You know those minimalist, hipster cafes where the lighting is always on point and every surface is perfect for taking photos? Where the menu is as on-trend and wholesome as the clean-lined aesthetic? Well, that's the Paramount Coffee Project in a nutshell.

Nestled in amongst the outlet and furniture shops in the homemaker/industrial hub of Alexandria sits The Grounds of Alexandria, famous for it's innovative 'ground roots' approach to food. You know you're near when you begin to hear the hustle and bustle of crowds and begin to find it hard to find parking - on the weekends the queue for a table may last up to an hour or more .


But if you do find yourself in this predicament, don't worry too much. Outside the main cafe you'll be left wonder The Grounds, an expansive, open outdoor area that includes a courtyard, herb beds, a pig and chicken pen and on the weekends is home to The Grounds Markets where you can buy homemade bread, pastries, coffee, flowers and other edible knick-knacks that are all made on site. Wandering past and gawking at all the beautiful stalls is sure to provide a fun and unique experience that will pass the time and distract you from the wait in no time.

You know those kitsch, funky cafes that seen to be popping up everywhere these days? The ones that serve the perfect cup of freshly ground and blended coffee, have a crowd-pleaser all day breakfast menu and a lunch menu with absolutely drool-worthy sandwiches and salads so large in number that you can't possibly choose what to order?

Demain Providore on the busy main road of Balmain is exactly one of those cafes. With a coffee counter and sandwich bar opening up to the front facade and a smaller kitchen out the back, it is appropriately decorated with coffee sacks and knick knacky decor in shades of red, green and brown. A chalkboard mounted high on one of the side walls lists the all day breakfast menu and lunch menu, and the front shelves are lined with freshly baked Brickfields bread rolls and loaves.

On a bright, sunny Saturday when we had nothing to do we decided to go out to Newtown for a wander and to have lunch. Being the hipster suburb that it is, there's no shortage of good eateries in the area, lined up side by side along King Street.Twelve is nestled among them, occupying almost two shopfront lengths with its open-air seating and dark, subtle decor. The signage oozes the air of a funky, seaside cafe.

Nothing is more exciting than going out to different places on various eating adventures, so unfortunately we seldom find ourselves eating locally unless its for takeaway or gelato.

Whenever we are given the exciting opportunity of going out to eat (a much-loved past-time), you'll always find me hastily Googling restaurants and thumbing through my Good Food Guide to scour out new and exciting places for us to venture out to.

I find myself in this situation more often that not, but it always seems to end with us visiting a main eating/shopping strip and simply eating at whatever place we stumble upon that tickles our fancy. It's not that I don't love the places we go often and frequently visit, but the lure of eating at a new, much-talked about café or restaurant is almost too good to resist when presented with the chance to. It's not disappointing, per se, but once in a while I'd really like to visit that place I read about last month in the Good Food, or read about online in one of my many favourite food blogs. I keep many lists of this kind on my phone, whiteboard and notebooks, but whenever the opportunity arises I never fail to find myself caught up in a frenzy trying to decide on a place to go to eat. I really should be organising myself better.