東海棠餅屋 Hai Tang Bakery & Cafe — Restaurant in Markham

A small bakery and cafe in the Hollywood Square plaza. The black and green sign outside shows you where the bakery/cafe is.

Inside there's a small seating area for the customers who stay there to eat their meals. On the right side of the cafe is where the bakery items are being sold.

The bakery sells Chinese buns, cookies and cakes. In the afternoon, there is obviously less bun choices available. The cafe sells Chinese dishes.

At around 4:30 pm, it is rather busy inside the bakery/cafe. They only accept cash, no credit or debit cards. They don't have the machine for you to use to pay for your food. The majority of the clientele is that of the older generation (the grandpas and grandmas, and a few adults with small children).

I chose the Pork Floss and Seaweed with Quail Egg bun. It costed me $2.31 (with tax added). The rest of the buns prices ranges from $1.80 to $2.90.

The bun that I bought and ate tasted interesting. Salty and sweet... For some reason ithe bun tasted like it had bonito flakes on it. And the strange surprise was that there was a quail egg in the middle of the bun... Just sitting and hiding there ominously. The sign name was slightly different from what I got. The sign said it was something about minced pork floss, seaweed, taro, something something.

Are the buns worth it for their price? No, not really. The flavor was good, but for that price of $2.31... it's on the expensive side of the cost of singular buns.

I suppose I would go to the cafe side and order something off their cafe menu just to try the food they had to offer. The bakery cafe is one of the other restaurant locations in the Hollywood Square plaza, besides the Cafe...

I was disappointed about the butter in my Pineapple bun. The kitchen waited too long before delivery. In the photo, the slice of butter melted half way in a hot and toasted bun. I understand that this is a fast food place and there isn't a lots of kitchen staff just like a typical Chinese restaurants. I suggest the team to put in the slice butter the last second before take it out to the restaurant guest. Just make sure the butter is room temperature and not refrigerator cold

The whole idea of a toasted pineapple bun with thick butter slice is the sensation of hot and cold (room temperature) in a bite

In contrast, I love the Pineapple bun on its own. The bread dough rise to the right size. It is better than many other GTA bakeries. The sugar topping is thick and crunchy. I found many other bakeries make the sugar topping soggy and paper thin.

Milk tea Hong Kong style is good. Taste is strong with nice roast tea leaves. Mixed evaporated milk added smoothness. Smell is good as I move my noise near centimeter away from the cup.

I have not yet found a gta cafe that I can smell the aroma meters away

Its a fast food place so you won't get much service

The level of comfy and clean is good for the food price that...

Nice spot to eat a quick and inexpensive breakfast or lunch, and they open quite early compared to other cafes. The beef brisket rice noodle was good however I do not recommend the dishes that state they are pho (it is not pho and the soup smelled weird). If you’ve never been here before, you order at the front, find a spot to sit down, they will call the name of the drink you ordered (which comes with your food) and you have to pick it up at the front but your food will be delivered to you. Their bread was quite good and cheaper compared to other bakerys; the durian bun was tasty and their egg tarts are flaky of the outside and jiggly on the inside. I would give this place more stars had it not been for the lady with glasses and a ponytail who pressured us to buy more bread and said that their bread is cheaper than other places (note that I had already bought 7); I even overheard her tell a middle aged man that because he’s “big” he should eat more and therefore should buy more bread, this is so unnecessary and her sales tactic just wants me to buy less bread. Also, this place can become like a zoo when it is packed and there is no one to tell you...