Polish Rye Bakery

Well.

Hello there.

Welcome to my new favorite bakery in town.

My old favorite is a bit run down - there's no place to sit, there's always a crowd of people walking by and the service is pretty cold. This one however has just the right mix of proportion - there are tables to sit and chat, and pleasant store assistants who are delighted you sample their traditional polish recipes and are pleased to introduce all their house-baked pasties to you. (Pro-tip: come at a off-peak period!) And best of all, there's always people popping in through the door and leaving just as quickly clutching their gorgeous bread, so you know their loaves haven't been sitting around for days.

They haven't baked this pie yet but it still looks delicious

No hipsters around this part of Melbourne; this ain't Brunswick. There's no single origin fair-trade, unicorn-grown coffee beans in this joint, or reused glass bottles masquerading as light bulbs. The exterior is pretty nondescript, aside from the strangely endearing halloween-plushie in the glass display and the fall display. But when you step in, the interior is warm and cozy, with a wooden-paneled interior and sturdy, unpretentious tables and chairs. And of course, the fresh gorgeous loaves of breads stacked up against the wall.

The pretzel was highly recommended by a friend, and N and I split one with cream cheese and smoked salmon. Look how generous they are with the smoked salmon!

At first bite, I foolishly thought it was a little soft, and wished they had toasted it. But with every subsequent bite, the soft chewy texture grew on me. I also love the large-caliber salt sprinkles on the surface of the pretzel, so much so that I finished mine upside down (so I can rub more salt on my tongue.) Hee. This is one thing that you should eat with your hands, and skip the knife and fork. It tastes much better.

When we walked in, we told the store assistant that we were new to Polish cuisine and were happy to try anything she recommended. She pointed right at the ~~Babka~~. (hang on... I think babka isn't right. We ordered a few dishes at once and she might have mixed them up) While we deliberated between chocolate and vanilla, she gestured again towards their marbled version, which is both chocolate and vanilla. Win-win! I took a bite and paused, because it was just that niesamowite. The texture is - as my sister would say, sponge-cake-like, but it was heftier than a normal sponge-cake, and every crumb was flavourful.

Because N really wanted one, we ordered the Plum Marmalade Donut. I wasn't really keen on one, because I already had a disappointing experience from Kluska, a nearby Polish restaurant. But the first (grudging) forkful changed my mind: the ones here are excellent! I made sure to tell the store assistant how much more I like their donut, and they looked mightily pleased. The texture is soft and refined. The icing was perfect: not too sweet. It was in short, perfect. We ripped the donut apart trying to find the marmalade, but there was no filling to be found. Maybe the plum taste came from the icing glaze? (Update! On my second visit, the donut came with prune jam filling. Oops. Well, the standout component was still the icing. I scooped all the stray icing pieces up and ate them all.)

The only disappointment was the Sour Cherry Cheesecake. Despite all the online reviews raving about it, we didn't like the powdery texture or the intense intense sweetness. Maybe it was a bad batch?

Polish Rye

On the way out, we ordered two whole loaves of Polish Rye to go - their top bestselling loaf - as well as a bagel. It may have been the singular best loaf of bread I had. The interior is soft, chewy and hearty. But the exterior crust - oh wow - the crust is crunchy and splinters into shards with every bite. When I buy bread from the supermarket, I throw the crust out. But here, the crusty ends are my favourite parts.

The final bill came up to $29.70. $29.70 for two loaves of artisan bread and a bagel on top of the four dishes that we ordered? Brunch has never been more pleasant - or affordable.

With most of the morning crowd choosing to take-away, you can sit at the readily available tables, in the morning without having to stand and wait for long. A couple of other tables might be occupied, lending to a pleasant din of conversation around you, but never overwhelmingly loud so. Polish Rye Bakery makes driving all the way to Dandenong just for a visit worthwhile.

Promise.

Aktualizacja!: On my second visit just 6 days later (hey, a guy has to get his bread fix...), we ordered pretty much the same things, and an additional Vanilla slice ($4.50). There were two types: Bienenstich or French. A quick googling reveals Bienenstich is German in origin and is made of a sweet yeast dough with a baked-on topping of caramelized almonds and filled with a vanilla custard/buttercream/cream. Since they are both sold side-by-side, they should be similarly good in quality yes? We got the French. It has a thick custard layer, and is rich without being cloyingly sweet as I feared.

We also ordered the Pierogi: I'm partial to the potato cheese, but J and R liked the bacon ones. Still, they are oiler than I expected, and I preferred Kluska's version. (Sorry!)

I went home with a Walnut Sourdough this time around; it's their second most popular loaf. We got all fancy with the Polish Rye loaf and bought smoked salmon and cream cheese to go along with it, but with this loaf, I learnt that it doesn't take much to make their loaves shine. Toast each slice lightly, until the sides and top is slightly crisp but the interior is still soft and chewy, and dip it in a little olive oil.

Update! I just discovered the gem that is their Beesting ($6). If they have it, buy one. It's filled with sweet cream and topped with caramelised slivers of almond. Definitely not your average Beesting.