Sweet Envy is lauded as Hobart’s best patisserie. And Sweet Envy’s boss and chef, Alistair Wise, arrived in Sydney in May 2017 with Drury Lane, situated above Brewtown Newtown. Hobart may be small, but a favourite is worth checking out all the same.

One cabinet is filled with a wide selection of buttercream biscuits with various fillings (including salted caramel and strawberry jam) as well as croissants and their signature pecan sticky bun and Jatz pie. The other cabinet is filled with cakes and slices from custard tarts, vanilla slices, opera cake and lemon meringues.

N and I eye the Lemon Meringue ($7.00). It has a pastry base, cake walls and a lemon curd centre covered in a torched Italian meringue.

This was a new and interesting take on a lemon meringue that’s different from the tart format that we expect. Unfortunately, I’m not sure that using cake works, as the cake is dry and dense, while the lemon curd is firm instead of being ‘curdy’ and the lemon meringue wraps thinly around the entire cake. I think more generous meringue would’ve helped balance the dryness of the cake and a tarter lemon curd would’ve countered the sweetness of the meringue.

This is the Poached Pear Tart ($5.00) with a tart based with a poached pear sitting on a pistachio cake.

The pear was the highlight of this tart, retaining a firm texture and taking on a flavour that reminds of pear cider. Unfortunately, the downside to the firm pear is that it makes it near impossible to eat it together with the rest of the tart, which had a pleasant nuttiness that was sweet but countered with the savoury notes of the pistachio.

Drury Lane may be one of the best bakeries in Hobart, but it’s not somewhere to rush back to in Sydney.

Drury Lane is located at Level 1, 6-8 O’Connell Street, Newtown NSW 2042.