Le Marais Patisserie, Maroubra (22 June 2018)

Shop 6/1094 Anzac Parade, Maroubra NSW 2035
https://www.lemarais.com.au/
https://www.facebook.com/lemaraispatisserie/
https://twitter.com/lemaraissydney
https://www.instagram.com/patisserie.lemarais/

Freshly baked life in Maroubra

A tip from a friend finds me at this small bakery front which produces 90% of its products for cafes and restaurants while only 10% for the local walk in customers. French pastry chef Joel Barda is such a likeable character with his friendly nature and passionate smile. The abundant display of Jewish challah bread first confuses me but then learning the bakery used to be in Bondi puts it all into perspective. A supportive following must be getting their challah fix still from Joel. 

There's a limited range on display for the local punters and the Pain au Chocolat ($4) visually stands out as something different to the usual form. Nice buttery pastry filled with lots of yummy chocolate that apparently they make themselves. Those overflowing dry chocolate lava looking bits at the ends were like crunchy chocolate meringue — so good. Almond Croissant ($4) was looking quite flattened but came good on the flavour. Croissant ($3.50) had nice texture and some buttery flavour. Orange and Poppyseed Cake ($4.50) was moist and enjoyable. The Concorde cake sitting in the display looked amazing. I'm hoping Joel will add a few other classic pastry goodies like the vanilla slice, danish. lemon meringue and fruit tart to his shop display.

Royal Bakery, Rose Bay (21 June 2018)

Shop 1/791 New South Head Road, Rose Bay NSW 2029
https://www.instagram.com/theroyalbakery.rb/
https://www.facebook.com/Royal-Bakery-PTY-1035006296665734/

New bakery in Rose Bay

I'm always drawn to a new bakery in the hope of some amazing pastries and cakes. This location seems to have gone through a few different cafes and bakeries over recent years and hopefully these guys are here to stay. Their display of freshly baked goods looks promising and their signature item seems to be the Portuguese Tart ($4) with the option of flavoured ones with raspberry being available at the time. I'd be keen to try their Nutella one. My morning coffee and sugar hit is sorted with a strong flavoured Cappuccino ($3.50) using The Roastwell Coffee Co. The Portuguese Tart had nice flavour and pastry. Vanilla Slice ($5) texture was good and enjoyed the flavour of the custard. I found the ratio seemed to favour the pastry over the custard in my slice though. Apple Puff ($4.50) is like a danish. At the time it was a hard choice between the apple and the pear on display. A revisit is certainly on the cards — maybe for the Blackforest Cake. Staff were friendly and helpful. I found parking a bit of a challenge in the area due to being located in the middle of the main shopping area.