Victoire

A real French bakery in the heart of Cammeray? You had me at croissant!
There’s no shortage of bakers in the Cammeray/​Crows Nest/​Neutral Bay triangle but, honestly, most aren’t very good.
Victoire has a limited palette of baked goods but generally they’re authentic and tasty. However I have noticed a tendency in recent months for the sweet pastries to be burnt underneath so inspect the palmiers, especially.

I got a pain au chocolat here. By my standards and having been to France a couple times, this isn’t the best French croissant you could ever have. However, Victoire does a fairly fine job of incorporating what I’m looking for in a good croissant: light fluffiness and a crispy outer layer with deliciousness written all over it. So even though it isn’t quite the croissant I was looking for, this will do just fine.

For my money the best bakery in town.
These folks make unbelievable rustic loaves, and the olive loaf is the top seller — it is incredible.
Its a lovely little shop, the baker will pop out and say hello while he is waiting for the bun in the oven, so to speak. Their croissants are smooth flaky and buttery and absolutely sinful. The fruit loaf rarely makes it through the day of purchase — certainly never gets as far as being a piece of toast.
Recently they have added a chilled cabinet for exquisite creations of cream, pastry and chocolate, heaven on a spoon every one.
Of course it all comes at a cost, quality is never cheap, but hey, you get what you pay for, ok?
One of my guilty pleasure is nipping up the road for a couple of loaves Saturday morning, picking up the paper and a coffee… then a home made olive bread ham salad roll for lunch, fantastic crunchy crust and beautiful soft olive bread… oooaaaa!

The best of breads, pastries. Whenever I’m nearby I always pop in there, and for Galette des Rois season (a few days before and after January 6) make a special visit there to buy one.

This classy little French bakery is making some seriously good country loaves — I like their flavoured ones that include additions like sun-​dried tomato or black olive. It’s a pretty small shop — walk inside and you’ll be met with a small shelf full of imported preserves, next to which is the open cooking section full of ovens and stacked metal trays on wheels; turn to the right a little again and you’re already in front of the service counter.
They have a sister bakery in Rozelle — perhaps the exxy price tags would go down a tad better over there in gourmand central. Everything is really good quality, and they have a French girl dishing out the breads and pastries, which adds a bit of authenticity, but the costs are high — a little lemon curd tart I bought once came in at $ 8. Ouch.

This is a sweet little bakery. Little and sweet being the two key words. I was in there at 8.30am on a weekday and there wasn’t a lot of bread on display, some but not enough choice to get me salivating. The baker was still in but it didn’t look like much baking was happening. They don’t make gluten free bread but they do gluten free cakes — the standard flourless chocolate and the strawberry mascarpone layered caked which looked divine. The other products they have here are the jams and honey. The Australian made organic unheated honey is a find. Though, at $ 15 a pop I can see why the jars had dust on their lids.

The jewel in the crown of Cammeray shopping, Victoire bakery is known far and wide for its unbeatable ‘rustic’ range of loaves. You can choose more imaginative variations on them with additives such as sundried tomatoes or olives, but my personal favourite is the simple rustic loaf, chewy, flavoursome and fresh and if you’re lucky, still warm from the oven.
At 4 dollars a pop it’s no bargain, but you’re paying for quality a fact backed by all the big companies that order from Victoire for their fancy dos.
The patisserie section is equally tantalising though you’ll have to get there early on a Saturday to get the croissants before the rest of North Sydney does. If you can’t make it to Cammeray there’s a sister store in Balmain that benefits form equally booming business. Baking at its best!