The Adelaide Hills are a leafy jewel for South Australia. With rolling hills of forests, the big blue sky stretching above and delicate villages filled with fine food and drink it’s an easy and pleasant drive from Adelaide. In the hills, there’s the little town of Hahndorf, as many South Australians will know, which is a homage to a German village. Founded in 1839 it’s old for Australian standards, and well known for its art, quaint German-style homes, food and as a tourist destination. The prices of food and drink reflect that latter point, and the multiple storefronts of tourist trinkets and crowded sidewalks attest to its success.
I’m not Hahndorf’s biggest fan, most tourist spots don’t really tempt me, but the area surrounding Hahndorf is undeniably beautiful and has some nice spots for lunch. In spring that’s where I found myself, lunching with a friend in the hills and enjoying the view surrounding us. The conversation turned towards the donut blog and eager to participate in this donut eating my friend and I googled the nearest bakery. The bakery hadn’t been recommended, we didn’t really know much about it, but Hahndorf has a reputation for food and the reviews online were ok so our hopes were high.
The bakery was cute, at the end of the main road and surrounded by old, leafy trees. Towards the end of the day it wasn’t too busy and still had a wide selection of German-style cakes and a handful of donuts remaining. The young girl behind the counter, unfortunately, had a bit of a too-cool complex and rolled her eyes at some of my questions. I won’t hold it against the rating though, I’d probably be similar if I had to deal with American tourists all day and excitable kids – and with my accent, I leant myself to the former of the two.
Taking our donuts we drove back to Adelaide and ate them in the shade of the veranda. The rating speaks for the donut but it’s rather like Hahndorf: expensive, lacking in depth, garish in parts and overall a bit disappointing.
