Black Star Pastry Newtown — Restaurant in Sydney

When filling out the online feedback request from their marketing department "Your cake made the cut but what didn't make the cut was your service. One service attendant attending to cafe goers walking in off the street and the likes of me, keen to pick up my cake is not enough for a business of such high regard. So I told the guy I was picking a previously organised order and he politely asked me to wait while he attended to the myriad customers in the store. That was when I noticed two other servers standing behind the counter, having a conversation. This struck me as inappropriate. If you stand behind a counter in a retail space you make yourself available for service, regardless of what rank or how important you might consider yourself. I politely interrupted their conversation, asking if they weren't too busy they might attend to my already paid for customer needs. As famous a customer brand as black star is, and as big a corporation as black star pastry gets the importance of customers never goes away. And yes I might be a bit "dough" but I am paying and I seem to remember consumer sovereignty, where customer is Queen. You are welcome to play your silly internal staff power games, but as I've already stated if you stand behind the counter, in a retail space visible to the public, you make yourself available for service. The server went on to defend the two other people by saying they were "service chefs"... And right there, in the title he gave them was the point I was trying to make. "Service" chefs, as in providing the service of said cakes to the public. The service chefs hurriedly went back to whatever it is they do. If you're going to employ people to stand around and talk that is your business. But if you employ such people in public facing positions then the public is going to expect more than a scowling response with one person left to deal with all and every request. Why should one person have to handle it all when clearly you're busier than one person can handle?

Thoughtful...

This review will be based on travellers standpoint having visited twice! (Wishing I could've visited more). This was my first time in Sydney and my friend took me strolling around Newtown he brought me to Black Star Pastry! A place that was known for their strawberry watermelon cakes.

I have never heard of this place ever and I was amazed at it's populatirty and being one of the most Instagrammed desserts in Australia. With having enjoyed all the vegan dishes that Sydney has to offer (I'm not vegan) I was stoked to try the Watermelon cake!

PRO TIP: Pair any cake with either a FLAT WHITE or MOCHA, and limit phone time to one photo and just enjoy the cake, coffee and company with your mate!

Strawberry Watermelon Cake: A must try! -The flavors and textures just go so well together, not overly sweet and wet (considering the watermelon layer). -The strawberry and pistachio/rose pedal garnish were nice touches (definitely Instagram travel worthy). -The cream was moist and actually my favorite part! NOTE: Sometimes you might get a batch or slice where the watermelon is not soft/moist (aka ripe enough) where you might have to push down on the fork a bit to get all the layers, the second time I went I had just that, where taking out the melon layer was the way to go rather than having the cake get all ruined and you just get mush.

Raspberry Lychee Cake: My favorite VS the watermelon -I loved this cake! it was soo moist, right textures and flavors that compliment each other well! -The raspberry marshmallow and rose cream was moist and flavorful -It has a layer of chocolate biscuit as its base so that contrast makes it a very distinguishable dessert layer after layer with every bite

To conclude, I wish I could've tried more of their specialty cakes, they have seasonal cakes as well, such as The dragon cake, and pistachio lemon zen cakes. I definitely will visit again when I...

I was having a good moment when i tried the watermelon cake on sunday afternoon 15/11/15 around 4pm with my wife. Me and my wife ordered a take away container for watermelon cheesecake as we thought we couldnt get a seat as there is very long queue and lot of people eating in. But after we got our food, we saw a chair and we decided to sit and enjoy the moment. Unfortunately, we met very rude staff that worked around that time. 5 foot tall chubby asian girl. She approached us and tell us with rude tone saying " if you guys are decided to eat in, ask us to get a plate as it is very bad for the environment". Then we respond "ok and sory" then she walked off. After few moment later that we almost finish our cake that my wife still want to enjoy it, she came to our seat again and just took our cake without asking "are you finish with your cake?" Till i spoke up "we still havent finish it!" Then she put it back with the attitude and walked off. This is really ruin my good day off moment with my wife. Dont get me wrong, the cake is a beauty. But the service she provided was really way off from bad standard. Hopefully the manager is keen to solve this issue for other customers as well. Beauty cake + very bad service =...