Founders of Ong Ong Buns Aaron and Icy Mo specialise in filled milk bread, baking from its home at Spa Terminus in Bermondsey.
Aaron is a “second-generation Hong Kong-er born and bred in the west London suburb of Greenford, Ealing” and met his Malaysian wife in 2019 in Kular Lumpa. They married and Icy moved into Aaron’s South Bermondsey home just before the pandemic.
“Because of immigration rules, Icy wasn’t allowed to work and spent a lot of time cooking and baking food that she missed from Malaysia. It turned out she was an excellent baker and made food unique to London at the time,” he explains.
Disliking the cycle of freelance contracted jobs that he was working in, Aaron wondered what else he could do.
“Walking around a locked-down London highlighted there is a limited variety of food-to-go offerings,” he says. Then, using his research skills, he believed “London foodies will soon develop a taste for filled milk bread and other Asian baked goods”.
Aaron tells us how Ong Ong Buns was then born…
What is the origin of Ong Ong Buns?
Because Asian baked goods were niche food items at the time, I thought we couldn’t rely on people looking for them on food ordering platforms. I knew we needed to put ourselves in a place where people would discover us.
We started by selling our cookies in Tian Tian Asian supermarket. Because of this, a landlord in Shoreditch took a chance with us in 2021.
We had the pop-up for less than a year, and it didn’t make much money, but in that time we built up a cult following made up of food influencers, like Eater. Our Deliveroo menu also went viral because of my autistic oversharing and dyslexic writing skills.
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Kerb’s Seven Dials Market heard about us and invited us to set up shop at their food market. At this point, we left our Shoreditch shop. Being in Covent Garden meant more people got to taste our food and it gained in popularity. However, we only could bake a limited number of items in our small kiosk.
In 2023, I was drinking along the Bermondsey Beer Mile and saw an opportunity to rent from the old Flor unit in Spa Terminus. I loved the idea of walking to work! It was the main driver [pun intended] and being a part of a high-quality food community was also appealing.
Since moving to the Spa Terminus arch, we have been able to sell in multiple markets, office pop-ups, catering and wholesale our shokupan and milk breads.
Admittingly, we grew very quickly between 2021 and 2024. I still managed it as a passion project rather than an organisation. I was burnt out and made loads of costly mistakes. Ong Ong Buns almost closed down but the love for our bakery kept it alive.
What do you bake at Ong Ong Buns?
We specialise in filled milk bread (think of brioche). The fillings are typically pan-Asian – from Chinese pork to Indonesian chicken curry – but we like to celebrate my British-born Chinese heritage and embrace food from cultures further afield, like jerk chicken.
Because of our time in Shoreditch, we learned to provide halal and vegan options. We are still trying to develop a gluten-free offering, too.
We also bake cakes, cookies and a Chinese New Year treat called nian gao.
Our notable seasonal offering is mooncakes for the mid-Autumn festival. Every year we like to make unique flavours, which get Londoners talking.
Have you seen people try new products or come to realise the vast variety of goods made in Asian baking?
100%. Filled savoury brioche-esque buns confuse a lot of people. But customers have embraced it once they understood the concept – especially the Bermondsey locals. Of all the locations where we sell our buns, our neighbourhood is the most adventurous in trying new food.
What is the customers’ reaction like to your bakes?
It appears people talk positively about us. Some customers tell us they come to our shop because of a friend’s recommendations.
The reaction I love seeing is when people return five minutes after their purchase to buy more.
What do you enjoy about the global food offering in London?
I have an immense amount of pride that we have a stall at Maltby Street Market, next to food from Mauritius, France, Hungary and Ethiopia.
Growing up in Greenford during the 1980s, the area was mostly made up of Irish, Caribbean, Polish and South Asian people. I went around to people’s houses and embraced food like perogies (dim sum, in my head) and curries.
Sure, ignorance is bliss, but knowing you have a choice is better. To my delight, I’ve heard British children asking their parents for sushi and pho. It’s wonderful that little people are aware of different food offerings and happy to eat things from around the world.
And the best thing about being located in Bermondsey?
Leo the cat on Reverdy Road. I walk past that overly friendly and very talkative bag of fluff every day to and from our arch.
Unit 6 Voyager Estate South, SE16 4RP
