There aren't many thing better to do in an Adelaide winter than to park yourself at the nearest café, house a hot brekky sandwich or flaky croissant, and wash it all down with a mug-sized order of your favourite hot beverage. And Adelaide has no shortage of a food scene to do that in.
If this seems like your ideal setting for a weekend morning, then you're in luck. Adelaide has plenty of cafés to perch at this winter – from coffee institutions to neighbourhood hidden gems. And we've curated a tight edit of the very best, below.
1. Idle Hands (CBD)
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Address: 100 Gilbert Street, Adelaide, SA 5000
Best for: Scandi breakfast plates, nostalgic finger buns, doing the turn and staying till dinner
On the hunt for sourdough, pastries, coffee and natural wine? Idle Hands on Gilbert Street in the city has you covered. And if Copenhagen Fashion Week has left you eyeing off every perfectly composed breakfast plate coming out of Atelier September, consider this your local answer. The morning plate is suitably Scandi-coded: fresh slices of sourdough served with Ella’s plum jam, 12-month-aged Comté, a soft-boiled egg and a generous schmear of whipped butter.
2. Marshi’s Kitchen (Stirling)
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Address: 49 Mount Barker Road, Stirling SA 5152
Best for: Sri Lankan-inflected brunch, Adelaide Hills mornings, stretching breakfast into lunch
There’s a little more going on at Marshi’s Kitchen than your standard Hills brunch. Chef Marshi blends her Sri Lankan heritage with modern Australian cooking, bringing a little heat and spice to familiar breakfast territory. Pastries and artisan bread arrive fresh from Prove Patisserie, and coffee comes courtesy of Toby’s Estate. If you’re particularly good at lingering, the kitchen also opens for dinner on Friday and Saturday nights. Opt for bar seating at the front window when the sun's out for your morning apricating.
3. Around The Corner (Nailsworth)
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Address: 1/60 Howard St, Nailsworth, SA 5083
Best for: Kofta toasties, Parwana-made sweets, finding your new neighbourhood local
Nailsworth's new spot Around The Corner is exactly the kind of local place you dream of stumbling upon. The tiny Nailsworth café comes from husband-and-wife duo Ahmed Azimi and Suem Valiyff, who draw on their Afghan and Tatar backgrounds for a menu of kofta toasties, coffee and something sweet made by Adelaide institution Parwana.
4. Homeboy (CBD)
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Address: 266-269 North Terrace, Adelaide, SA 5000
Best for: Cinnamon scrolls, endless matcha combos, following your favourite café on TikTok
Homeboy began as a Hahndorf pop-up before its young founder, Tom Oswald, took the concept into the city – documenting much of the ride on TikTok along the way. The menu is deliberately tight: sandwiches, coffee, matcha, and a small collection of sweets. But the thing you’re really here for is the cinnamon scroll, made by Oswald’s mum, Trish Campbell.
5. The Gator Club (College Park)
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Address: 33 Payneham Rd, College Park, SA 5069
Best for: Plant-based everything, serious pastries, proving vegan brunch needn’t feel virtuous
Even committed carnivores should find something to get excited about at The Gator Club. It's a College Park café that is completely plant-based, with a menu spanning loaded toasties and breakfast burritos through to croissants, cakes and the cultish 'brookie' brownie-cookie hybrid. It’s also home to owner Chloe Mattner’s Chlo’s Vegan Club – an all-vegan and gluten-free bespoke baked goods company.
6. Bloom (Thebarton)
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Address: 38 Winwood St, Thebarton, Adelaide, SA 5031
Best for: Long brunches, cooking over coals, alfresco brekkies
Set inside an old tram barn in Thebarton, Bloom is the café you choose when you’re in absolutely no rush to be anywhere else. Fire is central to the kitchen's fare, with breakfast and lunch dishes cooked over coals and designed for sharing. There’s locally roasted coffee in the morning, South Australian wine when the clock permits, and a garden setting that makes ordering another round common sense.
7. Joe’s Kiosk (Henley Beach)
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Address: Esplanade, Henley Beach, SA 5022
Best for: Breakfast by the water, post-swim coffee, making a morning of it
There are beach cafés, and then there are kiosks like Joe’s that have occupied prime Henley Beach realestate since 1995, making it something of a local institution. Go classic with eggs on sourdough, or lean into the morning with a breakfast bun layered with bacon jam, bacon, fried egg and ranch. Either way, coffee and croissants taste scientifically better when there’s a little sea salt in the air (don't quote us on that).
8. Our Boy Roy (Clarence Park)
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Address: 114 East Ave, Clarence Park, SA 5034
Best for: Cubanos, hangovers, arriving hungry
Our Boy Roy is not the place for a delicate little breakfast. The Clarence Park favourite proudly deals in “great coffee, even better food and even betterer sandos”, and the menu backs up the claim. There’s chilli scramble with house Szechuan chilli crisp and furikake, breakfast gnocchi and a formidable Cubano stacked with smoked ham and mojo pork. Ordering a second sando for the road is also entirely reasonable, I think.
9. My Kingdom For A Horse (CBD)
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Addresses:
- 11 Waymouth St, Adelaide SA 5000
- 185 Pirie St, Adelaide SA 5000
- 60 King William St, Adelaide SA 5000
Best for: Coffee people, city pit stops, a pastry with your second cup
The famed line from Shakespeare's Richard III is where this joint took its unusual name. But if your morning priorities begin and end with very good coffee, My Kingdom For A Horse is the obvious locale for such matters. The Adelaide roaster now has several CBD outposts (though it did just farewell one on Wright St), making a properly made cup conveniently hard to avoid. Pair yours with something from the pastry cabinet — a Danish, pistachio brownie or perhaps a matcha and white chocolate cookie.
10. Fourth Hill Providore (Verdun)
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Address: 34 Onkaparinga Valley Rd, Verdun, SA 5245
Best for: Country drives, seasonal produce snobs, pregaming the winery with croissants
Fourth Hill Providore a good enough reason for a trip driving into the Hills. Set inside a restored stone building in Verdun, it leans into the good things: seasonal produce, artisan-made treats, coffee and a cabinet of sweet and savoury temptations. Come for breakfast before a day of winery hopping, if you ask us.
11. Bottega Bandito (Prospect and CBD)
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Addresses:
- 1/96 Prospect Road, Prospect, SA 5082
- 25 James Place, Adelaide, SA 5000
Best for: Italian-leaning sandos, excessive croissants, lunch that requires both hands
Long before Adelaide’s current sandwich obsession reached fever pitch, Bottega Bandito understood the assignment. The Prospect favourite has built a loyal following around generously filled, Italian-inspired sandwiches, good coffee and a pastry cabinet that warrants its own visit. Keep an eye on the rotating croissant specials, too: Bottega has been known to take the format into wonderfully excessive territory (we're hoping they keep the S’mores Croissant on the menu a while longer).
12. Tell Henry (Kent Town)
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Address: 39a Rundle St, Kent Town, SA 5067
Best for: Specialty coffee, becoming a regular, feeling lackadaisical
Tell Henry has been pouring coffee in Adelaide since 2015, moving around a little before eventually returning to Kent Town for good. The current iteration comes with a leafy courtyard, Industry Beans coffee and a compact food of bacon-and-egg rolls, toasties, mortadella and provolone rolls, brownies and almond croissants. Bring a book, bring the dog, cancel the next couple hours of plans.
13. Hark Coffee Roasters (Malvern)
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Address: 65 Duthy St, Malvern, SA 5061
Best for: Q-Graders, javaphiles, becoming insufferably particular about your morning brew
At Hark, coffee isn’t an accompaniment to breakfast; it’s very much the focal point. The South Australian roaster uses hot-air roasting rather than a conventional drum (still not sure what that means, tbh), but it's intended to chase the kind of balance between body, acidity and flavour more commonly discussed about a bottle of wine. Its Malvern café is the place to taste the results.
14. Shadow Baking (Glenelg)
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Address: Shop Ag 03/88 O'Connell St, North Adelaide, SA 5006
Best for: Pastry maximalists, custard tart Danishes, leaving with a suspiciously large box
From the team behind Gelato Messina comes Shadow Baking, which should tell you something about the level of restraint involved here – i.e. very little. The bakery specialises in highly engineered sweet and savoury pastries, with signatures including its custard tart Danish and coconut and pandan brioche alongside a rotating cabinet of delights. Its North Adelaide flagship shares an address with Messina, creating the dangerous possibility of following pastry with gelato. Don't skimp on buying a loaf of the focaccia – that's an insider's tip.
15. Jenny’s Bakery (Keswick, Norwood and Eastwick)
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Addresses:
- 81 Glen Osmond Rd, Eastwood, SA 5063
- Shop 20/166 The Parade, Norwood, SA 5067
- Keswick 48 Everard Ave, Keswick, SA 5035
Best for: Specialty croissants, soft serve, buying one now and three for later
Jenny’s is one of those bakeries where deciding what *not* to order is the harder exercise. Across its Eastwood, Norwood and newest Keswick store, you’ll find the classics alongside more playful flavours – a rotating lineup of flavoured croissants have earned their own following, while cookies and donuts have included everything from Jam Toast to eanut Butter Buttercups. Our advice? Don’t attempt restraint. The pastry you leave behind is inevitably the one you’ll think about later.
16. Yuku Do (CBD)
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Address: 252 Hindley Street, Adelaide, SA 5000
Best for: Onigiri breakfasts, proper matcha, a Japanese convenience-store hankering
Inspired by the quality-over-quantity approach of Japanese convenience stores, Yuku Do keeps its menu tight and very tempting. Fluffy shokupan comes filled with portobello or tonkatsu, soufflé-style egg or fruit and cream, while onigiri, karaage and furikake fries take care of the sides. Drinks receive equal attention: there’s Dukes coffee, but the house-blended matcha is the order for anyone who knows why they came.
