Friday 20th April 2018 - Medani Bakery St Ives Shopping Village

A new Kosher bakery opened a few weeks ago in St Ives Shopping Village on Monavale Rd located in the Marketplace area upstairs.

I finally had the chance to try some of its pastries out on my way to work.

Here is what I thought and here is what I purchased.

First the savoury item - choice but they all looked similar . I tossed up between the mushroom burekas - one made with filo pastry filled with mushroom for $10 and the other made with pizza dough filled with potato and mushroom for $7. I chose the latter. Was I disappointed? yes - they asked if I was going to eat it so offered to heat it up. When I received it, it was stone cold therefore they took it back and reheated it again. It came back hot on the outside but stone cold on the inside - very disappointed. Full of mushroom and potato very ordinary but pizza dough exterior quite nice. Customer service tick but product knowledge lacking and  signage in front of items incorrect. Served in a brown paper bag too big for item. Think pocket pizzas you get frozen from the supermarket but without the oozing cheese and manufactured ham pieces. Rating : 5/10  Can't understand what people are raving about so far. I microwaved the remainder of the bureka and had it with my lunch.

Onto the sweet item - alfajores - yes I am familiar with them - 2 round short bread like biscuits usually sandwiched together with a sweet paste but these looked a little big and thick. What's inside I have yet to find out. I had a chocolate coconut partially coated one cut into 4 for my work collegues and me to try this morning with or without coffee. Again the brown paper bag is too big for the item and not too presentable after being cut up and thrown back into the bag. Was it worth the $3? I'll have to find out as it is all about the taste. Choice of  2 or 3 flavours including hazelnut or chocolate today available. Rating TBA

OK my 2 work collegues and I tried it and the biscuit was so good. Just as a short bread biscuit should be - one of my work collegues should know she makes us all a batch of short bread biscuits every Christmas! On the downside the chocolate "nutella" filling was far too sweet and without coffee or in my case water does not go down well. We all agreed too that it would be impossible for us to finish a whole biscuit on our own as there was a sickly sweet after taste. Maybe I should have purchased the hazelnut one instead. Too much chocolate for my liking and my work collegues and I know and love our chocolate(s). Rating 8/10 in agreement with my work collegues.

Medani Kosher Bakery you have redeemed yourself with your sweet treats!

Notes : Apologies if I have spelt burekas and alfajores incorrectly. Does not come up on my spell check and different countries may spell them differently. I am spelling them how I would pronounce them or at least how I would pronounce them.

NOTE : SINCE WRITING THIS REVIEW THIS CONCESSION HAS NOW PERMANENTLY CLOSED AT THE ST IVES SHOPPING VILLAGE LOCATION. PLEASE VISIT THEIR WEBSITE.