Known to the locals as 'the old general store',
Home Grain Bakery at Aldinga is quickly becoming a favourite amongst locals and visitors alike.
Home Grain Bakery opened its doors last year, offering freshly baked bread, delicious cakes and pastries and the perfect coffee to wash it all down.
As you walk up onto the large, old veranda and in through the door you will be greeted by friendly smiles from the staff and the smell of freshly baked goodies.
As mentioned earlier, the building use to be the old general store and the new owners have maintained that old feel by designing the bakery with rustic furniture and simple colours. The interior is very basic but this draws the visitor's eye to the brightly coloured paintings on the wall. Each month a different artist is featured and their work is available for purchase.
As a vegetarian, I was surprised at the variety available to me. Usually the menu consists of one or two items, however Home Grain Bakery offers us vegetarians a choice of vegetable, vegetable and cheese or curried vegetable pasties as well as a spinach and cheese roll.
Curried vegetable pasty
The curried vegetable pasty is well flavoured but not overpowering with just the right amount of spice. The vegetables are fresh and well cooked and the pastry is light and flaky.
For meat eaters, the array of pies and pasties are gourmet and delicious including chunky steak pies, steak and mushroom pies, chicken pies and my husband's favourite, the chunky steak and green pepper pie. I'm told the steak is well cooked and the pie is full to overflowing with delicious, rich gravy.
Chunky steak and green pepper pie
We arrived at the bakery late in the afternoon and were pleasantly surprised to find it was still stocked enough for us to have a good selection to choose from, although it was obvious a lot had been sold through out the day.
If you're looking for something sweet, the bakery sell tasty chocolate and sprinkle doughnuts, jam doughnuts, cinnamon doughnuts and huge, creamy and fresh vanilla slices. For the kids (or the young at heart) the bakery has a special treat, Ninja Bread Man, the ultimate in gingerbread fun.
Ninja Bread Men
An array of cold drinks are available from the drinks fridge as well as fresh coffee, tea, hot chocolate, chai latte and all the other hot drinks you can enjoy to get your daily caffeine fix or to warm your stomach on a cold winters day.
The service is speedy so if you're looking to drop in and run out again with your goodies you shouldn't have a problem getting in and out quickly (although I have to say the line up in the mornings does seem to be quite long, adding to the belief that the coffee is good).
The prices are an average of $4 for a pie or pasty which is slightly higher than some bakeries but the quality and gourmet options are well worth the money.
Home Grain Bakery is open seven days a week from 6:30am to 4pm meaning there's never an excuse for frozen bread or packet pies again.
For further information and to keep up to date with what's happening, as well as to view the photos of the owners renovating the building, you can follow Home Grain Bakery on
Facebook.
