Petit Pain

The bakery moved eight minutes down the road. The advice didn't change: go early.

Petit Pain is worth crossing the east for on a weekend morning, as long as you go early and buy more than you need. The croissant is the reason, the honey brioche is the souvenir, and the compromise is a short week: it opens only a few days, for a few hours, in small batches. Check its social media, then go.

It first opened in August 2019 on Joo Chiat Road and built a following on croissants made in small batches. In July 2024 it announced it was leaving that space, and by November it had reopened at 17 Joo Chiat Place, about eight minutes' walk from the old shop. If you knew the old address, you are one short walk from the new one.

The person behind the lamination is owner Mark, who previously worked at Artisan Boulangerie Co. The croissant is made with French fermented butter over three days, with a touch of sea salt, which is the kind of patience that shows up in the layers. Eat it on the spot rather than carrying it home.

Beyond the croissant, the case runs to a kouign-amann, a petit lemon brioche, a traditional baguette made with French flour and a honey brioche made with Thai longan honey and Hokkaido flour. The brioche is the one to take home for the next morning's breakfast, if it survives the walk. Look out too for a pain au chocolat, an apple danish and a savoury tomato-and-potato bake called the Pomodori, and the orange chocolate escargot, a puff pastry twist of orange confit and dark chocolate, if it is in the case that day.

The method has stayed the same through the move. Everything is made in small batches from scratch, without artificial flavourings or preservatives, with dough fermented overnight and baked daily. Small batches are the point, and also the catch: when a tray is gone, it is gone.

How to do it well: arrive near opening rather than late morning, treat it as a breakfast errand rather than a lunch stop, and order in this sequence – croissant to eat now, brioche for tomorrow, kouign-amann for whoever stayed home. Then walk it off among Joo Chiat's shophouses (the only exercise plan that ends where it started, at a bakery).

Good to know Go early: small batches mean popular bakes run out. Opening days are limited, so check the bakery's social media before you set off.

Petit Pain | 17 Joo Chiat Place, Singapore 427747