Burnt Ends Bakery Donut Shop: Dempsey Doughnuts, Thu to Sun

Burnt Ends Bakery, at 7 Dempsey Road, #01-01, Singapore 249671, opens only four days a week: Thursday to Sunday, 8am to 4pm, and it is closed Monday to Wednesday. It is the bakery arm of Burnt Ends, Dave Pynt's Michelin-starred barbecue restaurant, and its brioche doughnuts are filled to order from a short list of fillings. The official shop sells them by portion, starting with a pair of Nutella or Milo Dinosaur doughnuts for S$13.00.

The bakery was founded by Pynt, the Australian chef whose Burnt Ends restaurant has held a Michelin star for its wood-fired cooking. The bakery's own locations page describes it as a lifestyle bakery with what it calls the only wood-fired oven in Singapore, house-blend coffee, and everything made from scratch. The oven is mainly for bread and pastries, but the same obsession with fermentation and slow-proved dough runs through the doughnuts.

The brand started as an online and pop-up operation before moving into the Dempsey shop, as Miss Tam Chiak reported in early 2022. Since 2025 it has had a second outlet in the CBD, Audi x Burnt Ends Bakery, which the official page calls the second bakery concept, at 18 Cross Street, #01-20, inside the Audi House of Progress. Dempsey remains the original and the more relaxed of the two.

For most visitors the bakery is also the easiest way into the Burnt Ends world. The restaurant itself moved to Dempsey from Teck Lim Road in 2022, and its counter seats for dinner are notoriously hard to book. A doughnut and a coffee next door need no reservation at all, only the patience to queue behind the brunch crowd at the weekend.

The base is a light, slow-proved brioche, fried and then filled. Italian Pistachio is the most expensive and the house favourite, filled with roasted Italian pistachio cream and priced from S$15.00 for two. Nutella, marked as a best seller on the official shop, is S$13.00 for two and is exactly what it says: brioche and a generous pipe of hazelnut spread. Both contain nuts.

Milo Dinosaur is the local joke done properly. Named after the hawker-centre drink of iced Milo with a heap of extra Milo powder on top, the doughnut is filled with Milo ganache and Milo biscuit, from S$13.00 for two. Smoked Japanese Yuzu is the one for people who find most doughnuts too sweet: yuzu curd and candied yuzu peel, also from S$13.00.

If you just want to taste the dough, Plain and Cinnamon start at S$9.00 for two. Other fillings on the current list include Lemon Meringue, Passionfruit Curd, Berry Jam and Vanilla Cream. For variety, the Pick Your Own Doughnuts Box is S$32.50 and the Slayer's Pick assorted box of five is S$33.50, a sensible way to try several without committing to six of one flavour.

Do not leave with doughnuts alone. The shop's online catalogue is split into bread, cakes, tarts and pastries, cookies and coffee, and the wood-fired oven makes the loaves the other reason people drive up the hill. The house-blend coffee beans are sold by the bag under a wholesale coffee section as well as poured at the counter, and a cup is the obvious partner to a sugar-dusted brioche on a slow Saturday morning.

The bakery has a Halloween Special Doughnuts listing for 2026, decorated versions of its regular flavours filled with cream or jam, from S$9.00. They are only available for self pick-up and delivery from 29 October to 1 November 2026, so they need to be ordered online in advance rather than bought on a whim.

Advance ordering is also the safest plan on a weekend. Portions come in 2, 6, a baker's dozen of 13, or 24, and online orders can be collected or delivered. Walking in at 3pm on a Sunday and expecting the full list is a gamble; the earlier part of the morning is when the counter is best stocked.

Read the labels if you have dietary restrictions. The Halloween listing states that the doughnuts contain dairy, eggs, nuts and fish-based gelatine, and the yuzu doughnut lists fish-based gelatine too, so they are not suitable for vegetarians. The bakery does not claim halal certification.

Arrive knowing the four-day schedule. If none of Thursday to Sunday works for you, the Cross Street outlet is open every day from 8am to 4pm and sells a rotating selection of the same doughnuts.

The bakery publishes a storage and reheating guide on its website for anything taken home, which is worth a look if you buy a baker's dozen. As a rule, filled brioche is at its best on the day it is made, and the cream and curd fillings should go into the fridge if they are not eaten within a few hours in Singapore's heat.

Dempsey Hill was once a British army barracks, and its colonial-era blocks under huge rain trees now hold restaurants, galleries and wine bars. Coming early for doughnuts and coffee means you see it before the lunch crowds arrive. The surrounding lanes are hilly and shaded, and the walk between the blocks is part of the pleasure.

From Dempsey, the Tanglin Gate of the Singapore Botanic Gardens is a short walk away at the junction of Holland Road and Napier Road, and the gardens are free to enter. Take the doughnuts to a bench by Swan Lake, or walk on to the National Orchid Garden, which charges a separate admission fee. Together they make an easy half-day plan for visitors staying around Orchard Road.

Address: Burnt Ends Bakery, 7 Dempsey Road, #01-01, Singapore 249671. Hours from the official locations page: Thursday to Sunday 8am to 4pm; closed Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Getting there: Napier MRT (TE12) on the Thomson-East Coast Line is the nearest station, roughly a 10 to 15 minute walk partly uphill. Buses along Holland Road stop near the Dempsey turn-off, and taxis and ride-hail cars can drop you at the door. There is car parking in the Dempsey area for drivers.