Johor Bahru: Best bakeries to go to in JB for bread, cake, and pastries today

A famous banana cake from Johor Bahru recently became the latest product available from a vending machine in Singapore. Chalk one up for convenience, but it’s difficult to surpass the memories of going to a bakery: the smell of baking bread, the golden array of pastries glistening under the light. On your next Johor Bahru trip, take home loaves, cakes, and all kinds of viennoiserie at these best bakeries in JB.

In May 2025, a vending machine in Bukit Panjang starting selling banana cake from Hiap Joo Bakery & Biscuit Factory. The cakes, which were already a hit among Singaporean visitors, are replenished twice a day. Compared to the bakery in Johor Bahru Old Town, where they are baked throughout the day in a hundred-year-old wood-burning oven, buying them from a robot pales vastly.

Other bakeries in JB adopt a worldly outlook. The Starter is a sourdough specialist with over 20 varieties of loaves, as well as focaccia, ciabatta, and garlic toast. New York-style bagels in traditional and contemporary guises get the limelight at Palates & Bagels.

French pastries are also having a moment at these best bakeries in JB. Nimmies Pastry Cafe uses the croissant to showcase their baking prowess, resulting in flavours like kaya butter, egg mayo, green grape, and matcha red bean.

Seven Oaks Bakery Cafe is a contemporary French bakery with salted egg croissants and nasi lemak danishes, while Dona Bakehouse keeps it classic with its popular pistachio rose croissant. For sweets, hit up Morihana Pastry for its Japanese-inspired little cakes. Discover them below.

(Hero and featured images credits: Hiap Joo Bakery – since 1919 / Facebook; Dona Bakehouse / Facebook)

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Dona sticks to the classics when it comes to their bakes. The cafe and bakery in JB focuses on traditional French pastries, including croissants, pain au chocolat, and danishes, which come in classic flavours from pistachio and rose to hazelnut. Dona also has an airy two-story dining room with sandwiches and pasta on the menu.

Monday – Thursday, 8.30am – 4.30pm
Friday – Sunday, 8.30am – 9.30pm

(Image credit: Dona Bakehouse / Facebook)

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Hiap Joo has been operating since 1919, making it one of Johor Bahru’s longest-serving bakeries. Their bestselling banana cake is baked in a hundred-year-old wood-burning oven, together with flavoured buns like coconut, kaya, otak-otak, and red bean. If you can’t get to Hiap Joo, the bakery now has a vending machine in Bukit Panjang that sells the banana cake.

Daily, 7.30am – 5pm

(Image credit: Hiap Joo Bakery – since 1919 / Facebook)

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Morihana Pastry’s petit fours are as adorable as the cafe’s zen, minimalist interior. The tiny cakes come dressed in flavours like dark chocolate and blackberry, and honey tangerine, with decorations ranging from a matcha-hued Mount Fuji to a tiramisu bear. They also have larger cakes, cookies, and seasonal items such as mooncakes.

Tuesday – Sunday, 12pm – 7pm
Closed on Monday

(Image credit: Morihana Pastry)

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Nimmies chose the croissant to showcase the range of their baking prowess. There are locally-inspired versions like kaya butter and coconut. Savouries from crab stick with cheese to egg mayo. Sweet croissants filled with green grapes, matcha red bean, and Biscoff cookies. The bakery also sells cromboloni – a mashup between a croissant and bomboloni – with taro, pistachio and berries, and Kinder Bueno chocolate.

Daily, 8am – 11pm

(Image credit: Nimmies Pastry Cafe)

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New York-style bagels are the speciality at this JB bakery, a rarity among similar establishments in the city. They come in traditional guises like parmesan and pumpkin seed, as well as wilder flavours such as locally pickled chilli, salted cherry blossom, black truffle, and purple sweet potato. Palates & Bagels also offers croissants, cruffins, cromboloni, and scones.

Daily, 8am – 6pm

(Image credit: Palates & Bagels by T.A.M / Facebook)

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Seven Oaks is a classic French bakery dressed up for the modern diner. The croissants come in trendy flavours like salted egg and crab with spicy mayo, danishes are crossed with nasi lemak, and pain au chocolat is introduced to matcha. The dine-in menu is equally unorthodox, ranging from chicken and croffles to a taco-croissant cross called a tacro.

Daily, 9am – 10pm

(Image credit: Seven Oaks Bakery Cafe / Facebook)

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Those searching for loaves to take home should begin looking at The Starter. The bakery and cafe sells over 20 kinds of sourdough bread, some studded with fig and walnut, others brimming with herbs and cheese. Sourdough also gets added to focaccia, ciabatta, garlic toast, and raisin buns, which sit alongside bagels from rye to Earl Grey.

Tuesday – Sunday, 9.30am – 6.30pm
Closed on Monday

(Image credit: @thestarter.cafe / Instagram)