I've heard a lot and seen many posts about The Baker's Son in Houston. The videos and pictures made…read moretheir bread and pastries look delicious and very promising. Since we were already in the area after breakfast at TJ's Filipino Cuisine, we finally got the chance to stop by and try their baked goods for ourselves.
We arrived early, so the bakery wasn't too busy yet. The bakers were busy prepping more goodies in the back while my cousin and I browsed all the Filipino baked goods we really miss from back home in the Philippines. They even had suman, sapin-sapin, biko, and other kakanin, which was nice to see.
I specifically looked for the chicken empanada, and my cousin wanted to try the ube white chocolate chip cookie. We also saw different kinds of siopao and planned to come back later to buy some before heading back to San Antonio.
We tried the ube white chocolate chip cookie first, but honestly we weren't totally satisfied. It tasted more like a regular white chocolate chip cookie with purple coloring and didn't really have much ube flavor. I also tried the chicken empanada. My cousin didn't like it because it was sweeter than expected--we were both expecting it to be savory. There seemed to be caramelized sugar in the outside of the pastry, which probably added to the sweetness. I still like it, though it was definitely sweeter than what I'm used to. Red Ribbon's chicken empanada is still my favorite.
Later that day before leaving Houston, we came back for the siopao we planned to take home. We finally decided to just buy a couple pieces for ourselves, heat them up in the bakery, and try them fresh. When we saw the price for a four-pack, we were honestly disappointed. It felt expensive for the size. The siopao wasn't huge, and while I like the dough, there wasn't much chicken filling inside. For the portion, taste, and quality, it felt overpriced.
Overall, it's probably not worth making another trip back for us. We did enjoy the cassava ube suman, and I like the chicken empanada, but not enough to drive all the way to Houston just for those. If I live nearby, I might come back to try other baked goods, but based on this visit, I'm not sure the rest would impress my palate.
I still give them credit for cleanliness and customer service, although we did notice fruit flies on one of the shelves and reported it. The staff was friendly, and the bakery itself was welcoming.
At the end of the day, since they're a bakery, the expectation is great-tasting, quality, mouthwatering Filipino breads, pastries ", and kakanin. While some items were enjoyable, overall it just didn't quite live up to the hype for us.