"Smile, and the world smiles with you..."
From the cheery lemon yellow lamps to the Louis Armstrong inspired advice, who says bakeries aren't happy places? I love them for their often optimistic monikers and this bakery, situated opposite Greater Union Cinemas at Macquarie Centre, is no exception.
Hello Happy! Yes indeed! Especially when one is greeted with an array of bakery porn. It's the perfect food to accompany Benjamin Button, Mr S. and I on this particular night.
On closer inspection, the bakery looked to consist of mostly European baked goods such as pizza breads, Danishes and baguettes. The cakes, cookies and tarts also continued the European style. Not a pork floss bun or bbq pork in sight.
I did spot one Asian bakery staple: a sausage bun – at a head-spinning $3.50! I was a little stunned as these gems normally would be more than half that price at a standard Asian bakery. But for research purposes I had to purchase one.
It pales in comparison to the standard Asian bakery sausage buns where the bread is soft and sweet. Sadly this one doesn't live up to it.
Being the greedy, insatiable glutton I am, I wished my mushroom pizza bread ($2.70) had more mushrooms and less pieces of raw onion. Luckily Mr S. is chained to me for life...onion breath and all (honestly I don't think it's that bad!).
Mr S’s decision was easy as anything that is remotely chocolate in a bakery gets the thumbs up. Highlight of the night was the perplexed expression on his face he took a big first bite into his chocolate bun (anticipating a mouthful of chocolate) and found it completely void and empty!
A second big bite was needed to finally revealed the little pool of chocolate custard within. After a taste myself I could only conclude that it tasted like Chocolate Yogo in a bun. Not entirely a bad thing as I was a chocolate yogo addict as a child!
My sugar hit came from 3 quaint little cookies that I just had to sample (0.30 each). Extreme happiness is when my weakness for coconut baked goods is satiated, especially with a cookie with just the right flavour and crunch. Unfortunately the other two varieties of almond cookies did not garner the same reaction.
Disappointment is when my gingerbread men are toothachingly hard and 'commercially-flavoured'. But then again, my standard for gingerbread men was severely raised when I first tasted the glorious shortbread texture and chewy stem ginger pieces found in The Biscuit Tree's gingerbread men (and ginger shortbread).
My favourite piece of eye candy is no doubt the display case of cakes and tarts. A mesmerising kaleidoscope of colour and the fruit tarts looked divine.
Looking at some of the individual cakes I couldn’t help noticing how similar the shapes were to Adriano Zumbo’s summer collection! Where's the f*%#@^ cheese? and Wheely Wildly Wendy spring to mind.
Though slightly disappointed the first time round, their mouthwatering display of cakes warrants a return visit for a taste...all for research of course!
Hello Happy
Shop 408b - Macquarie Shopping Centre
North Ryde, NSW 2113
(02) 9889 8080
Trading Hours:
Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri 9-5:30pm
Thurs 9am-9pm
Sat 9-5pm
Sun 10-4pm
I love walking past that place. It always looks so inviting and the baked goods are always yummy. Great impromptu food styling by the way! ;)
I love a good Asian bakery, those sausage buns are awesome when done well:D I'd definitely give this place a try, big thumbs up from me for the colourful cake display - there's bound to be a winner in there!
Oh that gingerbread man look so happy and cute hee hee! Their other pastries and cakes also look very good so must try! I love bread yum ^^!
Hi Maria: lol it was the best food styling I could do on a food court table!
Hi Miss Honey: Sausage buns are my fave so I'm extremely picky with them :) And no...you can't go wrong with colourful cake displays!
Hi FFichiban: Gingerbread men always have such a sadistic but delicious smile!
hiya...i have tried a lot of their pastries n such. sorry to hear you were disappointed the last time. Certain things are very very good i must say.
I highly recommend the Mango Mousse Cup and the Sweet Potato Cake. I dont know if the Pumpkin Loaf and Moca Loaf are still bein made there. If they are, catch it fresh in the morning. I guarantee you will not be dissappointed!!
Oh, I didn't realise the Strathfield store had a sister in Macquarie Shopping Centre! By the looks of your review, I'm glad i stuck to the sweet stuff.
Hi Anonymous - thanks for the tips! Of course I'll always return for further visits as there's always still plenty more for me to try.
Hi Jen - yep from reading your recent review, I'm a little less scared about trying their cakes. I wonder if standards would differ between different stores? I didn't know they were going to be a chain.
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