Five To Try: New Abbotsford Bars, Bakeries and Restaurants

Abbotsford is still reeling from the loss of convent venues Cam’s Kiosk and Julie, which both closed suddenly in June. But the suburb has recently had an influx of new openings. Here are five new Abbotsford venues worth stopping by. 

Daybaker

Daybaker isn’t trying to do everything. Instead, former Small Batch pastry chef Charlie Duffy’s highly anticipated bakery is built around a single idea: do a small number of things extremely well.

His menu shows off signature style with a core trio that will anchor the daily offering: a plain croissant, a chocolate wattleseed version and a savoury option where cracked corn is co-fermented into the croissant dough with a spicy bomba calabrese butter folded in.

Alongside those, a changing set of pastries will shift with the seasons, including a mixture of new creations and past Small Batch customer favourites, such as Duffy’s pear and Geraldton wax danish, all showcasing local produce. Daybaker is a triumph that shows why Duffy counts as fans everyone from Yiaga’s Hugh Allen to Lune founder Kate Reid. 

66 Nicholson Street, Abbotsford

Chun’s Kalguksu

Visit at a certain time of day in winter and, from the footpath, Chun’s Kalguksu is almost obscured by condensation. Behind the fogged-up front window, diners hunch over steaming bowls, while sisters Sharon and Joanna Chun make noodles by hand in the kitchen.

The new Richmond restaurant is the Melbourne continuation of a family business that began in Sydney’s Strathfield in 2005, when Sharon and Joanna’s parents, Seon Kyu Suk and In Wook Chun, opened Hand Made Noodle. Over the course of 20 years, it became the sort of local haunt people folded into their routines and family traditions. As their parents approached retirement, Sharon and Joanna decided they were not ready to let that story end.

Kalguksu is a dish of knife-cut noodles in broth and, as the shop’s name implies, it’s the star at Chun’s. The dough is made from scratch, kneaded, rolled and cut in-house every day. The texture lands in a carefully balanced middle ground: it’s soft enough to take on broth, but has enough chew to keep each mouthful satisfying. 

The signature bowl is the plain kalguksu: hand-cut noodles in a clear anchovy broth with zucchini and clams. It’s simple on paper, but not slight. The broth – built on anchovies, radish and onion – simmers for up to two hours, picking up a depth of flavour while avoiding the heaviness of many rich noodle soups. 

285A Victoria Street, Abbotsford

Dingo

For all the hype Hot Listed Taqueria Sin Nombre has garnered since opening last year, it was never the end goal. Before pivoting focus to the Chinatown taqueria, the Dingo Ate My Taco team had been working towards a bricks-and-mortar spot for its popular food truck, which will continue roaming. Dingo finally arrived, fittingly for a Tex-Mex restaurant, on July 4.

While Taqueria Sin Nombre is an ode to Mexico, the Abbotsford site – which the team sees as an extension of the food truck – returns to the brand’s Lone Star roots. Find breakfast tacos including brisket, egg and cheese on house-made flour tortillas; a bean, spinach and bacon number comes on house-pressed blue corn tortillas. The much-loved quesabirria has also made its way onto the menu. And other taco fillings span carnitas (shredded pork), huitlacoche (a corn fungus prized for its earthy, savoury depth) and fried avocado. They’re deliberately kept restrained so diners can build flavour with a trio of house-made salsas.

The drinks list leans heavily into mezcal, alongside Micheladas and 40s – the slang term for 40-ounce (1.18-litre) beers commonly drunk in the United States. A handful of taps remain from the site’s previous tenant, Range Brewing, which the Dingo team is using for beer, white wine and a Paloma.

272 Johnston Street, Abbotsford

Bar Sala

Nathan Toleman, The Mulberry Group’s founder and creative director, opened Abbotsford restaurant Molli and adjoining cafe Little Molli at the end of June 2024. The neighbourhood bar and bistro didn’t gain the traction the group expected, so in April last year it pivoted, reimagining Molli as a relaxed day-to-night eatery. Again, it didn’t catch on.

Daybaker took over the Little Molli space and, in June, the group reopened the doors to the restaurant with an entirely new concept. Bar Sala splits the old 100-seat restaurant into two distinct spaces: a dining room and a dedicated music room. 

Former Lene chef-owner Cam Williams serves a Mediterranean-leaning menu centred on handmade pasta, woodfired cooking and share-style dishes. Burrata with braised greens and mandarin sits alongside vitello tonnato with caperberries and horseradish, while larger plates include pumpkin agnolotti with chilli and brown butter, baked rigatoni with Bruny Island washed-rind cheese and truffle, and rump steak served with bone marrow and green peppercorn sauce.

The music room has its own menu of bar snacks and cocktails. Guests can settle in with potato and comté croquettes, fried sourdough topped with ricotta and anchovy, marinated olives and pickled vegetables, alongside Euro-style drinks like Martinis and Montenegro Sours, a zesty number with amaro, lemon, egg whites and sugar syrup. There are also live DJs sets Thursday through Saturday.

20 Mollison Street, Abbotsford

Friendly Societies Hotel

After sitting empty for almost two years, the pub on the corner of Langridge and Raphael streets has received a new lease on life thanks to Leo Weston and his parents Clare and Nathan Weston. The Westons returned the venue, which recently operated as The Carringbush Hotel, to the original name it carried for almost a century, from 1889 to 1984. But beyond the restored name and refreshed interiors, the family’s focus has been less about reinvention and more about creating the kind of pub where regulars feel at home.

The kitchen is led by former Retreat Hotel head chef Chris O’Dwyer, whose menu strikes a balance between comforting pub classics and produce-driven specials. 

Sometimes that inspiration comes from friends. A haul of locally foraged pine mushrooms picked by the landlord at a private farm in Balnarring recently accompanied fresh pappardelle. And cumquats from mates with a farm near Mount Beauty found their way into a sticky winter pudding. A clam chowder inspired by Nathan’s memories of eating the dish while living in Canada has also surfaced as a seasonal special.

The drinks list follows a similarly flexible philosophy. Independent Victorian breweries rotate through the taps, with beers from Sailors Grave, Beechworth and others changing as kegs run dry, while the wine list keeps things approachable.

226-228 Langridge Street, Abbotsford

Additional reporting by Claire Adey, Quincy Malesovas and Sebastian Pasinetti.