Candied Bakery, Cobb Lane, Olympic Doughnuts, Cafe Cui and 8bit Burgers - Melbourne

Crazy soft serves, extreme cookies and out-there doughnuts. It's no wonder Candied Bakery has been likened to Australia's version of Momofuku Milk Bar. In the kitchen you'll find Toula Polumidis and Orlando Artavilla. She's the chef, he's the baker. After selling their Brunswick East cafe Sugardough Panificio and Patisserie, they undertook a massive American roadtrip and then opened Candied Bakery on their return.


Candied Bakery

Ploumidis and Artavilla describe Candied as "an Aussie bakery with a twist". That means lamingtons in the display case as well as more American treats, like S'more doughnuts and peanut butter and jelly cookies.


Candied Bakery counter

Sourdough breads are stacked neatly in one corner, and there are pre-made sandwiches in the window, but we're drawn to the eye-popping collection of sugary treats.


Jelly donut $3.80


Chocolate marshmallow cookie $4.20


Peanut butter and jelly cookie $4.20


S'more donut $3.80


S'more donut $3.80

The S'more donut is at the top of our list. Take one doughnut, add a layer of melted chocolate, cover in marshmallow glaze and crushed biscuits and then blowtorch until golden brown. The marshmallow takes on a stretchy gooey life of its own. We find it a little on the sickly side of sweet but American childhood treats were never known for being tame.


Jelly donut $3.80

The jelly donut is a good take on the classic, light and fluffy with the merest smidge of raspberry jam piped into the middle.


Peanut butter and jelly cookie $4.20

But it's the peanut butter and jelly cookie that turns out to be the crowd favourite, two thin peanut buttery cookies sandwiched around a filling of jam and cream. It's like a peanut version of a Monte Carlo.


Hot dog with kimchi and mayo $7

We throw in a bit of savoury to balance out all the sweet. The hot dog with kimchi and mayo is just the kind of comfort food you crave. A soft steamed bun is wrapped around a bouncy smoked hotdog then jammed with kimchi, mustard and mayo. It works brilliantly.


Salted white chocolate caramel crunch soft serve

And because we'd orchestrated a meet-up with Suze, we manage to pillage some of her soft serve too. It's a salted white chocolate soft serve with caramel crunch piled over the top. The corn flakes, caramel and white chocolate are reminiscent of a bowl of crunchy nut.


Cobb Lane Bakery, Yarraville



We hired a car for this trip - a luxury I don't often have when visiting Melbourne - so I was keen to explore areas I hadn't visited before. This post focuses on Footscray, Spotswood and Yarraville, all reasonably close to each other but also accessible by public transport if you're without wheels.

Candied Bakery was our first visit straight out of the airport. Cobb Lane was our second. It's the first time pastry chef Matt Forbes has had his own business. His impressive CV includes working in the two-Michelin-starred Le Manoir Aux Quat’ Saisons in Oxfordshire, working as head pastry chef at Vue de Monde and staging at Noma in Copenhagen.


Lavender and caramelised white chocolate donut $5

Housemade breads, doughnuts and pastries are crammed into this tiny 15-seater cafe. We zero in on the lavender and caramelised white chocolate donut. The doughnut is light and fluffy although the floral overtones do kinda remind of a scented drawer liner, and okay, yes, it kinda tastes like grandma.


Blackcurrant Paris-Brest $8

We've ended up on a purple rampage here, with the blackcurrant Paris-Brest also in our line of sight. The dessert was originally made to commemorate the Paris-Brest bicycle race that started in 1891. The rings of choux pastry are supposed to represent bike wheels.

There's a sophistication to this version, the choux pastry filled with clouds of blackcurrant cream and draped with tiles of white chocolate.


Olympic Doughnuts, Footscray


The constant queue at Olympic Doughnuts

Olympic Doughnuts is a bit of a legend in Melbourne. This dinky doughnut shack has been perched next to Footscray station for 35 years. Along with the Footscray station upgrade, the donut shack has had a facelift too. They were yet to put up the signage when we visited, but all you had to do was follow your nose and look for the constant queue.


Olympic Doughnut owner Nick Tsiligiris 

Owner Nick Tsiligiris has been making doughnuts for as long as anyone can remember. It's a tiny two-person operation - one person frying the doughnuts out the back, the other serving customers at the window.


The famous dolphin that injects raspberry jam into each doughnut

The dolphin is just as famous as the doughnuts here, responsible for injecting a squirt of raspberry jam into each piping hot doughnut for hungry commuters.

Alas we found the doughnuts a little oily with a greasy aftertaste, but we bet they taste much better after a long commute. At 80c a pop, they're a cheap afternoon snack too.


Cafe Cui



Suze put us onto Cafe Cui, diagonally across the road from Olympic Doughnuts with its enticement of Lobster Rolls in giant letters. Owner Phuoc Duong used to live in Footscray, but after running a series of cafes in the city, thought it was time to return.


The Lover-Lover lobster roll with herb fries $19


Cafe Cui is noticeably slick compared to the colourful train of African and Vietnamese businesses that make up most of Footscray. Here it's bright white tiles, gleaming gold light fittings and bi-fold windows that flood the dining room with natural light.


Grilled lobster 

We had to order the Lover-Lover lobster roll of course. You get two mini lobster rolls with herb fries, the lobster seared on the grill with lashings of butter.


8bit, Footscray


Astroboy and Princess Peach table numbers

One of our favourite eats in the area had to be 8bit. Just the mere mention of 1980s video games won me over when I was researching eats for this trip. There's an immediate sense of fun when you walk into this casual eatery in the backstreets of Footscray. Mario and Luigi plush toys are hanging out on the fire extinguishers and all your favourite 1980s characters are recreated in 8bit form on the table number stands.


Prepping burgers in the kitchen

8bit was started up by Shayne McCallum (Captain Melville), Alan Sam (Captain Melville) and Long Tran. The menu is one great bit childhood flashback, with Golden Axe, Double Dragon and 1 Up Mushroom burgers sending you into a nostalgic spin. In the hot dog section there's the Wonder Boy with bacon, Fatal Fury with jalapeno and 1942 with grilled bratwurst and curry ketchup.


Free arcade games

And while you're waiting for your food to arrive, you can always hit up the free video arcade games out the back. The machine has hundreds of games loaded onto it - all for free.


Burgers, hot dogs and fries

Even if you're eating in, everything is served in paper cartons and greaseproof paper. The cutlery is plastic and there's a dispenser of serviettes on every table. Noone seems to mind. The place is filled mostly with under 30s, plus a couple of tradies getting their burger fix.


Wonder Boy hot dog $7.50
Smoked frank, bacon, grilled onions and bbq sauce

The Wonder Boy hot dog is a skateboarding win. The smoked frankfurter is jammed into a soft sweet bun with bacon, grilled onions and lashing of barbecue sauce.


1 Up Mushroom Burger $9.50
Crumbed portobello mushroom, cheese, tomato, red onion, green tomato relish, lettuce and 8 Bit sauce

The 1 Up Mushroom burger isn't just a cute name, it's downright delicious. The massive Portobello in the middle has been crumbed and fried to an irresistible crunch, without the flood of oil that seem to afflict so many other mushroom burgers.


8bit with cheese $8.50
Beef, tomato, lettuce, red onion, pickles, mustard, cheese and 8 Bit sauce

We dig the 8bit with cheese too, a classic beef, tomato and lettuce combo with pickles, mustard and cheese.


Golden Axe $9.50
Crispy fried chicken, cheese, sriracha mayo, slaw

Golden Axe will slash its way to your heart too. It's a slab of crunchy fried chicken, a thick slice of cheese and a mountain of slaw slathered in sriracha mayo.


Double Dragon $13.50
Double beef, double cheese, double bacon, pickles, mustard, lettuce, 8 Bit sauce

But it's the Double Dragon that's the big boss of them all. Just picking up this beast is a mission. It's twice as heavy as all the other burgers thanks to its extravaganza of double beef and double cheese. The Black Warriors gang would be no match for this protein-laden fury.


Cheese and bacon fries $7
Beer battered fries, cheese sauce, bacon and spring onion

And you gotta have chips with your burgers, right? We're all over the cheese and bacon fries, super crunchy beer battered chips loaded with crispy bacon and spring onion in a pool of melted cheese. We didn't leave one chip behind.

>> Read the next Melbourne 2014 weekend post: 400 Gradi, Helados Jauja and Top Paddock
<< Read the first Melbourne 2014 weekend post: Cumulus Up, Supernormal & Om Nom






8bit
8 Droop Street, Footscray, Melbourne
Tel: +61 (03) 9687 8838
Opening hours:
Open daily 11am-11pm

Candied Bakery
81A Hudsons Road, Spotswood, Melbourne
Tel: +61 (03) 9391 1335
Opening hours:
Wednesday to Saturday 7.30am - 4pm, Sunday 8am - 4pm


Cafe Cui
58 Leeds Street, Footscray, Melbourne
Tel: +61 (03) 9687 6967
Opening hours:
Monday to Friday 6am - 4.30pm, Saturday 7am - 4.30pm, Sunday 8am - 4.30pm


Cobb Lane
13 Anderson Street, Yarraville, Melbourne
Tel: +61 (03) 9687 1538
Opening hours:
Tuesday to Friday 7.30am - 4.30pm, Saturday and Sunday 8.30am - 4.30pm


Olympic Doughnuts
51 Irving Street, Footscray, Melbourne
Tel: +61 (03) 9689 4819
Opening hours:
Monday to Saturday 10am - 4pm



>> Read the next Melbourne 2014 weekend post: 400 Gradi, Helados Jauja and Top Paddock
<< Read the first Melbourne 2014 weekend post: Cumulus Up, Supernormal & Om Nom


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Melb - CBD: Cumulus Up, Supernormal, Om Nom, Gami, Fall from Grace + more
Melb - Fitzroy/Collingwood: Belle's Hot Chicken, Bluebonnet BBQ + more
Melb - Seven of Melbourne's best cafes