[Review] Salon Du Pain 2024, Sakura-themed artisan bread festival

When I—certified bread fiend—saw there was a bread festival in KLCC, I knew I had to go.

I’m referring to Salon Du Pain, an artisan bread fair curated by Isetan. What’s more, it’s sakura-themed this time. What’s a girl to do but to wrangle a friend and go eat some bread?

Salon Du Pain, for those who aren’t French, literally refers to Bread Room. The theme this year is Fete du Sakura, meaning sakura party.

The event is organised by A&J HAKKO, a company that provides storage and transportation solutions for dry and frozen goods. They also import food products from Japan and assist Japanese vendors in holding various Japanese food events in Malaysia.

Its past three Salon Du Pain events seem to have been well-received by other bread lovers, enough that it’s back for the fourth time.

I made my way to KLCC last Sunday (April 21) and, well, I have to say that the event certainly rose to the occasion (a little yeast joke for you). Here’s why you should check it out for yourself, too.  

So. Much. Bread.  

Ongoing for three whole weeks, Salon Du Pain features 18 bakeries overall, the majority of which are homegrown businesses. From April 19 to 28, though, the vendors are:

• A Paris Bakehouse
• Blackbixon
• Chef K Pastry
• Doudoubake
• Engi Patisserie
• Kenny Hills Bakers
• Kona Bakehouse
• Lachér Patisserie
• Orito Bread & Patisserie
• Smith Breads & Café
• The Baking Trip
• The Dough Factory
• Universal Bakehouse
• INIC Coffee

The next part, which is April 29 to May 8, the vendors—some which are recurring—are:

• Bray Bakery
• Donq
• Faso Patisserie
• Engi Patisserie
• Kenny Hills Bakers
• Kona Bakehouse
• Lachér Patisserie
• Le Petit Paris Potpourri
• Orito Bread & Patisserie
• Petiteserie by Janice Siew
• The Dough Factory
• Universal Bakehouse
• INIC Coffee

Tucked inside Isetan’s Foodmarket on the concourse level of KLCC, the fair was already bustling by the time I got there around noon last Sunday.

The staff members stationed at each brand were super friendly and informative. Their salesmanship must be commended as well, or perhaps I was just too easily swayed…

But how can you not be excited, when confronted by divine pastries at every corner, the scent of baked goods permeating the air?

Rather than just bringing together their usual bakes, every brand had some exclusive event-only offerings as well, which gives you an incentive to visit.

You can check out all the exclusive offerings by each brand on Isetan’s dedicated website.

Ready your wallets (and a place to eat)

I didn’t limit myself to just buying the limited offerings, as there were way too many mouthwatering breads that practically had my name on them. But boy was I tempted to just stop and buy every single one of the pink sakura treats from each store.

Some of my highlights were definitely Engi Patisserie’s Baba Fruits. Topped with fresh figs and berries, this petit gateau was coated in cream and had a spongey centre that I want to say was soaked in grapefruit juice, or something else that’s mildly sweet and citrusy.

Dou Dou Bake’s Tomato Heirloom Danish is a must-try for those who enjoy savoury dishes. Their Pandan Kaya Custard Danish (not an exclusive) was also incredible.

If you’re into egg tarts, the Sakura Egg Tart from The Baking Trip is a fun spin on it, except it’s more desserty with its sweet notes.

From Black Bixon, we picked up the Cherry Blossom Bowtie, which features a flakey outside and a mild cream filling with lychee notes.

We also grabbed some focaccia from Universal Bakehouse and a truffle mushroom pastry from The Dough Factory that were both delectable.

Anyways, I can talk ad nauseum about all the incredible pastries I saw and tasted at the bread festival. If this is already intriguing to you, why not drop by anytime in the next couple of weeks to witness the glorious bakes yourself?

There’s also a lucky draw (fingers crossed that we might get the beautiful pink Smeg toaster), mystery gifts, and purchase-with-purchase offerings, such as for the cutest mini oven toasters from MOSH!. Literally, if I stood there for a second longer, I would’ve ended up buying it.

And that would be bad, because our total already came to be a pretty shocking number: RM198 split between two pax. In our defense, you don’t get pay at each vendor, but rather, they would write you an invoice that you can collectively pay for at the Isetan cashiers.  

Because of that, I don’t think we realised how much we had bought, since we were just holding little slips of paper instead of the actual pastries.

Ultimately, we still determined that it’s a worthwhile splurge for bread fiends. When else will you get to eat so many delicious breads?

There aren’t any eating areas in Isetan, so we brought our spoils of war to the food court upstairs to enjoy alongside some drinks. Here, we were even stopped by a trio of Japanese ladies who asked us where we got our pastries. Talk about target audience.

In any case, we recommend bringing a friend (or two… or more, really) to enjoy the breads together. And hey, you can always bring your haul to KLCC Park for a lovely picnic too.

A showcase of Malaysia’s pastry potential

Earlier this year, a baker who works in Australia told me they were considering moving back to Malaysia to open up a bakery. They felt like our local scene was underdeveloped, and thus believed they may have the upper hand in offering high-quality bakes.  

Maybe it’s true that our pastry scene is not as developed as Australia’s, or Japan’s, or France’s. Yet, that doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of great bakers and patisseries in the country, as showcased by Salon Du Pain.

That might be my favourite part of the event—it was great seeing all these wonderful homegrown bakeries convene and show off their baking talents and creativity.

I loved that Salon Du Pain serves as a platform for them to think outside of the box and offer something out of the ordinary, too.  

Even if you’re not a bread lover, I would recommend dropping by if you’re around, if only to treat your eyes to all the incredible offerings and not drop RM198 on bread and cakes.

• Learn more about Salon Du Pain here.
• Read other articles we’ve written about F&B here.