For those who grew up in the West side of Singapore, Ng Kim Lee Confectionery would be a name familiar to you. A family-run bakery situated along Chun Tin Road, Ng Kim Lee Confectionery is known for selling Teochew-style pastries and traditional Western cakes at affordable prices.

Here’s why you should pay a visit to this bakery the next time you are in the Upper Bukit Timah area.

Step back into time once you reach the doorstep of Ng Kim Lee Confectionery. From traditional patterned tiled floors to the blue Bostwick collapsible gates (aka shophouse grilles), these are just some reasons why this humble bakery has stayed popular with many Singaporeans for more than 60 years.

Pastries always taste best freshly baked, and this is exactly what you’d get at Ng Kim Lee Confectionery. One of their top-selling bakes is the mini butter muffins.

At just S$0.70 per piece, you’d be able to sample many of their flavours without feeling the pinch. As we arrived rather late in the day, we only managed to pick up a couple of their Strawberry Muffins and Jam Muffins. These mini butter muffins had a balanced taste and was not overly buttery.

Other popular pastries that we sampled were the Honey Chicken Siew Pao (S$1.60 per piece) and Portuguese Egg Tart (S$1.50 per piece). The crust of the Honey Chicken Siew Pao was crispy and when cut, revealed tasty chicken chunks enveloped by a buttery flaky crust. The filling of the Portuguese Egg Tart had a slight milky flavour and its pastry was not overcooked.

If you fancy something sweeter, Ng Kim Lee Confectionery offers a decent spread of traditional Western cakes for your picking. We were told that the Durian Mousse Cake (S$3) and the Yam Mousse Cake (S$3) were their most popular flavours. Though you’d expect these ingredients to have strong flavours, both cakes were soft, slightly sweet, and light in flavour.

You can also pick up childhood snacks (such as Iced Gems, Pig Ears at S$3 per packet), Tau Sar Piah (S$4.50 per packet) and Walnut Biscuits (S$3 per packet) here. A tip: As their freshly baked pastries sell out quickly, we recommend visiting the bakery earlier in the day. Elsewise, drop by to enquire about their daily baking schedule so that you can pick up your favourite bakes fresh out of the oven.

Ng Kim Lee Confectionery
4 Chun Tin Road
Singapore 599591

Nestled away in Bukit Timah about a 10-minute walk away from Beauty World station is FlagWhite, a cosy and minimalistic cafe that serves up your usual array of cafe noshes such as cakes, hand-brewed coffee and a hearty big breakfast.

Despite it looking like just any other new cafe here in Singapore, FlagWhite does have a few special things to offer that other cafes don’t. For one, their home-made cakes are stellar both in aesthetics and taste.

One thing that makes FlagWhite truly stand out from many of the cafes in Singapore is the fact that they make all their cakes and bakes in-house. Their delectable array of desserts will without a doubt leave you spoilt for choice and you can expect sweet treats such as their Signature Double Cheese Cake and Single Origin Chocolate Tarts. 

Here, they also pride themselves on their speciality coffee where they mainly use beans roasted by Quarter Life Coffee Roasters, a local micro-roastery. They believe in supporting local SMEs, so many of their coffee, chocolates and teas are sourced from local suppliers and artisanal coffee makers.

No cafe experience is complete without having a massive breakfast dish of sorts. At FlagWhite, they have a special build-your-own brunch meal where you can customise what you want to have on your brunch plate, which is a pretty interesting concept.

They also have mains like Burgers and Mash, FlagWhite Burger as well as their very popular Chicken Parmigiana.

FlagWhite 
106 Jalan Jurong Kechil
Singapore 598604
Mon, Wed to Fri: 10am – 9pm
Sat & Sun: 9am — 9pm
(Closed on Tuesdays)
Nearest Station: Beauty World

All photo credits go to FlagWhite Singapore.