Entree Kibbles: Hattendo Cafe (八天堂) - Cream Bun & Melon Bun @ Tanjong Pagar Centre [Singapore]

I couldn't resist bringing my mom to check out the epic unagi at Man Man but as we still had plenty of time before the michelin bib gourmand restaurant opens for business, we thought it wouldn't harm to start with desserts at Hattendo Cafe!

In Kanji (also known as the Chinese characters), Hattendo is written as 八天堂 which means the 8th heaven and that's a really appealing name for a western style confectionery that hailed from Japan!

Open kitchen concept - some historical information here; the cafe started as a Japanese confectionery in 1933 and was re-branded as a Western one in 1975! The Singapore store at Tanjong Pagar Centre started operations in January this year.

The menu had more than just desserts but for the purpose of this post, i would need to draw your attention to the section under "cream bun".

There were five basic fillings for the signature cream buns and the man before me in the queue got like 50 pieces for takeaways! I actually walked past Hattendo a few months ago at about 7 pm and the trays of buns were already cleaned out!

Aside from the cream buns, you can also find the slightly pricier melon bun; said to be "crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside" with melting custard cream.

Want to try every single filling for the cream buns? You can get the set box even though there's no promotional price; one for S$2.50 and five for S$12.50.

Mom has never been the big eater and i am, well, trying to cut down on sugar (must toe the government line for less sugar); hence, it's one cream custard bun and one melon azuki bean bun with a cup of black tea for mom.

Cream Bun (Custard)

Individually wrapped, those particular with ingredients would be pleased to review them via the sticker that holds the wrapper. I had this on 25 August and the expiry was just a day later!

To be honest, i wasn't expecting a bun before my visit as i thought it would be a puff similar to Beard's Papa or Tampopo. Nevertheless, a simple bun can still blow us away right?

Bun was indeed pillow-soft and there was a generous chunk of semi fluid custard that was creamy yet not insanely sweet like some versions in the market! As a whole, however, it didn't register on both our minds as something that will be etched deeply in our memory.

Melon Bun (Azuki Bean)

Since we had chosen custard for the cream bun, we thought we must vary our desserts by having a different filling; hence, the red beans filling. From the photo i took, you can also select custard cream, matcha cream for the melon bun.

Strangely, both mom and i enjoyed the melon bun better! The exterior was similar to the polo bun yet with differences; not as sweet with a savoury tinge and not as crusty. The azuki bean filling had a touch of familiarity and it didn't take my mom and i long to realise it's almost like melted red bean pontong ice cream! No picture of the "inside" as we gobbled the melon bun up in no time!

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