Hiap Joo Bakery & Biscuit Factory — Restaurant in Johor

This is the 4th time I bought Hiap Joo banana cake. Taste has always been consistent for the last 3 purchases, with my last purchase being Jul 2023. Sad to say that they've finally lost it this time. They've tried to improve the operations with the set-up of a glass counter where you place your orders and make payments, also covered up the main entrance where you used to be able to see part of the kitchen and smell the banana cake baking. But whatever the management that took over did, unfortunately also included total change of the banana cake recipe and baking process. Too bad I don't have photos of how the cake looks like last time. It used to be a bit more yellowish, soft, definitely more fragrant and you can taste that home-baked taste to it, and a little of that charcoal oven that differs from conventional ovens.

Now it's just like any other banana cake, no fragrance at all, and tasteless with a weird sweet aftertaste - like added too much of something. Very clumpy texture as well. Customers who have eaten their banana cake in the past will probably start feeling the difference soon too. I wonder if the taste has changed too for their oven-baked coconut and red bean buns. It's a pity. I won't be going back to them unless someone feedbacks that the old standard is back. Though a good find is another Indian (?) shop nearby selling fruit cupcakes (the non-icing and cream type) at just 3RM for a pack of 5. Surprisingly tasted better than Hiap Joo's banana cake and made my trip not wasted.

UPDATE: I just saw Google reviews that it seems like their banana cakes have not been baked on-site since post-Covid. Is outsourced and delivered. No wonder the huge huge difference in taste. Total 360 drop...

Went to Hiap Joo the first time after read the mixed reviews, and still wanna to give it a try. What can goes wrong with a shop over 100 years? It is tough to find a parking lot so we parked rather far and walk there. Bought 1 box of banana cake, one packet of red bean paste buns and one packet of coconut buns. We tested it immediately (to decide whether to grab more), the cake and buns are all just out from oven not long ago so the seller told us to keep the packaging open. The banana cake is soft anf fluffy but banana taste not very strong. The buns are just normal with a little bit of nostalgic taste. They are nothing very special that give you a "wow, OMG".... But they are fresh. Then we have decided to buy more because we find it not bad, so we grab another 3 boxes of banana cakes and 2 each flavour of buns (they have kaya too but we did not buy). They have otah buns, butter cake, coffee cake etc (but not really a lot of variety) but the seller said those only available in the morning. Maybe they sell different stuff in the am and pm, because i read someone said they didn't manage to buy banana cake when they went there morning (they open at 7.30am till 4.30pm). We tried the banana cake next morning and find it tastes better because the full flavour has developed overnight. it is just like butter cake, pandan cake or fruits cake, it tastes better after 1-2 days. Overall i would say worth to go and try, for the price and...

I came for the banana cakes but ended up really loving their Oyster cake. We arrived at about 8:30am on Saturday and there was a very short queue for the banana cake. I bought 2 banana cakes and then I also proceeded to buy 8 fuzhou style oyster cakes.

Do note there is no internet or card payment available. Everything is by cash here so do make sure you have enough cash on hand before heading here.

Their oyster cakes are extremely worth it at RM6 for those made with peanuts and RM8 for those with cashews. They are choc full of ingredients (as seen in the pictures) and are made without any flour and are gluten free according to the friendly uncle. His number is available in the pictures to call to complaint if you do not like the oyster cakes but really what's not to like?

They do have 3 flavours: oyster, red wine chicken and prawn. The oyster one was the last 3 pieces which I snagged. The red wine chicken was interesting! Taste is a lot heavier than those with oyster and the prawn one was not bad.

My personal favourites were the oyster and the red wine chicken and I will definitely be back for...