Hong Kong Bakery & Bistro

Can you say authentic dumplings! I love dumplings and have been waiting for a place like this for a while. Very helpful staff for the novice, fantastic variety for the more experienced. Clean and serves their food their way. The patrons tends to be professionals at lunch and more laid back at night. A lot of asian patrons which which is always a good sign that this place hits the mark.

This is going to be a touch review because I have seen the potential of Hong Kong Bakery. Last October, my sister introduced me to Hong Kong Bakery’s pork buns. Soft and pillow sweet buns of awesomeness stuffed with a sweet (almost candied) and tender pork mixture that uncannily resembles those little boneless spareribs you can order at Chinese joints. They definitely opened my eyes to a whole new food that I can say I am very fond of. That was then though, and this is now.
Had I written this review back in October, I think it would have been 4 stars. Unfortunately, on a recent trip to Albany when visiting my sister to help her move, we stopped-​in for more of these delectable pillows from heaven. Unfortunately, they were not prepared as well as before. This time, instead of them being pillows from heaven, they were hollow with giant air pockets.
The flavor was still good, but they were far more imbalanced than the first time I had them. Very disappointing. We ordered about a dozen of them — all of them had a giant hollow air pocket in them. It definitively threw-​off the flavor profile and made them a lot less spectacular.
In addition, on this trip I ordered a bubble tea. I am not going to rate the bubble tea as this was my first time trying it and I honestly have nothing to compare it to. Despite that, I was not a fan. From the flavor of the ‘bubbles’ to the texture — this is not a drink for me. The Coconut tea (liquid) portion of the drink was nice, but maybe a little bit too sweet for me to like. It was refreshing, but I only drank about half before tossing the rest.
Food: Pork Buns ³⁄₅ (4 — 1 for poor execution)
Service: The service was very nice, prompt, and respectful. I felt like they valued me more so than other establishments.
Service: ⁴⁄₅
Atmosphere: Tucked away across from the mall with a rear-​entry, this place is cute, clean, and pleasant.
Atmosphere: ⁴⁄₅
Price: Unfortunately, on this trip, what we go was not worth what we paid. The pork buns were made incorrectly. They were simply wrong. Normally, I would bring them back since it was an entire batch (or just our dozen); but this place is in Albany and my family resides in Syracuse. We were only in Albany for the day to help my sister move from college. So, we did not discover the issue until later that night when we returned home. This was a major let down.
Price: ²⁄₅
Final Thoughts: This place seems to be a popular spot among the locals — especially the Asian locals. This leads me to believe that it is incredibly authentic and regularly delicious. Unfortunately, on this particular trip, they soured the memory of their delicious pork buns by serving us something that was definitively not prepared properly. See pictures.

Freaking good! Authentic Canton dim sum, better than a lot of restaurants in NYC, as well as in Canton area

It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t the best. We came on Easter and it was crazy busy. We waited an hour to eat here. The dumplings were great, so was the boba tea.

I kept putting off reviewing HKB&B until we were able to try the Dim Sum, but after today’s lunch I realized that’s not ever going to happen as long as we keep going there for lunch. I like my Dim Sum in late afternoon, when I can pig out, but the lunch specials at $ 7.99 always beckon to me, and that’s just the way it is.
OK, so, ignoring the bakery for the first part. Decent AmChi style restaurant with some adventures on the menu that make it a cut above its ilk. Things like pork belly with cabbage, or bitter melon with chicken, you don’t usually find in these parts. I despair of getting anything hot from here, though, as asking for «extra spicy» usually gets a dialed-​down mild. That’s the way of southern China cuisine, I guess.
The menu is daunting: 170 dishes on the main menu, a dozen or so smoothies, 38 dim sum choices (supposedly all fresh made, so no cart), and 20 lunch «specials» (they’re so special, the laminted menus look like they’ve been run under semi-​trucks a few hundred times). The fact we keep finding interesting main dishes or specials is the main reason we’ve never made it to the dim sum.
So, we like it plenty, and the bakery is a nice bonus — some sweets you don’t usually find around here, available to go or for dessert. Nice.
Service is decent and perky at lunch.
So why am I downgrading to three stars? Because every time we go there, there are these ANNOYING FLICKERING LED LIGHTS that distract one’s attention from anything, especially when reflecting off their all-​black tables. Seriously, it nearly drove me out of the restaurant again today. FIX THIS or I’m not coming back.
If you don’t care about bright flashing lights in your face, take it appropriately and by all means visit.

Great dumplings. Everything is fresh and made to order. Smoothies were wonderful. One of the only good options in the albany area for Hong Kong style food. Definitely going to be a regular place for me.

Oh so much more than a «bakery!»
We came here once before for dim sum and were very happy. When I suggested after a day of shopping that ended up at Colonie Center that we try one of the new wood fired pizza places nearby, my wife was agreeable. But then I also mentioned how we really should get back to Hong Kong Bakery someday and she quickly jumped at the opportunity to do it now as we were approaching it in our car.
It’s a little difficult to identify their driveway while driving with all the traffic. If you are not careful, you might accidentally turn into the I-​87 northbound ramp which is right after their driveway. Attempting to be cautious, I turned too soon, and was in the driveway for the Northeast Orthodontic Associates. Fortunately, the parking lot behind their building has a small connecting ramp to the parking lot behind Hong Kong Bakery, which they also share with some business between these two. (See why I say it can be confusing?)
So we arrive at 5 pm and see that dim sum ends at 5 pm. I should also mention that the entrance from the parking lot makes you walk by the bakery cases, so my mouth is already watering. Their menu is very large. But it is very well organized. All the beverages are in one section, chicken dishes are in one section, pork dishes in another section, beef, soup, salad, etc., etc. A separate Specials menu was also given to us.
Fruit smoothies and tapioca drinks with pearls seem to be all the rage now and I keep hearing of them being served in Asian businesses that never offered such beverages around here ten or more years ago. This was the perfect opportunity to try them since nothing on the beer listing looked inviting. My wife selected a Cantaloupe Smoothie with Pearls ($ 4.69). She said it was like having desert first. It was quite good and those pearls at the bottom of the glass were chewy. Initially they came up through the extra large straw pretty well, but when the smoothie was all gone there still were a number of pearls that had to be skewered with the straw to finish them.
I had chosen a Red Bean Tapioca with Pearls ($ 3.49). It was really delicious! I likened my enjoyment of it to when I drink Thai iced tea — totally different drinks, but oh so good!
Deciding that the dishes offered on the Specials menu might not be available again, and hopefully are items that include fresh and seasonal preparations, we both ordered from it. My wife had the Szechuan Sliced Pork Belly ($ 12.99) and I ordered the Braised Lamb with Bamboo ($ 16.99). Both dishes were served with white rice since they didn’t have brown rice.
Our server had explained that the Szechuan dish would be on the spicy side, and my wife said she liked spicy so that would not be a problem. In fact, the dish was not very spicy at all. It was very tasty with onions, peppers, and cabbage, but not spicy as we think of it.
My lamb dish was described by our server as being a more traditional dish that would include some bones on the meat, and it would be served in a hot pot style. It came in a nice individual chafing dish with a fire underneath. The lamb was very tender with not too many pieces attached to bones. The broth was absolutely delicious with bamboo shoots, mushrooms, scallions, and spices like star anise.
Portions were plentiful, and we each brought about half our meal home. This also meant I left room for something I passed in the bakery case on the way in. I selected the Mango Mousse Cake ($ 2.99). It had thinly sliced mango on top and a bit of whipped cream. The cake has a more spongy texture than traditional cake, but the density gives it that mousse like consistency.
Service was excellent, as we were alerted in advance what dishes would be like so there wouldn’t be any surprises.

Used to be a regular, but service is not as courteous as it once was. Service is very attentive, but almost in a creepy, watching your every move, kind of way. What irritated me on our last visit was that after we had a $ 30 dinner and paid for the meal, they were unhappy with letting us use card for some baked goods we wanted to get to go. If this is the policy, that’s fine, but let the customer know ahead of time.

The Capital District is pretty «weak» as far as Chinese restaurants in my opinion, but this place is a pleasant surprise… very pleasant!
An eclectic menu on «not the ordinary» Chinese fare.
I’ve eaten there 5 times now, both lunch and dinner; food and service are very good with some great Lunch Specials.
The atmosphere is nice; simple.
The fish dishes have been my favorites.
I highly recommend giving them a try.

I want to be very clear in writing this review — this is a location that my wife and subsequently myself have enjoyed several times. The food has (and in today’s instance) always been on point. The food is not the basis of my 1-​star rating.
My rating comes from the service we received tonight. It started when we first were seated at our table. Our waiter asked if I would like a beer. When I replied jokingly «do I look like I need one?», he responded with «yes, you look like an alcoholic». At minimum this was a poor attempt at humor, language barrier or not.
Service proceeded with him consistently grabbing the top of our cups where we had drank out of and moving them around the table. At one point he grabbed my entire glass of water from the top and moved it. He then proceeded to bring my meal out first and a bowl of rice for one of the other guests at our table. We then proceeded to wait and see if any of the other guests at the table would be served. After a few minute wait, the rest of the table was finally served. We finished dinner, which again was fantastic, and has we were done he proceeded to quickly come and clear our plates. At no time did he ask us if we wanted desert (which we did), and he hurriedly brought us the check. We then had to wave him over to let him know that we did want desert.
When all was said in done we paid the bill. We tipped about 15 percent on an 80 dollar bill and that was mainly due to the food and not the service. The waiter walked away from the table with our signed receipts but quickly came back to the table and ASKED IF WE HAD MADE A MISTAKE ON THE TIP! Myself and the rest of my party were completely flabbergasted and told him that there was no mistake. He the proceeded to leave the bill on the table and walk away.
I have never in my 20+ years of dining had an experience like this and I was left in awe that someone would have the nerve to do something like that. We left the bill on the table and walked out.

I don’t know of any other place in the capital region that serves dim sum comparable to that of Manhattan’s Chinatown. Their shrimp dumplings are absolutely delicious, as are their roasted pork buns, turnip cake, and egg tarts! I was expecting the dim sum to take a while since it is made to order, but it was pretty quick (I went on a Saturday around 11:30). The service was just as good as the food; our waiter was extremely friendly and made sure to check up on us to make sure we didn’t need anything else. Will definitely be back!

Awesome food! I tried 6 items including their hot HK style coffee & tea and each item was made to delight. If you are the only one dining, avoid getting the vegetable bean curd skin roll with the vegetable dumpling since it seems to have the same filling. In either case, you won’t be disappointed.

The food is great. I’ve been here for lunch and dinner and both food and service have been good. My only complaint is that some of the dim sum didn’t seem to be made to order. Also, they don’t have that many non-​meat options for dim sum. I wish my rice buns were hot.

There’s not many good authentic Chinese places around the capital region area so I was glad when I found this place.
When I go to places similar to this, I always judge them by how they make their beef chow fun since it’s a classic and it’s so easy that you can’t possibly mess up. Another friend also got the beef chow fun, while my other friend got a lamb dish off from the chef’s specialties and the red bean bubble tea. He said that it seems like they use real red beans for the bubble tea and it was fresh so he really liked it, which is great because there’s definitely no good bubble tea stores around, if any. However, he didn’t really like his lamb dish and said that he’s had better elsewhere. My beef chow fun was pretty typical. It was a nice, good portion and I finished the whole plate since I was starving. The star of this place though. is with the pastries. PLEASE TRY THEIR BAKED BREADS AND PASTRIES, especially their roast pork buns and their coconut buns! (not the coconut spiraled ones, but the actual ones that look like an oval shape). The roast pork bun is so soft and chewy on the outside, and heavenly on the inside. The same can be said for the coconut ones. Also, it’s buy 3 and get 1 free so don’t pass it up!
Service was fine, nothing to brag about. Just if you ever come here, don’t leave without trying at least one of the two mentioned buns.

We recently found ourselves at Hong Kong Bakery and Bistro twice in a one week period. It’s pretty unusual for us to have two meals at the same place that close together. Obviously, the first meal was good enough to go back, but I’ve been struggling with this review for a while. Now that the initial excitement of finding another place close with a nice dim sum menu has worn off, I’m having trouble deciding how much I actually enjoyed the meals. I think this is because as great as some of the dishes were, there were quite a few that missed the mark for us. I suspect that had we ordered differently (maybe smarter?), this would be a 5 star review. Grading based on the actual meals we ate though, I don’t feel I can give more than 3.
Dim Sum — We tried as much as we thought we could eat. Best of the bunch were the rice roll with beef and the shrimp and spinach dumplings. Both delicious and we’d definitely get again. The siu mai and roast pork puff pastry were both good. Steamed pork bun was just ok. Very doughy. The big disappointments were the beef short ribs with black pepper and the spare ribs with black bean sauce. A pretty reliable rule of thumb is to always get the short ribs when you see them on the menu. Not here. Both the short ribs and spare ribs were so bad that we left almost the entire orders on the table after a taste each from 4 adults who all usually enjoy dishes like that. If the short ribs were an entrée, instead of one of many dim sum dishes, they would have ruined the meal. There may have been one or two other items in the order, but if so, they didn’t stand out as particularly good or bad.
Soups — It was a cold day so one visit we got a large wonton soup. It easily served 5 or 6, but we should have known not to get wonton soup at a place like this. The wontons were actually pretty decent. The soup was plain broth though with a little scallion. No greens or roast pork or any depth to the flavor of the broth. Very similar to most Chinese take out storefronts. The other meal, we ordered the chicken yee mein soup. It looked beautiful, but was incredibly bland. It would be great for a day when I’m not feeling well, but it’s pretty boring otherwise.
Entrees — A beef with bean sauce dish was really good. I don’t think it could have been the same bean sauce as the ribs. Even better was the diced chicken with peanut and hot pepper. The special XO fried rice was also great. I’d definitely get any of those again though there are many other dishes on the menu that look good too.
Drinks — Tea was good and one of the kids really enjoyed a strawberry smoothie.
A quick note on service. One visit, the restaurant was packed with a short wait for a table. The other, it was pretty empty. Service was fairly slow both times and not rude, but not particularly friendly either. A little better and the review might have been rounded up. I did like that they gave plastic plates and bowls to the littlest ones.
We’ll try again. I’d like to try more things on the dim sum menu to narrow it down to favorites. A lot of nice looking items in the bakery case too. Maybe will add a stop to our next Trader Joe’s run. I actually find the location at the end of Wolf Road very convenient because we can turn out of the parking lot and immediately onto the almost hidden Northway entrance ramp from Wolf Road.

A Cantonese bakery in Albany? And right down the street from our hotel?
Yes!!!
On our way out of Albany, we stopped by here. It was only 9:30am– and just a tad too early for dim sum, so we got a nice assortment of the baked baos. They have this special too– but three, get one free, so we bought eight.
Someone had bought all the Cha siu baos already, but we bought the medium sized ones (like the ones they use for dim sum). We got the bo long bao, the coconut bao, and the dried pork floss bao. All were delicious! I liked how the bread wasn’t too sweet– it was just right. Also, the toppings stayed on-​I usually hate it when I bite into a bao and all the toppings go all over my shirt– but these baos didn’t fail me like that. They just were really good!
Oh how I wish it was in CLE! They also had different lotus pastes, red bean yolk pastries and so on, but we just bought the bao since we were traveling. If I’m ever back in the area, I’m definitely stopping again-I’m so curious about how their dim sum is!
If you like some good Cantonese baos (which is hard to find in the area!) definitely stop by this place!

Finally made the trip here since i was craving dim sum, and this place did not disappoint. Ordered the har gow, siu mai, wu gok, and get this, Deep fried shrimp balls wrapped with bacon dim sum. Yeah, its as good as it sounds. And the dipping sauce, it was sweet but not to sweet. Tasted like it had applesauce in it. I was impressed with all the dishes and since they make dim sum fresh to order up until 5pn everyday, I will definitely be back.
Just a note: No containers of soy sauce or bowls of chili oil on the tables, but if you ask the waiter, he’ll bring some over in tiny dishes. Same goes with phở places in the area. No sriacha or hoisin bottles at the tables. You gotta ask for it. Whats up with that.

I’m so, so full! My eyes were definitely bigger than my belly!
Two of us ordered 7 items from the dim sum menu.
Steam Pork Bun — light, fluffy, sweet, too hot to handle bread. The pork filling with chunky bits of describable/​identifiable meat was a pleasant surprise.
Bean Roll — 3 rolls that came in a gelatinous sauce. The actual roll had a light outer skin which is always my favorite. The inside contained mushrooms and other veg. Though a little bit more flavor would have been appreciated.
Sticky Rice — simply full of flavor and delicious. The egg yolk was a nice decadent touch.
Rice Roll with Roast Pork — this was amazing and worth ordering.
Turnip Cake — Crispy on the outside. Chunky turnip inside. The accompanying sauce tasted a cross between BBQ, oyster sauce and ketchup.
Duck Dumpling — the skin of the dumpling was kind of thick but the filling made up for this shortcoming. The roast duck was a very present flavor.
Coconut Pudding — this was definitely my favorite. Just sweet enough with the right amount of coconut. The texture was silky smooth. A nice way to round off the meal.
The service was spot on. They were attentive and efficient.
The bathrooms could have been cleaner as could their cutlery!
If I lived closer I would return to try their milk teas.

It’s nearly impossible for me to look at a dim sum menu and not order one of everything. Lucky for my friend and I, everything here was fantastic!
Steamed pork buns and sesame balls are two of my favorite foods; both were done exceptionally well. The buns were soft and steamed to perfection, and the pork filling was tender with just the right amount of sauce. The sesame balls were mouthwatering good. The outside was fried enough that there was a slight crunch, but the inside was still soft and filled with a delicious red bean paste. Aside from these, we also tried the roast duck dumplings, fried shrimp balls, pork potstickers, pan fried shrimp chive rolls, and the pork vegetable spring rolls. The shrimp balls, which come with a flavorful (apricot?) dipping sauce, were great. The shrimp chive rolls and the roast duck dumplings were also notably good, but really everything we tried is worth ordering again.
The restaurant was clean and looked well taken care of, and the service was fast and friendly, but even if this was a run down shack where I had to serve myself I’d still come back. The dim sum was that good!

Wow, near perfect rating on Unilocal with 100 reviews? In Albany? Very impressed! Once we saw that, we had to stop in and try it. I’ve probably driven by this about 1000 times and while always curious never stopped in. I’m so glad we did! This is the closest we’ve gotten to our Boston Chinatown days.
We were so excited to see racks upon racks of buns, as well as milk tea, and dim sum!!! Needless to say we were aghast that we hadn’t stopped in earlier.
I was thrilled to see that they had steamed chicken buns on their dim sum menu! They were delicious. We also had the steamed duck dumplings and my husband ordered the fried pork dumplings. Everything we ordered lived up to our expectations.
Our server was a bit aloof but diligent and the food & price more than made up for it. Best under $ 25 lunch we’ve had in a while. We will definitely be back!