Bakeries
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.
Scratch baking is the whole proposition here, and it is rarer in Richmond than the sheer number of bakeries would suggest. Plenty of counters in this city sell pastry that arrived frozen on a truck. A bakehouse working in French technique on the premises is doing something structurally different, and the difference shows up in texture rather than in any flavour you could name.
The address is President Plaza, one of the older Golden Village complexes, sitting on Cambie just off No. 3 Road. Its layout belongs to a different decade: a hotel above, a supermarket below, a warren of small units in between. Finding a proper bakehouse in there is a pleasant surprise the first time. The Cambie and No. 3 Road intersection is busy enough that you want to commit to your turn early, and Aberdeen station is a short walk if you would rather come in on the Canada Line.
Small bakehouses work in batches, which has one consequence worth planning around. Whatever people want most tends to be gone long before the day ends, so an early visit is simply the safer bet. That is true of every operation this size and not a criticism of any of them. The wider Golden Village carries more pastry per block than anywhere else in Metro Vancouver, most of it Hong Kong-style, and a French-technique kitchen sitting inside that density ends up serving a slightly different appetite. Richmond has always been good at absorbing both at once.
In the Golden Village neighbourhood of Richmond.
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Other bakeries and nearby businesses in the Richmond directory.
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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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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