Gypsy Hideout

I really like Gypsy Hideout and am surprised it doesn’t have more positive reviews. I’ve been going here for 4 or 5 years and have always had good experiences. The food is great, it has a nice atmosphere and I find the staff friendly and helpful. I much prefer it over the over-​hyped Barry nearby, which is noisy and always feels too packed.
Admittedly, I have noticed more recently (2^nd half of 2015?) that the food is a bit slower coming. Perhaps they’re having issues with under-​staffing or something. However, last time I was there they were very quick to warn me about the wait, so that was good.

Meh. Visited on a quiet weekday, walking the dog. Ordered and paid for a takeaway coffee, telling the coffee dude I had to wait outside because of the pooch. He said no problem, he would bring it out. Ten minutes later I retie up the dog and head back in — coffee just sitting on the counter. «Sorry, we forgot…», was the excuse. Coffee was burnt and blergh.

Don’t bother with this hellhole.
I used to live on High St, and I’ve been ti Gypsy a number of times. It was always a good place for a coffee and a catchup, but the food was expensive and very average.
BUT BE WARNED: they will steal from you. I left a pair of sunglasses there by mistake. I called the manager to ask him to hold them. He confirmed that he had them and that he’d put them aside. When I returned, the server told me that someone else who worked there had taken them. She claimed that it’s just their policy – «Sorry.»
So yeah – Don’t bother with this hellhole.

Has there every been a burrito skin so toasted and crispy? Each mouthful was satisfying, with sweet corn and tasty pinto beans hidden in tomatoey goodness, guacamole, sautéed spinach with spicy salsa and tangy diced onion.
But you’ll have to try it and see for yourself :)

May as well off stayed home. Ordered poached eggs and was given hard boiled eggs in the shape of poached eggs. Very shitty. Will not give them a second chance for that price. Would not recommend.

We went in ravenous and very nearly resorted to cannibalism after waiting nearly an hour for our meals. Maybe I’m getting precious in my old age, maybe the competition is so great around town that it shines a light on service that is lacking like this, but that’s borderline unacceptable — especially when you’re talking eggs and stuff, not a well-​cooked steak.
They didn’t even seem full up that morning. Still, I won’t strip them of all the stars for that because you never know what behind-​the-​scenes calamity they may have been experiencing that day, and we were with locals who swore it was usually much better, but to me it did carry an air of hipster-​staff who were too busy writing screenplays or swapping modelling portfolios or something to put in our orders. Looking down the other reviews, seems they do have a real problem with service they might want to address.
When it did come, the meals were all decent. Nothing wrong at all, all quite nice. Next time though, will head back across the street to Barry instead.

Decent coffee. Meals can be a little on the large side, but are still quite tasty. Service here is hit and miss. Have had really great experiences, and at other times have had to wait an age for service (and when service finally arrived, it wasn’t with a smile!)
This place is generally open on every public holiday when everything else is closed, so it’s a good fall back option.

Very airy and bright, and nicely located in the southern end of Northcote. The place was empty when I popped in for a midmorning weekday coffee, and the staff were neither friendly nor offhandish — though a little bit of incredulity was displayed when I asked for cream with my coffee and they had none.
Slightly trendy, with my long black coming in a beer glass with a souvenir spoon, and the seating being rickety wooden tables with wooden boxes for chairs. The coffee itself was good enough — adequate heat, strong, and a bit on the sour side, which I ended up liking. Haven’t had food here yet, though it looks like the back courtyard would be nice for a brunch occasion.

Coffee was really good.
Service was extremely offhand and slow, also we had multiple issues with our order.
Food was below average for this area.

Three things about Gypsy Hideout
The Waitress;
Was rude! Not reserved, not shy, rude.
The Coffee:
Was excellent, the man behind the machine had real skills, strong blend and bonsoy.
The Big Breakfast:
Was average, ingredients were either poor quality or not fresh, toast was 10 cm thick and tough to eat.

I know I should have been expecting something along the lines of Schindler’s warehouse — with a name like ‘Gypsy Hideout’. But I went along to this place expecting to see a lot of guys sporting fashion fringes and girls wearing rounded Ray Ban glasses.
So I was not all to surprised when the first time I went to this trendy café, to be ignored at the front counter for about five minutes by the fashion fringed waiter, whilst he chatted up the pretty barista (literally wearing rounded Ray Bans). I wasn’t sure whether to walk back out the door at such rude service — or lack thereof — or laugh at the archetypal scene laid out in front of me.
Well I was glad I decided to stick around. The coffee was excellent and the food pretty good too. In fact this is another example of the many cafes popping up around Melbourne, run by people who clearly know what they are doing.
Since I first went to the Gypsy Hideout — it seems now I have become the accepted ‘cool’, worthy of service in the many times I have been back. The staff are really friendly — which gets me to thinking maybe it was just me and my preconceptions that made me judge this place initially. Either way I am now a big fan.

You see your Gypsy… Hideout
Pretty cute little café. A relatively new addition to Westgarth this café has raised the bar amongst local traders. I think what sold it for me was the kitsch retro crockery and homegrown herb garden in the back courtyard.
Décor aside their coffee is actually pretty good and the light white interior is like mental relief from the busy high street. This is definitely a brunch place; the blackboard menu boasts a lengthy and interesting breakfast selection as well as the classics. The staff were attentive and friendly and we didn’t have to wait long at all for our orders. The astro-​turfed courtyard is nice on a sunny afternoon, a decent place for a chill coffee.

I’m going to make a sweeping statement and contend that this is the only decent café in the Westgarth shops enclave of Northcote’s seemingly endless High Street. The others are generally a bit blah and although it took me a while, once I got past what I’d heard was Gypsy’s own brand of haughty service, I realized I’d happened upon a bit of a gem. And a gem generously sprinkled with a helluva lot of that trusty Melbourne requisite dukkah at that.
What Gypsy really excels at is breakfast, with its avocado and feta on sourdough being its simplest but arguably its most successful dish, and its scrambled eggs with chorizo being especially moreish. Gypsy employs some nice little touches such as the use of kitsch tourist teaspoons and seventies vintage cups, and its interior is modern, classy and pure Melbourne.
Aesthetically, Gypsy is all whitewashed walls, bleached out floorboards and vintage industrial seating and there’s a cute little courtyard out back with diminutive tables, a quaint herb garden and Astroturf. Yes, Astroturf. Gypsy’s coffee can be a little insipid but the all round experience is so good that I’ll look past both this and its wantonly incongruous floor coverings and hit Gypsy next time I’m in need of a beautifully made breakfast somewhere stylish just a hop, a skip and a jump away from my gaff.