The Boss Bakery & Restaurant Chinatown — Restaurant in Vancouver

The first time I went there, the server pressured me to order a drink, claiming there was a minimum purchase required for dine-in. A drink costs what, $3.50? My total order was around $15, so it made no sense to insist on that.

The second time, I ordered one Peach Danish. I saw them place three on my plate. I said, “No, I ordered just one!”

The third time, I ordered one Pineapple Danish along with a few other items for takeout. When I got home, there were three Pineapple Danishes in the bag.

I understand there's a sign that says "sold as a pack," but the information isn’t clear. I honestly don’t know what I’m getting because they don’t communicate it properly. Items are displayed individually, yet they sell them as multiples. It feels like they're trying to sneak extra products into your order, once again pushing you to buy more than you intended.

In summary, the merchandising is confusing, the store policies don’t make sense, and I feel like they’re taking advantage of me by selling three items when I clearly asked for one.

I was genuinely happy to have such a delicious restaurant so close to home, but these practices make me unsure if...

Reviewing as bakery. Not all the locations of this chain are the same and this is so far the best location. There is a good selection of the typical HK style buns here and all done very well. Even the plain sliced white bread has the taste & texture reminiscent of some of the good stuff from Tokyo. One of the few (only?) places that still churns out sachima too. Prices are still very affordable. In a huge surprise, they are also making western style desserts. Visually they are VERY well done, on par with some of the best places in town. From eating standpoint, taste, texture, etc it might be about 80% of the best, but tops many of the other fancier places (we did a side-by-side comparison with some well known shops). And it does this at about HALF the cost. Definitely hidden gem for this kind of thing, if they could only expand on the variety. Shame the neighbourhood is a bit on the sketchy side, but still easily recommended. Not only is it good for the price, which is top value, but it's...

I used to love having breakfast out every day a few years ago, but ever since prices went sky-high, I haven’t done it much. Last night, I had a sudden craving for a Hong Kong–style breakfast, so I headed down to Chinatown, just a few kilometres from my office.

The spot I originally had in mind turned out to be closed on Wednesdays, so I detoured and ended up at The Boss Restaurant instead.

I went with the classic Hong Kong–style breakfast set: toast, eggs, noodles, and a drink. The toast was exactly that—just toast, nothing remarkable. The egg came as a ham omelet, generously packed with ham but otherwise pretty standard. The noodle dish was satay beef rice noodles. The satay beef itself was flavorful and satisfying, but the rice noodles were overly soft, which threw off the balance. For the drink, I had Hong Kong–style milk tea, which was fine but nothing that stood out.

What did stand out was the price—$20 for the set. It made me stop and wonder: are things really this crazy...