Kürtosh Crows Nest

The team that gave us Kürtosh Randwick (Tom and Ben Haikin and patisserie expert Jean-Marc Masset) and more recently Kürtosh Surry Hills has headed north, bringing their eponymous chimney cakes to the lower north shore.

Taking up in the building that once housed Intarsia Homeware in the Crows Nest shopping strip, the Hungarian bakery is one of the few places in Crows Nest offering coffee and cake late into the evening (they’re open until 10pm).

The fit-out is in line with their Surry Hills branch, sporting the same distinctive blue and white tiles, raw brickwork and uncrowded layout that makes the sister store such a pleasure. Coffee is by Mecca and the vast displays of huge slab cakes (including peanut butter and chocolate) are still available sliced to order and priced by weight, not to mention savoury burek and pastry twists.

But the pride and joy is on display in the front window, where the Kürtoskalács-making takes place. Dough is rolled, wrapped around its central column and baked to order in the little, silver Kürtosh oven, producing sweet, yeasty, cinnamon sugar or nut-encrusted bread chimneys. It’s still like something out of a fairytale. And finally, you don’t have to cross the bridge for a taste of this Hungarian treat.