Category: Bakery

Categories
Bakery Vietnamese

Bánh Mì Bảy Ngộ – Bankstown NSW Restaurant Review

I was on a banh mi kick recently, and Banh Mi Bay Ngo, very close to Nam Fong Hot Bread, was a natural option for a pre-work meal.

Like its nearby competitor, Banh Mi Bay Ngo’s traditional pork roll ($6.50) was packed with cold sliced meats at a very competitive price. I’d say that in comparison with Nam Fong, this particular roll had a greater and attractive crispiness to its pickled vegetables, which provide for nice intra-bite textural variation. Please note that the roll did not come wiht the grill marks – the bread was heated up in a sandwich press prior to consumption – a technique I learned from the SRMO who keeps making me feel jealous every time he has a banh mi at work.

The nem chua pork roll ($6.50) was less attractive to me, owing to the physically smaller quantity of meat, without much extra in terms of flavour. Still a good roll, but doesn’t beat the classic in my opinion.

Overall, both were good, and I can’t recommend either Banh Mi Bay Ngo or Nam Fong over the other.

Bánh Mì Bảy Ngộ
49 Bankstown City Plaza, Bankstown NSW 2200
(02) 9709 8106

Categories
Bakery Vietnamese

Nhu Y King’s Hot Bread – Ermington NSW Restaurant Review

Nhu Y King’s banh mis with double meat kept me going through never ending weekend ward rounds on the aged care inpatient team, and I thank them for that.

The size and price ratio was good, as was their 7-day opening schedule, something that XCel Roll could not compete with.

(I should note that as of 2024 the size and quality at XCel Roll Auburn has dropped off significantly, which is a shame, because they used to hold the crown. I don’t know if XCell Roll Parramatta has suffered the same drop in quality, as I’ve not been back in some time.)

Nhu Y King’s Hot Bread
23 Betty Cuthbert Ave, Ermington NSW 2115

Categories
Bakery Café

Bennett Street Dairy – Bondi NSW Restaurant Review

Look, this is really a review of a cookie that I had at Blair St Dairy, because that was closest to where we were and had to be again within a 45 minute window (some kind of magnesium sulfate floaty thing in Bondi Junction – my partner’s idea, but I agreed to go because she wanted me to, and magnesium sulfate is probably my most used drug). It really doesn’t matter though, because it’s only a cookie, and both places are run by the same people.

So what can I tell you about this chocolate chip cookie ($?6.50) that you can’t tell just from the photos? It was big, it was thick. It was warmed up for us before serving, which made it quite nice and soft. It was initially though to be not-too-sweet based on cookie, but opinion was changed to too-sweet once the taste of chocolate chip was established. The oiliness and sweetness of the cookie didn’t quite fit with the overall vibe of The Bondi Local, but these are probably the people who have some extra calories to spare anyway.

We had fun looking at all the Halloween displays outside the homes between our car and the café. You don’t get that as much when your house is worth less than $3 million of inter-generational wealth.

Anyway if you want the cookie and have an acceptable Trigs/HDL/LDL/HbA1c it’s probably more efficient to buy their cookie dough from the shops and bake your own.

Bennett St Bakery
(02) 8387 2149
73 Bondi Rd, Bondi NSW 2026

Categories
Bakery

Dulcet Cafe – Sydney NSW Restaurant Review

The Galaxy Mousse Cake ($78) from Dulcet in Books Kinokuniya is one of four or five new full sized cakes I’ve had this year, chosen by my partner who does not generally enjoy a classic sponge.

It is a very dense mousse based cake, chocolate on the inside, and not too sweet. The layer of raspberry and cherry inside the chocolate gave it a bit of black-forest like quality, which was enjoyable.

It was not a transcendent experience, contrary to what some online reviewers will have you believe. As someone who constantly chases novelty, I don’t think I’d order it again, but I do think it was relatively good as far as non-sponge cakes go.

Dulcet Cafe
Located in Books Kinokuniya, Level 2/500 George St, Sydney NSW 2000
(02) 8084 4456

Categories
Bakery Portuguese

The Portuguese Corner – Nowra NSW Restaurant Review

The Portuguese Corner doesn’t actually exist anymore as a restaurant, but they do still exist as a supplier of delicious savoury and sweet tarts to Nowra local coffee roaster and cafe Hyper Hyper, also known as the mother-joint of Punch the Ploughman, which has been extensively reviewed on this site already.

While Punch the Ploughman serves a variety of in-house and externally sourced (mostly from Sonoma Bakery) treats, their cohabitant venue Hyper Hyper has only a small pie warmer of delicious warm treats, with no cross-pollination between the two.

First, the Portuguese Tart ($5). A bit sweet, but served deliciously warm and gooey from the pie warmer, with an excellently buttery puff pastry that carries through to all of their savoury tarts. Pretty good, and preferred over Milkwood in Berry’s.

The Village Chorizo Tart ($6) was my favourite savoury tart. Again with lovely puff pastry, and a great umami filling. Good balance of flavours.

The Kale and Goat Cheese Tart ($6) is a relative masterclass on how to make a vegetarian quiche, and with its interesting mix of sourness from the goat cheese and vegetable flavours it is far superior to the quiche from Punch the Ploughman next door.

I did not feel that the Bacon and Spring Onion Tart ($6) was quite as good as the Village Chorizo Tart, though they clearly both come from the same school of meat-supplemented quiche. The bacon strips on top were a bit hard and difficult to eat in my opinion, though overall it was still better than the aforementioned vegetarian quiche next door. The egg was also better.

In summary these expensive little tarts (really mini quiches) are all quite good (though I don’t know how Portuguese the savoury ones are), and I can only hope that one day they may rise again and spread their joy from a place that isn’t the pie warmer of someone else’s cafe.

For now, they’re available at Hyper Hyper.

The Portuguese Corner at Hyper Hyper
85 North St, Nowra NSW 2541
0424 551 509