Hello Naomi
About
Bakeries
Price Range : $11-30 ($$)
Location
Adress: 175 King St, Newcastle, New South Wales 2300
Phone: +61 2 4023 0867
Work Hours
Business info
- move_to_inboxTake-outYes
Reviews
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Jackie M.
Hello Naomi is the kind of store that makes women coo with delight as they enter. Combining a simple font with an old-fashioned aesthetic, this tiny Newcastle store is visually pleasing. The glass counter holds just a few plates bearing cake-maker Naomi Henderson's daily selections. They sit in front of couple of tall round cakes arranged on pretty pastel ceramic cake stands, including one - a decadent chocolate Snickers cake - available by the slice. The store was inspired by Naomi's visit to her friend Melissa Forte, a fellow baker (and now cookbook author), and her cute little cake store in Sarzana, Italy called Melissa's Tea Room & Cakes.
Naomi's range of cookies is likely to push your nostalgia into overdrive. She boasts everything from her own version of the 1906 Arnott's classic: the Iced VoVo, to Honey Jumbles ($5/each). The latter hide a plump biscuit under pale pink or white icing, and contain enough of a ginger kick to make your Nanna smile.
I first came across Hello Naomi products at Newcastle's monthly Hunt & Gather Markets. This carefully curated market showcases boutique designer goods, foods and fashions, and takes over Pacific Park on the third Saturday of every month. Naomi was selling little glass milk bottles of Jersey milk with lashings of salted caramel, set off by red and white striped straws. I enjoyed my own taste of creamy nostalgia with one of her chewy-gooey Salted Caramel Brownie Sandwiches ($5.50/each) and it was such a revelation, it demanded a revisit.
Even Naomi's simpler Choc Chip Cookies ($2.50/each), each containing generous amount of high quality milk and white chocolate chips, remind one of how cookies used to taste before mass manufacturing dominated our baked goods landscape. I'd be hard pressed to name a cake shop whose offerings I am more charmed by, both in terms of concept and execution. -
Lani P.
Walking into Hello Naomi, a self-proclaimed 'cake, cookie and cupcakes' cafe, I hand on my heart expected coffee to be the after thought. The thing they thought they better serve for people to drink while eating cakes. I half expected a stock standard coffee roast to line the walls. How wrong was I!?
My eyes lit up upon noticing the bag of coffee in the window was from Melbourne's Small Batch. A treat was indeed in store and I asked if they still had the beans running in the grinder. Our barista pointed to the almost gone beans in the grinder and said this was the last of it before they switch to some locally roasted blends. Okay. Sign us up. Two flat whites please. To be fair, I should have ordered a long black to get the best of these bean's flavour.
But what makes this cup of coffee stand out against the cafes stark white walls, Scandinavian furniture and peach wash accents, is the man behind the machine. As he delivered our coffees he explained that they weren't the taste he'd prefer to serve. The water here, you see, is apparently "too clean" and this alters the flavour profile of the beans. Thankfully, he says, the milk somewhat masks the tartness present in the brew. This initial warning turns into a 20 minute conversation about coffee, his adventures in finding the right water for their coffee and his time living in Brisbane.
Turns out that this is a surprisingly great spot for coffee- and you can have your cake and eat it too (but on this occasion I didn't although by the speed with which my partner devoured his salted caramel cupcake I'm guessing the same level of love, passion and care is put into their baking as is their coffee). -
L J.
A gorgeous little bakery fit out, an absolutely magical place... until you walk in the door. There's no atmosphere, and the staff are very cold and stand-offish. Buying things in there is a genuinely uncomfortable experience.
The in-store selection is very small, with around four things on offer each day. The cupcakes we chose were overwhelmed by buttercream, no matter what flavour they were meant to be. And they are significantly smaller than they were when Hello Naomi originally opened, though the prices have stayed the same. At Christmas, one iced biscuit was $7 for the smallest, simplest option - very sad when I only had five dollars on me!
The honey-jumble biscuits (iced pink and white, similar to gingerbread) were nice, and the salted caramel and brownie sandwich is deliciously chocolatey, though buttercream again takes centerstage.
Overall, a sweet-looking place that doesn't quite live up to the polished magic of the shop window and fit-out. -
Emma L.
I emptied my purse and had enough money ($3.50) to purchase a cookie. Peanut butter and chocolate was the recommendation, and it was a bloody good choice. Bright, airy and cute. It's a new retail venture and I predict it's going to be a winner.