Takashimaya had revamped some part of its basement food hall rather recently — there is seemingly a small space that used to be occupied by Cold Storage that had since become part of the Takashimaya Food Hall, with the space dedicated for Cold Storage having been pushed back a little at the area near Donq Boulangerie; those whom have been to Takashimaya Food Hall at Basement Two of Takashimaya recently would have noticed a sweet potato specialty kiosk that had recently opened their doors in the same area. Located right beside the sweet potato specialty kiosk would be Anri Bakery; a brand that is said to be one with origins from Osaka, Japan. Anri Bakery is a brand with somewhat of an Asian presence however, with multiple outlets in Thailand apart from its stores in Japan. Their very first Singaporean outpost is a kiosk-style space that is located in Takashimaya Food Hall at Basement Two of Takashimaya in Ngee Ann City; the kiosk being decked in a red colour scheme with wooden accents for its fittings. One would notice that there are fake apples on display at the kiosk as part of the decor; this is pretty much due to the fact that Anri’s specialty is in their Aomori Apple Pie — of which is made from Aomori apples for the apple filings of the pie. Other pies that they offer include the Purple Potato Pie, the Sweet Potato Pie and the Chocolate Aomori Apple Pie.

Since they were out of the Aomori Apple Pie and the Chocolate Aomori Apple Pie when we made our first visit to Anri Bakery on a weekend afternoon, we found ourselves going for the Purple Potato Pie and the Sweet Potato Pie instead. It is noted that Anri Bakery would provide for a box if one orders three (3) pieces of pies; otherwise, the pies would come in their own individual paper bags if one orders a single pie or two (2) pies. There isn’t much difference between the two pies that we had went for considering that both consisted of sweet potatoes; the difference mostly attributed to the colour of the potatoes with the differences in flavour mainly being rather minimal. While Anri Bakery calls them pies, these pies are more like Danish pastries; buttery, flaky and comes with distinct layers that came from the lamination process — one fun way to have them is to actually have them layer-by-layer, since the buttery pastry tends to come off somewhat neatly anyway. It is more obvious to observe the layer of fillings sitting in the middle of the entire pie from the Purple Potato Pie considering the clear distinction of colours here. The sweet potato / purple potato filling was smooth and bore an earthy sweetness that went well with the buttery pastry. We did eventually give the Aomori Apple Pie on a subsequent visit that we made on a weekday evening however; the Aomori Apple Pie comes with a crisp, buttery and flaky pastry similar to that of the other pies that we had tried at Anri Bakery — that being said, it comes with a layer of caramalised Aomori apples in between where one can find cubes of stewed apple that is soft to chew on. We also felt that the Aomori Apple Pie was suitably sweet, with the sweetness of the entire pastry rounding off nicely. At $7 a piece irregardless of the variant opted for, Anri Bakery’s Pies aren’t the most value-for-money item to go for, though they do carry a reasonable level of quality to match the price — a spot worth giving a try to see what they are all about!