At the first Melbourne outpost of Sydney’s Koi Dessert Bar, you’ll find over a combination of 150 different cakes for sale daily.

There’s the Strawberry Pillow, a bright pink pill-shaped cake with fresh lychees, almond sablé (a French shortbread), raspberry jelly and a strawberry and lychee mousse; the Nomtella with hazelnuts, an espresso mousse, a salted caramel ganache and a dark chocolate brownie; and a white peach cake with rose jelly, almond sablé, raspberry Chantilly, white peach mousse, lychee and berry consommé, and French Earl Grey ganache.

The cakes are served as single portions (but can be easily shared) and range from $18 to $34, with bigger celebration cakes available for pre-order online. They’re all meticulous, intricate creations that combine similar components but play around with ingredients.

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“We always keep our constant, French foundational pastries like entremets in different flavours – a lot of Southeast Asian flavours, a lot of East Asian flavours because that’s what we love to eat,” co-owner Reynold Poernomo tells Broadsheet. The team is always working on menu development, and Reynold says a new cake can take anywhere from a few hours to a few months to land in the pastry case.

Reynold was a contestant Masterchef Australia’s seventh season back in 2015 and is one of the franchise’s biggest success stories. He quickly earnt the nickname “dessert king” and has been living up to it ever since.

In 2016, he opened Koi Dessert Bar in Sydney with his pastry chef mother Ike Malada and brothers Ronald and Arnold Poernomo (the latter is a judge on Masterchef Indonesia). The family followed it up with Koi Dessert Kitchen, a bar called Monkey’s Corner and a flagship Koi restaurant and bar, all in Sydney.

Nearly 10 years after bursting onto the scene, they’ve finally opened a Melbourne shop. The outpost takes up four shopfronts at Queen & Collins, the precinct on the corner of Queen and Collins streets in the CBD that also houses Reine, La Rue and cocktail den Purple Pit.

There’s room for a production kitchen, as well as a large room for guests to enjoy their cakes alongside classic teas, espresso drinks and inventive iced teas including a two-layered mango green tea topped with a lychee foam.

There’s also a chef’s counter where Koi will soon hold multi-course plated dessert degustations – something the Sydney team is known for. Up to 10 diners at a time will be guided through a dessert tasting menu of four courses. To prevent a complete sugar overload, each course is accompanied by a savoury snack.

Reynold will sometimes be part of the chef’s table experiences, but they’ll more often be led by pastry chef Adeline Campestre, who has worked with Koi for nearly 18 months.

Reynold and Ronald plan to spend a lot of time in Melbourne, and have bought an apartment near the shop so they can be hands-on with the new venue. They say opening here feels a bit like starting from scratch. “For us, [opening in Melbourne is] such a new thing,” says Ronald. “We don’t know anyone here. We don’t know suppliers; a lot of the equipment and tools we had to get from Sydney because we have the relationships there.” But Reynold’s fame and the Koi name seem to have been enough to draw the crowds for now.

Koi Dessert Bar Melbourne
100 Queen Street, Melbourne
9191 2031

Hours:
Tue to Sun 10am–10pm

koidessertbar.com.au/melbourne
@koidb