The search for Sydney’s best croissant is a never-ending quest and in St Leonards, a fresh contender has risen to join the ranks of our city’s flaky elite. Introducing Layers.
There are endless layers of charm and flavour to unravel at this newly minted Korean-inspired café, bakery and coffee bar – and you’ll want to start with the signature, baton-shaped chocolate bar (pain au chocolat). With swirling layers of cocoa-flavoured pastry, this modern masterpiece is like the Willy Wonka chocolate bar of the croissant world. It’s glossy and sweet with a treasured slab of Callebaut milk chocolate hiding inside.
Layers’ Korean-inspired pastries add an exciting twist to the buttery line-up, with flavours like kimchi triple cheese, spicy Korean pork, and bulgogi beef. These specialties are inspired by the home recipes of head pastry chef Frances Song, who opened the shop with her coffee-roasting wizard husband Jiyoon Song in April 2023.
Song and her baking crew also reinvent French favourites with a modern twist, such as the croque monsieur-inspired ham and gruyere croissant with garlic béchamel sauce. These pastries are a true labour of love, taking four or five-days to make with the classic almond croissant needing a bonus day to achieve its stegosaurus spikes.
Coffee is the perfect partner-in-crime for your pastries and at Layers, they serve up a custom blend roasted by Jiyoon and the team at Headlands Coffee. There’s also Layers’ best-selling MS IDOL – maple syrup iced decaf oat latte – which is a subtly sweet medley of peanut butter, cinnamon and chocolate.
You’ll find Layers tucked away from the hustle and bustle of the Pacific Highway on Clarke Lane. The café's minimalistic design, pastel tones and elegant marble accents are reminiscent of a charming laneway café in Melbourne. On weekends, Layers’ pastry box unveils up to 20 croissant varieties, along with Song’s specialty macarons and multi-textured chiffon cakes (which are made to order).
Sydney is only the first layer of Frances Song’s pastry saga and one day, she hopes to open a sequel shop in Seoul. We think it’ll be worth the flight.
