Restaurant Review: New Town Bakery and Restaurant, Vancouver Chinatown

Vancouver (Alaska Pre Cruise) . 2012 . September 14

This post is part of our Alaska Pre and Post Cruise Report and follow-up of our popular Alaska cruise series. Do check out our Alaska Cruise story too if this is your first time here! :)

One of the things when we visit a new country is to try out their local chinese food, especially in the Chinatown area. This is certainly the case when we visited Vancouver Chinatown, especially when we will be embarking on our Alaskan cruisetour the following day, where we will be having Western food for the next 10 days!

After an early afternoon stroll around the Chinatown area in Vancouver, we decided to take a short rest from all the walking and enjoy a dim sum afternoon tea at one of the chinese restaurants in the area. We chanced upon New Town Bakery and Restaurant as we were walking along East Pender Street. A quick check on our Tripadvisor app indicates that the reviews were pretty positive, thus we had no hesistation as we step into the restaurant.

Notice that there are 2 New Town Bakery and Restaurants in the photo below. The one we dined at was on the right side. The one on the left was closed when we were there. Not sure if it was the old outlet and it has shifted to the new shop space on the right.

The information was retrieved from the restaurant's website when we were writing this post. As such, we missed trying its award winning apple tarts! Followers of our blog would have known that we missed trying the famous Candy Baron Salt Water Taffy when we were at Pier 39 at San Francisco. Perhaps this gives us a valid reason to visit San Francisco and Vancouver again..haha!

Since 1980, this family run bakery has been serving the very best chinese and filipino baked goods and pastries in its flagship Chinatown location and soon expanded to Richmond and Surrey to satisfy the growing demand. Some of their speciality includes its Award Winning Apple Tarts and World Famous Steamed Buns (Siopao) - BBQ Pork (Asado) and Chicken Deluxe (Bola Bola).

Set Menus at the resturant. There are special set mini set menus that are served with coffee / tea. You can also order the Chinese breakfast sets or the Western Breakfast sets. You might want to check out the restaurant's updated menus on its website.

We were pleasantly pleased with its extensive ala carte menu. Besides its famous tarts and dim sum, the restaurant also serves typical chinese dishes ranging from seafood, meats, congee, hot pot, vegetarian to tofou. There are also sandwiches and spaghetti on offer if you are not into chinese food.

As with typical chinese restaurants, customers were served with chinese tea to complement their meals. Most chinese restaurants would charge for the tea, thus we were pleasantly surprised when the final bill came with no charge on the tea. The tea was therefore complementary.. :)

As we were there for an afternoon tea, we opted to try its famous Dim Sum selections instead of the main dishes.

As we waited for our dim sum to arrive, we began observing the resturant's interior surroundings. It was considered quite spacious compared to typical chinese tea cafes in Hong Kong.

Long queues forming at the bakery section on the left of this photo.

A peep into the preparation area in the kitchen.

Besides wooden chairs, you might want to opt to sit in the cozy cushion seats if you want more comfort. Don't worry, there are no additional costs for that.

The restaurant is still using the traditional push carts. For those who are not familiar, these push carts with dim sums are familiar scenes in the traditional chinese dim sum restaurants in the past but it is becoming less common as restaurants do away with them in favour of ordering forms. You can order from the lady pushing the push carts directly if you see something you like on it.

All ready for a good Dim Sum meal. Utensils neatly arranged for the feast.

Congee (can't remember exactly which one we ordered?) - CAD $5.75. Portion was big and definitely enough to share for two. It was quite tasty and comparable to those served in good chinese restaurants.

Pork Dumplings a.k.a. Siew Mais - CAD $4.25. This was good. We would recommend that you give it a try.

The Famous Steamed Bun (Siopao) - BBQ Pork (Asado) - CAD $1.60. This was one of the biggest steam bun that we ever had! It certainly lives up to its reputation as one of the restaurants's specialty.

Prying open the Steamed Bun. A nice tempting aroma of the hot BBQ pork fillings soon filled the table.

The BBQ Pork fillings were generous and we had a hard time finishing the bun! At CAD $1.60, this is really a steal!

Shrimp Dumplings a.k.a. Ha Gao - CAD $4.25. Another of our favourite we always ordered beside the pork dumplings. The shrimps were fresh and the outer skin were smooth. Another recommended dish!

Sticky Rice with Chicken and Pork a.k.a. Lo Mai Gai - CAD $4.25. This serve as our staple food for the meal. Portion was big and the glutinous rice was warm and nice.

Prying open the leaves that wrapped around the rice. The leaves add a slight pleasant flavour to this delightful dish.

Final bill works out to be CAD $22.51 (inclusive of taxes) - SGD $27, which we felt was pretty reasonable for a delightful chinese dim sum meal for two.

We had a wonderful meal at New Town Bakery and Restaurant and would certainly highly recommend that you pay this fabulous home-run eatery a visit while you are visiting Vancouver next time!

New Town Bakery and Restaurant

Main Branch
148 E. Pender Street Vancouver, B.C.
Tel: 604-681-1828
Fax: 604-681-3713

Hours of operations:
Open 7 Days, 6:30 AM - 8-30 PM



Hope you enjoy reading this post! You might want to check out our walking tour at Vancouver Chinatown.

This post is part of our Alaska Pre and Post Cruise Report and follow-up of our popular Alaska cruise series. Do check out our Alaska Cruise story too if this is your first time here! :)

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