Food Review: Reuben Hills, Surry Hills

Does anything beat having a nice cafe lunch on a slow morning or afternoon? I definitely appreciate the small things on a slow Saturday and that includes having a big brekkie. I’ve always wanted to try Reuben Hills, a small hole in the wall industrial chic cafe in Surry Hills approximately a 10 minute walk from Central Station.

Reuben Hills specialises in South American cuisine such as huevos divorciados (divorced eggs with salsa). Reuben Hills is also a micro roastery and prides itself on using coffee sourced from farmers. I’m not the biggest coffee drinker but I would highly recommend drinking a coffee from here. Their iced coffee is fantastic and not bitter. This may convert me to a cold brew coffee drinker.

Service and waiting times are a lot different to pre pandemic times. There was no wait for a seat and the cafe is really spacious making it a great chill weekend lunch spot.

It was relatively quiet given it was 1pm on a Saturday – the cafe was roughly at 60-70% capacity.

I had to get the baked eggs with ranchero sauce, kale and rye bread. I also added chorizo because nothing is complete without chorizo. The ranchero sauce is smokey, rich but slightly spicy. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed the addition of the kale.

If you’re looking for recommendations, the waitress highly recommended the ricotta toast. I opted out of this because I thought it would be too sweet and light for my palette. I was starving so I wanted to eat something really filling and I can’t go wrong with the baked eggs. The eggs were cooked well. I love a gooey consistency moment.

The main criticism is that the food is slightly overpriced. The baked eggs with chorizo will set you back $23. The iced latte was $5. Whilst the serving portion is adequate, the serving dish is quite deceiving as it’s quite shallow so it definitely looks like there’s more food on the surface. I have had shakshuka before which is a similar dish at lower price points and higher quantities. In saying that, the food portion will be adequate for one person.

What I find sneaky is at the bottom of the menu it does state a 10% charge on weekends. In my opinion, this is quite hefty – not that 10% of a meal is a hugely significant amount but it may be enough to irritate you. I’ve not really seen surcharges on weekends except for fine dining. This may deter you from visiting. There is also a 20% surcharge on public holidays. On top of that, there is also a credit card surcharge but this is not unusual for restaurants in Sydney.

The common running theme reading other reviews online is that the food is great but given the price point, customers were slightly disappointed as they wanted excellent food.

Reuben Hills is in a nice quiet part of Surry Hills and I do like the relaxed atmosphere. I haven’t tried much of the menu to truly form my opinion but I think the cafe is slightly overrated given the quality of the food given the high price and expectation. It’s not anything to really write home about. I am definitely glad I finally ate here as it has been on my list of places to eat for a while but I’m not sure I’m dying to come back anytime soon.