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Every time I go to Home Croissanterie, I look for the potato and sea salt croissants. I’ve been obsessed with them since 2021, when this bakery only existed in Instagram form and owner Ben Lai took orders online.

Although his pastry counter was composed of pixels back then, his doorstep deliveries revealed the full-volume flavour and three-dimensional glory of his creations. The roast potato strips swirled through his buttery, salt-flaked pastries were a joy to crunch through – like eating crispy chips in croissant form.

It’s an experience worth repeating and makes you grateful that Home Croissanterie is now a physical cafe where you can spontaneously load up on baked treats, instead of pre-ordering them. Timing is key, however; one Sunday, I got there after 11am, and the counter was almost empty. Another time, I got the very last potato and sea salt croissant – to the understandable fury of the person behind me.

Home Croissanterie opened in March, three years after Lai sold his first pastries to Macquarie Park’s Hat Trick cafe. The aspiring baker could only supply “eight single croissants” to that venue back then. “It’s not much,” he says, laughing.

It’s a big contrast to the amount he now proofs, shapes and slips into the oven. “It’d probably be in the thousands a week,” says Lai, who solely crafts each pastry.

It’s been like this since he started Home Croissanterie as a hobby while working as a software engineer: his apartment permanently smelt like butter as he schooled himself in laminating dough via YouTube tutorials and filled his oven with thousands of test croissants.

After the first COVID-19 lockdown closed Hat Trick, Lai began selling pastries directly via Instagram – and his counter today includes signature dishes from that era. There’s his maple bacon croissant, with meaty strips hidden inside the pastry spirals. Brushed with Canadian maple syrup and sprinkled with salt that’s smoked with Australian red gum, this bestselling flavour resembles a rich breakfast that fills you up after two bites.

His pain au chocolat includes a payload of Veliche chocolate from Belgium, while his poppyseed pastry has shapeshifted: it’s now studded with sesame, hemp and sunflower seeds but still contains that awesome double-cheese jackpot of smoked cheddar and Gruyere.

The croissants he once fashioned from offcuts rolled in cardamom-scented sugar are sadly too labour-intensive for the cafe. Instead, there’s his take on Breton’s kouign-amann: he chops trimmings, coats them in sugar and props them into muffin tins. “When they bake, they kind of explode outwards,” he says.

They actually blossom into something floral – like the potato croissant, which blooms like a rose (if roses had petals that were wonderfully buttery, roasted chip shards).

Home Croissanterie actually feels like someone’s much-loved place. The “home is where the croissant is” sign outside the cafe aptly sums up the personal feel, and Lai’s DIY training means that the counter features some left-of-field creations, such as the roast potato flavour, which might be one of the best croissants in Sydney right now. When the weather behaves, it’s a nice spot to rip through pastries and sip on icy glasses of coffee, chai or Earl grey tea supplied by Single O.

Books on the wall hint at Lai’s past experiences as a “stagiaire” (intern): the Noma 2.0 volume recalls his time plating nasturtium tarts at the Copenhagen institution that’s been named the world’s best restaurant five times, and his signed Quay book evokes his stint at Peter Gilmore’s three-hat restaurant.

Your order might be taken by Lai’s friendly brother Daniel, or prepped by his mum, Betty. Home Croissanterie might have started on Instagram, but its physical site has such a sunny charm that it’s worth following – and liking, too.