Bakeries
A Taiwanese-run bakery across the road from Aberdeen Centre making deliberately oversized pastries: big madeleine-style cakes filled with custard and raisins, Hokkaido milk bread, sesame and red bean buns. Cheaper than its neighbors and take-out focused.
Pastries here are built deliberately larger than they need to be. Baking Factory is a Taiwanese-run shop across Cambie Road from Aberdeen Centre, turning out big madeleine-style cakes filled with custard and raisins, Hokkaido milk bread, and sesame and red bean buns. It undercuts its neighbors on price and it is built for take-out.
Milk bread is the fair test of a Taiwanese bakery, because it is hard to fake and it goes stale fast. Fresh milk bread tells you how fast the counter moves. That is a category judgement rather than a verdict on any particular batch, but it is the one to apply on the way in.
Bakeries along this strip generally wind down earlier in the evening than the restaurants they sit between, which is the one thing to plan around if this is an after-dinner stop rather than an afternoon one. The Golden Village is the densest commercial district in Richmond and probably the reason most people from outside the city ever drive here. Cambie Road, No. 3 Road and Alexandra Road form its spine, three malls sit within a few hundred metres of one another, and the whole district is built around cars even with Aberdeen station in the middle of it. If you are already parked at Aberdeen for something else, walking across is far easier than moving the car.
In the Golden Village neighbourhood of Richmond.
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Other bakeries and nearby businesses in the Richmond directory.
A small scratch bakehouse tucked into President Plaza that bakes everything on site using French technique. Croissants are the draw, especially the double-baked salted egg yolk custard one, alongside cream puffs, cakes and matcha or black sesame pastries.
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A small pickup-only bakery on No. 3 Road working from a short rotating list of cakes and pastries. Order online or at the counter and collect at the store; their products also turn up at a couple of other Richmond dessert shops. Closed Mondays.
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A cash-only Hong Kong style bakery on Hazelbridge Way that steams cheung fun rice rolls to order alongside the usual buns and pastries. The house chili oil and the egg tart donut are what regulars come for, and it opens at 7:30am on weekdays.
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The Parker Place branch of Richmond's best-known Cantonese bakery, running the same tray-and-tongs format with rows of sweet and savoury buns, egg tarts and cocktail buns. Handy if you are already at the mall for groceries or the food court.
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An Asian bakery on Alexandra Road built around softball-sized meat floss cakes, savoury cream inside and floss outside, in flavours running from seaweed and salted egg yolk to Oreo chocolate and lemon yogurt. Unusual enough to draw people across town.
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A tiny Japanese-French cake studio on Alexandra Road, open Thursday to Sunday only. Chiffon-based entremets and choux in flavours like matcha yuzu, restrained on sugar and finished carefully. The popular ones sell out, so it is worth calling first.
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