Harpers Bread House — Restaurant in New York

Waiting in line? Why? What? Just scream your order and skip the people ahead.

Do not go if you’re not a local who is not used to skipping lines or get your spot skipped during waiting in line. There is no concept of waiting in line at this business.

If you are trying to be polite and give other people a little space in the store, the local auntie and uncles will skip right past you like nothing happened. Matter fact these ppl are proud they were able to skip ahead of you and order.

The staff don’t care and seem to just take orders from who is the loudest or rudest. Even if you’re at the front of the line making eye contact with the staff, they will proceed to ignore you and take orders from the loudest person or someone they know. They also seem to treat white folks better than us Chinese folks.

The breads and rice rolls were decent but I have more respect for myself. This is not how a business operate.

I will never go back to this bakery again. It sucks because I grew up near here and want to support small business. There is no respect or customer service. I can afford to go to a better bakery with better service and business operation, there are literally 10+ in a 2 block radius. I suggest you young folks have some respect for yourself too and go to a...

Since Kam Boat Bakery closed down, I struggled to find a new go-to place for Portuguese egg tarts in Chinatown. Don't get me wrong: there's plenty of excellent Portuguese egg tarts to be found in Chinatown. But some bakeries charge $2.25 per tart, which is kind of expensive.

Enter Harper's Bread House, an unassuming bakery that has been around for decades and that flies a bit under the radar due to its location on the East side of Chinatown across from Grand Street that is less busy and also less touristic than main Chinatown.

The Portuguese egg tarts at Harper's Bread House may be the best bang for your buck in Chinatown, as both egg tarts and Portuguese egg tarts are the same price, $1.50. The Portuguese egg tarts have a firmer, flakier crust and a lightly burnt yellow custard that is tasty and pilllowy soft. They also sell a Brazilian version of the egg tart that uses coconut, although I still prefer the Portuguese version.

They also sell an amazing variety of onigiri or Japanese rice balls: Buffalo wings, bacon & egg, octopus salad, dry pork, Korean spicy spam, purple rice crab salad, purple rice eel, shrimp tempura salad, crawfish salad, Teryaki fried chicken, curry chicken, seaweed, tuna, spicy salmon, spicy tuna. All priced...

I've been coming to this place for years, even before they renamed themselves to Harper's (at least, in the English writing; the Chinese name has seemingly remained the same). As most people in the reviews have already discovered, while their baos/buns are decent and maybe their pastries are just okay/mediocre, the real reason I come in here is if I want a small satisfying snack to tide me over, but not an entire meal. I know I can always come here for an onigiri for only $2.50-3 (price varies depending on your chosen filling)! They have packaged each perfectly like most Japanese places do by separating out the seaweed from the rice (this ensures the seaweed stays crispy and doesn't get soggy from the rice!). I've had at least four or five varieties. The spicy salmon and chicken ones always hit the spot. I recently got what they call the "soft Japanese egg" one, and it actually had an entire hard-boiled soy sauce egg inside, which was so generous for only $2.50!

I've had a couple baos here, which were fine, but nothing to write home about. For me, Harper's is all about the affordable onigiri! The service is also pretty friendly and quick, so you'll be in and...