Pyney’s 🥧 Reviews
Central Tilba Bakery
(Tilba NSW)
Feb 2026
After leaving the Tilba Valley Winery & Ale House I made my way into the little township of Tilba to visit Sonia and Brendon from the Central Tilba Bakery. Tilba is nestled at the base of the imposing Gulaga/Mt Dromedary and is a short drive from the popular South Narooma and Bermagui. It’s also only just over an hours drive (south) from Batemans Bay. The township is only minutes off the highway and has so much history.
This little place is wonderful with the bakery and pub are its main centrepiece. The bakery has been in existence for over 30 years, but Sonia and Brendan will celebrate their third year anniversary here this coming March. These two 🥧 legends had no baking experience what so ever when they took over. Both were living in Sydney with Sonia working in IT and Brendan a refrigeration mechanic. Both wanted to get out of the hustle and bustle of city life and moved south coast. The bakery came up and they both jumped in the deep end and haven’t looked back.
The bakery is a beautiful old building and offers a great outdoor seating area that looks over the main street. While only small there is a awesome selection of freshly baked sweets and treats available and I wanted to rip straight in and get started.
Sonia and Brendon have a terrific selection of flavours on the menu. Brendon the gun fridgie is the one who who has created all these flavours and the 🥧 fillings. With all these wicked flavours making a choice was going to be hard. Brendon did mention that the “Pepper Steak” was a little ripper and was a bit on the hotter side, which is right up my alley. So that’s the one I went with and it looked mint.
🥧 THE REVIEW 🥧
1. Value for Money – $9 is creeping up there for sure I’m not going to lie, but it was a decent sized oval shaped 🥧 and it was totally full. Decent value without being specular in my opinion. 7.5/10
2. Meat/Fill Ratio – Totally full, not a ounce more could have been squeezed into this 🥧. This was an easy score to adjudicate. 10/10
3 Flavour – Brendon has nailed the flavour in this 🥧 it was near perfect. The meat was delicious and incredibly tender, and the green peppercorns were clearly evident with every bite and a little sting to them. If you like your pepper steak 🥧’s a little hot your going to love this flavour. Great work 9/10
4. Pastry – The overall pastry was very good and the only blemish was the top bake which was slightly under done. Apart from this, everything else was quality. I really enjoyed the pastry taste and it’s overall flakiness. It was a little dark on one section, but I wouldn’t let that worry you it was only minor. The stability was excellent the 🥧 didn’t move one bit. Nothing more to say except well done guys good job. 9.5/10
5. Serving Temperature – Perfect !!! No issues. 10/10
Overall Rating
🥧🥧 46/50 🥧🥧
Another exceptional 🥧 in fact every single one of Sonia’s products was excellent. You need to remember when these two took over they had no baking experience and yet the products they produce a top shelf. The flavour for me was the standout, those green peppercorns had bite, but they also added some real flavour to the 🥧. Overall not much to work on, the team have done a awesome job with this one, highly recommended. Sonia’s curry 🥧 was up there with the best I’ve had, the flavour of that 🥧 was out of this world.
Whatever you do, don’t bypass the little town of Tilba. Take the short drive off the highway and explore this beautiful little town. This joint has so much on offer and the little shops will appreciate your support. There is plenty of parking in the main street and surrounds.
Sonia, Brendon and the rest of the crew, a huge thanks for having me in, this was a really enjoyable review. You guys are doing a sterling job and the community of Tilba and passing tourists are extremely lucky to have a bakery of your calibre alive and well. It was an absolutely pleasure meeting you both, spending time with you and sampling your incredible products. You both deserve every success that comes your way. This is one bakery I’m coming back to.
As always thanks for the ongoing support and keep supporting 🇦🇺 bakeries and don’t forget to invite all your friends to the page.
