Tai Pan Bakery
“The egg tart is often compared to the Portuguese egg tart pastries, known as pastel de nata.”
“Tai Pan draws up many nostalgic memories of my brief stay in Chinatown when I was a child.”
“Get a plastic tray, put it on the counter and guard said tray with the fervor of a starved lion.”
Tai Pan Bakery
Take-out: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes
Price range.
$ Price range Inexpensive
8 reviews
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3.5 stars!
O-M-G! Best dried pork buns ever! And the cream inside was also divine.
Also, make sure that you get your proper change back if that is important to you because is everything is hectic in here (or at least it was when I came). You put your food on a tray and then they bag it for you, but there are people who are standing out of line which makes it a little bit crazy.
Good meat buns, but I must admit there selection of sweets is quite limited.
People shoving you and cutting in line, lot's of yelling in Chinese….this place is pretty close to actually being in Hong Kong, which is why I love it. Take a tray and decide what you want on it out of the hundreds of items this place offers. Inside the glass display there are even more amazing cakes, pies and desserts. The details of some of these is stunning considering they sell for under $2. My favorite guilty pleasure is here- the dried pork roll (basically pork flakes and mayo rolled into a delicious bread). Be sure to ask for the steamed pork, custard or bbq pork buns. These are mouth watering and like 80 cents. They are tucked away behind the counter in a heated container, so not very obvious to find. There is very limited seating here, and a small area to stand and eat in the back. They also do some pretty amazing custom order and wedding cakes for $30-50. By far my favorite Chinatown bakery!
A great stop for fresh baked affordable pastries. Its easily crowded and can be hectic and unorganized at times. There is a language barrier with many of the servers/cashiers so speak slow, clear and be patient.
There isn't a comfortable seating area so I'd recommend ordering to go. The majority of their bread pastries are great– soft, not overly sweet or heavy and under $2. But my absolute favorite is their Fresh Fruit Cake. If you're lucky, they'll have it in stock. Otherwise, you can put in for an order. Fluffy angel food cake layered with whipped cream and fresh fruits.
This bakery has been a staple on Canal Street for what seems like forever. I remember loving their mini egg tarts and chicken pot pies when I was a kid. Tai Pan is known for their quality, but today I didn't enjoy their egg tarts as I once did. The custard was a bit dry, but the crust was good. It's also been a while since my family has ordered a cake from here, but I do remember them being pretty moist & good (not too sweet). Regular milk tea tastes like the milk teas you can get at all the other Chinese bakeries since they all use a lipton tea bag + sugar + hot water. I recommend trying their specialty drinks instead.
It gets really crowded and hectic in here and placing an order can get pretty confusing if you've never been here before. Basically, your place in line means NOTHING if you don't have a tray on the main counter with a white piece of paper on it. Also, the workers don't always acknowledge you when you're on line waiting to order so be sure to be proactive and either grab a tray yourself from the back and put it on the counter or approach one of the workers by the cabinets in the back and tell her what you want to order. She will then write down your order on a piece of paper and put it on a tray on the counter. Keep an eye on your tray as it moves down the counter line pretty quickly. The staff behind the counter will ask "Who's tray is this?" and you can order more stuff or make payment.
Prices are high in comparison to other Chinese bakeries.
Cash only and good luck finding a seat.
The only thing I don't like about this place is how crowded it can quickly get. Within a matter of seconds, lines become indistinguishable, and suddenly, I wonder how will I reach the far end of the bakery where I can choose from roast pork buns (deliciously wonderful bread filled nicely with roast pork and onions), pineapple buns, cream filled buns, sandwiches, etc. so that I can then move to the display cases of mini cakes, sandwiches, and fruit concoctions.
I agree that seating is very limited. It's become a bit of a sport when my family of four come here. If we can find seating, we'll sit here and consume our food otherwise it's to go. Even when you are clearly saving a seat, people will try to sit in it. There is a small second level with additional seating away from the main ordering section.
The one con that we tried was the green tea cake loaf. There is a place in Chinatown that makes great ones, but at $10 for a dry loaf, this isn't the place for it.
Tai Pan Bakery is solid but not exceptional.
We came only for the portugese egg tarts and they were about $1.75, I think? Nice tender pastry, and the filling isn't overcooked, nor is it too loose. Not overly sweetened either. Pastry is a little thicker than I like but a very respectable po tut overall
Da fuq?! I'm not sure why but I thought the green tea egg tart was grrrrossssss. I had such high hopes since I am generally a huge fan of anything matcha/green tea flavoured, but this particular item just tasted off/sour. perhaps some things aren't meant to be toyed with?! i didn't experience any rude or crappy service (however, it's Chinatown, set your expectations accordingly folks) so I can't pu pu on that, and as a whole it's a well serviced bakery with a crap ton of options, but man that egg tart was disgusting!*
(* and i mean generally i'll eat anything sweet / dessert like, especially when i'm drunk, which i was, and i couldn't get past a bite of this, which is pretty indicative of how weird the flavour was).
It's cheap and that is about as positive I can get about this place.
We were eating dinner in Chinatown and figured we would hit a Chinese bakery for dessert. Tai Pan came up with decent ratings, it looked clean and didn't smell bad so I figured we would go in.
It looks like a normal bakery but it is complete chaos. The lines don't mean anything, it is a total free for all.
We had:
Double Cheese Toast – greasy and the bread had an angel food cake consistency.
Walnut Napoleon – decent but greasy
Coconut Cream Bun – The bun was extraordinarily large and had an angel food cake consistency but no flavor. The cream was oily with too much butter flavoring.
Green Tea Sweetheart – a green tea and chocolate mousse – the hubby enjoyed it.
Green Tea tartlet – tasty but not great
Vanilla Cupcake – my daughter enjoyed
Strawberry Fruit Tart – so so, my daughter would only eat the fruit off the top.
All of these desserts came to a grand total of $14 (thank God, this place is cash only!!). If you are looking for a bargain you will find it here. If you are looking for quality, keep looking.