Took the little one back to the play cafe at Westfield Hornsby, the one that shut down a while back has reopened as Twinkle Kids Cafe now, same kind of setup from what I remember, just a new name on the door. We hadn’t been to a play cafe in a while and the cold weather had us stuck looking for something indoors, so this felt like the easy option, somewhere in the shopping centre we were already heading to anyway. Figured we’d get there early and see how it compared to what used to be there.
The castle slide
There’s a pastel castle structure with a slide built into it, kids have to throw a tyre-shaped cushion up to the top first before they go down, which turned out to be more of an arm workout for me than for her. She loved climbing up, grabbing the cushion, throwing it, then sliding down into the ball pit at the bottom, over and over.
The ball pit
Right at the base of the slide, a big soft ball pit with oversized balls mixed in among the regular ones. She spent ages just throwing the big balls around and burying herself in it, classic toddler entertainment really.
The mini kitchen and mini market
Up on a little raised platform, a proper play kitchen with a stove, cupboards, the works, and right next to it a tiny market stocked with felt fruit and veggies in little crates. She went full pretend-shopkeeper mode, filling baskets and serving us “food” for a good twenty minutes.
The dress up and construction corner
A dress up area with racks of little costumes between the kitchen and market, and below it a construction zone with toy trucks, blocks and traffic cones set up like a mini building site. Good mix, one side is all pretend dress ups, the other is diggers and blocks, so it covers a couple of different interests at once.
The organic market corner and the game table
A little organic market shelf stocked with felt produce in labelled bins, and right next to it a big blue touchscreen table with simple games on it. Good spot for slightly older kids who’ve had enough of the physical stuff and want to sit down for a bit without actually leaving the play area.
Seating and food for the parents
Plenty of tables and chairs for parents, and they’re actually comfortable, not an afterthought. For $5 you get a coffee or drink included, so you can sit, sip and keep an eye on things at the same time. There’s a decent food menu too, just skip the taro flavoured one, it had basically no flavour at all.
What it costs
Kids are $13 an hour on a regular day, adults are $5 and that includes a drink voucher. Reasonable for a couple of hours of entertainment and somewhere to sit with a coffee.
Parking
It’s inside Westfield Hornsby so the centre’s usual parking applies, 4 hours free if you download the parking app, worth doing before you go in so you’re not caught out.
Going in the school holidays
A good rainy day option during the break since it’s indoors and inside the shopping centre, so you can combine it with lunch or a bit of shopping. The NSW spring school holidays run 28 September to 9 October this year, go early in the day like we did if you want it quiet. For more indoor options have a look through our indoor play centre list.
Is it worth going
Yes, for an occasional energy burn it does the job well. It’s on Level 3 of Westfield Hornsby, near Daiso, aimed at kids aged 0 to 8, open 9am to 6pm every day. We got there right when it opened at 9 and it wasn’t busy at all, a dozen or so other kids trickled in over the morning, so the early slot was a good call. It’s better suited to younger, preschool age kids though, once they’re a bit older there’s just not quite enough in there to hold their attention for long, but for the little ones it’s a solid way to burn some energy, and it would work well for a birthday party too if you wanted to book the space out.