Bitton Gourmet Cafe, Alexandria

Another mum's group meeting in Alexandria takes us to pram-magnet Bitton. I'm first to arrive and take a table out in the courtyard, next to the dedicated kids playroom and a huge stack of IKEA highchairs, and order a flat white.

After reading the French-influenced breakfast/lunch menu I can't decide, so I wait to see if anyone will share with me, especially as I want to tuck into some pommes frites. I'm in luck, and my partner chooses the sourdough toast with tomato, goats cheese and basil oil from the breakfast side of the menu. When our waiter comes I'm tempted by the special of duck liver pate, but I never say no to goats cheese.

The chips aren't cheap and don't look French to me but the fresh tomato sauce is a nice touch and probably pleases people without a lifelong addiction to ketchup. 

I think the sourdough is from Brasserie Bread so no complaints there, but with one huge and one tiny slice I had to cut both in half for sharing. It's tasty though, thanks to that goats cheese.

Of course, we can't leave without trying out that play area, so the babies get into some tummy time, or is that skydiving practice?

Bitton Gourmet Cafe
36-37a Copeland Street, Alexandria, NSW 2015
p. (02) 9519 5111
http://www.bittongourmet.com.au

La Renaissance Pâtisserie Française, The Rocks

The Family Pea takes advantage of cheap Sunday travel to spend the day in The Rocks. We're actually there on best man and matron of honour duties to taste wedding food at Wolfie's Bar & Grill, but before that we have time to meet a friend for coffee, and it has to be the Renaissance. When I worked across the road from here my colleagues and I enjoyed many a morning tea supplied by this French patisserie, but that was more than five years ago.

It's market day and sunny and all the tables on Argyle Street are taken. We carry the pram and Baby Pea through to the leafy back courtyard with bigger tables and winter-friendly heat lamps.

I love a bowl of coffee, though it's probably not the easiest thing to drink with a baby on your lap.

I have a major weakness for gruyere so the ham and cheese croissant has my name on it. Pea Pa gets a shock when he sees it come out, all buttery and smothered with melted cheese. He's glad he didn't say no though when he tastes the creamy, ham-flecked bechamel filling - it's heaven. Definitely one to share.

Naturally we can't leave without sampling something sweet, and the almond croissant beckons. I cut it into little squares so we feel less guilty, or perhaps so no one notices me eat the last piece.

La Renaissance Patisserie Francaise
47 Argyle St, The Rocks, Sydney NSW 2000
p. 02 9241 4878

Paper Cup Espresso Bar, Stanmore

A new baby sister cafe to Clipper in Glebe, cute little Paper Cup is the ideal venue for a lunch date with a friend who's halfway through brewing her own bub. Pea Pa and I deliver some baby booty to her place in Petersham and with no room in the car for the pram, we get him to drop us off outside the cafe so we won't be late to meet our friend and her six-month-old.

I'm pleased to be pramless so I don't take up too much space at our footpath table. I feed Baby Pea then hand him over to sit with the bump so I can enjoy my flat white. It's strong, serious coffee.

There are a few breakfast things on the menu and just three sandwiches - good news for the indecisive diner. I go for prosciutto, mozzarella, tomato and pesto, and my fellow mum nabs the last one with smoked salmon, ricotta, capers and hard-boiled egg.

They come on toasted Turkish, quartered and prettily plated. Mine is a full-flavoured combination and I pull out some of the salty prosciutto to eat on its own so I can enjoy the simple trio of tomato, basil and fresh mozzarella. It's delicious either way, and my friend is just as happy with hers.

We love the service too. Filled water glasses are brought to the table without needing to ask, and they don't even mind when we have a baby brain moment, leave without paying for one coffee and don't realise our mistake for about half an hour. I want to come back again soon and bring my sweet tooth.

Paper Cup Espresso Bar
157/161 Cambridge St Stanmore NSW 2049
w. http://www.papercupcoffee.com.au

Locantro Fine Foods, Leichhardt

I allow plenty of time to walk to Leichhardt for this week's Rippas lunch, so I can browse the baby shop round the corner and feed the Pea before the others arrive. Fifteen minutes early, after splashing out on a Bumbo play tray, I wheel him into Locantro Fine Foods, hoping to find a table to accommodate us.

I'm hovering near a lady who looks like she's about to leave when a man in the corner leaps up from his table and offers it to me. He even cleans it for me, and brings over extra chairs when I say I'm meeting three other mums. Owner Vittorio Locantro clearly values his customers, and it turns out mums make up a hefty number of them – during the week, he says, there's often a pram at every table, or mother's groups of five at a time.

I order a hot chocolate and get feeding, looking out past a stack of food show medals posted on the window. Vittorio's son Pino is the award-winning pastry chef, and the walls display posters of his new cookbook, Dinner with the Baker.

The others arrive and as usual we comment on how fast our boys are growing up. Baby Pea demonstrates this by stealing the opportunity, while I'm cooing over the other babies, to get his hands onto the table and knock my now-cold chocolate all over the table, pram and floor. Oops.

From a limited savoury selection of pies, quiches, sausage rolls and pizza slices, I pick a salami, artichoke and olive pizza and turn down the side salad. This is wise as I manage to cut it up and eat it one-handed. It's a good size for the price, with a light foccacia-style base, lots of cheese and lovely hot salami.

I should follow it with something sweet but instead I channel my change into take-home goodies - thickly sliced ham to go into the pasta dish I've planned for dinner and a loaf of ciabatta to go with it. I'm lucky to sneak a piece of someone else's treat though - an Italian custard-filled doughnut that reminds me of the Very Hungry Caterpillar before he turns into a butterfly.

Locantro Fine Foods
9 Catherine Street, Leichhardt NSW 2040
p. (02) 9568 3637

Gloria's Cafe, Petersham

Lunch with Nana Boot again and this time I suggest a healthy stroll uphill to Petersham. We stop at the art shop on Audley St to buy some picture frames for Baby Pea photos before settling in at Gloria's Cafe. We last ate here more than five years ago. I remember loving the garlic prawns, and the Portuguese hot dog - a roll with ham, cheese, frankfurter and mustard.

The lunch menu also offers $10 salads and my crustacean-loving mum-in-law likes the sound of the prawn croquettes. There are two per serve and I order the bacalao version so we'll have one of each, plus a bowl of fries.

Complimentary olives and bread rolls keep us going until the salads arrive in traditional terracotta dishes.

We're both very satisfied, though we both prefer the bacalao croquette. The Portuguese really know how to cook a good fish cake.

Gloria's Café
1/82 Audley Street, Petersham NSW 2049
p. (02) 9568 3966

Petty Cash Cafe, Marrickville

It's my turn to choose a Rippas lunch location and I choose one of Marrickville's best – the lovely Petty Cash on Enmore Park. Four prams are one too many for us to sit inside, but we manage to squeeze around a large outdoor table.

Like The Kick Inside, this corner cafe is a vintage lovers dream - my flat white comes to the retro table in a proper china cup with a scalloped collectors teaspoon, while my tablemate's teapot wears a crafty knitted tea cosy.

I've only been here for breakfast before. The lunch side of the menu has lots to offer but a wrap in the display at the counter catches my eye - roast pork with roast carrots, red onion and redcurrant jelly.

At first bite, I'm disappointed - unlike the delicious blackened, melting carrots of my childhood Sunday roasts, these carrots are so crunchy as to be almost raw. But crunch isn't a bad thing in a sandwich and luckily the pork has plenty of flavour. The redcurrant jelly, escaping from the ends and making a pool of sticky, meaty juice on the plate, is the star for me, fooling my tastebuds into thinking I've had an afternoon tea treat. Just as well, or I might have had to try one of their signature brownies.

Petty Cash Cafe
68 Victoria Road, Marrickville NSW 2204
p. (02) 9557 2377

Cafe 279, Marrickville

Nana Boot has come to visit Baby Pea and we pop down to the shops for milk, fruit, chocolate and, er, passport photos. With 20 minutes developing time to kill, we head over the road to 279. The blackboard outside offers scones with jam and cream and there are souvlaki specials for $7, but Nana Boot is under doctors orders to eat beef so we decide to split the steak sandwich with chips.

Two of the tables come with squashy sofas so I plonk Baby Pea down beside me while I eat. Steak sandwich isn't something I order often as I'm cautious about tough meat, but this one is better than expected. With thick white toast, grilled onions and a ton of tomato and lettuce, it's not at all glamorous but the flavours come with childhood memories of summer backyard barbecues. The thin steak is well caramelised and beefy, not too chewy. I get most of the chips and I eat them all up with the little bowl of ketchup. Bliss.

Cafe 279
279 Illawarra Road, Marrickville NSW 2204  
p. 02 9558 7434 ‎

Clipper Cafe, Glebe

This cute cafe at the southern end of Glebe Point Road attracts a quirky crowd. How do I know? Well, the other day I saw a guy perched on one of the footpath tables holding a kitten on a leash. OK, it's not as odd as the guy I saw in the Harajuku area of Tokyo dragging a leek on a leash, but it's still not something you see every day. The kitten was very well behaved, so the trick must be to start them young. It didn't work when I tried it on my cat Chilli a few years ago – she got startled and jumped clean out of the harness, Houdini style.

Anyway, Clipper is clearly a great place to go for a coffee and a chat (ha ha). It's certainly busy on a rainy Friday afternoon and my friend and I don't fancy our chances getting a table until a kind couple relinquish theirs and we're in.

 
After a quick coffee and catch-up we order two dishes to share from the all-day menu - a panini with salami, tomato relish, feta and babaganoush and baked eggs with lamb sausages.

Baby Pea is a bit cranky and I'm distracted by feeding but the sweet garlicky sandwich hits the spot. Once I've settled him back in the pram I can enjoy the eggs - they're perfectly cooked and taste great with the soft sausage and chunky tomato sauce. You can also have them with chorizo or sauteed mushrooms.

Next door is a fantastic French patisserie selling proper baguettes and classic pastries such as pain au chocolat - they even make mini versions, which I've never seen anywhere else.

Clipper Cafe
16 Glebe Point Road, Glebe NSW
p. 0411 800 063

The Kick Inside Espresso Lounge, Erskineville

A few years ago a Melbourne friend took me to those bars that are all comfy couches, long-neck beers and retro knickknacks that work together but don't try too hard. The kind of place that makes you feel at home, or the home you wish you had. The Kick Inside is just like that. We almost miss it as we charge up Erskineville Road to eat lunch at a better-known cafe, but it catches my friend's eye and we think, why not? But is it good? A local overhears and says yes - it's really lovely. So in we go.

Spacewise, on a busy weekend it could be a pram-wielder's nightmare but it's midweek and we're fine at the oval table we choose. The menu is brief and mostly breakfast-related but there are sandwiches, a pizza and two salads on offer - we go for both, plus the kitchen's recommendation of a tuna sandwich. I've done my coffee drinking for the day but the others enjoy their Golden Cobra brews.

The salads arrive on mismatched plates and sharing with my dairy-fearing friend means I get all the feta in the pear and walnut salad, which is filled out with rocket and baby spinach coated in a sharp lemon dressing. The other has free-range chicken, Paesanella bocconcini (again, all mine), avocado, tomatoes and more greens, this time with a hint of balsamic in the dressing. It's refreshing to see a salad assembled before your eyes and with good ingredients - well, the tomatoes could be riper but I can't blame the Kick kitchen for that.

We take up the offer of soy and linseed on the side and it's freshly baked, restaurant-quality sourdough, too. Pea Pa's nicoise-style sandwich, meanwhile, is declared a hit, thanks to the happy marriage of bread and potato. Even the hard-boiled egg, of which he's a fellow hater, is entirely welcome.

Of course, Baby Pea is a long way from demanding his own babycinos and even a kid-friendly cafe wouldn't supply much to hold his interest yet, so it's a nice surprise to find him fascinated by the thick black lines of the We Buy Your Kids wall mural.

Another drawcard, which I discover only after I do my usual in-seat shuffle, is that the bathroom out the back has a lounge room attached with a sofa that could be a comfortable, private-ish spot for feeding the baby. I'll have to come back and find out.

The Kick Inside Espresso Lounge
43 Erskineville Rd, Erskineville NSW 2204
p. 02 9517 2255