A1 Bakery, Sydney Road Brunswick

Brunswick is well known for Middle Eastern restaurants and bakeries on Sydney Road. When we were at a gallery nearby, we wanted to visit A1 Bakery after missing it a few months ago (was closed). This time, we managed to eat there after navigating the process. There is a separate line for takeaways, and dine in. One has to queue up in the dine in line to get ushered to a table on the left side of the shop, then make their way to the queue for the cashier where the order is placed and paid for. 

There were so many people and so many items from the menu to choose from so my order was a bit rushed. I ordered the Hummus with Lamb ($12) + Pickles ($3). The cashier asked whether I wanted 'sujuk' but I had no idea why she would be asking if I wanted sausage with the meal. It was only afterwards that I imagine she might have asked if I wanted pickles, which were $3 extra. I did not like the pickles, by the way.

 

The hummus was delicious and even better with the addition of oil and mint leaves. 

I also ordered the A1 Special Pizza ($12.50). It was very oily but I liked how much vegetables there are on the pizza, and how thin the dough is unlike the usual Italian tomato sauce based pizzas. We could not finish the whole pizza so brought a couple of slices home in a paper bag. It was soaked through with oil 10 minutes into the journey home. But hey, there are 3 components to make food taste good and I say not to skimp on any of them when dining out. Otherwise, just eat at home where one can omit or reduce the amount of oil, sugar and salt as wished. 

There is a weekend surcharge (10%) and card payment surcharge so in the end I paid more than I expected. We settled at a table eating side by side with other customers because it was quite a cramped space, on interesting tables that were fashioned out of logs of wood so that no two tables are the same. 

I am still wondering whether I had ordered the tastiest dishes on the menu, but I guess I'll have to find out the next time I'm in Brunswick!