Ms Murray? The name makes (a little) more sense when you know that this bright, snappy new Sydney CBD café and sandwich bar is the latest venture from the team behind John Montagu. That Woolloomooloo café was named for – yes! – the 4th Earl of Sandwich; Fanny Murray, the Ms Murray in question, was an 18th-century English courtesan and the feckless Earl’s mistress.
Which brings us to Liverpool Street, in the increasingly inaccurately named Spanish Quarter of the city. The menu will be familiar to Montagu regulars: the Maffra cheddar and sage toastie is here, thick on the bread, easy on the herb, alongside the bacon and egg bun, and the braised beef cheeks on sourdough.
They’re joined by more breakfasty stuff: smoked wagyu Benedict made with an eggless horseradish hollandaise, a Nutella French toast that takes the too-much-is-never-enough tack with caramelised banana and Bailey’s maple cream and candied nuts, and salmon rillettes paired with pea panna cotta, cream cheese, a coddled egg and rye toast.
There’s a lot going on here. Avocado and toast is reborn with the avo carpeted in seeds, plated with very long toast soldiers, two poached eggs, a possibly superfluous thatch of alfalfa and a “Moroccan” relish of red pepper and eggplant. (Our handy hack: if you’ve also ordered the cheddar toastie, try a little of the pepper relish slipped inside.)
The java is taken seriously enough to have an Ethiopian/PNG/Sumatran/Kenyan house-blend for white coffees and a changing selection for black – today a Kenyan AA lot from the Kirinyaga district roasted by Gabriel Coffee.
Ms Murray, shop 2, 88 Liverpool St, Sydney, NSW, ,Ms,Murray“>msmurraycafe.com.au
