For many Sydney cafes and bakeries, sausage rolls play second fiddle to their pies. Relegated to the countertop warmer, the pastry is often thin and soft; the filling bland and lukewarm.

But then there are the places that give snagger rolls their due – taking buttery, flaky and moreish pastry you’ll happily wear down your front and wrapping it around thoughtful and delicious fillings that are sure to satisfy on a cold winter’s day.

Teddy’s

While most sausage rolls on this list hover around the $8 mark, the pork and crayfish number at this sunny new Potts Point hangout is going to set you back $20. But that does come with table service and, you know, lobster. “The filling makes me think I’m eating a sausage while sipping shellfish bisque, but it’s a hoot,” said Terry Durack in his Teddy’s review.

1 Kellett St, Potts Point, teddypottspoint.com.au

Baker Bleu

This one’s a whopper. A main event. A serious lunch when you dine-in and knock it back with a Sydney Brewery lager or precise espresso. Super flaky pastry wraps a juicy pork and fennel mix, served spangled with sea salt and nigella seeds. Baker Bleu’s salt beef sandwich is worth clearing your schedule for too.

2 Guilfoyle Avenue, Double Bay, bakerbleu.com.au

Tuga Pastries

There’s a rotating selection of sausage rolls on the blackboard every day at Tuga, from the classic pork and fennel to the more unusual spanakopita, and occasionally chicken siu mai. Each one is heated to order, so the house-made puff pastry remains crisp, light and golden.

Shop 10, 112 McEvoy Street, Alexandria; Shop 6, 231 Clovelly Road, Clovelly, tugapastries.com.au

Little West

You’ll need to head to Haberfield before 11am to get your hands on one of Little West’s daily-changing sausage rolls ($12) as they often sell out. A Good Food favourite is house-smoked beef brisket with native spices and butter puff pastry, and all rolls are served with house-made bush tomato sauce for an extra punch of flavour. You can grab one to-go, but it might be nice to stay awhile at this charming little cafe.

Shop 2, 53-55 Waratah Street, Haberfield, little-west.com.au

Feather and Bone

Feather and Bone’s sausage rolls come with an ethical conscience. All the meat used comes from pasture-raised animals grown on regenerative farms (a particularly rare feat for pork), plus they taste fantastic. There’s pork and fennel; lamb and rosemary; and beef and kimchi, each rolled in butter puff pastry. Available freshly baked at the Waverley store or in cook-at-home packs at both locations.

Shop 8, 10-14 Lilian Fowler Place, Marrickville; 270 Bronte Road, Waverley, featherandbone.com.au

Bakerie

It takes three days, two bakers and one chef to make the classic beef sausage roll at the popular bakery. The process begins with mixing the puff dough, using high-protein Laucke flour. On the second day, exactly 55 layers of puff pastry are laminated and rested. And on the third, they’re rolled around locally sourced ingredients.

773 Pacific Highway, Gordon, bakeriegordon.com

Good Ways Deli

Good Ways Deli co-owner Jordan McKenzie draws on fond childhood memories of snacking on sausage rolls at the school canteen after soccer, then gives them the full Aussie treatment. The meaty option is sweet and tangy, featuring lean kangaroo meat from Marrickville’s Whole Beast Butchery, cut with pork fat and seasoned with Vegemite and Japanese curry powder. The vegie option is made with Warrigal greens from Bush to Bowl, blanched and mixed with butter and ricotta.

20 Cooper Street, Redfern; 81 Buckland Street, Alexandria, goodwaysdeli.com.au

Bourke Street Bakery

“Only a fool would turn down a Bourke Street Bakery sausage roll,” celebrity chef Nigella Lawson once said in an Instagram post. The pork and fennel sausage roll has been pleasing punters since its debut almost two decades ago. It features a punchy mixture of Vic’s Meats pork, fennel and garlic bundled into puff pastry made with Pepe Saya butter.

Various locations, bourkestreetbakery.com.au

Rollers Bakehouse

The sausage roll at Rollers is wrapped in the bakery’s signature buttery, flaky croissant dough, so you know it’s going to be good. Founder James Sideris wanted it to be classic, approachable and high quality, so the dough currently swaddles a pork, veal and fennel snag lifted by seeded mustard and caramelised onion jam. Ask for the “sausage sanga”.

17 Rialto Lane, Manly, rollersbakehouse.com

Self Raised Bread Shoppe

Tender, juicy lamb kofta is rolled in golden, puff pastry to make a stunning sausage roll at Self Raised Bread Shoppe. Sal Sanan and siblings Amani and Hussein Rachid opened the Carlton bakery-cafe in February last year, and it has continued to draw weekend crowds ever since. While you’re there, also pick up a hoagie sandwich (a cheesy, meaty double-hander on pillowy ciabatta) and a slice of sponge cake piled high with fresh cream and berries.

45 Jubilee Avenue, Carlton, selfraised.com.au