Flavour Report with Derek Goforth: Dongara Bakery is well worth a visit for variety of sweet & savoury treats

For us and the children, school holidays mean one of two things — it’s either a trip away or filling as many days as we can with day trips. There is no big holiday for us this time, so we are exploring the Mid West and a little further afield and we started with a day trip to pretty much our closest neighbour, Dongara. While we were there we just had to try out Dongara Bakery after my recent review of the awesome Shearing Shed in Northampton prompted so much interest and so many suggestions for other superb pies and sweet treats. So off we went and first impressions of the bakery were good — plenty of parking, lots of seating indoors and outside and the service was exceptional. The young lady serving us was patient and even offered a few suggestions of what the cafe does best. This trip we opted for a range of pies and cakes. Steak, curry and chilli beef with a veggie pasty. To follow we ordered a vanilla slice, custard tart and a big chunk of carrot cake. For just over $40 and considering the portion sizes (especially the cakes) we felt it was great value for money. We were quite glad we chose to sit indoors as we would have struggled to eat the pies in the car. The pastry itself tasted lovely, but a little too crumbly to eat while on the move or in confined quarters. That being said, the fillings across the board were packed with flavour and clearly made fresh that day. Not the best pies we have ever had, but certainly in our top five. One thing the bakery does have is plenty of choices of both sweet and savoury pies. There is something for everyone. The cakes were cut up for all to share and to be honest I couldn’t pick my favourite. The custard tart’s pastry was delicious, buttery and a little crumbly. The vanilla slice, while lacking in a bit a vanilla flavour, had a great texture and the icing had the perfect thickness. By way of a vote, our highlight had to be the carrot cake, specifically the delicious icing that was almost too much to fit into the paper bag! Would I recommend Dongara Bakery? Certainly yes, either for a little trip out to Dongara or making a pit stop while you are passing that way on the way to Perth, it’s well worth a visit.