Cronuts and banh mi @ Saigon Southlands Hot Bake

Walking through Mawson after a visit to the Italian Continental Bakery and Cafe, I came across this sign for cronuts at Saigon Southlands Hot Bake. I must admit that I was quite surprised that a Vietnamese bakery would be making cronuts. I’m always keen to try cronuts so I made it my mission to return another time and check it out.

Saigon Southlands Hot Bake is located at the Mawson shops, near the halal grocer and Mediterranean Delights shop. There are several loaves of bread and bread rolls displayed outside. A whole bag of soft rolls for 99c? Great value!

I was interested in trying out the banh mi or Vietnamese pork roll which is advertised for $5.50.

It’s quite small inside but there is plenty of food on offer in the two glass cabinets – from hot dogs, sausage rolls and pies, to cronuts, apple slices and other sweets. Cronuts are $3.50 each and come in five flavours – custard, salted caramel, chocolate, jam, and hazelnut and peanut.

As it was lunch time, I decided to order the banh mi first. I was expecting a prepared roll but this was made fresh on the spot.

I really enjoyed this banh mi. It’s 10 times better than what I was served at Roll’d and had good portions of everything – Vietnamese salami, cha lua, lots of pork meat, and stuffed full of crunchy pickled carrots and cucumber. The coriander wasn’t as fresh as I would’ve liked it (there were a few dark patches) but it didn’t affect overall taste. The roll was crusty and the pate tasted great on it.

I loved every bite of this. What a great find! At $5.50, you get something fresh, healthy and tasty.

Now for the cronuts. These looked delicious – tall, flaky and topped with icing. I purchased two to take away. The peanut and hazelnut cronut looked pretty good. The cronut had that light crispy outer layer but I found it was a little too doughy inside. I like the peanut/hazelnut combination but thought the icing on top could’ve been better.

The salted caramel cronut looked more chocolately than caramel, and I thought I’d been given the wrong one. I could taste a little bit of salt on the cronut and then a whole heap of sugar from the icing. Though nothing to distinguish the flavour as salted caramel.

Overall, I’m glad I came across this little local bakery. It’s looks to be a family run bakery with two small children playing inside under the watchful eyes of the owners. There was never really a quiet period when I was there enjoying my banh mi. I noticed the most popular items to be bought were the freshly baked bread, pies, banh mi and cronuts.

Best thing about this place? Prices are cheap and affordable!

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Foodgasm 7/10