Alby and Esthers is the kind of cafe you’d expect to see in a Mudgee tourism brochure: all historic stone walls covered in trailing vines, smiling, apron-clad staff, and sugar-dusted cakes and muffins. The name sounds as though it belongs to someone’s grandparents – and it does. When Mudgee local Monica Campbell took over the cafe seven years ago, she decided to keep the name, which came with a long and loyal following.

The all-day menu leans into cafe staples such as banana bread, granola and a ploughman’s breakfast plate, but it’s the jaffles that are famous in these parts. The Esther Jaffle pairs locally smoked ham with egg, cheese and house-made relish, and there’s always a rotating special, perhaps marinated mushrooms or salami and sun-dried tomato pesto.

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