Bakeries
An easy-to-miss Taiwanese bakery inside Admiralty Centre, stocked with peanut buns, curry pastries, pork floss rolls and butterfly coconut buns. The taro loaves marbled with sweet taro paste are what regulars actually come in for. Cash only, take-out only.
Cash only and take-out only are the two things to sort out before you walk in, because a bakery counter with no seats and no card machine is a different errand than a cafe. Bring bills. Maple Castella sits inside Admiralty Centre on McKim Way, easy to walk straight past even with the unit number in your hand, and the payoff is a proper Taiwanese bakery case: peanut buns, curry pastries, pork floss rolls, butterfly coconut buns.
The taro loaves are what regulars actually come in for. Taro in a Taiwanese bakery is not the purple-flavoured idea it turns into at a bubble tea counter. It is a real root, steamed and mashed and marbled through the crumb, sweet but earthy underneath, and if syrup is your only reference point then this is the version worth meeting.
McKim Way runs through West Cambie, north of Alderbridge and east of No. 3 Road, in the belt of low commercial buildings and small malls filling the space between the Golden Village and the residential streets behind it. It is not a strolling area. You drive in, you park, you go to the unit you came for, and the small businesses tucked inside these buildings stay alive on people who already know they exist. Go earlier in the day than feels necessary. Bakery cases across this city thin out badly by late afternoon, and the thing you wanted is usually the first thing gone.
In the West Cambie 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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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 cash-only Capstan Way shop making Hong Kong and Taiwanese-style treats such as buns, swiss rolls, cookies and sponge cakes, with a lighter hand on sugar and oil. The mango cake is the local pick and prices sit under the fancier patisseries.
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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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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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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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From the blog
Longer reads from the editor, with the places worth a detour linked inside them.
Richmond runs two bakery traditions side by side: the tray-and-tongs counters in the malls off No. 3 Road, and the Steveston bread-and-doughnut shops. I grew up eating both. Here is which one to use for what, plus timing, cash and the parking problem.
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The Night Market's final season is the loud story. The quieter one: free admission at the Cannery ends Monday, Britannia keeps summer hours through Sunday, and Steveston does sunsets better than anyone.
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Nothing on Alexandra Road is a secret. It is just in a strip mall with bad signage and no patio, which is why visitors never find it. Here is how I actually use Richmond's plazas and food courts, which specialists are worth the drive, and when not to bother.
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