If you’ve been on social media in recent years, you may have come across or heard of TBX The Baking Xperiment. Whether it be through cafe reviews, ads, or their delicious viral content, they’ve been making their rounds across many platforms. 

Situated cozily at Subang Jaya SS17 in a small corner lot, TBX promises an array of unique combination desserts, such as pastries and cakes, to their savory delights with sandwiches and pastas. Upon entering the cafe, you’ll immediately notice the pastries next to the counter, set out and decorated in abundance. One couldn’t help but let out Oohs and Aahs at the array of choices available, from simple delectables like pain au chocolate, to more unique combinations like the pain suisse pistachio and kunafa croissant, it is so hard to choose! 

Amidst the busy hour at the cafe, we ordered our food and sat down, taking in the simplistic yet cozy atmosphere. With the scene set, it was time to turn our attention to the main event which is of course, the food. 

For something savoury, we ordered the eggs benedict, smoked duck aglio olio, mushroom pastry, and beef carbonara. 

Eggs Benedict 

A classic dish consisting of a flaky croissant sandwiched with eggs benedict and ham, and a side of salad. The eggs were deliciously runny (a very important factor for this dish in my opinion!). However, it would have been better with a little more pepper, though this could be a personal taste. Costing around RM21, this dish is definitely leaning on the more pricey side, especially in terms of the size of the dish. Overall the dish blends well with the flavors and just tastes like your classic eggs benedict dish, you can’t go wrong with a classic! 

Smoked Duck Aglio Olio 

Well-smoked duck mixed into garlic and olive oil pasta, this dish promises a pack of savoury flavors and it truly did deliver. The dish had textures and layers that were pleasing to the palate, crunchy and meaty, the mushrooms and tomatoes were also perfect additions to this yummy dish. 

Mushroom Pastry 

This was a pretty simple pastry. It wasn’t anything too impressive but I appreciated the savoury flavors and the taste of fresh mushrooms with a cheesy touch served on a flaky pastry.

Beef Carbonara 

Probably the most impressive dish among all that we tried. Chewy pasta coated in a delicious creamy and cheesy sauce paired with bits of well cooked and seasoned beef pieces. The pasta gave off an authentic Italian taste and feel, mixed together with egg yolk and parmesan (no cream was included in this carbonara). It was a recommended item on the menu, and it definitely lives up to its reputation. It tasted absolutely delicious! Creamy, crunchy, cheesy, meaty, and everything in between. Similar to the Smoked Duck Aglio Olio, the dish had textures and layers of savoury flavours to the overall dish from the meats, pasta and vegetables. 

After all that savoury goodness, we had to try their apple crumble pie and tiramisu for dessert. We also ordered some drinks to complete our meals with strawberry matcha, yuzu lemon soda, passionfruit soda, and matcha latte. 

Apple Crumble Pie

This might sound super biased since I love apples with a passion (I’m basically the embodiment of ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’), but I absolutely adored this apple crumble. It was the perfect amount of sweet, containing bits of big chunks of apples covered with a nice and delicate crunchy crumble. With a side of ice cream this was the whole deal, I couldn’t recommend this enough. If I were to go back again, this would be the first thing I would order. Absolutely fell in love with this! 

Tapai Tiramisu 

This was probably the most interesting dish out of everything that we tried at TBX, and also one of their most recommended products on the menu. 

In an interview, the owner, Aaron, shared that the idea for the Tapai Tiramisu came from a desire to make the classic dessert more accessible to Malaysians. Traditional tiramisu usually contains alcohol, therefore making it non-halal. He decided to experiment with tapai, a locally fermented ingredient as a creative substitute for alcohol. Just like that, the Tapai Tiramisu was born.

As a fellow tiramisu enjoyer, this combination intrigued me, it didn’t taste like your normal tiramisu, it wasn’t too strong but it wasn’t too light either. The flavors were balanced out perfectly, though the espresso flavor was quite light so if you prefer a stronger coffee kick in your tiramisu, this might not be for you. 

Strawberry Matcha 

For what you get, this drink definitely is leaning towards the pricier side. A typical blend of strawberry in matcha, was relatively nice and the balance between the strawberry and matcha was good. I didn’t find it too light on both of the flavors and thought they really nailed a famous drink really well. I love trying strawberry matchas from many cafes and this is one of the cafes that got it right.  

Yuzu Lemon Soda 

A very common drink served in a lot of different cafes. You can’t go wrong with it, a simple blend of yuzu, lemon, and soda water. It wasn’t too sweet, which was appreciated, and it had the typical yuzu flavor, sweet, sour, and citrusy.

Passionfruit Soda 

Another common drink, it felt like a typical blend of passionfruit juice with soda (as the name suggests), you can’t go wrong with it. Flowery scents of passionfruit, not too sweet for the palate, just the perfect amount of balance. 

Matcha Latte 

The matcha latte was yet another common drink. It wasn’t too bitter, leaning towards the milkier side, and it had the perfect amount of sweetness. A trend when it comes to TBX’s drinks, they know how to balance the sweetness with the rest of the drink’s flavors. It wasn’t too sweet, too bitter, too this or too that, it was, as cliche as it sounds, just right! 

Coming from humble beginnings, TBX started off as an online business. In the interview with Aaron, the owner of TBX alongside his wife, Amanda (who is a graduate from Monash University Malaysia), he tells us the story of how TBX The Baking Xperiment came to be. 

It is important to note that in the beginning, Aaron and Amanda were nowhere close to the FnB industry, they were two working corporate jobs in the entertainment sector. Far away from all the cakes and pastries. 

In the midst of Covid 19, Amanda took to Instagram to post about her handmade bread and brownies. What started off as a hobby and passion, turned into people asking to try it out. 

“We started selling our individually baked brownies, you know, with specialised feelings inside.” 

As their account slowly took off, Aaron states that they were growing “about a thousand followers a month”. 

“As the lockdown was about to end, it came to the point where it’s like ‘hey you know we’ve grown so much in terms of our followership, in terms of our audience’ and we thought it would be a waste if we didn’t do anything about it. So both of us took the plunge and came out of corporate. To start work in this, and then afterwards, you know, move by faith, really move by faith, and just come in. Not knowing where or how we were gonna get the stuff or capital, you know, whatever we manage to save from just selling the brownies. We were like hey, let’s start this. And then in March of 2022, we started, we transitioned from a home baker to a brick and mortar.”

At a time where many of us are considering what we are going to do after University, after graduating, it is important to hear and understand stories such as what Aaron told us about starting his own business. It is truly an inspiration to see what could come out of Covid 19, a birth of a business that grew through faith, love, and passion for the art of baking. 

Atmosphere: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Drinks: ⭐⭐⭐

Interior: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Written by Simone Tan