Lune Croissants Sydney: Is the Rosebery store worth the wait?

Lune Croissanterie is world-famous and their croissants have been named the best in the world.
It’s been five years since the Melbourne-born business announced its long-awaited Sydney expansion.
Lune Rosebery opens on Saturday, December 7.

After half a decade of patiently waiting and a few shifts in strategy since it was first announced in 2020, Lune Croissanterie is opening its first Sydney store in the ambitious Rosebery Engine Yards on Saturday, December 7.

It’s one of the final high-profile openings in a year that has set Sydney on a course of great change and inched us closer to competing with world-class destinations like New York City and London.

A Sydney expansion has been a long time coming for Lune’s founder Kate Reid, who started her business as a wholesale operation in 2012. Its presence on Melbourne’s food scene has been undeniable ever since, with snaking queues still spilling out of its Fitzroy flagship.

There’s claims that the bakery produces the world’s best croissants. But does Lune’s je ne sais quoi rest entirely on a fawning The New York Times article published 8 years ago? Surely many bakeries have stepped their game up since.

But while it’s a lofty shout from such a storied publication, the proof is very much in the crème pâtissière.

A golden glossy croissant from Lune—especially an almond croissant—is the holy grail of baked goods in Melbourne. The twice-baked treat is a pop of carb-loading perfection, topped by a spine of flaked almonds swimming in a beautiful, citrusy almond frangipane. Biting into the almond croissant is as much a revelation as your first bacon and fig jam slice from L’industrie in New York City or finding the best maritozzo on the cobblestoned streets of Rome.

When it’s good, it’s a stairway to heaven; when it’s not as good, it’s still pretty excellent. But has Sydney’s standards already been raised by other bakeries like Shadow Baking, Lode Pies & Pastries and Baker Bleu? Has a new croissant king emerged in the past five years?

Does Lune still hold the croissant crown?

Baker Bleu, another Melbourne-born bakery, made tracks on its Sydney expansion in 2022 when it opened in Double Bay at the behest of Neil Perry. Australia’s most emblematic chef once said the operation, started by Mike and Mia Russell, was making “the best bread in Australia.” And before a Sydney outpost opened, Perry was known to air-freight the bakery’s products up from Melbourne. Assumedly, nothing else would do.

Surry Hills staple Lode Pies & Pastries, founded by the team behind LuMi Dining, has become famous for Turkish-inspired croissants filled with white chocolate crème with raspberry, pistachio and rose petals. Tiny fallen flakes left behind by the quintessential morning crunch of Baker Bleu’s rich, nutty croissants are a common sight in Double Bay. The ever-creative Blood’s Bakery (the masterminds behind the pork chasu and ramen egg pie) often put out creative twists like a fascinating Pain au Blood (a Pain au Chocolat using blood sausage instead of chocolate).

Other reliable options include the Korean-influenced Moon Phase, French restaurant Loulou, the criminally underrated Banksia Bakehouse, stalwart Iggy’s Bread, and of course the famous A.P. Bakery on the roof of Paramount House.

Sydney has plenty of fantastic croissants, both textbook and inspired, so where does Lune fit when we strip away the fact we waited five years for this? As above, the almond croissant is a revelation, and Lune’s limited edition specials have always gone down incredibly well with Melbourne’s fussiest foodies. The plain croissant, however, is just a nice, satisfying traditional croissant, beautifully textured but not worth the trek to Rosebery. You have plenty of those peppered around town.

Yet one thing I personally think Lune’s Sydney debut has got going for it, which would set it apart from a lot of other bakeries, is consistency and scale.

What’s the new Lune Rosebery venue like?

Lune in Sydney — *Lune Rosebery has enough space for a viewing area so guests can watch the baking process (photo supplied).*

At a preview earlier this week, media were invited into the converted warehouse space to taste test drive Lune Sydney and see the blocky, concrete, showroom-style space that will be responsible for the operation’s local output. And while we only really got to try Lune’s pillowy, plain-jain standard, the real purpose of the gathering was to show off the impressive space.

As soon as you walk in you’re greeted with a showroom-style wall of croissants, spotlighting the highly textural, golden standards with soft lighting (perfect for social media) before the space opens up with a grand, blocky warehouse with thick table seating and neutral colours. Most of the colour comes from the jaundiced

Consistency and freshness are two incredibly important aspects to any kind of baked goods. I’ve been disappointed by Lune’s Melbourne CBD store many times, but have only had revelations at the Fitzroy original. The Rosebery brand is Lune’s largest store to date, with more than 65 staff pumping out more than 5400 of those golden beauties each and every day. Regardless of whether or not there are other croissants in Sydney that are just as good, Lune has clearly chosen the right location to shoot to the top of Sydney’s already impressive bakery circle.

Who knows whether or not Reid’s original plans to open on Oxford Street, dusted by delayed development, would have netted the same results. But Rosebery is a good movie for Lune, despite the suburb still lacking transport for get bring visitors in.

The warehouse is also big enough to include a viewing area, where guests can watch the baking process through a clear glass cube.

A small Martin Place output will be opening shortly to complement Lune Rosebery. It’s unlikely to have the same production capacity as the Rosebery flagship so it’d be more reasonable to expect mixed results. For now, we suggest heading on down to Rosebery Yards to be one of the first in line to try the highly anticipated bakery for yourself.

While it’ll be mostly a croissant-only affair, you’ll also be able to grab some other baked goods like a Vegemite and cheese escargot and other limited edition goods. Given the opening is just weeks before Christmas, Lune Sydney is also putting gingerbead croissants, eggnog cruffins, choc peppermint Pain au Chocolat and more treats on the seasonal menu.

Croissants range from $7.10 for a plain croissant to around $13.50 for seasonal specials. The signature twice-baked almond croissant will set you back $11.70.