A Bakery Adventure at Pantry Story, Stanmore

Pantry story is a bakery in Stanmore with a huge following for their baked goods. Their offering is an Asian twist on baked goods: think kimcheese focaccia, or brownies with mochi aka brochis. With a menu of around a dozen items, what are the items that you simply can't go without?

"Pastry store"

"Pantry store"

"No pantry story!" says Laura.

Laura and I are busy trying to remember the name of the pastry store that caught our eye on Instagram. She showed me the kimcheese focaccia, a bubbly blistered number with holes the size of golf balls and a layer of caramelised onions, kim chi and cheese. "I'll cry if it's sold out," she says dramatically. I know she's not kidding and I don't need my friend breaking down. So against all instincts to sleep in on a weekend I set the alarm early. So early that Mr NQN is asleep when I leave.

Laura is already there as she arrived around 8:40am. There was no queue outside but it was busy inside. There's no menu at Pantry Story; instead there's a round table with each product available on display along with the name and the price. You do have to walk around the display once or twice and somewhere there is the queue so it gets chaotic when it's busy. Laura already got most of the items but I check and find a few more items that I want to try too. There are a few hints of Mutiara Sucipto's Indonesian heritage with Indonesian drinks and other items on the menu. She and fellow baker Hari Wibowo who are also married, head up Pantry Story. There are some interesting drinks on the menu but I go for the maple chai latte, a very sweet and ice packed iced chai latte.

We're going to start on the savouries. The kimcheese focaccia takes three days to make and is every bit as good as the name promises and more. It's so soft and moreish with a light spiciness from the kim chi, the melted cheese and a plentiful helping of caramelised onions. Tip: get one slice per person and don't eat this while wearing white jeans. Trust me on that ;)

The prawn and chicken roll is as if a Teochew crispy prawn roll had a baby with a sausage roll. The filling is delicious and under that buttery, flaky pastry only good can happen. Make sure to get some of the honey yuzu sauce to dip it in. This really makes the flavour pop and stand out above other pastries.

The beef brisket pie is a lot of pastry with an adequate amount of soft beef brisket. Again the flavour is nice but more filling would be nicer in this.

I was also tempted to get the pork sausage roll which is really good although quite small in size. I think I polished this off in about 5 bites!

I wanted to try the croque monsieur just to see what it was like. Like the almond croissant below, it's a nice version with plenty of ham,cheese and a strip of bechamel but I would probably go more for the unusual items.

Ok now to the sweets but full disclosure Dear Reader, I'm not as much a sweet lover as I am savoury. The pandan bun apparently sells out very quickly and it's good, with a pandan flavoured pastry and pandan custard inside and a sprinkling of sugar which makes this perhaps a bit too sweet for me. "This is pandan for people that aren't used to pandan," says Laura and I agree. If you love pandan as we do it's a bit on the light side of pandan flavour.

That's where the pandan coconut cookie comes in, inspired by klepon or onde onde, coconut rice cakes filled with palm sugar. This cookie is bold with pandan and coconut and is utterly moreish and filled with mochi and gula melaka. This was amazing and both of our favourite sweet item.

There are two sweets with mochi in them and this is the chocolate brownie with mochi. It's very soft and richly chocolatey like a flourless brownie and it's good when you get a bit of stretchy mochi in each bite.

The almond croissant is nice with a dark frangipane inside flavoured with brown butter instead of regular butter. It's nice enough and if you like almond croissants, she's your gal but I'd say go for the other items instead that you won't be able to find elsewhere.

Like the honey butter croissant. This isn't filled, it's a plain croissant but with a honey butter flavour throughout it. I woudn't have thought to order this but it was their recommendation and we both really love the strong honey butter to this burnished, crispy flaky croissant.

So tell me Dear Reader, are you a classic pastry sort of person or would you order more unusual items?

This food was independently paid for.

Pantry Story

336 Parramatta Rd, Stanmore NSW 2048

Open 7 days 7am - 2pm