Skip to main content
Hamburger Menu Close
Advertisement

Dining

Where to buy the best Chinese New Year treats and goodies in Johor Bahru

You could buy your CNY treats in Singapore – or you could make a trip out of it by heading across the Causeway. Here are the best confectioneries in JB – and it goes beyond saving a few bucks.

Where to buy the best Chinese New Year treats and goodies in Johor Bahru

Yong Sheng have quite a number of hampers on offer, including CNY ones. (Photo: David Ngiau)

New: You can now listen to articles.

This audio is generated by an AI tool.

It’s a fact that Malaysia has a love affair with sweets. A 2020 survey found that Malaysians Google “candy”, “sweets” and “chocolate” more than their Southeast Asian counterparts (21.8 per cent, followed by Singaporeans at 19.3 per cent).

And Johor Bahru is dominated by local confectioneries, keeping out competitors from the capital; the two best-known old-school players were born in Muar and Yong Peng, while JB’s two biggest players are more modern patisseries founded in the city.

Let’s be real: If you want to one-up those haughty aunties who get all yaya papaya over having the best CNY treats, you’ve got to hit JB.

OLD SCHOOL COOL

1. Ming Ang

Arguably the best-known among the traditional Chinese confectionery giants, Ming Ang Confectionery is reputed to have Johor’s best mini tau sar piah and are also known for Portuguese egg tarts and Nyonya kampung egg rolls. They pull out all the stops this time of year with at least three dozen different Chinese New Year treats.

Ming An pleasingly breaks the mould with their hampers. (Photo: David Ngiau)

This true-blue local Chinese confectionery, founded in Yong Peng 31 years ago, has three strategic Johor Baru outlets in areas popular with Singaporean visitors: City Square mall across from the JB Sentral transportation hub, right outside the popular KSL Mall, and facing Bukit Indah’s main roundabout/central park.

The prominent Jalan Serigala outlet, which opened just a few years ago, is a particularly inspired choice of location: It faces the KFC outlet and the KSL mall’s west entrance and its many eateries. You can also spy the baking in action at the back of the shop. For convenience, the outlet at Bukit Indah is the easiest to drive right up to with ample parking, both in front and behind facing the McDonald’s drive-through.

Beyond Johor, Ming Ang has two outlets in Greater Kuala Lumpur and one in Sabah.

More info at Ming Ang’s website, Facebook and Instagram.

2. Yong Sheng

This vintage Johor bakery, born in Muar in 1952, is still young at heart with ideas and pastry designs – they even recently turned out a “Barbie pink dragon cookie” though they missed an Oppenheimer-themed atomic cookie opportunity.

Their range of cookies, cakes and tarts will help check off most of your lists, and they have the largest selection of CNY hampers – it’s the speciality, after all. They do extremely well catering for weddings and have gift sets for occasions from new baby arrivals to Christmas.

Yong Sheng have quite a number of hampers on offer, including CNY ones. (Photo: David Ngiau)

Their JB outlets are in City Square, across from the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Taman Sri Tebrau, and in the Sutera Mall neighbourhood shopping centre. Beyond Johor, they have five outlets in Selangor and one in Melaka.

More info at Yong Sheng’s website and Instagram.

3. Yee Siang

Facing the east side of Plaza Sentosa is Yee Siang Confectionery, a truly old-school bakery that’s family-run, with only one outlet, and their Facebook page is only in Chinese. The traditionalists who grimace at more modern CNY treats, like cappuccino- or matcha-flavoured cookies, will appreciate this no-frills, value-for-money confectionery.

Here, you’ll get huge containers of traditional egg rolls (aka love letters), pong piah, lao po bing (wife biscuits) and other treats you might remember from visits to grandma’s. JB is a repository for lots of history that’s faded in fast-growing Singapore. Many locals also swear that Yee Siang is the best, if only because it hasn’t changed as much with the times.

Yee Siang’s one and only outlet is also roughly in between Ming Ang at KSL and Yong Sheng across from the cathedral, a great three-stop circuit for CNY treat on-loading.

More info at Yee Siang’s Facebook page.

4. Hiap Joo

The famed Hiap Joo Bakery and Biscuit Factory in JB’s historic old town doesn’t change up to churn out CNY cookies this time of year, because they don’t need to. They do bread and buns but it’s their banana cake, for which long queues form around noon every day, that is legendary.

Their secret is a built-in oven which has been running ever since the bakery first started in 1919, second-generation Hiap Joo owner Lim Meng Chin told CNA in 2020. The banana cake, however, was only introduced in 2003 when it was suggested by Mr Lim’s son, Toh Shian.

More info at Hiap Joo’s Facebook page.

THE YOUNG UPSTARTS

1. Lavender

My sister-in-law sends her better half, my brother, on missions to Ming Ang when he visits JB especially when CNY or the mooncake festival is approaching. He hasn’t had to make those shopping runs in quite some time, because she orders almost all of her cakes online from Lavender these days.

CNY hampers at Lavender’s Taman Pelangi flagship store, which also has the lovely L.Table restaurant on the second floor. (Photo: David Ngiau)

Their CNY range includes traditional favourites like the white, crumbly kueh bangkit, delicate love letters and pineapple tarts, while more modern treats like the biscotti won’t be met with complaints from grandpa.

Lavender is yet another home-grown JB bakery that has become a must on Singaporeans’ shopping itineraries when across the Causeway. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in east JB, its Taman Pelangi flagship has a second-floor restaurant overlooking the bakery – it’s a genteel oasis of chill especially on a baking JB afternoon.

Their other five JB outlets are all in big malls (City Square, Mid Valley Southkey, Paradigm, Aeon Tebrau and Aeon Bukit Indah). They also have 13 stores in KL and two in Singapore (Jewel and ION Orchard). Online ordering is the easiest if you’ve a JB address (or a relative staying here): Orders placed by 3pm are delivered the following afternoon.

More info at Lavender’s website, Facebook and Instagram.

2. SDS

You can’t miss Johor’s dominant confectionery with its 23 outlets in Greater JB (stretching from Gelang Patah near the 2nd Link to Ulu Tiram and Masai in the east). Just beyond, they’re even represented in Pekan Nanas, Kulaijaya, Ulu Tiram, Kota Tinggi and Desaru.

SDS apparently stands for Share, Dine, Smile. The acronym sounds cooler. (Photo: David Ngiau)

SDS also goes big on CNY treats with at least two dozen types of cookies alone – like with their outlets, there are too many to mention. If you’re hitting the malls in town for pre-CNY prep, SDS is located at all the major shopping centres including City Square and KSL. They’re even at wholesale centre S’Mart and Giant Plentong, where you wouldn’t expect to find an atas bakery.

For Singaporeans favouring the 2nd Link, the SDS at Taman Nusantara (Gelang Patah) is the most convenient stop.

More info at SDS’ website, Facebook and Instagram.

3. Moonlight

This bakery cemented its reputation for Instagram-worthy creativity with an ultra-realistic 3D durian cake which first wowed us in 2016.

Gorgeous photo-realistic 3D cakes aside, Moonlight Cake House’s innovative CNY treats are eye candy as well, alongside traditional favourites like salted fish egg skin, pineapple rolls and white almond cookies.

As with all the other entrants mentioned, Moonlight is JB born-and-bred and familiar neighbourhood landmarks among locals, starting with their first Taman Gaya location in 2007. In a strategic contrast to Lavender, Moonlight outlets are inviting restaurants and not just retail shops.

Bukit Indah residents and visitors have Moonlight (pictured), Lavender (within the Aeon mall), Season and Ming An to choose from. (Photo: David Ngiau)

Apart from their only mall outlet at KSL, Moonlight roadside-fronting cafes are at Taman Sentosa (relocated from Taman Pelangi late last year), Bukit Indah, Sutera Utama (near Sutera Mall), Taman Universiti, Mount Austin, Permas Jaya and Taman Daya.

More info at Moonlight’s website, Facebook and Instagram.

***

This list is hardly exhaustive, and there are hundreds of hidden gems tucked away in little Tamans, most of them mom-and-pop stores.

Nyonya Good Luck’s sidewalk tent across from KSL Mall. (Photo: David Ngiau)

Up-and-comer Cookies General focuses on online sales and their one retail front is in City Square, worth checking out if you’re there. Nyonya Good Luck, which operates a booth in KSL, has set up a huge sidewalk tent across from the mall (and near Ming An). Similar roadside pop-ups abound in Taman Sri Tebrau (near the wet market) within 1km from KSL – you can drive right up to these uniquely-JB tents, if you can find space with all the double-parked cars ringing them.

And if you’re heading for Lavender’s HQ in Taman Pelangi, just up the road are two established bakeries: Season and Seven Oaks.

If you do stumble upon a genuinely good find, be sure to let us know. Or maybe keep it to yourself, as we’re trying to watch our waistline. Happy hunting!

Source: CNA/mm
Advertisement

RECOMMENDED

Advertisement