Bakeries
A Steveston counter frying gourmet mini donuts to order, with classic cinnamon sugar alongside a rotating list of seasonal flavours and filled versions. Mixed boxes let you try several, and they are best eaten walking down toward the boardwalk.
Nobody plans a trip around mini donuts. They arrive at a specific point in an afternoon: the boardwalk is walked, the children are done looking at boats, and everyone needs something small and hot before the drive home. This Second Avenue counter fries them to order, which is the entire difference between these and the bagged version at a fair.
Fried to order means a short window. A mini donut is at its best for roughly the length of the walk from the counter to the top of the wharf, and it does not improve in a car. A mixed box makes sense with more than one person, because nobody agrees about donuts and the argument is not worth having on a nice day. Then keep moving toward the water.
Steveston's whole food economy is built around that same loop, and the businesses that work here understand they are one stop on a walk rather than a destination. It shapes the category: small footprints, quick counters, things you can carry in one hand while holding a child with the other. July weekends are a crush and February is quiet enough that the village feels like a different town. Second Avenue sits a block off the water among the newer buildings behind the Moncton Street shops, close enough that the queue and the boardwalk feed each other all summer. Come down No. 1 Road on a wet Tuesday in winter and the whole village will be yours.
In the Steveston neighbourhood of Richmond.
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Other bakeries and nearby businesses in the Richmond directory.
A family-run Steveston fixture since 1989, doing scratch breads, pies, cookies and custom cakes including eggless versions. The attached cafe serves all-day breakfast, sandwiches and a rotating homemade soup, so locals treat it as much a diner as a bakery.
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A Steveston Village patisserie doing classic French work: fruit tarts, chiffon slices, viennoiserie and cookies made fresh each morning. Regulars also come for the savoury quiches and the small freezer of prepared soups and meals to take home.
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A tiny family-run shop on Chatham Street making proper Liege waffles with pearl sugar, real butter and honey in about a dozen flavours, from vanilla through matcha and yuzu. They also take custom cake, pie and creme brulee orders for pickup.
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Family-owned Steveston patisserie open since 1996, focused on European-style cakes such as tiramisu and triple chocolate mousse, plus everyday pastries. It is where Richmond people order birthday and celebration cakes instead of buying one at the grocery store.
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A neighborhood Chinese bakery of about a decade's standing at No. 2 and Blundell, run on self-serve tongs and trays behind glass. Pizza buns, mousse cake slices and moon cakes in season; whole cakes need a day's notice. Free lot parking outside.
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Richmond's kosher bakery, family-run and Filipino-Jewish, turning out challah, cinnamon rolls, croissants, muffins and donuts. The hours are short and it closes Saturdays, so plan around them. Bread is baked fresh rather than held over.
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From the blog
Longer reads from the editor, with the places worth a detour linked inside them.
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