Le Royale Patisserie: Neighbourhood bakery with unique matcha mango polo buns, taro salted egg bread from $2

There’s nothing I love more than exploring the various neighbourhood bakeries in the country. While the majority of neighbourhood bakeries offer the usual breads and bakes that we see everywhere, such as sausage buns and coffee breads, Le Royale Patisserie‘s line up is a little more exciting.

You’ll find Le Royale Patisserie along Tiong Bahru Road, nestled among the rows of shophouses in the vicinity.

The large size of the store means that the variety of bakes you can find are vast too — we were amazed at how many breads, cakes, rolls and other baked goods there were!

Aside from their selection of buns and packaged cakes, Le Royale Patisserie also has fresh sliced cakes and entremets in a refrigerated section next to the cashier. We spotted cute cakes shaped like bears and coconuts — absolutely adorable.

What I tried at Le Royale Patisserie

The most unique item from Le Royale Patisserie was the Matcha Polo Bun (S$2.20), featuring a matcha cookie polo top and mango filling. Matcha and mango?! Who would’ve ever thought to combine these 2 polar opposite ingredients into a bun?

Unfortunately, I wasn’t all that impressed by this creation. The bread itself was a little on the dry side, while the matcha cookie, while flaked off very easily, didn’t have a very intense matcha flavour. It had more of a floral, green tea-like aroma.

The mango filling within was quite sour — it tasted like it had come out of a can, which it probably had. Overall, I wasn’t a fan of the mango-matcha pairing. Perhaps mango is a fruit that shouldn’t be baked into bread.

The Ham & Egg Sandwich (S$2.60) was a classic option that I enjoyed a lot more. The sandwich consisted of 4 slices of bread sandwiching a slice of ham, an egg and chicken floss, topped with a drizzle of mayo and corn.

The bread was a tad dry, but the sandwich as a whole was pretty tasty. The ham was slightly chewy while the mayo on top was savoury and creamy. I found the egg to be a tad rubbery, though it wasn’t all that noticeable. Le Royale Patisserie’s Ham & Egg Sandwich was certainly one of the heartier breads available.

As a huge floss lover, I had to check out Le Royale Patisserie’s Chicken Floss Roll (S$2.80), a circular piece of bread with floss covering its edges.

The bread was really fluffy and soft, but I was a little disappointed when we tore it open as it was empty inside, meaning that the only floss on the bread was the tiny bit on its surface. Each bite was slightly disproportionate, with the centre of the bun consisting of just bread. For S$2.80, you can find better floss buns out there.

Le Royale Patisserie’s Salted Egg with Taro (S$2.80) seemed more promising. In terms of size, it was a little bigger than most of the other buns on display, with speckles of purple cookie dusted on its surface.

The taro filling within was more on the artificial side, unfortunately. It was still somewhat earthy, though, while the salted egg was grainy and savoury, contrasting well with the sweetness of the taro paste.

The taro and salted egg combo is one that has been done by many other establishments, and I felt that other bakeries have executed it much better than Le Royale Patisserie.

Moving on to the cakes, I was very intrigued by the Tiger Skin Taro Roll (S$6 for 3 pieces). True to its name, the cake rolls had a textured, striped surface, with a thin layer of taro filling rolled within.

I was pretty surprised when I bit into the roll, as there was a very strong salted egg taste embedded in the cake, despite it not being stated in the name. I’m not sure if my tastebuds were merely tricking me, but the cake as a whole most definitely erred on the more savoury side. The taro taste was pretty lacklustre, due to how meagre the amount of fillings were.

However, I still found Le Royale Patisserie’s Tiger Skin Taro Roll to be quite yummy, and worth the price.

It was difficult for us to choose from Le Royale Patisserie’s selection of cakes, as all of them were decorated so beautifully. We finally set our sights on the Green Grape Shortcake (S$6.80), a little cake that was layered with fresh green grapes and cream.

The cake was pretty soft, while the cream was light and airy, with a strong milky aroma. The grapes were fresh and juicy, bursting in my mouth as I bit into them. However, the cake as a whole wasn’t incredibly outstanding. If you like milky, sweet cream, I think you’d likely enjoy this dessert, despite its slightly steep price.

We weren’t sure what to expect with Le Royale Patisserie’s Sea Salt Lava Cake (S$6) — we were a little sceptical regarding whether or not it would actually flow like lava when we cut into it.

Spoiler warning: There was no lava. Perhaps we were meant to heat the cake up, but there were no instructions on the packaging, nor were there signs or labels in the store. I was a little disappointed, but decided to judge the cake more on its taste.

The cream was airy and milky, with a hint of saltiness creating a unique flavour blend. The cake was pillowy and light too, though it was very slightly dry.

Overall, for S$6, we weren’t exactly mind-blown by this creation.

Final thoughts

Though their bakes looked amazing visually, I found that Le Royale Patisserie’s products were pretty average in taste and quality. I probably wouldn’t travel all the way down to Tiong Bahru for these bakes again, but perhaps I’d pop my head in for a bit if I were to pass by.

If it’s any consolation, the prices of Le Royale Patisserie’s bakes were quite affordable, just slightly more expensive than your average neighbourhood bakery. Plus, their other cakes looked absolutely delectable — maybe I’ll visit again in the future to see how they fare.

Expected damage: S$2.20 – S$6.80 per pax

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