Fresh bread, baked goods, sweet treats, and pastries – who doesn’t love paying a visit to the local bakery?
The bakery is a neighbourhood staple, whether you need fresh bread for lunch, a slice of cake for afternoon tea, a pie for dinner, or a tart for dessert. And now, many artisan bakeries in the Canberra region offer their tasty treats and barista-made coffee in-house, too.
If you’re on the hunt for the best bakeries in Canberra and surrounds, you’ve landed in the right place. We’ve put together a list of the top three local bakeries.
Get ready to get hungry. Let’s get started.
What makes a great bakery?
Everyone has their favourite bakery treat. But what makes the best bakeries stand out from their competitors. Here are a couple of traits to look out for:
- An excellent range of bread and baked goods. First and foremost, look for a bakery that offers a delectable selection of fresh bread and baked goods.
- All food is baked in-house. This should go without saying, but a good bakery makes all their food in-house. That way, you know you are getting the freshest possible product.
- Great prices. The best bakeries sell their bread, pies, and sweet treats for a reasonable price, so you don’t feel like you are being ripped off.
- Café services. This isn’t vital, but it’s an extra touch. Some of the leading bakeries in the region offer café services, too. That means great coffee and a place to sit and enjoy the food.
The best bakeries in Canberra
RiotACT’s editorial team has combed through 20 years of on-site comments to compile a list of the most recommended businesses according to you.
To be listed in our Best of Canberra series, each business needs to have consistently received positive feedback on RiotACT and Facebook as well as maintaining a minimum average of 4/5 stars on Google.
Without further ado, let’s introduce the best bakeries in Canberra.
Silo Bakery and Café
A long-time local favourite, Silo Bakery and Café offers some of the best artisan bread and pastries in the Canberra region. Their extremely popular croissants sell out quick, and their authentic Italian breads – including the stirato and the casalinga loaves – are an excellent choice if you’re looking to try something new. You can also grab a delicious coffee while you’re there!
Dobinsons
Since 1994, Dobinsons has served up top-quality, classic Australian bakery goods in a laid-back atmosphere. The success of Dobinsons is all thanks to the team’s dedication to the art of pastry – in fact, the current pastry chef at this fantastic bakery is a fifth generation baker. In addition to their baked goods, you can enjoy breakfast, lunch, coffee, and a range of drinks in-store.
The Flute Bakery
Ornate, French sweets are The Flute Bakery’s speciality. Head in store to experience a rainbow of delicate French classics and European-inspired pastries: macarons, bavarois, mousse, praline, gateaux, and more. They also offer a brilliant custom cake service, so if you’re looking for a show-stopping dessert for your next event, drop into Flute.
Your experience with bakeries in Canberra
Thanks to our commenters who have provided insightful feedback, if you believe we have got it wrong, please let us know.
Which bakery in the region is your favourite? Share your thoughts in the comments area below.
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Florey do great “Saigon pork rolls”..healthy taste great and only $5.50, best pies are at Griffith butcher or Ellanes at dickson
The bakery at Kingston (nor Silo, the asain one) does one of the best sausage rolls ever, and cheap. Also the cafe in the John Gorton Building does a mean sausage roll, but pricey but yum. I also rate Dobinsons for a sausage roll.
bigred said :
I like this thread. Harmless and interesting, though strangely passionate.
So firstly, I would like to note that the quiches at the Braidwood bakery are still nice. Very salty but nice. I had one recently.
And secondly, that chilli hot chocolate is a treat I have allowed myself twice in about 10 months, and the first time I nearly started crying at how good it was. That first was in Sydney in Glebe Point Road, and I left a poetry thing early for it after it had been whispering to me all day. The second was more recently at Cocoa Black, and it was good, but it did not make me cry. Am I asking too much of a hot beverage? How pleasurable should hot chocolate be? Does absence really make the taste buds grow more sensitive?
Maybe it’s just me; I’ve been thinking about pickled onions and chips all day.
For sure Astrojax, I am also mightily chuffed. Next topic should be best hot chocolate I reckon.
poetix said :
i’m right chuffed a fellow rioter remembers the blue lagoon – i still feel the devastation when i recall the day i discovered ‘new management’.
and yes, only vinegar on chips, preferably balsamic. ‘matoe sauce? no! pickled onions? very yes!
Asian Delights bakery in Charnwood do pretty good pies and sausage rolls. Their curry pies are one of the best I’ve had.
KB1971, the user name comes from the size and colour of my preferred motorbike. Tomato sauce should be injected into a pie from one of those big bottles until it oozes out. I do not like the move to little measured doses.
Hard to choose if I like tomato sauce or vinegar better. Both are incredible.
RE: Mexican food, we use guac, which has some sour cream in it, but is perfect.
poetix said :
The best chips we used to get when we were kids was from the Pambula milk bar. Malcom used to give us $1 worth drenched in vinegar with a little salt wrapped in paper. We then used to then rip the end out of the paper so the chips would not get cold.
The chips would be all soft & steamy & oh so tasty in their vinigary goodness………god I miss them.
astrojax said :
The Shepherds/potato pie. Ended up with a bit of gristle/artery stuck between my teeth & the potato tasted like Deb (not saying it was Deb but that is what it tasted like). Very underwhelming, shame, I have had some nice stuff from there.
Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :
Absolutely. The application of sour cream to any Mexican product breaks my heart. As does copious amounts of melted cheddar cheese… *shudder*
bigred said :
I agree so totally with vinegar on chips. Tomato sauce just tastes wrong. (although with your user name, I’m surprised you don’t prefer sauce!) I don’t really miss chips, until I think of vinegar. Reminds me of Melbourne.
But I even liked pickled onions.
Got to agree with Astrojax in post#6 re the Blue Lagoon bakery for the best ever meat pies. It was one of the winter staple foods for the bus ride home from after school activities. The other was a bag of chips with vinegar from the seafood shop near the bottom bus stop.
Nowadays, I reckon the best meat pies can be found at Pie in the Sky on Sydney’s Northern outskirts.
iLazy said :
If you want to *cool the flavours*, you probably should not be eating Mexican anything.
Holden Caulfield said :
Couldn’t disagree more – the Mexican pie from Dobinsons had me gagging and retching after one bite (I did actually start retching)… why would you put sour cream inside a pie before cooking it? The whole point of sour cream on Mexican food (a theory I don’t personally subscribe to as I hate the stuff) is that it cools the hot flavours… how can it cool anything when it is this curdled and unspeakably foul muck ruining my pie?
I am a Mexican pie devotee, I’ll order one in any bakery I enter that has them, have eaten them all over the country and I can say with authoirty the Dobinsons one was one of the filthiest things I have tasted and it went straight in the bin.
For those fellow Mexican pie lovers – Tura Beach bakery – sublime. But they sell out early.
I had a lemon tart from Dobinson’s yesterday arvo which really hit the spot. Reasonably priced sweets there. Been years since I’ve had a pie or sandwich from there though. That’s due to not going past it much more than anything.
KB1971 said :
what sort did you have? i find their offerings a little hit and miss, and their sausage rolls’ pastry too flaky.
have had some nice fare there, though. i do like their chocolate and macadamia tarts. mmmm.
Our family just lunched on Curtin Sausage rolls. We love them. Second only to those from Kingston Bakery.
I just had a Dobinsons pie………………I want my $4:50 back…… 🙁
poetix said :
i have long coveted the mully, 😉 so i can report that the curtin shops bakery has disappointing sausage rolls and an average cheese and bacon pie. i’m still looking for excellence in sausage rolls. the bakery at fyshwick markets – grain and something? – does a mean one. am so rarely that side of town at sausage roll time…