Custard Canteen

Custard Canteen

Tallebudgera Creek is one of the most beautiful places on earth. Now it’s even more blessed, with Custard Canteen opening mid-January 2020.

Nestled among the pandanus and paperbarks at the front of Tallebudgera’s Leisure Centre, the venue’s red and white striped umbrellas and wooden shingle tiled façade denote a Mediterranean influence. Diners sit on picnic tables under trees amongst potted flowers or on the grass, children and pets welcome, to enjoy some of the best food on the coast.

The latest venture from Ursula and Ben Watts, founders of Paddock Bakery, Custard Canteen brings a different take to the couple’s present culinary offerings at Bam Bam Bakehouse and Cubby Bakehouse, Chinderah. Moving from sourdough to croissants, and baguettes to Portuguese tarts as focus items, the couple’s baked masterpieces have accumulated. What has not changed is the couple’s thirst for learning about authentic European fare from experts and their striving for consistent excellence in the products they offer.

Like Bam Bam and Cubby before them, there’s also a strong team at Custard, ex-Blackboard’s José Riviera filling the head chef role and chef Luke Edwards stepping forward as restaurant manager as Custard goes from strength to strength.

The brunch menu holds a dozen items, all ‘hand-held food’ that could be carried to the beach, a stone’s throw away. From Eggs Bene to Avo Smash, the team have turned out better versions of favourite dishes, namely the signature Butter Boy Benny with streaky bacon, poached eggs and hollandaise nested in a handmade puff pastry parcel and, smashing ‘The Smash’, Japanese avo mixed through with soy sauce, mirin, garlic and ginger, some flash fried, served on Cubby sourdough.

Even the Monte Cristo gets a tweek, the free-range ham and Swiss cheese sourdough sandwich dipped in custard, toasted then pimped with a drizzle of maple syrup and dusted cinnamon sugar.

My favourite is the fabulous Prawn Po Boy with light and crispy buttermilk prawns, lettuce, tomato and remoulade on a soft milk bun, while the Talle fruit bowl is up there for some of the freshest fruit on the coast served with yoghurt and granola. Tops!

As ‘Custard’ is a sweet name, the bakery doesn’t disappoint. No need to travel to Lisbon to enjoy pastéis de nata. World-famous Portuguese tarts are the centrepiece of Custard’s sweet menu. Having learned from a fourth-generation pastry chef in Portugal and importing the sheeting machinery and ovens for use in their kitchen, Cubby’s sweet delights are the best around. Made in small batches exiting the oven each half hour, you can be sure that their crisp laminated flaky pastry oozing sweet yolk custard is sweet perfection.

But there’s no overlooking Custard Canteen’s other dessert specialties either: Almond croissant tarts, a hybrid tart of puff pastry filled with almond frangipane and crème patissière topped with flaked almonds, or their Salted caramel and carrot cake muffin, the cake injected with salted caramel sauce, topped with cream cheese and sweet nuts! Sweet glory! No one’s mum every made them as decadently delicious as this!

Take your treats away if you must, but frankly we’d rather enjoy our treats at a picnic table under a tree in one of the most beautiful spots on earth!

Custard Canteen, 1525 Gold Coast Hwy, Palm Beach Ph: 0474 008 562 Open: Mon – Sun 6.30am – 3pm

NOTE: Good Food Gold Coast dined as a guest of Custard Canteen.

https://www.custardcanteen.com/
Open: Mon – Sun 6.30am – 3pm
      
1525 Gold Coast Hwy, Palm Beach QLD, Australia