Self Raised Bread Shoppe — Restaurant in Sydney

A true score of 3.5 if Google let me!

I really wanted this to be a 5 star review but here we are….

Self-raised is a much needed bakery and cafe located in South Sydney. The team from My Mother’s Cousin have done well in bringing a high quality venue (at least in fit out & branding) to this area. The lines are out the door, the Internet is a buzz and people from all over Sydney are keen to have a taste. At first glance it’s all done so well but for me, on this trip (yes, I will return), it did not hit the high mark - perhaps my expectations were too high?

Food ordered: 2 types of Focaccia. One a salami and nduja. The other essentially a Margherita pizza. Also ordered a cookie and a few coffees.

Firstly, let me say that these focaccia slices would have been much improved if they were lightly toasted or at least kept warm considering the generous toppings (but more on this later). The Margherita was the favourite with soft burrata and a simple red base. This slice allowed me to actually get the texture and flavour of the bread itself which was a nice chewy and salty bite. Not the best focaccia (in my non-italian opinion!) as there are so many cafes and bakeries around Sydney providing some amazing stuff (DYOR). The other slice was the salami. This would have done very well with a moment in the salamander… the bread was soggy underneath the mountain of toppings and sadly it was not finished. The salami, cheese and chilli were tasty on their own but not enough to redeem the full slice.

The cookie was good. Chewy texture and decent flavour. Nothing standout for me.

The coffee was average. I’m unsure of what beans they use here. Hard to tell with the plain black, unmarked bags - possibly roasting their own? Either way it was a strange, over extracted taste. At least my piccolo was. The FW tasted more mild. Still drinkable and goes down well with baked goods. So hard to say no to a great combo like that!

Ambience: The fit out, as mentioned, is very cool. It’s a space that transports you to a deli or diner or cafe in Europe or NY. It’s quite unassuming especially in this suburban pocket. The appeal of the space is photo worthy and makes for a great IG shot of course.

The staff… well this was where its interesting for me and those in line behind me. When asked about warming or toasting the focaccia by the person in front of me, they were told in a short reply “no”. During my turn ordering I wanted to double check that this was the case and the girl serving was not happy I asked again. Rolling of the eyes and kind of shuffling me along left me quite confused. This happened yet again to the person behind me with the same type of response. Yes, customers are annoying, but they ask the same question for a reason.

Another strange occurrence was during ordering another staff member was shuffling around the front counter and then grabbed a Powerade type of drink and just skulled half the bottle right there next to the bakery cabinet. I’m confident I had a look of confusion on my face.

All that to say that the customer service experience did not match the fit out. Take from that what you will but just sharing my interaction here.

If you are local to this area Self Raised presents a strong option for baked goods and possibly a coffee. Are there others around? Yes, are they close by.. no. If you are not from this area and have to drive out you may consider exploring some other venues of the inner west or east first. Either way Self Raised offers a strong selection of sweet, savoury and unique to keep fans coming back and a line out the door. I don’t doubt I will stop in again and will be sure to taste more of the...

Context: I’m a local and have been going here 2-3 times a week since opening. Was very excited to have a bougie offering in South Syd. I want to be very honest in my assessment.

Pros: The baked goods are very very good. I have never cared particularly for pastries but as I said above I now go here twice a week and eat WAY too many pastries. But I can’t stop. They are so yummy. They like to experiment and have seasonal and monthly specials which is a delight. The fig focaccia was a favourite, they had a crime brûlée tart for a split second which I’ve had my eye out for, this month the tomato goats cheese pastry is my favourite item. Regular bangers are morning bun, salami croissant, cheese pastrami pickle roll. I rarely order the sandwiches or cooked stuff but they are okay too. Aside from food it’s got an instagrammable aestheic if you’re into that. The prices for any given item sits around $8-18 which might be expensive if the food wasn’t as good and sizeable as they are.

Cons: Go weekday if you can. It’s almost not worth going here after 9 on a weekend. The line will be 20-30 mins. They’ve been popular since opening and I’ve given them a grace period here before being critical but it’s been months now and they do a poor job managing lines and offering customer service. I’ve noticed a few times that if staff see friends in line they’ll walk out to chat to them and get them coffees for the line wait. This is nice for them but frustrating as a pleb when you’ve been standing patiently for 20 :/

Suggestions: Create a two line system. One line for those simply ordering the ready baked treats from the window. A second for the menu items. Put a line control banister in to encourage people to line up along the baked goods window as opposed to straight out of the door. Because the space is too small and the line takes longer due to people not being able to see what’s available so they can’t make a decision until they are at the front :/ Get a bigger coffee machine. If you order coffee, expect an extra 15 minute wait (I’m not kidding). They are REALLY slow on coffee. I don’t bother anymore and walk up the avenue to Love of Beans who make a better coffee in less than a minute and have delightful customer service (they know every regular’s name and order) Label items better. They make cool and random pastries but they’re not always common and having to ask what things are makes everything slower. Also sometimes you’ll ask what something is and they’ll just repeat the name “it’s a cruller” which, y’know, doesn’t give me any clarity of I’ve never heard the word before. (FYI a cruller is like a churros in a donut shape, as I’ve assessed it) For some reason when you order it takes forever to put everything in their little paper bags. I honestly don’t know why/how. After all they are just putting things I point to in a bag right? Also if you order multiple things they will just try to hand you multiple little bags. They will never offer a carry bag even when it’s clearly impossible to hold onto so make sure you ask for a big bag of needs be because they do have them. Idk I’m extra mad today about this because this morning that happened again plus they gave me the wrong item which I didn’t realise until I got home. I had my heart set on it and returned but it had sold out by then. First world problems but it ruined my day.

So you see the dilemma; awesome food, subpar experience. My hope is their service improves and I get a refund for the item I missed out on today or it may just not be...

The missus had mentioned this place for a while and we finally got to try it! Expect there to be a decent queue of about 15-20 minutes wait time when you get there. There are plenty of items on offer not listed on the menu on the wall, and I wish there was proper labelling of these items because I had no idea what most things on display were and had to ask. Nonetheless, we ended up with three items, totalling $45 (I only knew the price of the smoked beef sandwich):

SMOKED BEEF: $18. This was the best of the three items we purchased. Nice balance of salt, fat and acid. Pickles were great at cutting through the richness of everything and the mustard lifted all the components by giving it a decent spice. Bread was perfectly toasted and crispy. Wasn’t too sure how I felt about dropping $18 on a sandwich but glad I gave this a try.

MORTADELLA, PESTO, ROCKET: Pretty average. I purchased this to benchmark against OTi’s equivalent (which I enjoy a lot). I thought this one was a bit on the sweeter side. The whole thing was a bit too oily and I think that took away from the sandwich a lot.

MARGHERITA FOCACCIA: This wasn’t too bad. You can never go wrong with a Margherita. Acidity and sweetness of the tomatoes, creaminess of the cheese and freshness of the basil — always a pleasurable combo. Only thing I didn’t vibe with were the sesame seeds on the crust. I don’t really feel like it lent to the focaccia much, other than giving it an additional...