Lucien Baked Goods is the baby of Parramatta’s most celebrated café, Circa Espresso (just a ten minute walk away). Lucien opened in late 2023 as a hybrid bakery-café where you can come witness the pastry wizards at work while munching on oven-fresh croissants and sipping locally roasted coffee.
Lucien steers away from the converted warehouse chaos and quirks of Circa Espresso with sleek, clean lines, earthy tones of natural wood and sunshine spilling through floor-to-ceiling glass windows. The all-day bakery is backed by Circa’s owner Aykut Sayan along with the café’s head chef of nine years, Tom Clunie, and its pastry chef of ten years, Adeline Ribis (the café is also named after Clunie and Ribis’ two children, Lucy and Bastien).
Prime real estate is reserved in Lucien’s pastry cabinet for fresh pastries and cakes, which are baked on-site multiple times during the day. Beyond croissants, there are canelés, choux buns, seasonal tarts, danishes and Lucien’s signature pistachio scroll of croissant dough, filled with pistachio cream and decorated with pistachio praline and rose petals. Good luck stopping at one.
Cakes are available whole or by the slice including a burnt Basque cheesecake, gluten-free raspberry and almond Persian love cake, Russian honey cake (medovik) and hazelnut brownie topped with gianduja.
If you’re after something savoury, there’s Lucien’s ‘crostie’ with ham, cheese, onion jam, béchamel and shaved pecorino; a leek and goat's cheese tart; and a seasonal vegetarian quiche. Circa’s pastry chefs have also transformed the café’s signature baked eggs dish into a danish, filled with beef sujuk, capsicum relish and an egg, and topped with Danish feta, green chilli and Spanish onion.
Lucien Baked Goods also has a small, seasonal all-day menu, heavy on the Middle Eastern flavours that Circa regulars would recognise and love. Highlights include za’atar crusted avocado on house-baked saltbush focaccia with citrus greens; and roasted field mushroom toast served with hummus and sprout salad.
It’s no surprise that coffee is Circa’s locally-roasted beans (which makes arguably the best coffee in Parramatta), and there are also house-made drinks like a lemon squash, chai lattes and Egyptian iced tea.
You can take a slice of Lucien home with grab-and-go sandwiches; signature baked sourdough, baguettes and brioche; raw honeycomb; housemade chilli oil; jams and relishes. Whether you eat in or take out, make sure to add Lucien to your bakery hit-list.
