Opening in May 2025, Buttered Bakery & Cafe is a South Korean bakery specialising in salt bread. It is helmed by Philip Choi, a Le Cordon Bleu Paris graduate with experience at several leading patisseries in Seoul.
2025
Salt and Butter Bread ($5.80)
This established the bakery’s strength in bread texture. The exterior was crisp and golden, with a notably crunchy base giving way to a chewy, aerated interior that recalled a well-made baguette. Flaky salt provided measured savouriness throughout.
The limitation was the butter itself. While present, it lacked the depth, tang and aromatic complexity associated with cultured or fermented butter. In a product built around such a simple flavour profile, a more characterful butter would have elevated the bread considerably.
Potato Egg Mayonnaise Bread ($9.80)
Any reservations about a filled salt bread quickly disappeared.
The bread retained the same crisp exterior and airy interior as the original version, while the filling added both flavour and textural variety. Smooth mashed potato, tender pieces of egg, mild sweetness from onion and gentle tang from mayonnaise combined into a cohesive filling that remained substantial without becoming heavy.
Richly savoury, creamy and well balanced, this was one of the strongest items sampled and an easy recommendation.
Tissue Bread ($14.80)
Presented as a 10 cm cube composed of approximately 1,000 layers.
The structure recalled a croissant, with a lightly sweet profile, crisp exterior and delicate internal layering. Butter flavour was more pronounced than in the salt bread, contributing richness throughout the pastry.
However, the butter again lacked the depth and aromatic intensity needed to make the product truly memorable. The technical execution was impressive, though a higher-quality butter would have allowed the flavour to match the craftsmanship.
Chestnut Mochi Loaf ($14.80)
A cube-shaped milk bread incorporating mochi and candied chestnuts.
The loaf was exceptionally soft and airy, with a lightly browned crust providing subtle contrast. Swirls of mochi contributed gentle elasticity throughout the crumb, while the candied chestnuts introduced restrained sweetness.
The chestnuts lacked some of the earthy nuttiness associated with roasted chestnuts, resulting in a milder profile overall. Pleasant and balanced, though somewhat understated.
Matcha Azuki Mochi Loaf ($14.80)
Filled with molten mochi and chunky azuki bean paste within a matcha milk bread.
This proved the strongest of the mochi loaves. The azuki contributed earthy sweetness and texture, while the matcha provided a gentle vegetal bitterness that prevented the loaf from becoming overly sweet.
The various components integrated naturally into the bread, creating a moist, cohesive structure with good flavour definition throughout.
Chocolate Mochi Loaf ($14.80)
Chocolate milk bread filled with mochi and dark chocolate.
The generous chocolate filling delivered substantial richness, while the mochi became noticeably chewier than in the other loaf variations. The contrast between the elastic mochi and smooth chocolate was effective, though the sticky interior made slicing and serving somewhat messy.
A satisfying option for chocolate enthusiasts, but less balanced and less practical than the matcha azuki version.
Sweet Corn Latte ($5.30, +$1.00 for large)
A distinctive latte built around sweet corn flavour.
The corn character was immediately recognisable, supported by a buttery undertone that reinforced the novelty of the concept. The dairy base provided a smooth, creamy texture, though milk became increasingly dominant towards the finish.
As a result, the flavour felt less cohesive than it initially promised. The addition of freeze-dried corn kernels could have reinforced both flavour intensity and textural interest.
2026
Premium Beton Salt Bread ($8.00)
Inspired by the circular salt bread popularised by Seoul’s Beton Bakery.
While visually distinctive, this version proved less successful than Buttered’s regular salt bread. The pointed ends delivered a lightly crisp texture and an oily buttery sensation, though the butter itself again lacked strong flavour expression.
The interior was exceptionally soft and pillowy, but the texture leaned heavily towards sweet, eggy brioche. In doing so, it lost much of the buttery chew and structural character that made the original salt bread appealing. The result was softer but less distinctive, with sweetness becoming more prominent than savouriness.
Dubai Chewy Cookie ($9.50)
The cookie featured a marshmallow-coated exterior dusted with cocoa powder, surrounding a filling of kataifi pastry and pistachio. Initial contact delivered a contrast between the bitterness of the cocoa powder and the sweetness of the marshmallow layer. The exterior yielded readily, giving way to the filling, where the kataifi pastry provided a distinct crisp crunch. Through the mid-palate, the pistachio filling developed with moderate intensity. Rather than emphasising the rich, creamy and slightly earthy character typically associated with pistachio, the flavour leaned more heavily towards buttery notes. Towards the finish, the sweetness became more apparent as the cocoa bitterness receded, while the pistachio and buttery notes lingered moderately on the palate. In terms of execution, it sat between the outstanding pistachio intensity and crunch of the version from 10000 Bakery and the overly sweet, less satisfying interpretation from Smelly Cheesecake.
Across the range, technical execution was consistently strong. The breads demonstrated excellent texture, whether through the crisp-chewy structure of the salt breads or the soft, airy crumb of the milk breads. The recurring limitation was the butter itself, which frequently lacked the depth and complexity needed to fully support products built around it.
The strongest items were those where fillings compensated for this weakness, particularly the Potato Egg Mayonnaise Bread and the Matcha Azuki Mochi Loaf. Both combined strong flavour integration with the bakery’s consistently impressive bread textures.
Buttered Bakery & Cafe is located at Ground Floor, The Brewery, 5 Central Park Avenue, Chippendale NSW 2008.