The best patisseries in Melbourne

It's been ten years since Kate Reid sold her first fantastically flaky croissant from a tiny kitchen in Elwood, and Melburnians have been basking in the buttery goodness ever since. Every day is a special day at Lune, purveyor of what have been dubbed the world’s best croissants, and each month Lune releases rotating specials, meaning that you always have a reason to go back for more. A Lune croissant is worth the wait. 

While Baker Bleu is best known for its bread (the best in Melbourne in this writer's personal opinion), the bakery is also producing some of the best croissants in Melbourne. The pastries at Baker Bleu are pushed to the edge in terms of crispness, with the uninitiated often mistaking the dark colour for burnt pastry. However, with one Earth-shattering bite of the flaky layers, you will come to learn that it is precisely the dark golden crust, in contrast with the light and fluffy centre, that makes these croissants unlike any others in town. The rotating specials are worth an early wake-up time, particularly the Vegemite and cheese and cinnamon sugar scrolls.

If croissants are the benchmark of a patisserie, Agathe Kerr’s clears it with ease. The pastry professional leaves hers out for 24 hours to allow the dough to rest, the yeast to ferment, and the butter to develop a flavour like cultured butter. Don’t go past the special edition croissants if they’re available, such as the fragrant green pandan-infused one. And you should probably also try a lemon meringue tart while you're at it. 

Locals are lucky to have Tivoli Road on their doorstep, and they are willing to line up for the outstanding patisseries and selection of bread most days. When eventually making it to the front of the line, it's not unusual for customers to express sheer panic at what to choose, as it all looks so damn good. The almond croissant is a crowd favourite, as are the chunky muffins, and the signature Canelés are small enough to always add alongside any order. The sausage rolls and rotating sangas are the perfect savoury antidote to all the sweet goodness. 

Abbotsford locals rejoice - a new hidden gem had cemented itself in your neighbourhood. Jonathan Camilleri, a French-trained pastry chef has opened JC Patisserie Boulangerie, which specialises in French pastries and baguettes. The products are all made in-house daily and are served alongside its own coffee blend. Start with a flaky croissant, move on to a chicken sandwich, and finish off with a signature Madeleine. Pop into the patisserie between Tuesday and Sunday for a taste of the French life without having to dust off the passport.

Joining the raft of businesses such as Mali Bakes, Jaen Jumah and Al Dente Enoteca that popped up during Melbourne’s series of lockdowns, Tarts Anon was conceived when Gareth Whitton, former head pastry chef of Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, found himself without a job after the restaurant shuttered at the start of 2020. Drawing on his 15 years’ worth of experience and newfound free time, he established Tarts Anon with the encouragement of his life and business partner Catherine Way. With a customer base initially built off a flyer drop in the couple’s apartment building, Tarts Anon now has a kitchen and storefront in Cremorne, where tarts sell out within a matter of minutes. Weekly specials may include a carrot cake tart, a mango and macadamia tart, or a rich chocolate and caramel tart. 

This artisan bakery specialises in pastries and whole wheat sourdough bread (resulting in a more complex and nutritious loaf). Q Le Baker uses locally milled rye, spelt and khorasan flours with produce for the filled goods sourced from other vendors in the Prahran Market. We refuse to pick a favourite pastry (they are all just too good), but our weekend box of goodies usually includes a twice-baked chocolate hazelnut croissant, a kouign-amann, the weekly bostock special and a cookie.  

In the cake world, Bibelot’s pastries and confectionary are couture. The gleaming chocolate bonbons look too pretty to eat, and so do the individual-sized pastries. Bibelot combines high-quality ingredients with classic French patisserie techniques to produce polished and glamourous cakes, which reflect the shop they are housed in. Sample the likes of mango crémeux with almond sponge cake, macadamia praline crunch, honey and white chocolate mousse and vanilla sable, or go for the flourless chocolate cake, with sour cherry compote, vanilla kirsch whipped ganache and dark chocolate mousse. 

This sourdough micro-bakery located in Ripponlea has garnered a loyal following since it opened, and those with the inside scoop know the pastries are worth queueing for. Zelda's is most well known for its babka products, and its sourdough babka scrolls are almost too good to be true. Sweet and pillowy enriched dough is stuffed with a chocolate filling and covered in crunchy streusel, making for a magically moreish mouthful. 

On its window, Monarch Cakes claims to be “Exquisite since 1934”, and it's not a lie. There’s an old-school charm to this St Kilda cake shop, the kind that no amount of climate-controlled, Parisian pastry precision can match. The bundt chocolate kugelhopf, a marble cake with stripes of melted chocolate throughout, is the kind of cake you want to take home to your mother. Get a slice of the Polish baked cheesecake while you’re there – it’s dense with creamy cottage cheese, made from a century-old recipe. This place continues to hold its own against the brave new world of pastry specialists. 

You’d almost think you had wandered into a little patisserie in the Marais upon entering Cavallini – the feel is distinctly European. Creations by pastry chef Robert Coco include sourdough and olive bread, panini, pizzette and a range of sweet and savoury viennoisserie including a spinach and bechamel topped croissant guaranteed to make you weak at the knees. There is coffee, of course and a cute courtyard if you feel like eating en plein air / alfresco.

This bakery is best known for its sourdough loaves, but you’d be a fool not to sample the savoury pastries. The beef pies are chunky beasts with plenty of tomato-infused gravy and nicely crimped edges; and the spinach and cheese pastry parcels packed with salty feta, dill and pine nuts dipped in the tart house-made kasundi make a great portable lunch. 

Born in 2020 by the team behind Lune, Moon might only make one type of pastry – but it certainly makes it well. Crullers are crispy rings of deep-fried choux pastry that are tossed in sugar or glazed with a flavour of choice. Each month, Moon releases its ‘wildcards’, a new selection of innovative and mouth-watering takes on the cruller. Previous specials have seen creations such as a candy cane cruller, a black sesame and sour cherry cruller, a choc honeycomb cruller and a rose and lychee cruller.

With the rise of speciality pastry shops, we thought we had seen it all: speciality croissant stores, cookie specialists, shops selling only fancy tarts, cheesecake stores, cruller shops and endless cupcake outlets just to name a few. However, until very recently, there was a gapping, lamington-shaped hole in the Melbourne speciality-pastry landscape. Enter: Tokyo Lamington, the lamington specialists who set up shop in Carlton following its sweet success in Sydney. Flavours available may include fairy bread and popcorn, yuzu curd and torched meringue, mango and sticky rice and passionfruit and lemon myrtle.  

This humble suburban bakery, located on Centre Road in Bentleigh, is surprisingly slinging some of the best cinnamon rolls in Melbourne. Deceivingly simply, these scrolls strike the perfect balance of crunchy and flaky, chewy and delicately pillowy. The cheese sticks and garlic croissants go to show that savoury pastries are just as important as sweet ones, and regardless of what you order, the craftsmanship of the pastry chefs will be evident in each bite. 

Rustica’s small empire of cafès that seem to be constantly popping up across Melbourne (from South Yarra to High Point) are serving up some of the tastiest, and most 'grammable pastries in town. The subtly sweet morning bun is a wonderful way to start the day, and the rotating filled doughnuts and cruffins are a decadent treat at any time of the day.

Helmed by owner and baker Wilhem Isaac, this little hole-in-the-wall in a quaint shopping strip attracts queues of locals waiting for the venue’s coffee to go, or battling it out for the last almond croissant. And the almond croissant is worth raving about – its buttery, crisp shell is dotted with flaked almonds, dusted with icing sugar and generously filled with viscous almond paste. Originally from France, Isaac has experience working at small-batch baking specialist Woodfrog in St Kilda, and every baked good here is of top notch quality.

La Belle Miette (meaning "beautiful crumb" or, more generally, “beautiful small thing") is a small French patisserie specialising in small, hand-held treats like macarons, bonbons and chocolate dragees. Macarons are made using pure fruit purees, premium vanilla beans and Fleur de Sel and can be purchased individually or in complementary flavoured boxes like fruits and flowers; chocolates, nuts and caramels; or pink and lilacs.  

There’s more to Middle Eastern pastries than baklava. Get a crash course in Lebanese treats at Balha’s Pastry, where you can buy date-filled ma’mouls, kadaif (pistachio bird’s nest), and namoura (semolina cake) by the kilo. Come during Ramadan or the before the Eid celebrations for special festive treats. 

Brunetti has been around since 1985, and the café has grown into a sprawling ode to the Italian pasticceria, with cabinets of whole cakes, macarons, and perfect, glossy domes of creaminess. The best things, however, are still the traditional biscotti, cannoli, and amaretti, best enjoyed with a coffee on the side. 

This Spotswood bakery countertop looks like a bake sale, with cakes, doughnuts, cookies, pastries and breads coming out of the kitchen daily. The Danishes made with seasonal fruit are glossy and puffy with a rich buttery flavour. And the best part is there are vegan treats that aren’t tokenistic. You won’t see a single bliss ball but plenty of whole cakes, cookies, and spicy cinnamon rolls.