Mason Cafe

Mason Cafe sits on Alexandra Street in Hunters Hill, Sydney's garden suburb on the peninsula between the Lane Cove and Parramatta rivers, in the heritage Garibaldi Village pocket. It runs 7am to 3pm every day of the week, giving the village square a consistent seven-day cafe rhythm. The address at 37B Alexandra Street places it in one of the most atmospheric cafe settings in Sydney, a Victorian village square that most of the city does not know exists.

Dogs are welcome in the partly covered alfresco seating around the Garibaldi Village square, with staff accommodating dogs at the tables, per visitor reviews and venue attributes. There is no written policy, so the welcome is by practice rather than paperwork, but the square setting works in a dog owner's favour: tables sit away from through traffic and the covered al fresco side keeps dogs out of the indoor rooms. Because the square is shared with the surrounding shops, keep your dog at the table rather than wandering the paving while you eat.

The vibe

The kitchen punches above its size: baked eggs and poached eggs for breakfast, a steak sandwich and house cured salmon for the later plates, and a custard tart that visitors single out as the reason to save room. The square is quiet by Sydney standards, which is exactly why the dog-friendly alfresco works; this is a lingering-cafe suburb rather than a turnover strip. The 3pm close is generous by the suburb's standards, so a late-morning arrival still gets the full menu rather than a picked-over cabinet.

Close by with the dogs

Hunters Hill's dog-friendly circuit is short but good: Grey Grus Cafe and The Sunroom are both nearby, Miranda Hunters Hill rounds out the cafe list, and the Hunters Hill walk links the foreshore reserves for a proper leg stretch before or after the table. More in the Hunters Hill destination guide and the NSW dog-friendly cafes list.