A local's guide to Bronte and Tamarama

You’ve probably broken Iggy Ivanovic’s bread at one of Sydney’s top restaurants. This is bread you need to work at: the thick, chewy crust of the sourdough is a workout for the jaw, giving way to a slight earthy, sour flavour and incredible texture. Iggy’s bread deserves the best butter you can find, and that’s about all you’ll want to put on it.

Eating out isn't getting much more wholesome and nutrient dense than the spread available at Bronte's Broth Bar and Larder. Not only can you stock up on activated nuts, cacao power bars and raw sokolata, kim chi, pâté, stock and tallow from Star Anise Organic Wholefoods, but now you can sit down to a hot cup of broth in four flavours (chicken, beef, fish or vegetable) that you can opt to add flavour bombs to (coconut milk, ginger, cumin etc). 

A great little pit stop on the Coogee-to-Bondi coastal walk, Café Salina has views of Bronte Beach and park – bags a spot on the sidewalk and settle in. For breakfast, they're serving hearty takes on the usual suspects – ricotta hotcakes, all the Benedicts – and for lunch they have burgers, steak and plenty of seafood. They're big on juices and smoothies, too.

So named after one of the local shoreline's most distinctive rockpools, this long-standing stalwart of the Bronte café scene has been the go-to when locals are in need of a fry up or some crumpets and jam, with a side of postcard-worthy views, since 1993. Humble and wholesome, this unpretentious brekkie spot delivers all the goods of its bougier counterparts without worrying about the frills.

A local cold press juice brand inspired by a trip to California has opened its first store in Bronte. It's the place for a post or pre-swim juices, smoothie, wholefood snack or a coffee from AllPress.

Hot tip for new players: on Sunday Bronte Beach is a madhouse. On those days during summer a sea of fluoro-pink nippers and their parents floods this petite beach for junior surf lifesaver training. Instead, you want to head down here for a sunrise swim, or after the lunch rush. That way it’ll be a breeze when you rock up to the jaunty blue-painted kiosk for a smoothie, coffee or slushie. They also do fish and chips and burgers, like all good canteens should, and you can surf a sugar wave after you’ve battled the breakers with cookies, killer pythons and ice creams.

After getting your gills wet, you can pop over to the architecturally designed pavilion for a smoked salmon bagel, grilled chicken burger, haloumi salad or a croque madame under the big outdoor umbrellas set up at the base of the cliffs. If it’s one of those blistering days when only liquid sustenance will do they also make smoothies, milkshakes, juices and iced coffee.