Home Croissanterie — Restaurant in Sydney

19 May 2024 We (a party of two) are thrilled to have discovered this charming patisserie through a Google search after shopping at Birkenhead Point outlet. As a fan of savory croissants, I was instantly sold when I saw Home Croissanterie offered two unique savory options.

We ordered:

• Bacon & Maple Croissant (streaky bacon-infused croissant, brushed with Canadian maple syrup and Redgum smoked salt) • Potato & Sea Salt Croissant (crispy potato petal-filled croissant, finished with extra virgin olive oil and flaky sea salt) • Large Latte

The verdict: I wish I had known about this place sooner, but better late than never. I'm absolutely in love with both savory croissants. The Bacon & Maple Croissant was incredibly unique, combining the saltiness of the bacon, the sweetness of the syrup, and the buttery richness of the croissant—a perfect combination.

The Potato & Sea Salt Croissant was equally delightful. Although it lacked the sweetness of the Bacon & Maple, it featured a wonderful balance of saltiness from the sea salt, velvety texture from the olive oil, and buttery richness from the croissant. The presentation of the potato petals, shaped like flowers, was an absolute visual delight.

The latte was excellent and paired perfectly with the croissants.

Service was quick and super friendly. I also loved how they have outside seatings such that I could fine “out” with my pet parrot which absolutely enjoyed saying “hello” to people and had such a great time!

Overall, we (human and the parrot) had a wonderful time and can't wait to return to try their...

(3.5 stars) The pastry creations at Home Croissanterie look impeccable. Ben Lai, who began his business with a delivery-model on Instagram back in pandemic times, inserts thin slices of potato between the layers of laminated pastry for his signature potato and sea salt croissant ($8/each). It’s drizzled with Alto extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with Olsson’s sea salt. I like it, but not in an earth-shattering way. Perhaps it’s olive oil detracting from the croissant’s hallmark butter. What does shatter though, is the pastry, with shards landing everywhere.

You’ll find Lai’s bricks’n’mortar store in Balmain. It’s got a Scandinavian minimalist vibe, drawing your eye to the pastries, a strategically placed pallet of MAURI flour, and a shelf of high end cooking tomes. Noma 2.0 is a memento of Lai’s time in 2018 as a stagiaire (trainee) in René Redzepi’s second iteration of Noma. This Danish restaurant was ranked best restaurant in the world five times before previous winners were eliminated from running.

It no doubt influenced the developed eye for consistency and detail across Lai’s range. Ham and cheese pastries ($12/each) are shaped like little strudels. The cheese is good quality but the ham bunches up in one corner, unlike the cleverly rolled through versions by Penny Fours a few doors up the road. I think Penny’s croissants also taste better. Fat pork sausage rolls ($10) with their layers of poppyseed dusted puff pastry are again messy eating. I’d prefer more seasoning in the interior—they needed...

Croissant potential. It's too early in their soft opening to make a hard call in the Sydney croissant collective, and as a very young first time small business owner there will be no shortage of challenges leading up to the real opening date and beyond as they try to scale their production effort, but here's what I can say: they care about the croissant experience, and the coffee experience to pair with it. There's no shortage of platitudes for the home based version during the pandemic but at the store front you will have to be patient during the soft opening period because they will have shortages as they experiment with their new fangled ovens all of that. The combo with salami was pretty good and there are signs of a good croissant so far, crispy but not dense, possibly good layering. Looking forward to getting a plain croissant and the classic variants so I can accurately get a better picture, in the meantime it is looking great. Wasn't expecting coffee to be great but it turns out they are putting attention to brewing their batch brew right so it'll likely be worth getting coffee here too. The whispers have started and the lines look like they will be long already at opening time so you'll need to pay attention to changes to batch baking times via...