Bakeries
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.
Tongs and a tray at the door tell you what kind of bakery this is. You walk the racks yourself and pay at the end, everything sits out in the open under lights, and there is nowhere to hide a tired batch. The good Cantonese bakeries turn their stock over constantly for exactly that reason.
This is the Parker Place branch of a name most people in Richmond already know. Kam Do gets mentioned unprompted when you ask somebody where to go, which counts for something in a category with this much competition. The racks run sweet and savoury together rather than separating them, which is the standard arrangement here and still catches out anyone raised on a different bakery tradition.
Parker Place is one of the older Golden Village malls, less polished than Aberdeen and more useful for exactly that reason. It leans toward food, seafood and everyday shopping rather than fashion, and it has the settled feel of somewhere people use weekly rather than visit. The Canada Line runs above No. 3 Road out front, so a car is optional in a part of the city where that is not always true.
Use it the way the neighborhood does, as a stop attached to an errand rather than a trip in its own right. Crossing the city for a branch when another sits closer to you makes very little sense. Being already in the building, on the other hand, makes it obvious.
In the Golden Village neighbourhood of Richmond.
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Other bakeries and nearby businesses in the Richmond directory.
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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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 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 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.
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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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From the blog
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I was doing homework in the Parker Place food court before I could see over the counter. A working guide to Richmond BC's Golden Village: Aberdeen, Yaohan, Parker Place, Lansdowne and Alexandra Road, where to leave the car, and what I actually order at each of them.
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