took a stab at shoving the whole thing at my face. With tomato and yogurt soaked sprouts dripping down my arm, I decided I better bust out the cutlery. The veggie patty itself was flavorful and well seasoned, if not a little mushy. The yogurt sauce was a nice fresh touch and had a hint of lemon to it. I washed down the meal with a soy cappuccino and stayed awhile to utilize the free Internet. Not a bad Newtown stopover, not bad at all.