Mei Li Wah Bakery
“I had been to Mei Lai Wah (the old version) and Mei Li Wah countless times, but only to order a box of 12 roast pork buns (the best in NYC).”
“their char siu bao whether it be baked, steamed or the steamed special is the best in the city.”
“Come here for the baked barbeque pork buns, which at 80 cents apiece, makes this a quintessential Chinatown hole-in-the-wall.”
Mei Li Wah Bakery
Take-out: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes
Price range.
$ Price range Under $10
8 reviews
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Stopped by this venerable Chinatown restaurant for a quick lunch bite with mom and my sister.
I haven't been here in a while and it's clear they've renovated to a contemporary look and, in turn, the restaurant looks and feels larger and cleaner.
I dined on a Pineapple bun and Roast Pork bun.
Pineapple bun was a mixed experience.
For positives there was the nice creviced streusel outer shell along with the right amount of sweetness, with a nice textured dough, but unfortunately the bun had a filling. Personally, I don't like any filling in my pineapple buns, so that was a strike for me already. Some may like a filling, so chalk this one for personal preference.
Roast pork bun was interesting. The filling was good but the roast pork was flavored quite differently than most of the roast pork buns I've eaten. Chopped to very small pieces, the roast pork's flavor was very savory and saucy with some hints of curry flavor. Not bad, but different that the traditional larger slices of sweeter and artificially red roast pork.
Mom had the beef congee and she said it was solid and very homey tasting. There was a fair amount of tender beef flank steak pieces along with fresh scallion and ginger.
Sister dined on the rice noodle rolls with parsley which she enjoyed. The rolls weren't too dense and not too oily and had a nice slightly gummy texture. Parsley was really fresh and aromatic.
Of note was the house coffee blend that was strong in flavor and served with plenty of cream (though I think they use condensed milk). A cup of this stuff will wake you up and put you in high alert mode.
It was a nice quick bite pits-top for some old-school Cantonese style cuisine.
Mei Li Wah has been my go-to for pork buns, but lately I have been frequenting it for some casual, quick sit-down dim sum. As per my usual Chinatown restaurant reviews, no comment on the service. For prices this low, I'm not expecting any aside from the bare minimum. The waitresses seemed brisk but decently friendly.
Pros: Super local a la carte dim sum freshly steamed/made to order. Waited an extra five minutes for my har gao (shrimp dumplings), but I'm glad I waited because they were the freshest tasting ones that I have had in a while (even compared to the ones I've had in Hong Kong and China). Have had this three times now, so it's not a fluke.
-Singapore rice noodles were surprisingly good. Not greasy at all and had just the right amount of curry.
-Cheap. Bless and long live these Chinatown gems.
Cons: Limited seating and a rather small dim sum menu, mostly steamed rice rolls and the typical staples. Nothing new or innovative.
-Congee was on the watery side and not very flavorful
-No push carts 🙁
I always go back here for their porkbun. Its very cheap & delicious! You can't go wrong with a yummy $1 porkbun. My favorite is the baked buns than the steamed buns.
This morning I went & ordered 2 iced coffee + 7 baked pork buns for $12. What a steal! Their iced coffee taste so much better than any other places. Sweetness & milk was on point!
Next time I wanna try some other food that they sell like dimsum, noodle, etc.
Yummy!!
I've had plenty of cheap dim sum in my life and I'm always down to have more. I thought Mei Li Wah was a takeout dim sum counter, but there are actually a few tables for dining in. I grabbed a seat towards the back, which was a big mistake. A couple of the workers left the back door open, so they could smoke behind the restaurant. I despise the smell of cigarettes.
$1 Steamed Roast Pork Bun:
After everything I heard, I was expecting a top notch pork bun. I opted for steamed instead of baked, because I'm not a fan of baked buns' sugary glaze.
I was surprisingly disappointed. For lack of a better word, the flavor of the barbecue pork was off. It seemed more sour than sweet, which led me to think it might not have been fresh. Also, there was too much bao relative to the amount of meat. The doughy bao was very dry too. I can only assume this subpar bao was a fluke.
$1.60 Big Bun w/ Chicken, Pork, Salted Egg:
These buns have always been a favorite of mine. They're inexpensive and large enough to be a meal on their own. The chicken, pork, egg, and mushroom were pretty good, and the bao wasn't bad, albeit a little dry.
$3.75 Taro Tea w/ Sago:
I needed a drink because the baos made me super thirsty. In retrospect, there were so many boba pearls that it actually made me thirstier. Besides that, the taro tea was okay.
Even though I wasn't impressed, this is still a solid place to stop by for quick, cheap eats if you have some cash in your pocket. I gripe about cash-only establishments, but I suppose when the costs are low enough, I can't really complain.
Location: hidden in the Bayard street, where food miracle happens, Mei Li Wah Bakery sometimes is not easy to be found for first-time customers. I am lucky enough to understand chinese and found this place fast. This place is also close to Chinatown ice cream shop.(FYI)
Food: I didn't go for their dum sum since it was already 4 pm when I got there. Of course, I went for bakeries.
Had their famous baked pork bun
LOVE every bite.
I felt like this is the best baked pork bun I have ever had.
The pork is juicy but still maintain the chewiness of pork bun.
And the baked bun is soft and sweet.
Service: hmm. lady is very grump when I got there. I had less than 5 dollars and I am pretty not sure if I can afford the bake pork bun. So I asked… in chinese and in english…
She ignored me. Twice.
And when I ordered, she's very impolite to serve.
I know you got an attitude, but I got an attitude too.
Overall: well
food is good.
But I got most chinatown place has an attitude problem
Don't be grumpy
No one deserves me to be treated like trash, especially I am the customer.
I just inhaled 3 roast pork buns in like 5 seconds. Hands down THE BEST pork buns I have ever eaten in my entire life and probably in all of my previous lifetimes!
Holy smokes. Where do I even begin? The flavor is on point. The meat to bun ratio is fantastic. The bun was warm and heavy which means it has lots of filling. The meat is a mixture of lean and fat (think pork belly) which gives it a nice texture and flavor.
So much happiness for 1 stinking dollar!
I declare the roast pork buns from this A rated bakery the king of roast pork buns in NYC! This is an absolute must eat. I got there at 8am and everything was fresh.
Best roast pork bun in NYC. Period. End of story. When I find a better roast pork bun place I will update my review but I highly doubt that I will.
I finally popped Mei Li Wah's famous Roast Pork Bao today with my two friends. The menu looks very yummy with the pictures plastered on the storefront walls. Woooo hoooo only a dollar for each Roast Pork Bao you can't find anything better than here. Shiny coated baked bao which is filled with delicious pieces of roast pork mmmm yummy.
I will be back to dine-in for their yummy other baked good!
Friend told me to try the bakes BBQ park bun here. It was $1 (in my budget) and reminded me of home (SF – where there are plenty of Chinese bakeries around). It's pretty comparable to the better Chinese bakeries I've been to at home, so it's a thumbs up in my book.
Saw a guy order a box full of the big steamed bun with chicken, pork and egg. Loved that type of bread growing up (basically a meal to itself) and am very tempted to come back to give it a try!
Tl;dr solid BBQ pork bun spot. Will update when I try the other buns!