Adriano Zumbo Cafe

The Zumbo mothership dispensing bread and cake to the Sydney masses. Some counter seating but best suited to takeaway.

When they’re on their game, their croissants are one of the better ones in Sydney.
This is the closest Zumbo outlet to my house, so I often swing by early in the morning — they’re open at 7:30am on Saturdays, which is a great way to start the weekend.
There’s a wide range of pastries, cakes, and breads. I haven’t tried all the things they offer, because I usually go back to my favourites. Unfortunately they’re occasionally inconsistent in their quality, which is why I couldn’t give them a higher rating. The coffee is not the best in the area, but definitely good enough.

EDIT: This location is now closed. There is still the Zumbo on Darling Street in Balmain.
Just a half a block from my house, this is my go to for a flat white when I don’t feel like walking another couple of blocks to Darling St.
First and most importantly, the food. I really like their roast chicken pie and all of their bread. The macarons are great (except the gin and tonic one. It was not good nor did it really remind one of a gin and tonic). My kids love the Nutella and fingerbun macarons. For sweets, I prefer the pear pastry or their sugar lips (vanilla custard filled doughnut, sprinkled with sugar). Very occasionally they’ll have a variation of the sugar lips, which I look for every time I stop by, no matter how much I repeated to myself on the way there «I’m only getting coffee, I’m ONLY getting coffee…». Once they had a strawberry custard filled one with lime sugar… oh sweet baby Moses.
Second, the coffee. I think they got someone new making coffee (often my husband picks one up for me, so I’m not sure who it is). For a long time we always got a dependably good one that tasted the same no matter who made it. For the last few months we’re suddenly getting ones that taste like ass (really, we both threw it out — super watered down flavor and tasted slightly burnt). We also request sugar in our flat whites, and some people stir it in and some people don’t, meaning sometimes it doesn’t taste sweet till you get to the bottom. This is okay if I’m just going home because I’ll stir it myself, but if I’m picking one up and going elsewhere, it’s a bit of an annoyance.
Third, service and atmosphere. Service has always been friendly and it is always clean. The tiny little bar area is a bit bleak, but I imagine when this place was still being used as a kitchen it worked out well because you could watch people working while you enjoyed your guilty pleasure. That’s right — they don’t use this location for baking anymore.

OK, this place is cool. Really cool. And I’m not going to lie, I saw Adriano Zumbo and that was SUPER cool (yes people, he does visit his own kitchen). I was utterly entranced watching the skilled professionals behind the glass, the care they put into icing cakes and making bread was nothing short of impressive. I sampled a couple of the famous Zumbarons over a coffee… my boyfriend had a passionfruit lemon tart and made me wish I’d chosen that instead (or as well). We walked away on a sugar high, very satisfied and with a 6-​pack of Zumbarons in our hand. Definitely go and check it out.

If you’re in the vicinity of Balmain and lunchtime hunger strikes, head to the Zumbo factory which provides eat in seating, unlike the Zumbo shop on Darling Street. You can’t miss the street corner venue for the giant kaleidoscopic «Zumbo» graffitid on the side wall. Inside, bar height benches perched around floor to ceiling glass showcase the factory action so you can observe the Zumbo team busy at work. Be warned, Zumbo attracts a lot of celebrity pests who simply pop in to ogle, so by dining in you face the real prospect of being leant over by nosy individuals gawking in the window as you innocently try to eat your lunch. I come here because I’m a pastry fanatic, and the golden flaky stuff around Zumbo pie fillings is up there with the best in my book. Flavours vary from day to day, but being a traditionalist, it’s hard to go past anything with good old beef. Try beef bourgignon $ 4.50. Haven’t had a quiche yet because I can’t get past the pies but they look like yet another pastry addiction waiting to happen. I frequently find myself drooling over the Charlie — chorizo, capsicum and potato; the Nancy — sweet corn, tomato and pesto; and the Pat — pumpkin, mushroom and pine nuts… all just $ 5.20.

Adriano Zumbo’s Café, or the Zumbo Lab as it’s often called, has everything that Adriano Zumbo’s Darling St Patisserie is missing — pizazz and a gritty edge, seating, coffee, fly-​on-​the-​wall insight into the Zumbo kitchen, and last, but far from least in the eyes of some, an occasional sighting of Zumbo himself.
The Zumbo Lab has character. With graffiti spilling over the walls and beautifully marking the building’s façade, the Lab has inherited the cool genes of the Zumbo family. Whilst the café is pretty small (I imagine it fills pretty quickly on weekends) it’s nice to have somewhere, no matter how squishy, to sit and enjoy your little cakey-​heaven. The teeny-​tiny proportions of the shop also help to create a pretty intimate environment — despite the thick glass panel between you and the chefs/​pastry magicians, this intimate space positions you all-​but inside the lab itself — a voyeuristic dream.
When I first over-​heard someone in Zumo’s Darling St shop ask a staff member «Where’s Adriano today? When will he be dropping by?» I scoffed knowingly — «What makes them think that Adriano Zumbo just hangs out at the shop?» I asked myself rhetorically. «Idiots.» And yet, on my second visit to the Zumbo Lab, I couldn’t help but wonder when Mr Zumbo would be dropping by.