Sydney
Why Workshop is constantly hailed as one of Sydney’s best espresso joints and accumulates long queues of people every morning remains a mystery to me. It’s true that the coffee is quite good; rich, smooth and never burnt; but there’s certainly no shortage of decent coffee specialty stores in the Sydney CBD (and many of them opt to sell regular coffees below the $3.50 price).
Aside from the fore-mentioned long queues (which may seem attractive to some), the staff always seem more interested in socialising with each other than taking your order. I usually have to repeat myself several times.
And I don’t know what the other food tastes like, but the croissants taste like they came straight out of a packet from Coles or Woolworths. They’re soft and lack the buttery goodness that should make them stand out when compared to an ordinary sweet bun. I could have a bought a dinner roll, put a small amount of butter inside and had the same level of enjoyment. Some of the other food looked like it could be nice; the Italian donuts, South American caramel biscuits (I don’t know the names of either), but after the croissant experience, I’d be hesitant to buy food from here.
Good coffee, but expensive coffee, long queues, average service, mediocre food, no breakfast deal…there are much better places to go.
Atmosphere 2/5
Quality 3/5
Value 3/5
Overall 6/10
500 George Street, Sydney
Between Business Food Trails 