Sydney treats are sweet as
If you have a sweet tooth, welcome aboard. I’m going to tempt you across the ditch with these sensational sweet treats. If, however, you are one of those people who make us all feel guilty for having dessert, it may be best to stop reading.
Being a travel journalist is a rollercoaster ride. One moment, I’m sleeping on the floor in a shoddy South American airport, the next I’m given an assignment like this: find the best sweet treats in Sydney. Don’t worry, you are in capable hands: I have a PhD in this field (well, you know what I mean). I’m the kind of guy who buys early Easter presents for the family, only to eat them long before the fluffy bunny arrives.
So, chocolate lovers, prepare yourself. I Ubered all over Sydney for you, and this is what I found.
Koi Dessert Bar
Think of this as a modern version of Willy Wonka. At Koi Dessert Bar, you’ll sit down to a five-course degustation of sweets that crack, pop, bubble, smoke and, most importantly, surprise.
The genius behind it all is Reynold Poernomo – you may remember him as the culinary wizard on
MasterChef Australia who specialised in desserts. We started with ‘‘jelly cigars’’ – delicious apple and elderflower jelly slurped out of a tube.
Each course just got better, with creations such as a jasmine icecream sandwich with meringue, pickled strawberries and yuzu, and seemingly incongruous flavours dance together brilliantly.
Flour Drum
This unassuming little restaurant is a shrine to sweet treats. Flour Drum shot to public attention for selling cookies the size of your head. It gained more attention for its flaming bombe Alaska.
Its latest creation is also a must-try – it’s called Misty Wonderland.
As the name suggests, the dessert platter arrives billowing with steam, and is piled high with Milo mousse, white chocolate trifle, rainbow meringue, icecream, M&M cookies and chocolate-dipped marshmallows.
Messina
Messina is home to Sydney’s best gelato.
The shop, with many outlets spread around the city, has experimented widely with flavours, trying more than 3500 over the years, with flavours such as margarita and even fairy bread.
Trust me, you’ll want to try The Slab. It’s a gelato cake that is filled with caramel mousse, peanut milk chocolate crunch and peanut butter anglaise mixed with chocolate.
Tella Balls
Would you try Nutella fish and chips? A Nutella kebab? Even Nutella pasta? If you like Nutella, you can’t miss Tella Balls. But don’t worry,you won’t be mixing deep-fried cod and chocolate, everything is designed to trick the eye.
For example, the fish and chips are made from panko-crumbed vanilla bean icecream that looks like a fish fillet, with deep-fried doughnut chips.
Belly Bao
You may have tried bao, a Chinese bread roll usually packed with savoury ingredients.
Belly Bao has made the ultimate sweet version, paying homage to one of Australia’s classic icecreams – the Gaytime (basically, rocky road).
The soft, chewy steamed bun is stuffed with icecream, drizzled in salted caramel and topped with banana and coconut. One is not enough.
Harajuku Gyoza
Japanese-style pancakes are some of the yummiest on Earth. They’re super soft and fluffy, almost like biting into a cloud. At Harajuku Gyoza, the pancakes are topped with cream cheese custard and chewy boba pearls (made from tapioca).
If pancakes aren’t your thing, there’s also a sensational ‘‘raindrop cake’’. This arrives at your table wobbling like a giant sphere of jelly. It’s made from agar, doused in molasses and finished with a fine biscuit crumb. Both are unusual flavour explosions you won’t forget.