Hiap Joo Bakery & Biscuit Factory 協裕麵包西菓廠 - Best Banana Cake Ever!

• Operating Hours: 7.30 AM - 5.30 PM
• Operating Days: Daily
• Address: 13, Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, Johor Bahru
• Facebook Page

If you live or a frequent visitor to Johor Bahru, Hiap Joo 协裕 bakery needs no introduction. It is one of the longest standing bakeries in Johor Bahru at Jalan Tan Hiok Nee since 1919 - 100 years shop soon! 

Nothing much has changed in Hiap Joo’s bakery, even their brick oven is almost a 100 years old.

 Do take note of their operating hours and their Banana cakes selling time.

The interior of this bakery is nothing like the ones in Singapore. In these days of modern technology, they still use the traditional wood burning oven. You can see plenty of woods around their shop to bake our favorite banana cakes and buns. We hardly get to see such traditional ovens that use wood fire anymore. A piece of living history.

Every 20 minutes or so a new batch of banana cake is fresh out of the oven. Each batch gets wiped out in no time while the next group of customers still queuing and wait for the next batch to be ready. 

After quite 30mins or so, I got out with 3 boxes of Banana Cake! Once out of the bakery, I could not help but catch a glimpse of the cake. The big box consists of 10 pieces selling at $10RM while the small box of 5 pieces sells at $5RM.

The reason why they did not close the box to let the hot air out as the cake was still hot when purchased.
Toasted thin crisp layer on the top with a mild smokey fragrant and moist. These banana cakes are all evenly sliced by hand. It just shows how much experience these people have.

The banana cake tasted great on its own which could only be achieved with the use of their wood fire oven. Fresh aromatic, soft with very strong banana fragrance, and it wasn't too sweet either. They taste so different from any I’ve had in Singapore. Usually, banana cakes are dense. But Hiap Joo's uniquely spongy, moist and fragrant win any banana cake I've had.
I find it more enjoying after it's cooled and left overnight. The banana flavors become denser but fluffy as ever!

This is the best banana cakes I have ever tasted.
Better be there early or past peak hour as the queue can be long. Avoid weekends if possible, else it is still worth the wait.