Joy Bakery

Not a particularly new opening, though probably one that had opened only in the past couple of months — Joy Bakery is one of those rather generic-looking bakeries that is located at Blk 573 Woodlands Drive 16; in fact, Joy Bakery had taken over the former premises of a bakery of a similar nature that operated in the shop space that it is currently located. Simply decorated, Joy Bakery offers quite a wide variety of bakes despite its rather simple looks; offering pre-packaged pastries that are imported from Malaysia, as well as the regular breads and buns that one can find as well as some chilled pastries and cakes, Joy Bakery actually offers quite a fair variety of products for a neighbourhood bakery to say the least. What piqued our interest with this establishment (which isn’t located too far away from us by the way) was its peculiar offerings of soft-serve; they do have a soft-serve machine located on-site, and one can actually find posters indicating availability of a “Matcha Soft Ice Cream” and a “Choco-Lot Soft Serve”, the latter being stated to be available for a limited time only, and somehow mentions “Hershey’s Chocolate”. This is also when we realised that they do also offer rather interesting flavours with their Pandan Waffles — though some of the uncommon flavours still do sound rather generic, Maple Syrup (erroneously spelt as “Mable Syrup” on the menu), Orange Cream Cheese and Nacho Cheese do seem a little different from what other neighbourhood bakeries attempt to offer for their spreads for Pandan Waffles. Interestingly, some of its cakes as well as the SG QR QR code for cashless payment placed at the counter reflects the name “Alex’s Pastries” instead; also the name of the establishment in Google Maps rather than Joy Bakery that is reflected on the signboard.

We made our trip to Joy Bakery for the soft serve ice-cream; the Choco-Lot Soft Serve in fact — but we were informed that the Choco-Lot Soft Serve was not available after the staff peered over to the soft serve ice-cream to see if it could be served. Since our trip was made in the evening right before having dinner, we weren’t also feeling in the mood to give their Pandan Waffles a try; this is despite us being genuinely interested to give their Pandan Waffles with Orange Cream Cheese a go. Our attention turned towards the display warmer that is located facing outside of the shop towards the main road — the display warmer showcasing some local, Chinese-style pastries which they have to offer. The Egg Tart here isn’t really that much of an Egg Tart; the Chinese name indicated on the tag placed at the front of the item more accurately describes it as a Portuguese Egg Tart instead — this is especially considering how it comes with an egg curd in the middle that comes with a slight char like how Portuguese Egg Tarts from other establishments do.

One look and it is easy to identify that their Egg Tart comes with a flaky pastry. We liked the fact that these were still warm when we had bought it despite having visited Joy Bakery on a rainy evening; the display warmer keeping the Egg Tart at an adequate temperature. When it came to the pastry, the pastry comes crisp; a little messy to have considering how flaky it is though provides a substantial bite. That being said, we did manage to feel the pastry sag a little from the heft of the egg curd above when lifted off the metallic cup covering the egg tart around the edges; the pastry also being particularly greasy at the base. The egg curd does come with a slight egginess being still moist, though could be potentially a little sweet for some. Also tried the Siew Bao during the visit; while the pastry is flaky, we were not a fan of the texture being a wee bit dry both with the filling and the pastry — the saving grace that made this still edible was that the meat filling was not too clumpy, though lacks the meaty texture that one may be looking for. Not sure when we will be back to give their Pandan Waffles with Orange Cream Cheese and soft serve ice-creams a go, though Joy Bakery is probably somewhere that is poised to serving up convenience to the residents staying around it rather than being an artisanal spot to make a special trip down to based on what we had tried.