Popular Malaysian dessert chains Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tarts (HBCT) and PAFU have joined forces to open a PAFU X Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tarts shop in Sydney’s World Square.

HBCT is a veteran dessert chain in Australia – it has 15 shops across the country – while PAFU is relatively new. The shtick for both is Japanese sweets. (PAFU and Hokkaido are owned by the same parent company, the ST Group, which also owns Malaysian hawker-food favourite Pappa Rich.)

HBCT’s signature dessert is made using a traditional Japanese recipe. But at PAFU it’s all about a cross between a French apple turnover and a Japanese-style cream puff. Overseas both brands have a huge following; apparently, one of the stores in Singapore is so busy a cheese tart is sold every second. “It’s all part of Asia’s Japanese-dessert obsession,” says owner Loke Wong.

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The cheese tarts come in three flavours: plain, strawberry and blueberry, and at World Square there are specials such as salted egg yolk tarts. At first glance, the wobbly, pale yellow mixture in a buttery shortcrust shell could be a Portuguese tart, but the flavour is totally different. Made from three types of Australian cheese (a secret recipe that convincingly approximates the original Hokkaido-style tarts) the texture is creamy and soft, and the flavour is a balance of sweet and tangy.

For now, the small shop is limited to making one flavour of PAFU’s puff pastry: custard with tart slices of apple. The filling is piped into the half-moon puff pastry envelopes through a hole in the centre, and Wong has an opinion on the tidiest way to eat the pastry. “Take the first bite from the centre. If you don’t, custard will spill out into your hand,” he says.

All the pastries are assembled and baked at the small kiosk. Between serving customers, staff can be seen carefully brushing egg wash across rows of tarts before putting them into the oven. Wong has been serving cheese tarts in World Square since 2016, but as part of the collaboration with PAFU, he’s renovated the space. There’s new signage and a gradient colour wrap around the counter that transitions from PAFU’s rosy pink to Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tarts’ black.

Pafu x Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tarts
World Square, 644 George Street, Sydney

Hours:
Mon to Wed 10am–8pm
Thu 10am–9pm

Fri & Sat 10am–8.30pm
Sun 11am–8pm

hbctaus.com.au