Baker Duck — Restaurant in Markham

Horrible shopping experience - where do I begin? Place is too small and cramped. The aisle is single person only - you cannot browse without being stuck by person ahead or behind you. To make matters worse, the display shelves open outwards into the aisle making it even more cramped when picking your buns. Each display column has 3 levels meaning if someone wanted items from each level they will be blocking that spot for a good amount of time. 🤦🏻‍♂️ Next, there are NO EMPTY TRAYS!! All the trays are stacked up and dirty/used and nobody is available to clean them and put them out for new customers - there are 4 employees working in this cramped space: 1 is permanently in the cake area, 1 is cashier, 1 is bagging, and 1 is busy restocking shelves from the baking tray stand that is PERMANENTLY at one corner of the aisle (making the aisle a one-way dead end) and you will either need to wait or squeeze around other shoppers. The result is NOBODY is cleaning the incoming trays and restocking them out at all - I had to help myself to the towering used tray pile and clean the debris from it before use. The next travesty is the checkout line - as you can see from photos posted by others the lineup is against the outer display shelves 🤦🏻‍♂️ making it impossible for anyone to peruse or get anything from them. They need to either move the cash register to the adjacent open end and/or have a sign that directs customers NOT TO BLOCK THE DISPLAY SHELVES. FFS, apply simple store management 101 principles PLEASE! Now, finally, I can speak about the actual products. Because of the aforementioned issues I felt very uncomfortable and pressured to quickly peruse and pick out items I wanted. I wanted to try the curry puff bun but none were out yet (I was there at 12pm on a Saturday). I wanted to try the pineapple bun with butter stick but I couldn’t find it. I ended up waiting for the checkout line to clear a bit so that I can get at the egg tarts. I also managed to get some mini baked chicken pies. The crust of the chicken pie was way too sweet and thick, as a result it was overwhelming and I could hardly taste the relatively bland chicken filling at all. Luckily, the egg tart was great, still warm when I got home - nice and flaky crust and filling was acceptable (albeit a bit runny and watered down). That’s it, I only mustered to buy 2 items from my visit and the egg tarts kept it from being a complete disaster. I don’t know if I will visit again, but I post this as an honest feedback on the...

I originally came to Dennison center to buy soy milk. The logo of the store is so cute it caught my attention.

There was a long line at the register too (note: I went on January 1st). The lines do go by pretty quickly though.

The store is pretty small and can get congested. I was surprised by the variety of pastry and buns they had. There’s one staff who always check the trays and they are quick to refill the buns.

They have some old classics like chicken pie and egg tart. And they also have a twist on stuff like the pineapple bun. They had satay beef filling inside or even egg and spam.

I got the New Orleans deep fried chicken bun and it was good. Surprisingly it was about $3. This had more chicken than a jr chicken at McDonald’s.

They also had a everything bagel with salmon and cream cheese. This was only $2.99! At other shops this will cost around $6 at least! I thought it was okay given the price. They put a right amount of salmon and way too much cream cheese.

They even had a chicken drumstick inside a bun. I personally didn’t get it but it was interesting.

The mango tart was so good! I love it! It had the right amount of sweetness. The mango is a bit sour though but understandably it’s not mango season right now.

The mini cakes were $1 each if you buy 4. It was savoury sweet. Nothing special, it just tasted like a regular cake. The value is good though.

Overall, I would defined come here again if I’m in the area. But one thing to watch out is, when you are paying, pay attention to what you are charged. It gets so busy so the cashier may skip your item or charge you the previous persons order. They don’t give you a receipt, so once you leave that’s it. Also make sure you bring cash, you can use your card but you have to have a total of at least $15.

Another complaint is that since they are busy it feels as if they are rushing with packing the pastry and buns. I had a pineapple bun squished into a plastic baggy and some of the skin came off. Not a big deal but I’m not impressed with that. Finally, if you have any allergies, I would not recommend this spot. It’s easy for the food to get cross contaminated with the...

The food is pretty good. The prices are definitely better than many Chinese bakeries these days, and the amount of filling aren't as cheap as many other places.

However, they have very poor customer service. They often run out of specific buns, which is fine, considering how busy they are, so they always tell you to call and order ahead, but that is absolutely useless. I tried calling in today to see if they had 6 of the beef buns and to reserve it, they took my info down, but didn't ask me when i wanted to pick up. So I told them at least twice that I would be coming now and they said ok. Once there, I chose a few other buns and then told them I placed an order for 6 beef buns. They seemed confused at first but finally found the order. I paid for them and the cashier and bagger said it will take another 15 minutes for the buns to be ready. I told them that's okay and that I'll return to in half hour to pick them up. I actually returned nearly an hour after to give them a bit extra time, but when I asked one of the ladies, she rudely tells me (in canto) that it's going to take awhile and maybe over an hour. I told her I paid an hour ago and they originally said 15 minutes. She responds, "no you don't listen to the cashier you have to ask the bakers." .... was I supposed to just walk into their kitchen and ask the bakers? Why couldn't they have confirmed in the first place with the bakers in the back? If they originally told me it might take 2 hours or whatnot, I could have planned accordingly.

Anyway, if you're in the area, I'd say definitely give it a try, but don't expect decent customer service and don't bother with ordering ahead. Maybe that's why they don't sell any full fresh cakes like most bakeries because they'd probably mess up any orders made...