Canal Bakery

I don’t much like pastries or Chinese food, but give me a Chinese bakery and I’m in seventh heaven.
This place was convenient and I stopped in twice during a recent visit. While there I realized we had stopped in here a couple years ago and I had gotten a mooncake. So we go way back, Canal Bakery.
Any who, this is a real no frills bakery with a somewhat frilly case of bakery goods facing the doorway to the street. I sadly didn’t get to sample the fancier cakes or try the bubble tea, but twice I got a small container of food from a Panda express like steam table line up by the cash register. Both times I got some sort of noodle dish and two meat sides — one time I got a coconut custard bun to go with my to go container of food, the other time a soda. Each time my total was $ 3 & change. I am so not complaining.

I love this place! It’s a super cheap and quick option if you need a meal fast and don’t have time to sit down and wait for service. I come here all the time when I’m in the neighborhood for haircuts or doctor’s appointments.
I don’t ever go for baked goods… I come for the hot food.
Their options are always the same and they’re a mixture of American-​Chinese and traditional dishes (aka. sesame chicken & Ngao Lam (braised beef with turnips))…I always go for their stir fried rice noodles and braised beef with turnips. A small portion will run you almost $ 4, but it’s filling and not too OD.
To be perfectly honest, their stuff is greasy as hell and it is not a fancy place by any means. I’m just a big sucker for junk — substantial, high calorie, filling junk smothered in sauce. Plus a cup of HK style milk tea. Take a seat at the communal table with a mixture of old Chinese grannies and some tourists, and you’re all set. Are you turned off yet?

Continuing my search for gluten free desserts, I tried the deep fried, sesame coated, bean filled rice ball. Why anyone would want to eat this is beyond me: greasy, heavy and the filling not that tasty.

Bubble tea was too sweet, and the tapioca. definitely not the tapioca or «bubbles» I’ve had elsewhere. Disgusting, I will not be returning.

Everything is super cheap. You can get a hot coffee/​tea for only $ 1, and cold coffee/​tea for $ 2, and add boba for 50 cents. They also serve a variety of lunch box items for really cheap. You can get a lunch box of rice with other side dishes for under 5 dollars, and theres a variety of pastries and breads for also about 1 – 2 dollars each. I will say that quality is a bit lacking though. The lunch box dishes are all super greasy and drenched in soy sauce and the like, and the milk tea I got is a bit watered down and too sweet. But if you’re in the area and need something quick and cheap, this place is for you.

Now dba 242 Café Bakery but still contains the «Canal Bakery» name on the books.
There are no Caa1 Siu1 Baau1 叉燒包 as I was operating on a empty stomach in dire need. Meh! Cheap lunches are available and self-​serve operation. No gratuity required. Food is loaded with grease, oil and probably MSG.

Convenient place near the Canal Street train stations where you can get great Chinese bakery goods for very competitive prices. I’ve tried their pork floss buns, egg tarts, and coconut and peanut mochi. Everything is standard fare, but the coconut and peanut mochi are large with a good amount of peanut filling and coconut flakes. My friend could barely fit half of the mochi in her mouth (…that’s what she said, haha). I haven’t tried any of the hot food, but if you’re looking for something sweet, the coconut and peanut mochi is definitely something to try.

I came in for a regular small hot tea with lemon. On a freezing cold day, where I wanted to stay in for a bit of warmth, it was great, since it had some seating within. There are also many options. Hot food in the back area. On the right, there are buns that you can steam when you get home. In the center, there are shrimp chips, rice triangles, and almond cookies. On the left close to the front window, there are tasty cream packed cakes made of sheetcake (a fluffy light taste). The hot drinks range from 90 cents to $ 1.25 for a small. They have regular tea, Hong Kong style tea (concentrated), Horlicks, and other types. I did eye the raisin twist, but I couldn’t bring myself to buy it and eat it, knowing that I had to meet someone for dinner in half an hour.

This bakery is not as popular as Fay Da or Tai Pan, but people still come here because they sell their bake goods for a really cheap price. I ordered a pack of sponge cake for the the week’s breakfast. They were pretty good. I also brought a lemon bun and a cocktail bun (which is a bun with sweet milk filling). The labeling must have been mistaken because I did not get a lemon bun. I believe I got a taro bun, which was not good. I heated the cocktail bun in the microwave and it was delicious. I knocked of a star, because of mislabel that confused the customer. I really wanted a lemon bun for the tart and sweet filling on the inside, only to be disappointed with a unknown purple filling.
This bakery also serve juices and hot plate food. I have had their strawberry juice and it was ok. Not something I would order again because they put powder instead of the real fruit.

I am appalled by the ‘service’ the bakery ladies provide. I have been coming here about 2−3x a week for some bakery buns in the morning. Mornings are usually crowded, and the cashier ladies are pretty slow. Some of the buns are piping hot, but others are not. It is in a convenient location, so there is a lot of foot traffic.
This one incident at the bakery takes the cake. I picked out a bakery bun and gave the lady a 20 dollar bill. She keeps pestering me, saying they do not have change for that amount, and asking me to provide a dollar bill. Lady, if I had a dollar bill, I would give it to you. There was plenty of cash amounts in the cash register, so what is the big deal with using a 20 dollar bill? I said I could take 19 single dollar bills too!
If she spent more time giving me change rather than giving me a hard time and being lazy. It wasn’t that they didn’t have change, but those bakery ladies are lazy and want to take their time so they do less work. C’mon now, snails! So pissed that I gave them back their bun and took my money and left. You won’t see me anymore!

What a place. All I can say is CHEAP and YUMMY! If these two words don’t convince you enough let me explain some more. First off, the place isn’t the most pretty out there but they have authentic chinese pastries. My friend introduced me to this a few months ago and whenever I am in Chinatown, this is a spot to visit.
There’s a fairly large variety of different sweets to choose from. I suggest going for the sponge rolls. I don’t know if the different colors actually indicate types of flavors (they all for the most part taste the same to me haha) but anyway… they’re fluffy, sweet and creamy bites. I’ve also had the coconut pastry which was good too. I want to try the other items there but to be honest… don’t know what a «moon cake» is. I’m pretty gutsy when it comes to food and will try almost anything. And besides, how bad could it be if it’s dessert? But gradually I’ll try more there.
And the best part is, even if you don’t particularly like it that much… most of the items there are under $ 1! Or if anything maybe $ 3-​$ 5 max. I also heard they have a lunch special with a meal, rice/​noodles, and a drink for $ 3.95. I will have to look into that next. Just beware that it will be pretty crowded upon arrival. But I think this is a good culinary find!

Cheap pastries, cakes, other goodies, and friendly staff.
Purchased a birthday cake for a friend that was delicious. I was going to buy it at another bakery, but Canal Bakery’s prices were a lot better. We were able to buy one from Canal Bakery for $ 20, whereas it was $ 36 for the same-​sized cake at one further down the street.
The cocktail (called coconut here) bun, sweet cream bun, and sponge cakes are all tasteful, with the sponge cakes being perfectly light and airy. The sweet cream bun was a bit oily, but I didn’t mind.

4 star for their milk tea! I brought a medium size hot milk tea today and it was $ 1.25 still very cheap. they use the «hong kong style» teabags. I’m starting to find the lipton tea bags sour after taste because of the lemon? not sure. There aren’t much bakery that has this «hong kong style» tea bags anymore. PLEASE DON’T EVER CHANGE IT!
This bakery location is right in front of the subway station so it is very convenient for me and for a lot of other customers.
They have bread and a small sized breakfast noodle, congee, etc in the mornings.
For lunch they have rice, chicken, beef and veggies. But I usually skip the food and just order my milk tea because their buns aren’t really my taste.

The selection of goodies was very good, they’ve got some traditional black bean paste pancake thing that I don’t normally see elsewhere.
And omg this place is way too cheap.
If I were the owner, I’d try to improve the harf-​heartedly packaging and service, and charge more!
Isn’t that like a win-​win situation for both the business and customers?

During lunch and dinner hours, I buy food from its so-​so hot buffet in the back. The counter ladies usually plop your food all into one pile.
For $ 3.95 combo, you get 1 choice of carbohydrate and 2 side dishes. I ordered mei fun (slender noodles with bits of egg and slivers of cabbage) which seemed bland. Immediately, I regret not ordering fried rice WHICH has been tasty & ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ ratio rice to veggies.
Along with my mei fun today, I ordered (sweet) sesame chicken and mixed veggies with tofu. I have to say, I’ve grown tired of the soggy and sweet sesame chicken. But I do love the veggies and tofu.
Also, the chicken on the bone swimming in brown sauce, but beware of bits of loose bone when you’re chomping it.

Cheap lunches and snacks found in this bakery. Similar to a «Panda Express» cafeteria style eating found at malls and airports.
I decided to stop by because a friend of mine told me there is real food in the back of this bakery. There is small selection of entrees, various fried noodles and rices for me to pick from.
A large lunch box is $ 3.95. What is the large lunch box combo consist of? Well, you can either have white rice and pick 3 entrees or I opted for the Lo Mein which came with two selections from the various entrees.
I saw entrees like string beans, sesame chicken, braised chicken, mixed tofu vegetable mix, beef brisket turnip stew, scrambled egg omelet and maybe a couple other entrees to choose from.
With my Lo Mein I selected the tofu vegetable mix and sesame chicken and my bill came up to be $ 3.95. Decent price.
Don’t expect the food to be greaseless. Matter of fact it’s super duper greasy and soggy. Don’t expect it to be gourmet. Don’t expect a smile or a «thank you». Just expect to a cheap Lunch that will fill you up. Hey what can I say, I was broke and unemployed.
Nothing fancy at this bakery… just cheap eats
*WARNING: Stay away from the curry puffs.
FYI, no gratuity needed here because there is no table service.

While your friends are browsing and buying cheap junk on Canal Street, duck into this Chinese bakery.
Buy a few moon cakes. That’s what I did. They’re pretty good, fairly cheap, and will probably curb your appetite until dinner.
(If you don’t know what a moon cake is, see my picture)

came ONE MINUTE BEFORE CLOSING & the lady said the buns that were normally $.80 each were 3 for $ 1.25 SCORE
i got my usual pineapple bun w/​egg custard filing!
—-yummy egg custard but the bread was a bit too dense & dry
also got a coconut custard bun
—-SKIP IT, this one was even more DRY & the small amount of filling only made matters worse!

Busy Busy Busy.
I pass by this bakery often and it’s always packed in here.
They offer a lot of the same baked goods as most of the other bakeries around Chinatown (ie. egg tarts, buns, cakes). The prices here are great. Most baked items are less than $ 2. Their Egg Tarts are decent at $ 0.75 for 1. The crust is quite bland and dry. The egg custard is not all that flavorful but the consistency was nice. Overall, not a whole lot of egg flavor.
There are goodies within your reach and inside the glass case. In order to get an item from behind the glass case, you will have to do your best to get the attention of one of the ladies behind the counter. Don’t expect to stand in an orderly line to pay for your baked goods. Just stand as close to the counter as possible and try to get someones attention.
They sell bubble tea and some Chinese dishes as well. Their bubble teas are usually watered down. Try going to another bubble tea shop for better quality. I used to be a huge fan of their beef curry buns. They were filled with generous amounts of curried beef, but now they’ve started to cut back on the filling.
There is some seating available here, but all the seats are usually taken. You may get lucky though.

This is my must-​go place every time i visit China town. WHOOT WHOOT!
Always crowded, and you probably have to yell at the staffs to get their attention. These guys are speedy!
Whats good here: egg tarts are generally better than other places, i LOVE their napoleon– the only place i find in china town that does it right without making it too creamy and soggy. Love their black bean rice buns (the clear ones) and their red bean pies (omg i die!). Their apple pie/​tarts (triangular shaped) are surprisingly delicious. Shredded dried pork on sponge cake is delicious. Bak tong go (white spongy looking sugar cane cake), mochi, and butterfly twist are all good. They sell ham and egg sandwiches for less than $ 2! And have sponge cakes in packets for dirt cheap prices!
The only things i wouldn’t get from them are their pineapple buns, the cream puff cone thingy and bubble tea drinks.
Out of everything I’ve tried, I would recommend: Napoleon (must try), butterfly twist (thin, crispy and delisssh), red bean pie, apple pie (it’s really good!), shredded dried pork sponge cake, egg tarts, and most of everything on the buns wrack are good (other than, pineapple buns, bad)
REMEMBER, TRY THE NAPOLEON!