Bakeries
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.
There is no display case to stand in front of here, and that changes how you buy a cake. The browsing half of the transaction disappears and you choose from a list instead, which suits a small kitchen working through a short rotating range rather than filling a counter all day and discounting whatever is left at closing.
The range moves, which is the point of running a bakery this way. The same products turn up at a couple of other Richmond dessert shops, so there is a fair chance you have eaten one already without knowing where it came from. That is normal in this city. A good deal of what gets served in the dessert cafes along No. 3 Road is made somewhere smaller and quieter than the room you are sitting in.
Cake in Richmond is a gift category as much as a treat, tied to birthdays, exam results and the long chain of family obligations that come with them. Ordering ahead is routine here in a way it simply is not across most of Metro Vancouver, and a pickup-only operation on No. 3 Road is a rational response to that rather than an inconvenience to work around.
Plan around the date rather than the craving. Anything with a candle in it and a fixed evening attached should be sorted out well before the week it is needed, and the more specific the request, the earlier that conversation should happen.
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 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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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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