fouratefive, surry hills

Four ate Five is a tiny cafe located at 485 Crown Street in Surry Hills (geddit, geddit? 4-8-5. Shame on you for not realising! Just kidding, I only realised after I looked up Four ate Five on Google Maps).

I've heard the wait for this place on weekends is pretty atrocious so my friend and I decided to have lunch here before heading over to George Street for Maleficient. (How gorgeous is Angelina Jolie!?)

There's no obvious signage of this tiny cafe so keep your eyes peeled to your surroundings (It's right next to Mad Spuds Cafe!). We walked past this place without even realising it!

The interior is pretty plain - a few artworks hung up here and there, and a few box like shelves. It's not the hipster vibes that make this place popular so it must be the food, right?

Maybe because we were starving and when that happens, the minutes spent waiting for food turn into what seems like an eternity. Luckily, there was a large bowl of kumera chips to nibble on.

Kumera Chips with Home-Made Aioli ($6.50): 

Initially I had pictured chunky sweet potato fries when I saw this on the menu but after going through Instagram, I found that they resembled potato chips so we couldn't resist ordering a bowl of this to share. These lightly salted chips are puffs of airy sweet potato crisps. They don't feel oily and taste great with home-made aioli. I could eat this all day.

Baked Eggs ($17.00):
Pancetta, spinach and leek baked eggs with mushroom, parmesan and sourdough.

The portion size of this dish was extremely generous. The sourdough was chewy, the eggs were perfectly runny and the combination of fatty bacon, cheese and mushrooms was just divine. Don't forget to butter up your toast and dip it into that runny egg and cheesy goodness.

Mexican Breakfast ($16.00):
Mexican bean mix on toast with tomato, avocado, and spanish onion salsa topped with either fried eggs or crispy tofu. 

Underneath that huge mound of tomato-ey Mexican bean, rocket, onion salsa, avocado and crispy tofu mix, is a spongy sourdough toast that soaks up all the sauce and tastes fabulous at first. But because the whole dish is so flavoursome, it can feel a bit salty and pretty boring after a while. I wish there had been less of the salsa and more of the avocado, rocket and tofu to balance everything out!

The staff are friendly, the portions are definitely much larger than what I had imagined them to be (hopefully the walk down to George Street Cinemas helped me burn some kilojoules) and I would definitely like to come back to try their smoked salmon stack or pulled pork salad. Oh, and you have try the kumera chips if you come here!

Fouratefive
485 Crown St
Surry Hills, NSW 2010
t: (02) 9698 6485
w: http://fouratefive.com/