Goose Bakery Cafe

Walking into Goose Bakery Cafe you feel instantly cocooned, comforted and welcome. A big part of that is down to the owners and bakers, Toshiyuki Miyazawa and Heejung Kim, some of the loveliest people you’ll meet. The duo has been jumping between bakeries for some years. They have spent the end of their tour together at Bourke Street Bakery. Goose is their first independent project.

Miyazawa makes the daily sourdough loaves, baguettes and fruit-dotted brioche and Kim makes the cafe’s beautiful range of cakes; she also designed the store. Goose is a lovely place to sit and have a cake and cuppa, either outside on a single squat bench in front of the wide glass façade, or inside at a communal table.

Kim’s miniature charcoal macaroons are as technically impressive as they are handsome. They’re joined in the back cabinet by a floral cheesecake, a selection of muffins and some of Miyazawa’s sandwiches, of which the best is Wagyu with wasabi mayo. Other dishes are homemade muesli and a well-priced avo on toast. The front cabinet is filled with danishes, coconut croissants, cupcakes, rich and thick cake slices and cutesy biscuits. Try the firm-but-soft walnut cinnamon snail, a gooey-centred salted-caramel tart or a brownie-dense rum-infused slice of chocolate tart.

The coffee is Five Senses. True to the cafe's identity, every drink is served with a shortbread, each one resembling a different object or animal.