Win Son Bakery — Restaurant in New York

Wanted to like this place, I really did, but it ended up being very disappointing. Went there last week with my wife and two friends. The atmosphere is very chaotic, the register is right there and its where you order the food. But there are tons of people milling about and you cant tell if there is a line or not. Some are waiting for food, some waiting to order and some are just milling about trying to find a seat. Getting a seat is a first come first sit basis, you just pace around like a vulture waiting for a table to finish and then pounce on it. Well, that part is authentic old school Chinese restaurant (if you dont know, then try going to a dim sum place in China). Lots of loud music playing and a TV with no sound flashing in the background. The lights were low at first, then someone turned them up, five mins later someone turned them down, then back up 10 min later... okay so you have a dimmer switch, I get it. Service, the staff was honestly the highlight of the visit. Very friendly and very patient and kind. The type of staff you would imagine that all service establishments should have; helpful and pleasant. One gentleman offered to combine a table with ours for more room, but we didnt want to take up too much space so we stuck with our one small table for four. Food delivered with a smile and we were advised about the water and tableware; so in my books great service. The water is self service, go grab a glass and fill it in the... faucet/fountain thing just below. All the tableware and napkins are next to the glasses and also all self serve. Now for the sad part, the food. I had seen and heard about all the reviews raving about this place and how good this food was. I was really excited to try out the sandos made with scallion pancakes, I got the jiucai pancake (chives). It was salty, IMHO the Havarti is way too strong for this combo. Also the entire thing was dripping in grease and fell apart upon pick up. Couldnt taste the scallion pancake nor the chives, mostly just the super greasy havarti and salt. Wife got the friend chicken milk bun, it was not anything great. My local non brand name fried chicken store has better fried chicken, by far. Their regular order of scallion pancake was bad, it had no layers and barely any scallions. The Turnip cake was by far the worst, it has the world most saltiest bacon in it. The salty bacon overwhelms the turnip, if there was any in the first place, I didnt taste any. This was way too salty for me and I'm a bacon lover. The Big Chicken Box, chicken was okay but way over priced. Three pieces and fries for 22+tax. Yikes. I mean if the chicken was awesome, no biggie, but its not. So what was good, the snow pea salad. Yup. the simple little snow pea salad was great. It helped to relieve all the saltiness of every other dish. Didnt get to try out any baked goods as they were all sold out. If I am ever in the area again earlier in the day, maybe I will stop to try the bakery products. Who knows, maybe this is where they...

AMAZING! Grown up in Taiwan, I’m always on a hunt for good Taiwanese food. We came here for the first time today and ordered a little too much. The service was wonderful, lovely interior, and the food was SO GOOD. I originally asked for takeaway but the food looked so good that we ate half of it before leaving the shop 😅.

We ordered: Turnip cake: I love a good OG turnip cake but this version was elevated with strong bacon flavours and crispy to perfection. I could eat these all day. Mochi donut: I liked these wayyyy better than I thought I would. It was probably one of my favourite things here! Fried chicken box: great flavour and breading, but a bit pricey for $22 for 3 pieces of chicken. Super generous on the salad portion though! BEC: delicious, but the bacon overpowered the flavours of the scallion pancake a little. I’ll get it without the bacon next time. Laminated bolo bao - delicious but I think strays a bit far from an OG bolo bao. Twice baked bolo bao peanut butter chocolate flavour: tastes so differed from a bolo bao but it’s f*cking amazing. Toffee chocolate cookie: nothing Taiwanese about it, but it’s a damn good cookie.

I definitely recommend coming here. We’ll be back for the after 3:30pm menu next and trying out the restaurant! ❤️

Edit: We came back a second time and ordered more things:

Egg and cheese scallion pancake- DELICIOUS. Definitely way better than the one with bacon. I can actually taste the scallion pancake instead of the bacon overpowering everything Rou bao - a flat crispy bun with meat filling, also really good, esp dipped in their chili sauce. My husbands favourite of the meal. Sesame Cesar salad - a HUGE portion. The dressing wasn’t bad but the whole salad was pretty much just lettuce and dressing with some crumbles of crispy shallots and bread crumbs. There wasn’t much substance to the salad. Pork fan Tuan - much smaller than I’m used to buying them in Taiwan, esp for $7, but the pork filling was very flavourful. My husband loved it. Turnip cake - wasn’t as good as I remembered it last time. It was overly crunchy and greasy today. Red donut - great texture, but the flavour was okay Mochi donut - amazing as always Black sesame latte - oat milk only option but it was good, a bit too sweet for me. Next time I’ll ask them to halve the sugar Milk teas - we got both the wintermelon and the jasmine mango. Both were equally disappointing and tasted very bland and watered down.

Still a fantastic...

Heard about this place from the Bon Appetit video with Lucas Sin & Eric Sze and had to check it out!

I was particularly intrigued by the concept which is a Taiwanese American breakfast fusion. Fusion food is hard to execute well, so I had high expectations for this place. And boy, did they deliver.

We arrived on a cold rainy day and queued in a line outside the bakery. There were about 15-20 people in front of us but the line moved very quickly. Since the bakery seating area was completely filled, we were directed to wait outside near the takeout window and eat across the street in the dining hall space.

Food and drinks took about 15-20 minutes to be made and we walked across the street to the much more quiet and spacious dining hall area. It was much easier to find a seat.

Food wise...

Milk bun 11/10: okay this SLAPPED so hard it was nostalgic partially because it reminded me of mornings when my parents would steam the frozen custard buns for breakfast but it was a better version of it with "breadier" bread. It had a generous amount of custard filling and it was delicious.

Custard toast 6/10: would skip on ordering this again, wasn't anything special and the toast was crisped well but I didn't really get much of the custard component.

Chocolate bolo bao 7/10: tasted more like a chocolate croissant than a bolo bao. Could've also used more chocolate filling, it was very subtle.

Drinks wise...

Black sesame latte (with oat milk) 10/10: tasted exactly like a tangyuan. Not too sweet, very creamy! Would order again.

Five spice latte 7/10: overall good very subtle spice flavor, I wish there was a little more kick to it but also very good.

Savory dishes wise...

Snow pea salad: Okay this was the sleeper agent!! This was VERY good and addicting to eat. Refreshing and a great side to add to any savory dishes you decide to get.

Scallion pancake with beef tongue pastrami 9/10: I usually don't like beef tongue but this blew me out of the water. The wrap dipped in the creamy yet gingery/vinegary sauce cut through the fattiness so well. Absolutely delicious, the scallion pancake a perfect vehicle as a breakfast wrap. Would've liked for the scallion pancake to be slightly crispier but overall very good.

The BEC (bacon egg cheese) scallion pancake wrap 8/10; was pretty good but nothing to...