The search for the best medialunas in Sydney has led to three distinctly different Argentine pastries: hand-crafted versions from Tuki in Darlinghurst, filled pastries from home baker Titto by Coco, and a warmer, more substantial interpretation served at Patagonia Cafe in Brookvale.
Medialunas are a staple of Argentina and Uruguay. Their crescent shape and layered, golden exterior resemble a croissant, but the dough is enriched with eggs, sweetened with honey and vanilla, and finished with hot sugar syrup.
The result is softer and sweeter than its French counterpart. In Argentina, the distinction is taken seriously. “Medialunas look like croissants, but they are smaller, softer, sweeter … and better,” says Lourdes Abboud, co-owner of Tuki. “Nobody in Argentina eats a croissant – no way.”
Making them is a lengthy process. Long fermentation and extended resting times mean a proper medialuna can take two to three days, helping explain why relatively few Sydney bakeries produce them.
Argentine medialunas made in Sydney
At Tuki, Abboud and her partner, Mauro Cardoselli, make the pastries in a rented kitchen in Surry Hills before selling them from their terrace house in Darlinghurst. The couple left careers in architecture and law to pursue the business, initially expecting to sell about 50 a week. They now produce close to 1500.
Cardoselli trained at a pastry school in Tucumán and spends 48 hours on each batch, resting the dough for eight hours between folds. The medialunas contain 30 per cent butter and have a soft, melting crumb with a delicate honeycomb structure.
The glaze has a gentle sweetness and a hint of orange peel. They are sold in boxes of three, six or 12, with fillings including dulce de leche, or milk caramel, and crema pastelera, a vanilla custard. Tuki has recently added a crema pastelera version to its range.
For Abboud and Cardoselli, the pastries are made with a clear sense of purpose: “Argentine pastries crafted with love and lots of butter,” reads the bakery’s slogan.
Tuki operates from 20 Seale Street, Darlinghurst.
Titto by Coco offers a more intimate operation. Nicolás Arratta works as a pastry chef at Cherry Moon General Store in Annandale by day, then makes medialunas in his home kitchen in Zetland at night.
Arratta grew up behind the counter of his parents’ panaderia, Le Exquisitee, in Buenos Aires. His brother Titto taught him how to make the pastries, which inspired the name of the online bakery.
Without a dough sheeter, Arratta rolls the pastry by hand. The finished medialunas are rich and buttery, with caramelised edges and a slight tang. The crema pastelera filling is thick and bright, while icing sugar adds a final touch.
The same dough is used for other Argentine pastries, including vigilante, filled with baked pastry cream, and sacramento, layered with membrillo, or quince paste, and coated in sugar.
Arratta says the business is currently helping pay for his Australian visa, although he hopes eventually to open an Australian-Argentine bakery. His ideas for the future include a Vegemite medialuna and a bacon-and-egg version.
A warmer, heartier version in Brookvale
Patagonia Cafe in Brookvale is a coffee caravan rather than a conventional cafe. It is parked outside the WOTSO co-working space, where customers can eat at garden furniture among potted plants.
Owner Xavier Ambrosio arrived in Australia in 2019 from Rada Tilly, a small beach town in southern Patagonia. After years in hospitality, he launched the mobile cafe at Long Reef in 2024 before moving to the Brookvale site earlier this year.
His medialunas are based on a family recipe. Ambrosio says his mother’s side of the family has always run bakeries and made the pastries. Compared with Tuki’s lighter version, his are denser, with a tighter and breadier texture.
They can be eaten plain or filled with ham and cheese, then pressed on the grill until crisp outside and molten within. Customers can also eat them warm at the cafe, either fresh from the oven at 8.30am or straight from the grill, alongside a Single O espresso.
“It is my grandfather’s recipe,” Ambrosio says. “But it is a long journey to get them as good as the ones that he used to make.”
Patagonia Cafe is at 2 Ada Avenue, Brookvale.
For those accustomed to French croissants, Sydney’s Argentine medialunas offer a different morning pastry: softer, sweeter and designed, according to Xavier Ambrosio, to be bought by the dozen and eaten several at a time. “You usually buy a dozen medialuna, and eat three or four in one go,” he says.
