The Thousands

Surry Hills is no longer a one-bakery town, there’s a new bread kitchen on the block and its dough is primed.

Le Pain Quotidien is a lofty bakery-restaurant so new that you can still smell its pine-tabled wax. Despite its size, there is something incredibly cosy about the interior. Coffee cups come handle-free – made to be cradled, menus rest in half-cut loaves and provincial jams sit ready for the spreading.

**Then there’s the bread. Using organic flour, the rye, sourdough, five grain, white, spelt and wholemeal loaves are served in thick crusty slabs either by themselves or accompanying a full French-inspired menu of tartines, mixed platters and salads.

We haven’t even touched on dessert, but that’s there too, be it chocolate mousse or a mini meringue. Le Pain Quotidien definitely does not signal out with the old, but it does taste a new treat.