Pastry displays exist so everyday people can lose their minds, lost in a daze of slavering, mouth-watering indecision and anticipation.

Peruse Lucien Baked Goods' pastry display, a behind-glass bevy of twirled croissants, dark bronze canelés, golden custard tarts and raspberry and almond Persian love cake with rosewater, pistachio praline and fresh berries, and you'll know what it is to need a good lie down.

Consider the banoffee choux, filled with chantilly cream, chocolate ganache, caramel and fresh bananas. Or the cherry and ricotta tart, featuring a rich pond of whipped vanilla ricotta topped with halved fresh cherries and oozing honeycomb.

Even the savoury dishes are stirring. Order the zataar-coated avocado, a Faberge egg-like half-orb pressed with Middle Eastern spices and, chances are, executive chef Tom Clunie will deliver it, along with salad and organic sourdough, so you can babble grateful thanks for making such lovely food.

Lucien Baked Goods, which is named after Clunie and head pastry chef Adeline Ribis' two children, Lucy and Bastien, opened in August last year. Run by Clunie, Ribis and Circa Espresso owner Aykut Sayan, it is a spin-off of Circa, the well-loved Parramatta cafe and coffee roasters that's a 10-minute walk away.

Like its older sibling, Middle Eastern flavours run through the breakfast and lunch menu, but Lucien increases the French influences. Breakfast can be bread and dip, with labneh and olives, or almond, apricot and fig bircher muesli. 

House-baked sourdough sandwiches come with either confit duck, pastrami, smoked chicken or smoked salmon, with fillings including goat cheese, pickled carrot, house sauerkraut, salted zucchini and glistening caramelised onion jam. Also carried from Circa are good, rich coffee and wowee service.

When Clunie brings out the seasonal plate – a beautifully arranged mix of roasted broccolini and green beans, roasted garlic hummus, fermented vegetable pickles and avocado sprinkled with dukkah – a bean falls off. Minutes later, he is back with more freshly cooked beans to restore balance. Stellar service continues when he overhears a young customer wondering about simple savoury snacks.

"How about a ham and cheese croissant?" he suggests across the kitchen. "I can do that for you right now." Minutes later, a fluffy, buttery, crunchy sandwich of Swiss cheese and meat off the bone appears to be inhaled.

Clunie says Lucien Baked Goods, which uses artist Malcolm Greenwood's ceramics for plates, cups, bowls and teapots, is lighter and more casual than Circa, but its mantra is identical.

"A lot of little bakeries make really, really, really good pastry, but their coffee offerings are pretty mediocre," he says. "Whereas our coffee offering is really, really great. Our food offering matches that. It's the same thing we achieved at Circa where the service is amazing, the food is amazing and the coffee is amazing.

"It's hard work, but it's what we do."

Anyone doubting all the pastries, cakes, biscuits, tarts, baguettes or loaves are baked in-house should walk to the back door to view the open kitchen's mighty spiral mixer. Shoulder-height and with paddles whirring dough hypnotically, its steel bowl is as big as a car wheel. Beyond is a pastry sheeter and commercial-sized weighing machines, all glimmering in a kitchen bigger than the dining area.

Sitting below tall buildings, Lucien Baked Goods softens its surrounds with fluted honey hued wooden counters, pale wood furniture and shelves stacked with organic flour in brown paper bags below bowls of avocados, free-range eggs, whole pawpaws and fat truss tomatoes.

There is raw honeycomb to buy, along with Spanish tinned tuna and house-made chilli oil, cherry confit, strawberry jam, sticky chai, marinated olives and capsicum and tomato relish.

You can take home the chewy, tangy fresh-baked sourdough baguettes and loaves, buy bags of Circa's house-roasted beans or stand in front of the pastries, pointing silently in delirium, and then eat them all.

The low-down

Lucien Baked Goods

Vibe Light-filled lobby cafe with fab service and virtuosic pastries, bread and savoury plates for breakfast and lunch.

Go-to dish Seasonal plate with roasted vegetables, garlic hummus, dukkah and fermented vegetable pickle, a custard tart and house-roasted coffee in a handmade cup.

Average cost for two: $50, plus drinks