Taste Bakery, Surry Hills

Brunch today was courtesy of a recommendation by Sandra from The French Wench Sydney food blog.  I've always been intrigued by the French influence on Vietnamese bakery.  I've seen the ubiquitous hot bread shops in every town selling wonderful French inspired rolls and banh mi thit - Vietnamese pork rolls (which I love).  And I know about Australian bread chain, Brumbies bringing bakers over from Vietnam.

But I wanted to see if there was a proudly upmarket expression of this French influence.  Taste Bakery exemplifies the best of both worlds opposite a bustling taxi depot ironcially on Foveaux Street, Surry Hills.


Wondefullly understated exterior, Taste spans three terrace houses.  Walk inside and it's large windows, shinny dark floorboards - it's classy, relaxed and thankfully just short of being hip.  The layout is both pleasant and efficient.  Walk into the court yard and it's like a South-East Asian garden of plentiful luscious green plants, Buddhist icons and wooden tables.  On a warm spring Sydney morning, it was idyllic.

I had the scrambled eggs, which was silky and hearty. It went particularly well with the crisp generously buttered toast.  This pic really doesn't do it justice, in fact I haven't seen any photo's that does scrambled eggs justice!

There were an amazing array of baked desserts and I ordered the escargot (as labelled) which seemed to mean nothing to the staff (my pronounciation, I'm sure), had more success when I asked for a snail. The pastry was perfect, crisp but not hard around the outer and a little more moist and soft towards the centre.  Taste was rather too generous with the sultanas.  It all went down a treat with a great glass of latte.

Taste Bakery is a delight, great baguette with traditional and not so traditional fillings, you can even order a bowl of Pho at lunch.  For those with a sweet tooth the pastries gleam from behind the glass counter.  You can also do what I did and take away a loaf of freshly baked bread for 'ron.

This place has the uncanny way of making contrasts a success; French and Vietnamese, sweet and savoury, large and intimate. Loved it.

Taste Bakery
44 Foveaux St, Surry Hills
(02) 9281 7228