Once Upon A Time Cafe

I love this place — the décor is really well done, the food is delicious and the price is not too bad for the serving sizes.
Some menu standouts are the avocado smash (add eggs), green tea cake and earl grey latte.
The decorations look really authentic — it’s mismatched but the colours tie is all in. The service is always pretty quick but I’ve always come when it’s fairly quiet.
Don’t think I have any complaints — it’s definitely a lovely local joint to visit.

Great ambiance and décor. Breakfast and lunch is good here. Coffee is average as per my taste but otherwise a great place to try.

Eh. I had high expectations for this one, but sadly was let down. The place is cute. Really, really cute. You feel like you’re stepping inside a storybook — the décor isn’t too cheesy or overdone, it’s quite cozy and done well.
Apparently it gets super crowded during brunch time, but we arrived for a late lunch (think around 2:30) and it was pretty empty then.
Ordering is done at the counter, and the food came out pretty quickly. It was okay, but… the servings were really small for what you got. The cauliflower soup was seriously like a third of a serving, and I paid $ 14 for it (hmm, online menu posted September says it’s $ 12? So I could be wrong with this one) but still I’d say it was worth something like $ 6. It’s good but it was just really tiny and didn’t fill me up at all. My mom ordered a «big breakfast» but when it arrived, it was pretty sparse as well. I mean yeah, it had all the things it said it would have, but only little bits of it.
Had the kiwi apple smoothie and it came in a small cup and was just okay.
The food is not bad, but it’s not outstanding either. And the tiny servings will really make me hesitant to go back.

Me and a fellow Unilocaler visited this café for lunch and were taken away by the beautiful atmosphere and food. We ordered the smashed avo on toast and fish and chips, however I did find the fish and chips heavy on the batter it was lovely and the homemade tartare sauce was divine!
Deserves another visit for sure!

This is a cute café located in West Ryde that offers a delicious menu and a vast range of drinks and tea cakes. They offer a green tea latte that always wins me over when I see it being offered. I highly recommend the B.L.A.R.T. Sandwich !!! It was packed with juicy bacon and fresh soft avocado.

Generally good, but the food needs to be improved a little bit, I suggest the bread of beef burger can be little bit more soft.

Nice little shop with helpful and polite staff.
Coffee was great, Earl Grey latte amazing.
Atmosphere was very nice… First decent coffee shop in West Ryde

Beautiful café that makes you feel like you’ve stepped out of time. There’s old skool sewing machines and odd things to sit on. Wooden trains in the door and old décor. It smells like wood and imagination.
There’s a whole bunch of seating downstairs but you’ll need to order upstairs and collect up there.
There are a variety of things on offer and it’s a relatively new Café. The owners were lovely and let me know that they haven’t really advertised at all so they have been super excited about people that keep coming back.
This place is open till late! They throw you out at 11pm — and are gracious when you lose track of time and keep them back. The late closes reminds me of a European café in Sydney in that regard. They do an amazing earl grey latte, sweet potato latte as well as the traditional hot coffee’s and teas. They also do wicked food here too. Oh and frozen drinks. And wee deserts.
So if you want nibbles and good warm and cold beverages do so off in here and maybe you’ll find a pixie behind that potplant outside!

Had an early lunch last Sunday and the place was relatively busy. I placed my order at 11.40am for a ‘Moroccan Moo’ sandwich with chips and a flat white. The cashier said that it would be a 20 to 30 minute wait for my meal because of the breakfast to lunch transition (lunch menu starts at 11.30) and asked if it was okay to wait for it, so I said it was fine. Coffee arrived within 10 minutes and it tasted pretty good, so I decided to remain optimistic about the food too.
After twenty minutes (with my coffee basically gone), I was anticipating my food to arrive soon. Thirty, forty, fifty minutes passed with no sign of food. I asked a waiter to check up on it, and they said it was coming soon. After an hour placing my order, my sandwich finally came. The sandwich was supposed to have beetroot, chimichurri sauce, and sun-​dried tomatoes, but none of those ingredients were in sight. They were replaced with pesto, fresh tomato, and herb aoili. I got gypped again with one of the slices of bread having a gaping hole. The sandwich tasted good — but really anything tastes amazing when you’re starving.
If there’s ANYTHING I’d go back for it’d be the coffee. It’s a shame that for my first experience at this café the service and food were disappointing.

Keep those cool new food places coming West Ryde!
Really awesome vintage décor, really like what they did with everything. Though must say the old deserted dentist chair reminded me of Black Ops Zombies… :p make sure you check out the top and bottom floor.
Green tea latte wasn’t as hot as I thought it should be and probably a tad too sweet, but is otherwise decent.
My sister told me the potato one is way too sweet. So might ask them to lighten up with the sugar next time.
The bacon and egg roll is pretty delish. I would rate this over Element6 — only really liked the drinks over there.
Prices are very decent. Will come back for more!

Cute little vintage café! The décor is really nice they have a lot of vintage items all upstairs and downstairs. The table I sat on was an old school sewing machine — a treadle!
Only opened 2 days ago so I got to sample some house made orange pancakes with orange compote, ricotta and Canadian maple this morning. Hmm pancakes! Tasty
I also tried for the first time their earl grey latte. Yes, you heard correctly. Tastes exactly how you expect — a staff member told me that it is a collaboration Twinings and another company (will investigate further). But is it soo good! Must try it if you are in the area.
They also have a sweet potato latte! That is next on my list.
Breakfast is avail 7am to 11.30.
Lunch 11.30 –3pm.
Loved my first time and will definitely be back to sample something from this well designed menu.