Marymount Bakehouse returns to Upper Thomson with a 60-seat cafe built on sourdough

Sourdough was Singapore’s unofficial circuit breaker hobby, but for Marymount Bakehouse’s Ian Ferdinand Chong, it has stretched beyond the pandemic. Six years and four addresses later, his Marymount Bakehouse has opened a second cafe in Upper Thomson, the neighbourhood where locals first bought his loaves.

The cafe seats 60, where sourdough turns up in your pasta, your gnocchi, the crust of your fish, and, yes, even your tiramisu.

How the loaves began

Ian came to bread through fine dining. As a teenager, he left his diploma programme to enrol at Shatec, then went to Switzerland and graduated from the Culinary Arts Academy.

He went on to cook at the Michelin-starred Domaine de Chateauvieux outside Geneva, then at Fleur de Sel Le Restaurant in Singapore under chef Alexandre Lozachmeur. Somewhere between the tasting menus, he realised the craft he wanted to spend his days on was simpler: flour, water, salt, and time.

Marymount Bakehouse began in his home kitchen in 2020 and grew by word of mouth. In 2023, it moved into a small shop at Sin Ming, just off Upper Thomson.

It was mostly takeaway, with only a few seats, and the neighbourhood soon learnt to recognise the loaves by their intricate scoring. When the crowds outgrew the counter, Ian and his partner and co-owner Jingwen, who runs operations and front-of-house, closed the Sin Ming shop.

In August 2024, they reopened as a full cafe on Race Course Road. That’s where Marymount Bakehouse took sourdough beyond the bread basket, with levain pies, sourdough pasta, and a brunch menu.

The new Upper Thomson outlet brings that cafe back to where it started. Regulars now have a slightly more spacious place to sit: 38 seats indoors, 22 outside, and tables big enough for family lunches.

Levain is still the base for nearly everything, from handmade pasta and pies to sourdough-crusted proteins and an expanded brunch lineup. The new location also gets a few dishes of its own and seasonal specials.

Bread loyalists still have plenty to come back for, with 15 loaves baked in small batches and rotated through the month, so what’s on the shelf depends on the day’s bake.

The space is done in wheat-gold and the brand’s signature sangria red, with a split-level layout and retro canteen-style chairs that keep things unfussy.

Pies, pasta, and one very impressive salad

The pies are the obvious place to start, given that levain pastry is what made Marymount Bakehouse’s name. The drunken chicken pot pie (from S$18.90) first appeared as a Chinese New Year special and stayed on the menu because regulars wouldn’t let it go.

The chicken is gently poached in Shaoxing wine, white wine, and chicken stock to keep its bite. It then goes into a filling of slow-cooked cabbage, leeks, banana shallots, morel mushrooms, and butter-fried chestnuts, all sealed in a black truffle levain crust.

Black truffle sour cream, shaved truffle, and edible flowers top it off, making it the prettiest pot pie we’ve ever had to cut into. Between the roux-thickened filling and all that truffle, it’s a rich one, and a little heavy to finish on your own if you’re planning to order more plates.

It’s best shared, so you get a few good bites in and still have room for everything else.

The corn & crab chowder pie (from S$20.50) came from Ian wanting to pair two ingredients that are both naturally sweet. Sweet crab meat is folded into a rich corn chowder and baked in a pie shell.

It’s topped with crab tartare quenelles, smoky bell pepper puree, basil, burnt corn, and crispy kernels. It’s the lighter of the two savoury pies, but it still has plenty of depth. Our favourite part was the crunchy, sweet kernels on top, which brought out the crab’s sweetness and gave the creamy filling something to bite against.

Then there’s the sourdough “laminated” wedge (S$18), the dish we’re still thinking about. The kitchen describes it as a light palate cleanser, which sorely undersells it. Cold, crisp iceberg lettuce is layered with lemony sour cream, then loaded with bacon, burnt corn, tomatoes, fried quinoa, sourdough crumbs, and parmesan.

The “laminated” in the name refers to those literal layers, and each one pulls its weight. The cool crunch of the lettuce, the crackle of the quinoa and crumbs, and the smoky, salty hits of bacon and corn give you a different contrast in every forkful.

It’s an intensely savoury salad, unlike any we’ve had, and we’d order it every single time we visit, hands down.

The beef tartare on bone marrow (The MMBH Way) (S$28) brings some Asian influence to a bistro classic. Roasted bone marrow is glazed with tare sauce and topped with sourdough crisps, then layered with hand-cut beef tartare seasoned with capers, grain mustard, mustard seeds, chives, and crispy onions.

The tartare gets extra savoury depth from chicken tare, mirin, and soy, and housemade sourdough comes on the side for scooping. We’ve yet to meet a bone marrow we didn’t like, but this one feels especially familiar to a local palate.

The soy-sweet umami of the tare cuts right into the rich, decadent marrow.

As for the pasta dishes, they show most clearly how far Ian is willing to push his starter. In the sourdough gnocchi with Swedish meatballs (S$30), house levain goes into the gnocchi dough along with russet potatoes and “00” flour, an ultra-finely milled Italian wheat flour.

The gnocchi are boiled, then pan-fried in butter and served over mashed potato puree with hand-rolled beef and pork meatballs.

They’re dressed in a meatball gravy and beef jus sauce with a lingonberry and port reduction, then finished with toasted mustard seeds, pickled and diced cucumber, housemade chips, dill, herb oil, and truffle creme fraiche.

That’s a lot of moving parts, but it all comes together into a homely, comforting plate. The tart lingonberry and pickled cucumber keep the gravy from getting too heavy, and the meatballs are so tender they barely need a knife.

If you’re dining solo, this is the main to come for.

There’s also the nduja sofrito seafood pasta (S$33), made with housemade semolina squid ink pasta. It’s tossed with sofrito, red bell peppers, and fermented nduja, then finished with a saffron broth made from prawn heads, clams, and crab.

Braised fennel, clams, crab meat, and tiger prawns go on top, with butter to bring the sauce together and a scatter of dill. That butter turns the sauce luxuriously silky, and seafood lovers will have no trouble clearing the plate.

For dessert, the apple & rhubarb custard pie (from S$16.90) is the latest version of the pie that started Marymount Bakehouse’s levain pastry.

It’s filled with housemade custard and rhubarb puree, then finished with apple, cinnamon, and a maple glaze. If you like your desserts sweet-sour, this one’s an easy win. The mild tartness lingers just enough to reset your palate after a run of savoury plates.

Finally, the Tira‘miso’ (The MMBH Way) (S$19) swaps in housemade sourdough ladyfingers soaked in rum and coffee, layered with miso mascarpone and topped with coffee caviar. You’d expect this version to be heavier than the classic tiramisu; it’s actually lighter because the miso mascarpone is almost whipped.

The coffee caviar bursts with an extra hit of coffee in every bite, so it’s doubly enjoyable for anyone who loves their cuppa.

The final proof

We came in wondering how far one starter could stretch, and the answer is a lot further than you’d expect. Levain turns up in the gnocchi, the ladyfingers, and the crust of a Chinese New Year-pot pie, and none of it feels forced.

The whole menu is built around one ingredient, but the cooking behind it is careful enough that the sourdough isn’t simply a crutch. For a bakery that started as a takeaway counter a few streets away, Upper Thomson feels like a fitting return.

It’s the same neighbourhood, but with more space for slow weekend catch-ups and a wedge salad we’ll be coming back for.

This was a hosted tasting.

For more ideas on what to eat, check out Koko Kawane, a matcha atelier serving tea from a 13th-gen tea farm and our list of must-eats at New Bahru.