The 11 best bakeries in Adelaide

Boogie on down to this bright yellow bakery that has previously claimed bragging rights to Australia’s best plain meat pie, sausage roll and vanilla slice. Let’s start with their gourmet pies, which put a tasty spin on classic Aussie pub fare, such as the nacho pie, butter chicken version and surf ‘n’ turf pastry. As for the sweet treats, there’s only one thing to order: the vanilla slice, which also comes in doughnut form or deep-fried with cream cheese and chocolate ganache. Banana Boogie also serves up an all-day brekkie menu and sells loaves of fresh ciabatta and Turkish bread to take home.

This Eastwood bakery has been around since 1910, but its offerings are anything but stuck in the past. Jenny’s has built up a cult following from its innovative treats. These days, the family-owned bakery excels in riffs on bakery classics, like black sesame croissants, pistachio maritozzi (cream-filled brioche buns), and tooth-breaking toffee apple bombolone (filled doughnuts). They were one of the first bakeries to bring the international craze, the crookie, to Australian shores, too. Jenny’s is also carrying Adelaide’s focaccia game, with beautifully open-crumbed focaccia supporting their seasonal Italian sandwich menu. 

Got an eye for a pie? Need to fill a niche with a quiche? Bakery on O’Connell in North Adelaide will satisfy, 24 hours a day. Despite looking rather demure from the outside, this place thrums inside with dozens of customers and almost as many staff, keeping the cabinets stocked with sausage rolls, pies, pasties and quiches of all denominations. On the sweet side of the ledger are fruit pies, éclairs, tarts and biscuits aplenty. But the real reason you’re here at 3am is to experience a ‘pie floater’ – a meat pie adrift in a bowl of green pea soup, smothered with tomato sauce. Magic!

Don’t get lost on your way to this charming Bowden bakery or you’ll miss having first pick of their fresh-baked pastries and bread. The Loaf Loaf opens from Wednesday to Sunday, selling only what they make that day, which includes plain and almond croissants, custard-filled pastries, pains au chocolat and fruit danishes. Their sourdoughs are a 36-hour labour of love and come in rye, wholewheat, seeded or fruit varieties. On weekends, the bakery also tempts with a spread of seasonal tarts, cakes, biscuits, doughnuts and stuffed baguette sandwiches, making your decision that much harder.

Abbots and Kinney started out as a pop-up pastry shop, regularly seen on bar-studded Leigh Street and at the city-fringe Adelaide Farmers Market in Wayville. Now with six permanent bases, including their original Pirie Street bakery, A and P’s primo pastries have crowds hollering from here to Italy. You can stick with a classic butter croissant, but we’d suggest having a little fun with the ‘cinnabon Jovi’ scroll, ‘cruller intentions’ choux pastry, Moroccan lamb ‘silly sausage’ roll, or drunken chicken ‘I pie with my little eye.’ 

In this age of pop-ups and food vans, it’s hard to believe that this modest little North Adelaide bakery has been putting buns in the oven for around 130 years. The Perrymans themselves have moved on, but the new owners certainly haven’t dropped the dough. In fact, with the hipster reverence for tradition infusing Adelaide, old Perrymans’ is exuding new cool. Expect excellent oven stuff, from pepper-steak pies and spinach-and-cheese rolls to German-influenced sweet treats, like Kitchener buns, streusel cakes and custard Berliners.

This country church-turned-bakery has risen to the occasion time and time again, pleasing visitors with pastries, pies, sausage rolls, cakes and sourdough doughnuts filled with every flavour imaginable. The sweet cabinet can be overwhelming for first-timers, so we’ll help you out by recommending a thick slab of carrot cake, salted caramel doughnut or classic choc chip cookie. You can also relax alfresco with all-day brunch, featuring croissant fruit toast, spanakopita slice and croque monsieur, alongside seasonal soups, salads and sandwiches. And if you simply want a slice of house sourdough with a thick spread of melty butter or jam, we won’t judge one bit.

Even Homer Simpson would give a thumbs up to the pink-glazed doughnut croissant with sprinkles at Mascavado. This trendy café and patisserie excels in its sweets, baking up an impressive range of stuffed croissants, danishes, cakes and tarts. You’ll want to drop by on the weekend for Mascavado’s specials, featuring croissants twice-baked with fillings like red velvet cheesecake, Biscoff, matcha and vanilla slice. Those who need some savoury respite can also grab a classic sausage roll, chicken sanga or veggie quiche. 

Out the back of the successful Stirling Hotel in the Adelaide Hills – just a 12-minute dash up the freeway from the city – is this zippy little patisserie, serving excellent house-made pastries, baguettes and pies. The fact that the patisserie counter occupies a corner of the best bottle shop in the Hills is further enticement. But finish your lemon curd petit four, your almond croissant and your double-shot flat white before you get stuck into the local sauv blanc. Also on offer are wonderful takeaway quiches, chunky loaves and crunchy French sticks to fuel the folks at home.

Goodwood Road is a long way from the Champs Elysées, but Boulangerie 113 does a mighty fine impersonation of a Parisian dough-den. It’s an open-fronted affair, with a scatter of footpath tables and a counter crammed with buttery croissants, elegantly stuffed sourdough baguettes and myriad tarts, pastries, loaves and buns. The coffee is good to go, too, and savvy marketing sees regular themed baked goods entering the fray, from ghoul biscuits at Halloween to star-shaped Christmas tarts.

If Wild Loaf rings a bell, you’ve probably encountered the family behind Nettle and Knead before. They previously ran Wild Loaf at the Adelaide Central Market, before turning their Duthy Street location into a bakery-cross-café. Sunshine shines through the expansive glass windows onto the faces of happy customers enjoying bacon and egg sandos, tomato bruschettas and soup with deliciously sour bread. The star of the show is the nostalgic vanilla slice, with plenty of vegan options too, including savoury pasties and seasonal muffins.