Chester Street Bakery & Bar

Good cakes. Enjoyable breakfasts of a hearty size and coffee is ok.
I enjoy visiting Chester St but if you expect waiters running around you or hand holding this is not the place.
Line up, order and they deliver. A few times in peak they have missed my order and after prompting brought it out with apologies. When it is quieter the crew there are always up for a chat.
Cake slices are always big and large enouh to share between two… even for me.
The Ice-​cream cakes and other assortments are also very enjoyable.
If you prefer McD cakes then have fries with that !

Amazing looking desserts/​cakes… Nothing special really.
I follow these guys on Instagram and omg the pics of the cakes and delicate desserts they post look appealing. I’d been wanting to go here forever even though I’d heard mixed reviews from many friends. I had the Oreo cheesecake and it was honestly not the best. Take from the next comment what you will but the cookies and cream cheesecake from McCafe is much much better in my opinion. This looked amazing but was far too sweet. I’d go back, but I’d definitely go something else… I say go. Try it for yourself. You might love it!

I’ve been here a few times and I’ve tried, like reeeeally tried, to get on the bandwagon but I’m always disappointed after coming here.
From the apathetic staff, to the overly hyped desserts, to the floor covered in glass from patrons the night before — it just feels like Chester Street is a waste of time.
Their menu is all day, which is a positive, but sadly it’s the only positive I can think of. I ordered a smoothie at $ 9 and I got back a watery tasteless husk of a juice with some coconut water mixed in. Uggh.
Sorry but there are way better cafes to visit for your brunch.

One of the best places for mouth-​watering desserts! This was top of my list when I visited Brisbane, simply because my Instagram was flooded with photos of their cakes and I just couldn’t stop drooling. It was so worth it, especially visiting on a rather warm day, and just browsing through their many colourful selections had me excited. I tried both icecream sandwiches and their cakes, and they were deeeelicious!

Finally made my way down to Chester Street today for lunch and cake!
At first glance, I was unimpressed with the building itself but I quite liked the décor inside. Plus, the closer I got, the more I could smell a mixture of cake and bacon so it was pretty heavenly haha.
The outdoor deck seating area was crazily hot this afternoon. We were under umbrellas but they were dark umbrellas that absorbed the heat and passed it on down to us lol. The tables and chairs were deck/​picnic style but were sturdier than many I’ve seen around so that’s always good.
Service wise, it’s hot and cold. The first person I spoke to was very friendly and receptive. She was excited when I told her it was my first time there. One other person who served our food and drinks was a bit more reserved and seemed a bit unapproachable but at least she gave us what we asked for. We had ordered coffees which took forever so after 30 mins we asked someone to follow it up and they brought them out apologetically and returned our money :) #props
Food wise, so I first had avocado on sourdough (12.90) with added poached eggs (2 for $ 4). The sourdough toast was a bit hard and rubbery but I managed to cut it up in bite sized pieces. The avocado was a bit wet. I needed a whole heap of salt but once I added it, boy was it yummy. The poached eggs were runny THANK GOODNESS!
And then for dessert, I had a Twix cake ($ 10.90) and oh boy was it rich! Though I personally found it too creamy and too spongey. Just like a heap of sweet frothness that needed more depth in flavour (sharper, saltier caramel? Actual twix biscuits through it?). Thank goodness for the potato chips on top (that’s right) to provide that other element which gave the cake a much needed crunch. Sadly I gave up after the third little spoonful. I took it away for later haha. I can never waste anything! I think it’s more of a personal thing though. I like my dessert with both hard and soft elements, not just one dimensional in consistency.
So overall my experience was fairly satisfactory. I would go back and try the tarts/​pie.

The place is pretty overwhelming if you go at a crowded time like I did, and the layout of cakes all over the place is certainly impressive, but at the same time I found myself being constantly pushed and shoved out of the way of diners and waitresses as I was trying to select my cakes. It’s pretty expensive too, I don’t know about you but at $ 9.90 a slice of cake you do wonder if it can really be 5X better than a $ 6 whole mud cake from Woolies. However, the cakes were tasty as, and the slices were not too stingy. It’s not the kind of place I would go to drink, or even really hang out, but the cakes were tasty nonetheless.

Visited with a friend who got the baked beans. Apparently they were delicious — I ordered a simple poached eggs and they came out stone cold. Disappointing.

Why have I not heard of this place earlier? All of the cake I could have consumed in the time I’ve never known Chester Street Bakery existed will haunt me!
This cake stand/​bar is a little Newstead surprise. After a night out at a local bar when everyone else decided it was time to head to The Beat the three of us decided a nightcap in the form of spongey sugar was in order. So we pulled up a chair and ordered three slices of heaven. Trying to decide on the three slices was probably one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make. This shop is like the cake version of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory and that’s before you’ve even made it to the front counter which has slice after slice after tart. I landed on the Twix Cake purely because of the potato chip topping. What I got was layers of sponge and caramel cream with a fistful of salty potato chips wedged in the top. Oh. My. God! We had Raspberry Meringue cake, lemon slice, caramel and marshmallow slice. I’m not even ashamed to admit that I ate the caramel slice for breakfast the next day. In an ideal world where diabetes and obesity didn’t exist I would eat their cakes for every meal.
The one point lost for Chester Street was for the service. I don’t know if it was because it was late in the evening or if they were having an off night or if this is just the norm but the service we got was pretty disinterested and not too lively. Given the excellence of the product I was given, I can just let this one go.
If you have a birthday, a celebration, a pregnant woman or any person stamping their foot and demanding cake (I’ll admit that I’ve done this on occasion) on your hands then make Chester Street your first choice.

Waited 15 minutes for a takeaway coffee, from staff that were barely interested in taking our order. The coffee was initially so hot it took 10 minutes before we could take a sip and found it that weak it tasted like steamed milk. We ended up putting both coffees in the bin and going to Bellissimo Coffee around the corner. Desserts looked impressive but wasn’t prepared to pay $ 9 for a tiny wedge of brownie.

Heaven for the sugar lover !
We stumbled on this bakery while attempting to walk off dinner … obviously that failed when we saw Chester St. Bakery. The unique bar/​bakery combo in this area seems to have business all day serving breakfast, lunch and dinner but the draw for me is all the cakes and sweets displayed to attractively around the shop.
Each time I have been here, it was for a late night sugar hit and I have not been disappointed. I love how the cakes have so much height — it was a wow factor and a sensory delight! They have some pretty wacky cakes like the twix cake with potato chips on the top (not as bad as you’d think … think McDonald’s french fries dipped in McDonald’s sundae — most people have done that right?) and cakes bound to make one smile like the rainbow layered cake.
My favourite so far is the raspberry — sherbet — meringue layered cake. Mmmm
Definitely recommend this place whenever you are in the area and wanting a sugar hit. Bound to make the regular sugar lover smile just by looking :).

Chester St Bakery is the older sensible sister to Alfred and Constance.
It still has all the great stylish quirks of A&C: clean design accompanied with great products; breakfast, coffee, cake and cocktails. But it looses the frivolities that are not always to everyone’s everyday-​taste (the leis upon arrival, the sweat, the feeling that the floor may collapse under the weight of countless people outrageously dancing to «No Diggity»).
With one of the best cake selections I’ve ever seen, Chester St Bakery and Bar is an ideal place for coffee and cake at sensible or non-​sensible cake hours (2:30pm (sensible), 8pm (non-​sensible– you’re just about to go the bed, you don’t need that much cake)).
While it may be a bit on the pricey side, Chester St definitely nails both quality and quantity. Worth a visit!

Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. WOW.
My fiancé became very tired of me uttering these words on our maiden voyage to Chester Street Bakery and Bar.
Having the term ‘Bakery’ in the title made me doubt they would have gluten free options, but BOY was I wrong!
Chester Street is an odd mix of shabby-​chic-​hipster-​cool bar come café come bakehouse. I still don’t fully get the match up, but hey it seems to work.
Outdoor seating bakes in a Brisbane November, and the inside table options are not air-​conditioned but this is really the only drawback.
The menu is expansive and offers all manner of gems from breakfast right through to dinner and bar nibbles while the cakes in the glass cabinets stare at you as you sit, tantalising in their homely perfection.
I had the breakfast taco my first visit. The tacos themselves were home-​made gluten free flat rounds of PURE JOY. Buttery and delicious they crumble slightly in the hand, and then you’re hit with the creamy scrambled egg and crispy caramel pancetta. The thinly sliced spring onion completes the mouthful with a burst of freshness that made me want to sing with pleasure!
The banana smoothie (a staple for me at breakfast time) was the perfect thickness — not overly runny but not too hard to suck through the straw.
The prices were very reasonably and despite sweating while eating, I will DEFINITELY be going back time and time again for my amazing gluten free food fix.

Went here for coffee and cake with a friend. I have never been here before but my friend has and I have to say, both of us were quite disappointed and I won’t be rushing back to this place any time soon.
First off, it was a hot day. No air conditioning or fans were switched on except for the staff — nothing for the patrons. Not good when you are 7.5 months pregnant!
The table we sat at was filthy. I had to ask at the counter three times for them to wipe it down. We waited for about ½ hour for them to do it. Their excuse? «Sorry — we’re busy». Yeah — that is why there are 8 people behind the counter and 4 of those people were playing on their mobile phones!
I asked for a milkshake. My response from the person behind the counter was «sorry, we do not serve cold drinks on the weekends».
WHAT THE!!!
We decided to get a plate of hot chips. The chips were very nice and they get an extra star for that. My friends Rainbow cake was really nice but I think $ 9.00 is a bit much for a slice of cake. I also got a slice of Red Velvet Cake. It tasted about a week old and was not very nice. I left most of it.
I probably won’t come here again — maybe its a bit too trendy or my standards are quite high but its definitely not my sort of place.

Seriously bad evening. The staff were either monumentally off their game or the place is awful, or both. I hate writing a bad review because they hurt feelings and Brisbane needs more friendly places. And secondly, restauranteurs shouldn’t live in fear of some bork with a smartphone chasing away their customers when all they’re doing is serving dinner. But sometimes you absolutely have to call out places where people should be vary wary of when deciding where to spend their pesos.
What follows is brutal.
The term style over substance sums up Chester Street Bakery perfectly. In a weird and sad way what this place does well (fit out and branding) makes what it does badly (prepare and serve food and drinks) go from being run of the mill awful to offensive.
Set in an industrial building Chester is one of the handsomest dining spots around. The ceilings soar, the tables are mismatched and everything is teamed in a beautiful blue and white scheme with flaming accents of neon yellow. The design is smack on trend, flawlessly executed and eye watering ku expensive. The open wood fired oven is the bakery bit of the name and is absolutely delightful and approximately the cost of a small car.
Here’s the thing though. You can’t eat neon and you can’t drink high gloss wall tiles. What they give you on the table and how they get it there is just so far off the mark and frankly terrible that the contrast is inescapable.
I’m going to be brief.
1. 20 minutes is just too long to wait for a wine order. You either get that or you don’t. It’s bloody miserable.
2. Duck fat chips are great on a menu. Single bathed greasy wedges that are both burning hot AND under cooked are not. They’re awful.
3. Again with the service. Take an order, please. Stop staring at our table and take the order.
4. The quinoa salad was so sweet it put my teeth on edge. Awful.
5. We ordered a margarita pizza and the waitress brought a bright orange margarita cocktail to our table. Why it was orange I have no idea and I’m so sorry whoever has ordered a margarita there.
6. The pizza itself was okayish. The base was really bready and flabby, but the sugo was nice. Way over-​salted, but not the worst I’ve had.
7. Please stop picking up my friend’s glass of wine to move it out of the way. You’re really not meant to do that.
8. There’s only three tables, seriously, get it together.
There’s a lot of mystique around pizza with people constantly blathering about how transcendental that ‘pizza I had in Naples’ was. 90% of this is bunk. It’s dough with a range of toppings on it cooked in an oven. It’s tough to get perfect, but it’s not magic. Practice and you’ll get it there.
It takes guts to open a wood fired pizza place here. Within walking distance are Vespa, Tinderbox and Tartuffo, all owners of the same equipment and all smashing it out of the park. You’ve got competition is my point. And Chester? They’re absolutely killing you.

Went for a late lunch. They have a few non sugary options there. The toasted mini pizza had lots of bacon and was good. I also liked to somewhat eclectic assortment of sodas. Next time I ll give more bakery worthy items. Like bread and coffee.
Setup is nice and chill

Do you like the bread and the cakes at Alfred & Constance? If you do, you’ll love it here at Chester Street Bakery, because this is where it comes from.
In fact, you’ll probably be familiar with the character, slight quirkiness, delicious food and excellent service that you may have experienced at Alfred & Constance or at Alfredo’s, because they are all owned and run by the same people.
Wood fired pizzas, great cocktails, delicious cakes, excellent service and a great atmosphere — can you ask for more?

Had been excited about finally getting to the new Chester Street Bakery after lots of hype on social media about it. We arrived this morning at about 9.30am and after struggling to find on street parking we were expecting to be queuing for a table. As it turned out they had only just opened their doors and we were among the first to arrive.
I get the sense that they are still finding their way because the staff were a little slow to get going and didn’t seem to be quite sure about what each should be doing. A number of the early patrons, me included, queued at the counter to place our breakfast orders only to be told it was table service.
Service issues aside the coffee is fine although not a specialty or passion and the food was tasty. I had the Duck pie with field mushrooms and pear chutney and enjoyed every mouthful. I think we’ll return in a little while to see how they’ve progressed — or not.

Breakfast Review and Tips!
We got there early close to opening. This was handy in that snagging a table and a car park can be tricky in this popular venue.
There’s table service but I think they have their trainer wheels on so grab someone when you can.
Coffee was good but I’d like to see more hipster passion put into the most important first impression a café has — coffeeee!
It’s a great menu with good variety. I’d like to go back a few more times to try other choices. I’d also like to see a few risky adventurous challenging menu inclusions.
I love the shiny butchers tiles that abound in this trendy fit out.
As Arnie says I’ll be be back — and be expecting a little more edge. But they’re off to a good start.

It seems almost wrong ‘updating my previous review’ for Chester Street because the difference between the same venue post-​renovation and reformulation is vast. Seemingly as soon as they store opened under the hands of Damien Griffith, it shut for a little face-​lift. While locals have been enjoying the fruits of a pop-​up bakery while the renos were underway, the curtains were finally lifted this week in a series of test kitchen dinners and finally the grand re-​opening on Friday.
I was fortunate enough to attend one of the test kitchens (as a guest of the venue), and being on a table with other food bloggers meant we were able to sample almost 80% of the menu. From bar bites including a wagyu burger (my favourite), braised leek & bacon croquettes, fresh gravlax, creamy hummus with spiced lamb (which could have come with more than one slice of bread given the ample serving of hummus — it easily fed 6 of us), and a duck and mushroom pie (for the price, myself and others on the night agreed it could come with more of a ploughman’s plate arrangement. The duck was moist and the side of pear chutney complimented it well).
There’s mains like the grilled barramundi (not amazing and a little dry in parts) or the lamb (this was the hero dish from everyone at the table). And, if there was still any room left there’s a range of desserts by Jocelyn Hancock including my personal favourite the chocolate and almond cake with espresso crème fraîche. There’s also a passionfruit tart, deconstructed eton mess and citrus cake.
The space is beautifully simple with white subway tiles leaving way for the main attraction; the wood fired oven. Bakery by day, bar by night, this concept as are many born from Damien Griffith, is an ambitious one. But, if there’s anyone in Brisbane to make it work it’s this guy. It’s novel to think that the same spot that can provide you a fresh loaf of ciabatta or sourdough at 7am can be feeding you delicious meals (either constructing a meal from the bar bites and sharing amongst a group or taking advantage of a main to yourself) and cocktails (try the Aperol Peach Spritz for a Summer refresher) at 7pm in the same day. I think this venue’s versatility, location just a hop, skip and jump from James Street and combination of accessible fuss-​free food with a focus on premium ingredients gives it an edge as the new «hot spot» in the area.

I had the best experience at the launch party at Chester Bakery and Bar. I really like the concept of bakery by day and bar by night.
They were showing off a few items on their menu and gorgeous cocktail creations. My favorite was the rum punch. It is refreshing and before you know it, you need a refill.
The food was incredible. Wagyu beef sliders with guacamole. Yes! I also loved the croquettes they were serving. For desert, the brought out brownies bites and strawberry tarts. I could have had a whole tray of strawberry tarts.
The staff were SO nice!!! Even with so much going on and trying to keep up with the demands, the made sure you had a drink in your hand and you were having a great time. This made a great impression on me. I haven’t been to the area so that made it even more appealing to come back.
If this is just the preview of what kind of food and drink Chester B&B will serve, I will definitely be making the trek back real soon and bringing my friends!