Three Mills Bakery, Canberra

Three Mills Bakery is an artisan bakery in Canberra's Fyshwick area. This huge, renovated space is home to Three Mills Bakery's soursdough loaves, buttery pastries and pies. They're also open 7 days a week and customers can either eat in or takeaway. There's also a large range of pastries designed to be baked at home-just grab them from the freezer and bake according to instructions.

Mr NQN and I are driving to the South Coast and while I love stopping at the seaside towns on the way down Mr NQN is all about efficiency so we are taking the Canberra route south. Not one to miss an opportunity to eat I agreed if we could make a stop for food at a particular spot.

Mr NQN smirks as I tell him we are headed to Fyshwick. "Oh yeah what for?" he asks.

"Pastry!" I tell him excitedly. His face falls a little. Clearly he was expecting something else.

Three Mills Bakery is located on Newcastle Street in the light industrial area of Fyshwick. There's a good sized car park for customers and the former roller derby rink has been given a new lease on life as a bakery. The name Three Mills comes from the idea that they want to make breads using three unique grain suppliers. Three Mills Bakery's started with owner Jarrod Deaton in 2016 and went from concept to serving their first customer in only 17 days. They outgrew the New Acton premises and moved to this enormous space where all of the baked goods are made on the premises.

The bakery works with 3 main flour suppliers: Provenance is the primary supplier of single origin / single varietal flour and malt. Wholegrain Milling supplies both their sustainable and organic ranges while Mauri supplies them Australian grown flour for their sourdough and pastry products. They also mill in-house a select number of specialty grains for small batch loves and to feed their sourdough culture. They also use Pepe Saya butter and Canberra milk.

Service is very friendly and there's a glass cabinet display of all of the goods available. It's noon and I haven't had breakfast so everything looks good enough to jump over the counter and devour. They give me some suggestions (alas the cruffins are sold out) and we take a number and they bring our food over.

My chai latte is good and Mr NQN likes the coffee. Usually my go to pastry is a ham and cheese croissant but they're all sold out but I'm happy to see there are sausage rolls available in a few different fillings. The beef and vegetable sausage roll comes with a house made tomato sauce on the side and a tasty Pepe Says butter puff pastry on the outside. I devour this with gusto and I go hunting for the other half which has unfortunately disappeared into Mr NQN's mouth. He does offer one criticism of the sausage roll and that is that the filling is so juicy that the pastry splits at the seam.

The mixed vegetable pie is a favourite of both of ours. The pie has a wonderful sour cream pastry base and a luscious, saucy well seasoned vegetable filling. The top of the pie is also made of Pepe Saya butter puff pastry and the whole thing is soft, wobbly and very moreish especially with that sour cream pastry base that keeps the filling luscious and yet contained.

"Can you leave me some?" I ask Mr NQN who has started on the blackberry, cream cheese and pistachio Danish pastry before I can even blink. He leaves me exactly one bite which is enough to know that the pastry has nicely distinct layers, a nice buttery flavour and a good amount of filling.

We can't finish the almond croissant while there so we take it to go and eat it later. The almond croissant and the escargot are the two best sellers in the bakery. It has a thick layer of almond frangipane and toasted almonds on top and that lovely buttery croissant pastry.

"Hang on, I'm just going to get another sausage roll," I say to Mr NQN.

On your way out you can also buy a range of their pastries frozen that you can heat up at home. And I wish I had time to stop by on the way home so that I can grab a loaf of their sourdough bread.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you always research where you're going to stop for food on a road trip? Or do you grab something from a petrol station or bring your own?

This meal was independently paid for.

Three Mills Bakery

5 Leeton St, Fyshwick ACT 2609

open 7 days 7am-2pm