Lavender Bakery & Patisserie is a well-known bakery chain in Malaysia. It has six outlets in Kuala Lumpur and five in Johor Bahru, with a massive multi-storey flagship branch at Taman Pelangi in JB. The nearest outlet to us is at JB’s City Square mall, near the customs checkpoint.

You’ll often see long queues of Singlish-speaking folks at this bakery over the border. Why, when Singapore has so many of its own bakeries? Well, Lavender boasts cheap-but-good buns, French-style choux cream puffs and house-made pandan kaya. You can snag a fancy bun or danish for under S$2 each.

Before the trend for chic charcoal powder-infused food took off, Lavender was one of the earliest players a few years ago to offer thick-sliced mini Japanese-style charcoal loaves (which frequently sell out at its City Square branch). It also offers rustic European-style loaves and last month, they launched a Kaya Butter sliced loaf that’s meant to be savoured with their own brand of kaya.

Despite it being a chain store and its wallet-friendly prices, Lavender’s atas bakes remind us of a good Japanese bakery’s. So we’re pretty thrilled that it’s opening its first Bakery & Patisserie outlet in Singapore at Jewel Changi Airport at units #B2-253/254, next to the 40m-high Rain Vortex waterfall.

Besides the bakery and patisserie concept, Lavender has several other concepts under its parent company. This includes L.cafe (which serves coffee alongside its bakes), L.Bistro (a casual diner offering Western-Asian dishes such as Hainanese Chicken Rice and Salmon Garlic Spaghetti) and the upscale L.table, which uses premium ingredients like free-range chicken and organic Himalayan rock salt.

You may wonder why the brand chose to open a bakery at Jewel and not a proper dine-in restaurant. Our guess is that its, er, bread-and-butter is still its takeaway bakery biz, and besides, its bakeries are far more popular and famous than the dine-in joints.

While details for the Jewel outlet will only be unveiled closer to the mall’s official opening on April 17, we kinda expect to pay more for our roti haul here, considering the bakery’s swanky location, ringgit-to-Singapore exchange rate, and well, the fact that raw ingredients just cost more here as most of them are imported. But at least you don’t have to endure the crazy Causeway jam if you’re craving for Lavender’s baked goods.

It’s not all foreign brands and tourists thronging Jewel Changi Airport. We’re pleased to report that beloved homegrown bakery Rich & Good Cake Shop is opening its second outlet here. Its original and only shop is at Kandahar Street in the Kampong Glam neighbourhood, which looks as retro as the day it opened in 1997. Complete with grouchy shop proprietors.

Its affordable fluffy old-school Swiss rolls, which come in flavours like Kaya, Durian and Red Velvet. But the Kaya roll is by far the most popular and yummiest item here — apparently, the shop caters to many dignitaries, and late former president S R Nathan was a fan. We’ve precariously hand-carried boxes of Rich & Good’s skinny rolls on flights for our overseas relatives, and the opening of their outlet at Jewel means we can conveniently buy their cakes just before our flights without the hassle of carrying them everywhere. Yay.

Can’t wait for Jewel Changi Airport’s opening? Check out our ultimate guide to the mall’s 30 most exciting eateries here.

PHOTOS: LAVENDER BAKERY & PATISSERIE AND RICH & GOOD CAKE SHOP’S FACEBOOK PAGE