Sydney’s foodies are going wild over this new South Korean bakery

• Buttered Sydney is a new bakery opening in Chippendale, bringing South Korea’s latest food craze to town.
• Salt Bread is a simple combination of highly textured bread topped with a pinch of sea salt.
• The Chippendale bakery will also have plenty of other baked treats, including South Korean-inspired drinks.
• READ MORE: Are these the best new restaurants in Sydney?

A deceptively simple baked treat has been taking over South Korea’s kinetic cafe culture these past few years, and it’s looking like the trend has now been imported to Sydney via new Chippendale bakery, Buttered.

Scroll through the various viral foodie trends on social media and you’re almost guaranteed to come across someone slowly ripping apart a large slab of highly textured, fluffy bread. This is Shio Pan, the original Japanese version of salt bread, a sweet and high-quality buttered roll with just the right amount of flaky salt.

South Korea adapted salt bread over the past few years, and that’s what’s really sent this thing into the stratosphere, with many hailing the baked treat as the “new croissant”.

READ MORE: Sydney’s Bastille Festival is going bigger and better this year.

In Japan, it’s chewy in the middle with a crispy base and a spongy, soft exterior. In South Korea, it’s been reimagined with all kinds of experimental textures, from exteriors that flake with the crisp of a Vietnamese baguette, to ones that stick closer to the original.

Buttered focuses on the latter, and once the bakery opens this week (Thursday, May 8), at The Brewery on Central Park Avenue in Chippendale, demand amongst Sydney’s most fervent foodies should be through the roof.

Pastry chef Philip Choi is the man behind Buttered, and he brings a wealth of experience after perfecting his trade at some of Seoul’s top patisseries. As he told Concrete Playground, salt bread was the one treat he craves most whenever he is homesick, and he wanted to bring a slice of Asia’s ever-changing cafe culture to Sydney with a few little local twists to give Buttered its own identity.

Salt bread comes in various shapes and sizes at Buttered. The signature ‘Salty Boi’ has been described as a having a golden bronzed exterior with a chewy centre topped with a pinch of sea salt. But that’s salt bread at its most basic form; you’ve also got other sweet and savoury versions from roasted garlic all the way to vanilla cream.

READ MORE: Two of London’s best chefs are coming to Sydney for Vivid 2025.

Pull-apart tissue bread and waterfall cakes (airy sponge with layers of whipped cream and toppings of seasonal fruit) also sit behind the glass-encased displays at the industrial-chic location. Even Korean drinks get a nod with various ‘ade’ beverages, which are basically flavoured sparkling water with house-made syrups.

Piqued your interest? This week is the best time to head along and try salt bread as Buttered celebrates its opening week with free coffee for the first 100 people who purchase some salt bread on either Thursday, May 8 or Sunday, May 11 from 12pm.

Buttered

Address: 5 Central Park Ave, Chippendale NSW 2008
Contact: 0451 977 377
Opening Hours: Monday – Friday (10am – 5pm); Saturday – Sunday (9am – 5pm)