The Bakehouse

This little café is part of the faux-​rustic-​chi-​chi Carpenter & Cook chain (who make some great pastries and middling coffee), but manages to hold its own as a bona fide restaurant.
I’ll come to the point — the food is definitely worth a try. Despite finding every opportunity to drench their food with that blasted synthetic truffle oil, Bakehouse still make some very good food. Cheapy old school uncle-​auntie metal plates and bowls notwithstanding — yes, its on-​brand but really there’s a reason why these metal plates went out of fashion.
I had the mushroom soup — the only soup on the menu. While it came with an overly enthusiastic drizzle of that fake truffle oil, it was still well executed. Silky (albeit close to watery) texture, earthy mushroom flavour. Not too milky or creamy. Get rid of the damn truffle oil and you’ll have a winner.
Crab fettucine was next — my second time having the dish and the main reason for my return visit. For $ 16, you get a generous lumpy mess of pasta, shredded crab in a tomato-​brandy sauce, topped with properly shredded parmesan. Pasta looked a bit over-​cooked this time, and a bite confirmed that the pasta was just about a minute paste al dente. Nonetheless, well executed and sufficiently bitey for my liking. Few «pasta» places here even come remotely close to al dente so I’ll forgive them. Shellfish flavour is offset by the tangy tomato base, and given a bit of sweet richness thanks to the brandy. I’d daresay this is a signature dish.
Coffee… Well. If you fancy you coffee drowned in varying degrees of milk then i suppose this place is alright. I had a watery long black in my last visit. Definitely not up to par here.
Beer selection is minimal, but decent. The usual suspects from The Drinking Partners — Palm, witterkerke, magic hat and Delirium. Crabbies cider rounds off the blue collar range. Wines look decent but I’m not remotely qualified to say.
Overall, a good place for lunch and milky coffee. Consistency seems decent enough, and varies within acceptable tolerances. Let’s hope they keep this up!

A Cook’s redemption.
For those that have read my reviews, I previously did one on Carpenter & Cook, which started out well till they served me dead, soggy salad. Haven’t been back since.
However, I did somewhat decide to give their newly opened The Bakehouse at Alexandra Central a shot and I must say… I was pleasantly surprised!
Unlike their outlet at Lorong Kilat, the Bakehouse has a full kitchen, which transforms them into a bistro more than a baker, offering a wider menu of freshly cooked food than just cakes and sandwiches. From Pastas to Pizzas, everything here was cooked to order and it was a nice change.
Fettuccine Crab Meat Pink Sauce Brandy
A real surprise here. I’m always very particular with my pasta so this was a real surprise for me.
Fettuccine was beautifully al dente, a generous portion of crab and the prominent but not over powering taste of brandy complimenting the sweetness of the crab, made this dish something to remember.
Smoked Salmon and Baby Spinach Pizza (special)
A beautifully baked pizza, the smoked salmon added a good amount of saltiness to the dish while the spinach tied the ingredients in with its freshness. Only draw back, I wished there was a bit more sauce or another level of acidity in the pizza. While the salmon brought the salt and the spinach added the freshness, there needed to be a bit more acidity from the sauce to give it a more bite and to elevate the flavors a bit further.
Italian Home StyleChicken Wings (Thursday’s Special)
Now this was a very good offer. For $ 9, you get 9… Yes NINE beautifully fried chicken wings. The chicken wings were a good size and was wonderfully juicy.
While it was nicely season, I again felt the need for some acidity to bring out the flavors of the herbs a little more but overall still a wonderful dish to have.
Lemon cream tart
For the longest time, we’ve always been stuck on Carpenter and Cook’s Passion fruit meringue tart… Until now!
Their new Lemon Cream Tart is to die for. With the perfect amount of acidity, balanced out with the cream, this dart brings a fantastic zing that will brighten up the pallets on a dull day.
Second visit
(Monday Pasta Specials)
Linguine Mushroom Truffle Cream Sauce
Two words… One dimensional.
Let’s get one thing straight… This pasta is not for the non-​cream lover.
It’s rich… Very very rich. While it IS a delicious pasta, I would have liked a bit more depth to the dish. It was good with the first bite but it sort of got a bit too rich as you continuously ate it.
I would have liked the mushrooms to shine a bit more as it sort of got lost amoung the thick cream. It needed a bit of pungent-​ness, maybe from a tad bit of garlic and it could have done with a bit of acidity (a tad of white wine or lemon juice to the mushrooms maybe?).
Overall, still a yummy dish except I tend to be more picky when it comes to my pasta.
Fettuccine Sausage Pomodoro
Was this a good dish? Definitely! But it was a bit of a confused dish (again, maybe it’s just my pickiness).
A Pomodoro to me is a very light Tomato based sauce (almost tomato water), tossed in with lightly cooked tomatoes and garlic. Simple, bright, fresh. This Pomodoro however felt like an in between of a Bolognese style Ragu and a Pomodoro. However, I won’t take anything away from the flavor as it was a delicious plate of pasta with the sausage lending a hand in adding the heartiness and saltiness to the dish.
Conclusion:
Well worth a visit. The staff here are a lot friendlier than Carpenter and Cook and the food (and daily specials) will keep you coming back to ensure you try everything on their menu. And what better way to finish a meal than with a lovely trademark tart or cake from Carpenter and cook!
To me… If they keep the standards up, this place is an easy 4 star!

Election day was the time I first stepped foot in this rather new establishment in my constituency. Was attracted by the crowd when all the other stores/​cafes in the building were soliciting patrons using leaflets and ads.
The Bakehouse is nestled in a corner of the new shopping option at Queensway, vying for traffic from the established Anchorpoint and of course the kid filled Ikea cafeteria. Its baked goods looked delish in the glass cabinet but their savory options still need a little beefing up.
Reached the outlet at about 11:30am and went though the door from the shopping mall side. Informed that there was actually a line from the door that was at the side of the main road. I was a little confused. If they didn’t want people to cut the queue, they should have closed off the other door, so its easier to manage the crowd.
After 10 minutes of wait, we got a table and decided to order. Unfortunately, most of its brunch options were sold out. They had their lunch menu and special of a baked marinara pasta with seafood. Sounded yummy, so we decided to go for it with a side of cake.
The cake and coffee came fast and the chocolate cake was impressive. Light and airy and went well with the flat white I ordered. It came in an old school metal plate and metal cup I remember my grandfather used to brush his teeth with. Concept is cute… but would loved to have a bit more finesse on the flat white. The barista might wanna improve on the coffee prep.
Then we had to wait like 45 minutes for the mains… unfortunately. It wasn’t worth the wait. The salmon croissant I had was disappointing. I couldn’t find the fish in the heap of scrambled eggs that could feed two… or they ran out of fish and they were compensating with the amount of eggs. The salad felt like it was like a afterthought and the plate looked unfinished.
The special of baked seafood marinara was not quite what I had in mind. They had wrapped it in paper to bake in the oven. It was served in the paper with the top and sides burnt. So when you unwrap the package, if you aren’t careful you will get burnt paper as part of your garnish. The texture of the pasta was not al dente but okay. Seafood was generous but not very well done.
Overall, since I had my dessert first before my mains, I ended the visit on a very disappointed note. The service was also haphazard. Not sure if it is just cos they are new… I would recommend people to come here AFTER they had something else at Anchorpoint or after fighting with the kid crowd in Ikea… or after laksa at Queensway… just come here for the sweets if you are around the corner. It’s after all the Bakehouse and not the Cookhouse…

Was pretty surprised when I stepped into this café to see that there were quite a number of empty seats on a Saturday morning at around 11.30am.
Unlike Carpenter and Cook, this place was slightly bigger and airy. The glass windows on the front and the side helped to make this place look more spacious. The interior design gave the classic yet rustic feeling. The wooden yet detailed furnitures helped to aid the ambience inside the café.
Upon arrival, I told the chef (whoops, wrong person — he greeted me first) table for six. And a waitress then led me towards the available seatings and I got to chose the seat next to the counter. As I was passing by the glass display on the way to the table, I kept staring at the three reasonably sliced cakes and the passionfruit tart. After placing my bag on the seat, I headed to the counter to order the three cakes (chocolate banana, white rabbit carrot cake, blueberry cheesecake) and passionfruit meringue tart for the friends whose birthdays are approaching. I also asked the server which drink to choose between lemonade and ginger beer and she pointed at the lemonade.
I also asked them to hold on to the cakes until we were ready and they smiled and nodded. My beverage arrived. It was pretty good citrusy twist — lemonade with a twist of ginger. More on the ginger end. Might try another plain lemonade the next time I’m here.
After my friends arrived, we decided to get 2 pastas and 2 pizzas. For pizzas, we ordered the one with pulled pork and caramelized onions and home made sausage. The pizzas were crispy and taste was rather medium (not too strong on tomato sauce — a plus for me). I recommend the pulled pork one as it has both the sweet and tangy flavor in one pizza.
For pastas, we headed on with crab meat fettuccine and truffle cream sauce linguini. Both pastas were delightful but the recommended one is the crab meat as the hint of cooked brandy was strong and their home made sauces left a stronger after taste which make you yearn for more after a bite. Portion was pretty small but if you are looking at quality, it was worth the money.
The cakes. Incredible cakes. All of them were moist and had perfect blend of taste on it — not too sweet either. I particularly like the blueberry cheesecake. Even though the presentation might not be perfect but the cheesecake was not too thick on the cheese and the crust were crunchy. And the passionfruit meringue tart. Yummy citrusy filling with a hint of sweetness from the meringue. The tart base was crunchy (similar to the blueberry cheesecake).
Overall, it is definitely a good addition to the Alexandra Central Mall. Will be back for more delicious cakes :)

Detoured here on the way to toast box. Was attracted by its quaint set up and pretty looking pastries being displayed at the counter…
But I wanted something more substantial so I asked them to recommend me something — pizza, they say. Freshly made, woodfire (?). When I asked what toppings were recommended, answer was pull pork.
Pizza was ok, nothing to shout about, with a nice portion of pull pork and caramelised onions.
They do serve a good cuppa coffee and there is a reason for me to come back to try their cakes :)