Cafe Cre Asion, Sydney

While chatting with chef Josh during lunch at Cafe Ish, he mentions a tiny cafe that makes and sells fantastic macarons, tucked in between office buildings on Alberta Street, a laneway in the city end of Surry Hills. It’s called Cafe Cre Asion, and Juji, Jay and I decide to check it out the next day after our breakfast at Bourke Street Bakery.

From the outside, the cafe looks cold and industrial, a box of concrete and glass – but as soon as we step inside we are drawn to the display cabinet dazzling with the many colours of macarons.

I practically squeal with pleasure when I see all the macarons on display. They are so pretty and there are so many to choose from.

Chef owner Yu Sasaki has put a Japanese spin on macarons with flavours such as yuzu (Japanese citrus fruit), red bean, white miso, green tea azuki, kinako (soybean) and black sesame. The macarons are made using the real ingredients rather than prepared pastes and new flavours are regularly created. Today, we can also choose from milk, yoghurt, raspberry lychee, orange blossom, pistachio, jasmin and cassis, and also more ‘ordinary’ dessert flavours such as vanilla, strawberry, caramel and dark chocolate.

After much deliberation, we get four macarons to share. Photo below, top row, left to right: yuzu, raspberry lychee. Bottom row, left to right: Dear Chris, caramel.

We’re all intrigued by the macaron named Dear Chris. Chef Sasaki worked previously under the tutelage of Christine Manfield at her acclaimed restaurant Universal, and Dear Chris is a special macaron of hazelnut and chocolate ganache dedicated to Christine.

The macarons have a lovely texture and each has its own distinct flavour. I can especially taste the lychee in the raspberry lychee macaron. The yuzu is fresh and tangy. The caramel is, to my delight, not overly sweet. Dear Chris is wonderful and reminds me of Nutella and Ferrero Rocher chocolate.

The macarons are beautiful and very well made, each with that appealing cheeseburger shape that I adore, perfect ruffled ‘feet‘ and a decent amount of filling between the meringue shells.

I’m still not satisfied (or perhaps just greedy) and return to the display to choose another macaron, orange blossom. It’s sprinkled with gold lustre dust, has a delicate fragrance and an orange gel centre.

Juji and Jay enjoy the Single Origin Roasters coffee.

Cafe Cre Asion really is tiny, with enough seating inside for only eight people. The low tables and cute wooden stools remind me of kindergarten but between the friendly polite service and gorgeous macarons, it’s a lovely place to relax.

Sandwiches are available for lunch, made with Cre Asion’s housemade breads. There are other sweet items for sale too, though if you’re a macaron fan you may struggle to tear yourself from the little beauties at Cre Asion. Adriano Zumbo is not the only macaron king in town.

Cafe Cre Asion
21 Alberta Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Telephone: 0404 941 528 ‎
Open Monday to Friday 8am to 4pm
Saturday 9am to 4pm
Sunday closed

Macarons
$2.70 each
$21 Small box of 8
$40 Big box of 16

Click for larger map

My Sydney trip (2011)

I went to Sydney with my sister Juji and her fiancé Jay in November 2011.
See the list of posts so far, in reading order. There’s a whole lot more to come (and more macarons too!).

Also see Juji’s post about Cafe Cre Asion.

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