The Bao Makers Cafe and Bakery @ 78 Horne Road

A cafe serving contemporary Asian influenced bao (包) or buns. The bun variant is of the kong bak bao (扣肉包) type. Besides the bao, there are other foods available. One could get salad, soups, small hot snacks like chicken wings, fries or fish sticks. Or, for mains if you are not into the buns, there are plates like fish and chips and pasta to choose from. Otherwise, there are brunch items such as eggs benedict or breakfast set. Or, just get any of the cakes baked in-house with their coffee.

signage

cakes

We were there to try its bao, and as it was part of our cafe hop, decided just to try two flavours of its buns. The bao platter offers 4 flavours (Classic, Bulgogi, Chili Crab and Teriyaki Chicken) at $28 but we wanted to try salted egg bao which was not part of the 4 included flavours. Can't do replacement with top-up too. So went non-platter instead.

self-serve iced water and wait for the order to arrive

The Salted Egg Shrimp made its entrance known by its fragrance. The salted egg sauce smelled really nice and strong. The shrimps were of a good size and there are three of those inside each bun.

Salted Egg Shrimp @$15

Very likely because we had taken some minutes to photograph these instead of biting into those soft buns filled with warm savoury salted egg sauce when it was just served, the oomph factor was lost. Tasted like any good zichar salted egg. These buns certainly won't fill up the stomach (unless you are on a diet). It needed at least a cup of coffee and perhaps that slice of cake.

Chili Crab @$16

Think the Chili Crab buns were fried but was impressed that it was not oily. In fact, it seemed a tad like a baked bun instead. The Chili Crab sauce here has some spicy kick that would be counted as a notch above the usual cafe spice level. Well suited for the local taste, I'd say. Also liked the fact that the crab meat chunks are very visible to the eye. Good.


Expect to spend about $20 - $24 per pax for a meal here.

The Bao Makers Cafe and Bakery

Website: https://www.baomakers.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/baomakers/
Phone: +65 6291 2330
 
Business Hours:

Monday to Friday            11am to 9pm
Saturday/Public Holidays  10am to 10pm
Sunday                         10am to 6pm