Working in the financial sector for almost 10 years, Jovi, the lady boss who now currently oversees Thai Baàng Bakery, decided to risk it all for her passion for bread and opened her very own bakery business together with her husband and two other business partners.
How her story of risking it all to start afresh came about on one of the trips Jovi and her husband took twice a year to Bangkok, which prompted her to pursue her passion for bread further. Her husband brought her to try out some local bakeries, which brought back some of the warm memories of her late grandfather, and the rest was history.
Working at a bakery in the heartlands of Thailand, she picked up the craft of the dough-making process to kickstart her passion for bread. You can say Jovi’s decision in opening Thai Baàng Bakery is a tribute to her late grandfather, as well as a remembrance of her husband’s childhood.
Jovi was extremely particular with the quality of her bread and pastries, with no artificial preservatives or softeners used in all of them. All of them are baked using tin containers that were customised just for bread-making, which holds the bread together.
If you prioritise a wide choice of pastries as an important factor in a bakery, head over to the Lavender outlet, where they offer more selections.
I made my way to the Lavender branch. A disclaimer about the bread found in Thai Baàng Bakery: the flavours are localised to suit Singaporeans’ taste, but the dough-making process is what makes the bread truly Thai.
Thai Baàng Bakery is found near Lavender MRT, specifically at Kitchener Complex. The bakery itself is a grab-and-go bakery, where bread and pastries are freshly baked without any preservatives. Stepping into the bakery, the whiff of freshly-made pastries enticed me to splurge on everything.
The daily baked bread and pastries are displayed in wooden custom-made shelves, with a transparent door to make their products easily viewed.
What I tried
I picked out some pastries like the Ham And Cheese Bread (S$3.50 for half a loaf, S$5.80 for a full loaf), Thai Milk Tea Bread (S$2.30), Banana Chocolate Cake (S$6.50), as well as Kaya Butter Swiss Roll (S$5.50).
I got Jovi’s favourites, such as Tom Yum Chicken Bread (S$1.80 for small, S$2.50 for medium), and the Mushroom Vegetable Bread (S$2.70).
The Tom Yum Chicken Bread was warm and fluffy, and had a spicy and sour taste when I savoured the bread. This bread is definitely for spicy fanatics, and it captured the essence of tom yum well.
Apparently, the Ham And Cheese Bread is one of the most loved items from the bakery, with customers ordering up to fives loaves of them at a time! One might pass off this bread as an ordinary bread when it comes to flavours, but there’s a saying, ‘There is beauty in simplicity’.
Truly, the Ham And Cheese Bread was mastered well. The amount of bread balanced out the savoury aspect of the ham as well as the cheese and suited my rather picky tastebuds well.
I was curious about their Thai Milk Tea Bread. How could a flavour that is usually found in Thai drinks be turned into bread?
The bread was aromatic with a faint scent of Thai milk tea, which could be improved with a sweeter taste, but I appreciated the bread nonetheless.
This Banana Chocolate Cake was packed with two layers of flavour—the banana flavour at the base, while the top layer was baked with chocolate goodness, finished with two bananas placed in the middle of the cake. I cannot emphasise enough how heartwarming and fluffy this cake was. The cake hit the sweet spot with the right amount of sweetness, as well as the texture of it.
There was one thing I was slightly peeved about. The bananas made the cake slightly too moist, however, it was still an excellent cake that I would share with my loved ones.
The Mushroom Vegetable Bread is a good choice for people who are looking at meatless alternatives from the bakery. The mushroom vegetable had crunchy radish as well as sautéed mushrooms and was a pleasant savoury choice as well.
This was by far the most localised item from Thai Baàng Bakery, and I would like to express my appreciation for the team behind this creation!
The Kaya Butter Swiss Roll was dense yet had the right amount of fluff to it. Biting into it flooded memories of kaya butter toast made by my grandfather, and it really resembled kaya butter toast found in many eateries found across Singapore.
Final thoughts
The passion that Jovi puts in her bakery is admirable, and you will definitely not be disappointed with the quality of bread and pastries from Thai Baàng Bakery. Do note that Thai Baàng Bakery has increased its prices after CNY2020, with an increment of about 10 to 20 cents per bread.
Expected damage: S$1.60 – S$8 per pax
Price: $
Our Rating: 4 / 5
Thai Baàng Bakery
809 French Road, Kitchener Complex, #01-41, Singapore 200809
Thai Baàng Bakery
809 French Road, Kitchener Complex, #01-41, Singapore 200809