LAB: The Bakery Café Experiment in Strathfield is inspired by the bakery-cafes in Seoul. It’s one part cafe and one of Asian bakery with a large window at the rear of the shop where customers can see the bakers working.

This is the Koyota ($4.00), ‘a light yet super crispy bread layered with caramelised sugar’.

It’s about 15 cm in diameter and the description for this one is spot on with its crisp lightness and hint of sweetness and light nuttiness from the black sesame making a moreish snack.

This is the Sticky Rice Pie ($6.00), ‘a sweet and sticky bun that is filled with creamy roasted chestnuts and glazed with cinnamon cream’.

It’s also around 15 cm in diameter and about 1 cm thick, but the bun is dense and dry with pumpkin seeds throughout. The glazed cinnamon cream adds some moisture to the pastry, while the roasted chestnut filling has a chewy mochi texture with a gentle sweetness but not much chestnut flavour. This is a very heavy pastry, making it best shared.

LAB: The Bakery Café Experiment is located at 4 The Boulevard, Strathfield NSW 2135.