Roadtest: Discovering Chew North

Great North Road is a strip famous for its patisseries, which serve authentic Italian sweets guaranteed to satisfy any sweet tooth. You can hardly walk a few steps without coming across a pasticceria – many of which will be showcasing delicious delights during Ferragosto next month. Here are a few of our favourites…

Marineve Pasticceria

This place is a Five Dock institution. Open for over 30 years, it’s been consistently excellent the whole time – from the day they made my parent’s wedding cake in 1981 to the day I picked up my 21st cake. This is where locals go for authentic traditional Italian cakes, sweets, biscuits and torrone. However, the owners are currently on a well-deserved holiday and the shop is closed until the end of July (but don’t worry they’ll be back soon). If you’ve never been here before, this place is strictly takeaway – there is no seating or extras, just cakes for all occasions.

Pasticceria Tamborrino

Tamborrino have the biggest range of sweets in Five Dock and a dedicated local following. Cakes come big and small, and the variety is endless with beautiful full-size cakes in the fridge on the left and smaller treats on the right. A couple of stand-outs were the ricotta and orange sfogliatelle, tiramisu and custard tarts, though the strawberry mousse cup was a little overly sweet for my liking (but there’s plenty more to choose from). They do savoury food, too, such as arancini, focaccias and pies. There’s also plenty of seating, great coffee and quick, friendly service.

Tre Punte Café

Personally, I come to Tre Punte Cafe for food more often than sweets – they make a French toast with sweetened ricotta to die for and great sandwiches – but they have a decent range of Italian biscuits and cakes as well, including delicious vanilla custard tarts and custard-filled ciambelli (Italian donuts). There are also many fans of the café that claim they have the best rum babas in the Inner West. Look out for the café on Ferragosto day, when they will be serving arancini and other food just outside the shop front.

Dolcetti

I absolutely love the little treats at Dolcetti in Wareemba. This smallish café is much further down Great North Road than the rest but worth the visit. I’m pretty sure I’ve tried every single thing in the window and I have never been disappointed; the sweets are always fresh and delicious, from the custard tarts to the ricotta tarts, éclairs and tiramisu – just to name a few. There are most of your typical Italian options available like cannoli but this place also offers other options like the miniature berry cheesecakes, which are delicious.

Trovatino Café

Famous for their award-winning yoghurt gelato and gelato-filled macaroons (which we have reviewed in this column previously), Trovatino’s has a smaller range of cakes than what you’ll find further up the road in Five Dock but there’s still a quality selection and most of them are larger portion sizes. They do crispy croissants, custard tarts topped with heaps of fresh berries, profiteroles, cheesecake, cannoli, pistachio biscuits and Danish pastries among other things but Trovatino’s is more of a savoury food-oriented business. Nevertheless, it’s nice to be able to enjoy something sweet at the end of your meal or with your coffee.

 

• Words: Nancy Merlo