8 Melbourne bakeries leading the Asian-inspired pastry boom

Discover the addresses at the forefront of the trend combining French technique and Asian ingredients

28 Oct 2026

Tori's

Melbourne’s bakeries have always reflected its multiculturalism, from Vietnamese bánh mì to Lebanese pies. The latest wave, however, combines French viennoiserie with pan-Asian ingredients, from pandan and kaya to ube, and serves them alongside the city’s prized coffee and café culture. Here are eight of the best bakeries leading the charge.

Bakemono Bakers

Bakemono Bakers, the takeaway-only bakery that began as the in-house baker for sister cafe Little Rogue and takes its cues from small Japanese and Korean bakeries, often has a snaking queue. Owners Jen Lee, her brother Leo and Bruce Luu have head baker Claude Kim running the kitchen, where the traditional croissant is laminated over three days. The mammoth almond croissant wears its shaved almonds upright like a stegosaurus, and its yuzu counterpart brings the citrus tang. Then there’s the melon pan, a sweet bun with a crackled top, and the shio pan, a soft, pillowy, buttery salt roll, all complemented by a hōjicha latte for the post-queue walk.

Bloomwood

Bakemono’s former head baker, Max Loh, has taken his Asian-inspired viennoiserie to Bloomwood, a coffee and bakehouse with two CBD outposts. The Korean corn cheese Danish is sweet-savoury and gloriously cheesy, contrasted by a classic pain au chocolat, and Loh’s creativity seeds again in a rhubarb and genmaicha (toasted rice tea) pastry. The matcha comes on tap, with a black sesame yuzu twist that sounds gimmicky, but isn’t. The speciality coffee is just as serious. The Japandi-influenced interior, a calm blend of Japanese minimalism and Scandinavian warmth, keeps everything pared back, leaving the pastry to do the talking. [Various locations]

Lovey Patisserie Cafe

Lovey Patisserie Cafe speaks the language of many a university student, with freshly canned matcha lattes, cult figurines Sonny Angels on offer at the display and tiramisu cheesecakes with Miffy outlined in cocoa. Le Cordon Bleu alumni owners Karsin Zhang and Julie Zhu take a seasonal approach to French and East Asian flavours, with creations that are youthful, light, balanced and not overly sweet. Think airy chiffon shortcakes in flavours like Earl Grey brown sugar and matcha yuzu white chocolate, or creamy Basque cheesecakes including a gluten-free coconut pandan version. The two venues spanning Doncaster and the CBD are also halal-friendly. [Various locations]

Mada Bakery Café

Ensaymada, the speciality of the eponymous Mada Bakery Café, is a buttery, spiral-shaped Filipino bun descended from Mallorca’s ensaïmada. Pastry chef Marishell Evangelista and her team make everything by hand, proofing the dough for 24 hours until pillowy. Go for the original mada with whipped butter, Cheddar and sugar, or the cream cheese, ube or yema (custard) versions, or try the pan de coco with coconut and brown sugar. There’s a playful drinks roster spanning tablea (Filipino hot chocolate), an ube latte and a sea-salt mocha, the salt coming from Evangelista’s home province of Bolinao, Pangasinan.

Madeleine de Proust

In French, a ‘madeleine de Proust’ is a taste that sends you back to childhood, and this niche Carlton patisserie dedicated to madeleines runs on it. Head pastry chef and cookbook author Hyoju Park and her partner Rong Yao Soh filter heritage through a contemporary lens: Soh’s Malaysian roots in a pandan and coconut madeleine with a kaya (coconut jam) centre; Park’s South Korean heritage in a black sesame madeleine inspired by Jeju Island’s Dol Hareubang stone guardians, filled with mandarin pâte de fruit. A monthly roster of madeleines is rotated on cumulus-like porcelain, alongside financiers and canelés, with the vibrant fit-out earning an Australian interior design award nomination.

Raya

Light timber details complemented by an airy, sunlit space and a cult following: this is Raya, the Melbourne bakery from Malaysian baker, internet sensation and cookbook author Raymond Tan, who also runs “Scandinasian” bakehouse Dua and CBD bingsu (Korean shaved ice) haunt Nimbo. The menu at Raya speaks to his heritage, evident in a thick slab of kaya toast fashioned from housemade shokupan (Japanese milk bread), with soft-boiled eggs on the side, the same bread used to craft sandwiches filled with glazed wedges of Spam and silky scrambled eggs. Save room for the bouncy pandan kueh talam, layered with savoury coconut cream, then chase it with a strawberry matcha crowned in rose cream.

Roslyn Thai Cafe

Coconut is the name of the game at Roslyn Thai Cafe, and Busarin ‘Rin’ Rojkaranwong, whose dessert program grew out of her lockdown-era online food business, plays it beautifully. Think Thai tea chiffon with Thai tea kaya and a black herbal jelly rosette, or taro chiffon crowned with a nest of foi thong (crunchy egg threads in sugar syrup). Her partner, Sapol ‘Pol’ Deoisares, ex-Long Chim like Rojkaranwong, handles the savoury side, from a comforting bowl of jok moo sub (pork ball congee) to green curry with fried chicken or Chinese doughnuts with gooey steamed eggs. The courtyard is a summertime haven, perfected by the refreshing salve of Thai milk tea.

Tori’s

Down a laneway, a hole-in-the-wall with a queue that sometimes spills out the door sits as the first of Tori’s two Japanese-inspired CBD outposts. Inside, it’s a proper cafe, with coveted mismatched seats, free sparkling water on tap and no table service. Matcha is the speciality drink here, with its lauded strawberry counterpart, and is so popular you can opt to buy the powder and a bamboo whisk set for home. Then there’s the fridge of picturesque cakes, from Basque cheesecake with vanilla and lemon zest to the bestselling strawberry shortcake. The key to Tori’s success lies in Thai-born entrepreneur Sutinee Suntivatana, who studies trends, then adds her own spin. [Various locations]

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About the author

Rushani Epa is a seasoned Melbourne-born food and travel journalist, editor and culinary literary agent whose work explores the cultural narratives that shape how we eat. She...

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