Dessert Train- The Star

So previously I mentioned a dessert train set up by Adriano Zumbo, made (in)famous by his appearances in Masterchef and the nightmarish recipes he dished out, including the croquembouche and V6 cake. Having been to his cafe in Balmain before it closed down, and then visiting his new "lab" in Rozelle, I was majorly disappointed. All the tarts were gone by noon, so all they were selling were macaroons. And one of the flavors was blue cheese. Needless to say, that tray of macaroons stayed full.

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

Now he comes up with The Star, a cake shop and dessert train where you can dine in, located at the newly furbished area of Star casino... I wish they left the name alone, it was fine being called Star City, now they just made it "The Star"... which sounds less extravagant.

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

The cake shop holds many of Adriano's creations, and I suppose it'll change with the seasons. More on the shop later, we were much more interested in the dessert train.

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

Don't watch One Piece, but I know this thing is from there. Figurines were placed randomly around the train... I wonder if Adriano watched anime and reads manga?

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

The conveyor belt is actually pretty long, stretching across the bar of tables and into a kitchen at the end, where one could peer through glass panels to watch pâtissiers at their work.

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

Went with BT and FL for a girls' lunch out. This was one of the plates going around. There were about 5 or 6 varieties of cakes and quite a few plates of macaroons rotating around.

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

We got this one, but I really couldn't describe it. Hazelnut... mango, almond, I think... and more mango? Give up.

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

Carrot cake deconstruct. I finally understand the meaning of "deconstruct" in cooking terms... all raw ingredients piled onto the plate, right? :D Interesting though, this one, because when you eat the carrot puree, cinnamon cream, orange mayonnaise, cream cheese, toasted almonds and walnut, it still doesn't quite make a carrot cake in your mouth.

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

One of the said plates of macaroons, though why would you get a plate of macaroons from the train when you could hop over to the shop afterwards to choose your own ones at the shop?

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

Foam! Looks like some sort of raspberry cake. Sorry, I'm not very good with describing Zumbo's cakes, he's the expert after all.

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

This might have been interesting to try, but we didn't pick it.

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

More of them macaroons.

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

We chose a very normal looking tart. It was the most normal looking out of all the dishes, no foam, no mustard-looking dollops, not deconstructed. Just a tart.

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

Turned out to be the best out of the lot. It had some weird name.. fizzwizz summer berry.. ok, I just made that up. Anyhow, it was good.

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

Bring it On! Yea, don't know what she's doing on the belt, but she was going round with the cakes and macaroons too, though when I tried to pick her up, she was kinda stuck. Guess she isn't for sale.

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

Not all that were on the belt were on the menu, and not all on the menu were on the belt.

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

Mini macaroon wallpaper.

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

Huge zumbo fluro sign outside.

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

Onto the cakes in the shop! They were really artistically enclosed in capsule-like cages, clear of course, so you can peer inside and take photos. V caramel~

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

The macaroons were showcased in Emergency Break Glass panels.

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

Look at them, all with suspicious pipes leading to who knows where.

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

They had a little bakery section too, with hot pastries like croissants and danishes. I didn't think it was necessary, and I couldn't see them selling very well either, but meh.

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

I love how I can't understand at least one word in each of Adriano's cake descriptions. He must be doing it on purpose.

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

We got one each. It was the best macaroon ever tasted. There's fizz in the coke flavored cream!

From The Star, Adriano Zumbo

Staffs working on batches of mojito macaroons.

Overall thoughts? Interesting! I'd love to go back and try the cakes sold at the shop. You know, compared to other cake shops like 85 degrees and Breadtop, Adriano Zumbo's cake cannot be considered expensive. If you read his cookbook and his recipes, it's actually quite worth it to pay $xx to try his cakes. Of course, some are (way way way) better than others, and you wouldn't exactly know which ones are good until you try them, so potentially, you could be wasting $xx on a cake that doesn't live up to its expectations. They should have a site that reviews those cakes, one by one, with proper descriptions that people can understand, but probably by the time they set something like that up and review the cakes, the season would have passed and a new batch of cakes come up.

Still, innovative concept. Next thing you know, we'll be seeing dessert churrasco and tapas trains.