Welcome back to Saltbread Diaries, part 10! We have ventured to the land of Blok M for the last two saltbreads and now it’s time to sail back to Gading Serpong, this time to Beckett Bakehouse. This bakery has been mentioned a lot – on par with Breadmood – on every saltbread-related TikTok videos. Whenever I scroll through the comment section, praises about Beckett Bakehouse are everywhere.
Learning from past experience, I came pretty early on a weekday, only to be greeted by a sign that read “ALL SALTBREAD SOLD OUT!!” at the entrance. The staff told me that this was unusual since they normally sold out at 1 PM, not an hour after their opening time. Fortunately, they would serve the second batch at 2.30 PM. I headed out to lunch somewhere else, then came back at 1.30 PM. I thought it’s best to conveniently wait inside with a drink, so I ordered cranberry genmaicha to sip upstairs.
The interior was the usual cozy café theme: mahogany furniture, rattan, linen curtains, and this pairing: Varmblixt lamp and a suitcase record player (with no record). Books as a decor were there too, thankfully this time they were not the cheesy faux books with designer names. Despite it all, I didn’t have a cozy time since the loveseat sofa I sat on was in a sad condition. One of the cushions were totally collapsed!
Around 14.15 PM, a staff came upstairs and announced that the second batch of fresh saltbread were ready. He handed a post-it note with a number written on it to every table. As I stepped downstairs, flocks of people already wrapped around the cashier and almost filled the entire shop. I didn’t expect it to be that crowded – it truly was the right decision to come an hour earlier!
I was number five on the queue. The staffs handled everything well though, as I didn’t have any problem with the service. They were quick, attentive and managed to maintain the hospitality.
As always, I ordered plain saltbread along with the best-selling flavor, this time they were pandan kaya butter and roasted garlic cheese. They were fresh, but only slightly warm. Let’s see if they were worth the long-awaited anticipation…
From the appearance, the bread looked a little sunken (just like the sofa I was sitting on). Not the plump, chubby type. Not flakey, easy to slice and not overly greasy. It felt silky smooth inside, with a bit of crustiness on the outside. The plain one had the right degree of saltiness, but I was pretty bummed that I didn’t really taste the butter. The salty flavour was not the buttery type.
Moving on to the roasted garlic cheese. It was pretty good but not mindblowing in any sense. My husband commented that it was too salty. Considering that it was “roasted”, I expected a nice, fragrant garlicky aroma but I didn’t smell any. The pandan kaya butter, which seemed to be the favorite, bursted when I sliced it. I was hoping for the thick and luscious sarikaya texture but I was wrong. The filling was quite generous, but it was too runny for me. The sweetness was pretty light, and I tasted more kaya than pandan.
In my opinion, Beckett’s saltbread is a solid 8 out of 10. They were good, but didn’t exceed any expectations. Given the situation that I was not queuing outside the shop (plus, it started to rain as I left), I was pretty satisfied. Not sure if I would still say the same if I had to stand in line and endure the weather.
Final thoughts:
Food: 8/10 | Service: 9/10 | Ambience: 6,5/10
Good saltbread, but not really worth the long queue. The collapsing sofa needs extra attention as it causes inconvenience for customers who come to chill.
Beckett Bakehouse
Ruko Maggiore Square, Jl. Springs Boulevard No.52. Gading Serpong, Tangerang
Opening hours: 9.30 AM – 6 PM
