We drove pass this place a couple of times and it looked busy and appealing. Finally we made a point to stop the car to give it a try.
We arrived way past the peak lunch hour and we were amazed at how bustling and popular the place was at 3:30pm in the afternoon.
Espresso Organica is located on the main food strip - the Majors Bay Road in Concord. The largish boutique coffee roaster and cafe offers indoor and outdoor seating.
Parking is easy with the Coles supermarket located just directly across the street.
We heard this is a great coffee place for the coffee-lovers.
A large coffee-brewing counter greeted us first and immediately you can hear chatter and laughter all around. We smiled immediately because we could feel the great social ambience of this place.
Upon seated, we were given 3 menus - an all-day breakfast menu, a lunch menu and a specials menu. Each menu is double-sided and jammed pack with variety.
The breakfast and lunch menus consisted of typical Australian cafe dishes. It was the Specials Menu that caught our attention. We eyed the Greek-style tapas favourably.
We were definitely spoilt for choice here. We needed a quiet corner and work our way through the menus. After a good 15 minutes of debating and eliminating, we finally decided.
It was a warmish day, so we skipped coffee and opted for a nice refreshing Citrus Ice Crush ($6.50) - an icy drink blended with orange juice, lemon juice , crushed ice and lemon sorbet.
It was too citrus for me, but my friend loved it.
Out first tapas dish was the Octopus Krasato ($18).
These were the softest succulent octopus I've ever tasted. I never have had a positive experience with octopus until now. All the previous octopus dish I've tasted were chewy, rubbery and hard to eat. Probably that was why I always avoided ordering octopus.
This octopus tapas was so-well cooked that I have converted.
The side pita breads were soft and warm, perfect to wipe all the flavoursome red wine and tomato sauce at the bottom.
Initially we were just looking for a quick snack but this dish was just absolutely delicious and we were enticed to try more.
So we asked for the menus again...
There were multiple dishes I wanted to try so we ordered my next favourite dish on the menu.
Crispy Tempura Baby Zucchini Flowers $18.00
(Stuffed w Ricotta, Mint, mild chilly served with lemon aioli)
For some reason, I always thought of zucchini flowers as an ingredient to be treated with much respect and used only parsimoniously. Almost as if they cost a fortune or something.
So whenever, I see zucchini flowers on the menu, I couldn't resist but to order it.
These zucchini flowers were delicious; they were well-seasoned with a thin crispy batter exterior that retained the freshness and juiciness of this delicate vegetable. Dip them in the home-made aioli and drizzle some lemon juice on top to take the flavour to the next level.
There were some negative reviews about the services here, but the service we received today was one of the friendliest in Sydney.
We were not treated like a customer, we were treated like part of the family. She did not just merely take orders and deliver food to the table, she genuinely cared and was beaming with pride when we told her that we loved the dish.
It was the waitstaff's stunning service that made this a great dining experience.
Overall, we were exceedingly impressed with Espresso Organica and think this deserved a second visit when I am next in the area.
