Mary and I followed up our rest day with a very pleasant 34 kilometre ride in the north east of Melbourne. The start and end made sense to Mary and I but wouldn’t make much sense to others who might want to try this epic tour. So the Strava route I’ve linked to is a kinder 25kms starting at Richmond Train Station and finishing at Dennis Train Station.

The first stop on the route is not a bakery, but an opportunity for pastry tour riders to cleanse themselves with a ochazuke. Wikipedia describes ochazuke as “a simple Japanese dish made by pouring green tea, dashi, or hot water over cooked rice.” Perfect for those who have tried 13 bakeries over the past 3 days. Chiaki in Collingwood is the place to go for ochazuke.

Lune is the high temple of pastry in Melbourne. It does not surprise me that the founder of Lune was a precision focussed formula 1 aerodynamicist. This precision and focus is consistently applied at Lune and is definitely on show in the approach taken in the Lune Cookbook. It never disappoints! My quince and chestnut danish was very impressive.

Yes! Is the word that comes to my mind when I want to describe Madeleine de Proust Patisserie. Yes, because sometimes great things come from places that have a strong focus. Yes, because sometimes I want to enjoy a treat that is not a huge overkill. This place on Lygon Street, is in my opinion, a must visit. I will be going back. I long for another brown butter and leatherwood honey Madeleine.

Sometimes, just sometimes you know better than your navigation device. Mine was going crazy telling me to do U turns up Canning Street – but I knew better! At the end of the ride, I realised I was wrong. My device was telling me to take turns so I could visit Calle Bakery. But we completely missed it. I guess my subconscious was telling me that I have to come back to Melbourne for the patisseries that I forgot. On my return to Adelaide, TikTok showed another one that could easily be added to this route – Falco Bakery.

What can you expect from a hole in the wall? You can’t expect too much, can you? Perfect execution in a croissant, flavour without excess is what I got from Montforte Viennoiserie. We arrived before lunch but not much was left, note to self – arrive earlier! Nonetheless, their signature leatherwood honey and sea salt croissant was the pick of the entire pastry tour. Now that is saying something! Number 1 out of 17 patisseries sampled!

The final place to visit on this year’s pastry tour was Akimbo Bread. It is another place the sells out early. But the team there are engaging and made sure we were looked after with salad sandwich made with their delightful bread. They also offered us a complimentary batch brew – how many crazy Adelaideans visit 17 patisseries in 4 days eh? To make it all the way to Northcote for a salad sandwich was pretty special.

I think there is no better way to see a city than by bike. Even better than a bike is a Brompton Bike. I have visited Melbourne so many times, but having a goal of visiting good patisseries took me to so many different and interesting parts of Melbourne that I hadn’t visited before. I would like to thank Mary, my accomplice, for being willing to share this experience with me.

A Brompton Bike, in my view, is a key to the world. It allows you to see the beauty of every day life and get away from tourist attractions. It connects you to friends around the world, that you don’t even know that you have yet. Let’s cherish these moments. This route also offers you an opportunity to visit Brompton Junction Melbourne. It is well worth visiting.

I’ve just got back from Singapore with my Brompton. So the next posts will be about that trip.

After the exertion of day 2, Mary and I opted for a “rest” day and invited a special guest, Caroline, to join us. Only 20km and 3 bakeries largely following the upfield line. But, as we were confirming our route it became apparent that the first bakery was now temporarily closed for renovations. Things change quickly in Melbourne. Voila Patisserie could be a place you add to this route when they re-open, which according to their website should be 14 June.

Day 3 largely follows the Upfield Line starting from Gowrie Station and finishing at Southern Cross Station with deviations for some fine foods. The route for day 3 on Strava is linked here.

Just a note about the Upfield Line, it offers an example of what can be done with thoughtful upgrades to infrastructure. Large parts of the Upfield Line have now been elevated, the removal of at-grade crossings is important for traffic and transit in a big city, but it also offers local reconnection of suburbs. The Upfield Line – in my mind – sets a benchmark.

Pasticceria Padova – In a desperate early morning search for another carb purveyor to replace Voila Patisserie, we happened across the authentic find of the trip – Pasticceria Padova – it brought the feeling of Italy to Fawkner complete with local identities out the front of the pasticceria with their espressos being both amused and amazed by our Brompton bikes. I made up for there being only 3 patisseries on today’s ride by ordering two items! An amazing apricot jam Italian donut and a ricotta cannoli. These items were accompanied by good coffee and company – not only from Mary and Caroline – but from the generous and friendly staff. I was enjoying my choices so much that I have forgot to record precisely what Mary and Caroline chose – perhaps I’ll update this if they remind me.

One further note, Gowrie Station and Fawkner shops are towards the end of the Upfield Line, but I think it shows how a good set of shops that are well presented can contribute to the whole area. This is certainly a place, that I hadn’t visited before – but I am sure I will return!

Mela Patisserie is located in the Pentridge Shopping Centre on the former Pentridge Prison. The prison was established in 1851 and continued to operate until 1997. While it was sold in 1999 by the Government, development works did not start until 2013 (still faster than some well known Adelaide development sites!) with shopping centre being opened 2020. It seems to be as very good example of how historic and practical uses can be combined. Tours of Pentridge Prison by the National Trust are available.

I usually do not expect to much from a patisseries located in a major shopping complex. But it is fair to say that I was pleasantly surprised by Mela Patisserie. I applied the tried and tested assessment of sampling their croissant! It was good.

Chooka’s – it is not a patisserie – but it is an absolutely fantastic Japanese lunch spot specialising in omusubi, Japanese rice balls. You must stop here for lunch and try them. I had a delicious meal set! I have to say I was little distracted on this ride because I was hoping to get Olivia Rodrigo tickets – they were released at lunch time, which meant, I tried to buy them with my phone – but with no luck!

Bread Club – given the time taken to try and buy some tickets, we arrived at Bread Club late in the afternoon, it looked like we might miss out. But their kind service and some remaining stock meant we were not to be disappointed. We purchased a croissant, saffron bun and Portuguese tart. These were all excellent examples and I recall Mary particularly enjoying the saffron bun later that evening. Bread Club is around the corner from Mörk Chocolate Brew House – another place definitely worth visiting if you have the time.

If you are contemplating doing this ride, but want to hit the pastry shops harder here are a couple of extra options:

Iris the Bakery, not only because Mary helped fund its establishment, but also because it is very good with the young Iris establishing her authority. We visited in February and were impressed with the offerings.

Freda’s Bakery, which came highly rated but appears to only be open on Saturday and Sundays.

On day 2, Mary and I had to work off some of the carbs from the first day of the tour. So we upped the route to more than 40kms – no reduction in the number of pastry shops to review.

The focus of day 2 was the eastern and south eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The route I’ve linked to starts at Kooyong Train Station and follows many of the beautiful Melbourne trails. If you need to shorten the route you could finish at Fairfield Train station – saving the last 15kms returning back to Kooyong. You would also need to check the route near the Yarra as some parts have been closed for works.

Sucre du jour – our first stop for the day was a patisserie that was strong on good Asian flavours. I had a delightful Miyuri, which comprised black sesame sponge, hazelnut crunch, kabosu ganache, black sesame chantilly. Mary, feeling the effects of the day before opted for a more modest Portuguese tart. This is definitely a good spot to visit.

Bromley’s Bread – located in suburban Carnegie must be a local favourite amongst the Carnegie households. A good range of pastry covering a range of tastes. Here I opted for a benchmark test of a pain au chocolat. Which Bromley’s passed with flying colours.

While not officially part of the pastry tour, we passed by one of my favourite spots in Melbourne – Haiku and its convenience store Haiku Future. We had a cheeky lunch of broccoli tempura and karaage.

Vienna Patisserie and Bakery – this is best described as a traditional patisserie located in Kew. Its offering was sound and it no doubt served its local community well – but it didn’t have stand out offering. Mary kept to the mini tarts while I opted for the larger fruit and almond tart. Delicious but amongst the crowd we’ve been visiting not outstanding.

Frank and Harri – this was the standout for the day! This was just down the road from Vienna and everything was becoming a bit of a blur. So we opted to take some goodies home. I had the raspberry danish – which, when I finally ate it back at our home location was the best raspberry ‘danish’ I have had in decades. In fact, it used to be of fantastic quality fresh raspberries took me back to the Pompidou Centre in Paris where I had a similarly good raspberry tart. It was that good. Mary choose a Louise cake, which she was similarly positive about. Thus is a Melbourne MUST DO!

Just in case you have not had enough coffee by the end of this pastry tour, you can pop by Kissaten Alphington for a Japanese inspired coffee.

From here you can return to Kooyong along the river or pop over to Fairfield Station.