Dong Phuong Bakery — Restaurant in New Orleans

I have no concerns for the bakery.

I have eaten occasionally at the restaurant. However, recently the service have been bad. I am not saying the food is bad. The food is great. When it gets busy, they prove to rush their cooking quality. Also inside the restaurant, there is a lack of space and in cleanliness. I average around 5’3” and yet my chair hits the chair of another customer from behind me. I have no space to back up in case I had to leave. On my right side, my chopsticks would hit the curtains on the windows. And the curtains are not so clean. We had to fit in the table so I had no space in which I had been smooshed to the window side of the table.

There had been one time when I had to change my order at least three times. The waiter herself was laughing at me for not having my order. Although, it had not been my fault, for the restaurant was out of their dishes that were on the menu. On the menu, there was no written text or italics that the three dishes were unavailable or limited. They also had not had my sweet tea, which is a pretty common drink to order in Louisiana that, so I had to just get water.

Another time was Due to the lack of restaurants around this area, my family decided to go to Dong Phuong. I decided to give it another try. All of my family’s food have arrived except mine which had taken a little bit over ten minutes. One of my cousin’s meat in his stir fried had been under cooked. We usually order our boba tea at the end as a sort of dessert once we have finished paying, so my cousin went to order Thai Tea. The wait for the Thai Tea was longer than ten minutes. We had asked politely how long the wait for our Thai tea would be. They replied with five minutes. We were in no rush to leave. However, 15 or more minutes is too long of a wait for Thai tea. The lady at the cash register was saying that we should have ordered our drink right when we ordered our food and that they had been busy. When, on the other hand, we can clearly see her making the other customers’ drinks that had been ordered after us. I do not what the long wait was for, either as a result for our complaints or whatever, but we could clearly see that the Thai Tea had been made. All that had to be made was to put ice and seal the cup. Therefore, I do not believe the wait could be so long for just one Thai Tea. There are many other restaurants that are busier than this place. I usually don’t write complaints like this. However, after consistently be let down because of this restaurant. I am not happy with it. Customers should be all treated the same despite...

I'm a New Orleans native... and I'm kinda old. So I've eaten and enjoyed LOTS of king cake in my life. Many years ago, 'filled' king cakes were introduced and quickly earned lots of fans. Over the years, there have been other creative 'tweaks' to the standard king cake. But the recent 'dramatic' positive response to Dong Phuong king cakes really got my attention.

This was my first visit to Dong Phuong. The drive there took about 30 minutes... a big deal. I went for lunch... and to buy a couple of king cakes [ I had never tasted theirs ].

I was waiting to be seated in the restaurant when I found out that getting the cakes that day might be tricky.

Turns out they were giving out numbers to people... who would be served in that order. Each number would be allowed a maximum purchase of two cakes. Seems that, because of the growing popularity of these king cakes, some people were buying them and selling them at 'scalper' prices. [ No problem for me. That's just for your information. ]

These king cakes are considered by some to be the best in the city. So... the wait was understood. Just know that they seem to make a limited number of cakes... so, at some point, there's no guarantee that you'll get any.

After I got my cakes, I put them in the car and went back to the restaurant for lunch. I enjoyed my meal a lot. The price was reasonable. One special treat was the very strong iced coffee with condensed milk.

When I got home, I cut into that king cake to find out just why it was getting such great reviews. Well... it's delicious. Kinda like a slightly dense croissant. The icing on top is light and creamy... tasting like it actually has some cream cheese in it. Overall, it's different from other king cakes I've had. [ To me, king cakes are either 'dense', like cinnamon rolls... or 'lighter', like a brioche. ]

Bottom line... I look forward to eating more Dong Phuong king cakes. They're SO good! I know I'll go...

I've been going to the Dong Phoung bakery since I was a child. My family lived in BR but every time we went to NOLA, we just had to stop by for some french pastries and delicious banh mi. Now as an adult, I'm able to go to Dong Phoung myself, I also make sure to stop by even if it means driving through 50mins of traffic.

It has never disappointed, the flavors are always so good. The banh mi here will always be my #1. The bread is the perfect amount of crunch, it has a satisfying sound when eating.

I love the steamed bao, both the pork egg and char siu filling are tasty. The bao is nice and soft with a sweet flavor. The pate chaud and baked bao are also so good, especially when fresh. I love the texture of the baked bao.

I haven't had their pastries often, so I don't have much to say about the ones that are displayed on the shelf. I have had the pandan honeycomb, yucca pie, and steamed banana cake. I was surprised to see the steamed banana cake but it was delicious and reminded me of my childhood when my grandmother would make me some. The honeycomb cake was also a familiar taste that had that chewy soft texture that it's known for.

I think the only thing I've had that was a miss was a slice of jelly cake. I'm not sure if it's because I'm not the biggest pandan flavor person and I was also expecting it to taste like something else T_T

And then lastly, I did choose to get my 2022 King Cake from Dong Phoung and it was just amazing. I usually don't like cream cheese icing but it was a good balance to the cake. I'm definitely going to get a king cake from them again in 2024.

The customer service is immaculate, everyone is so kind. I'm happy that they are able to invest into their branding and upgrade with the bags and banh mi boxes. They have this cute imagery of a scooter with nola backgrounds like .. I love the culture that's being...