Xin Fa Bakery — Restaurant in New York

I only give a bad review when I cannot tolerate. If there is an option for zero star, I’d rather give that. I have a long history with this place. They refused to sell me egg tarts for two times before. First time, they were saying that the persons who are making the egg tarts are eating their lunch, you could come back and check. After two hours, when I came back. There were still no egg tarts to sell. They gave me the same reason that the persons were stilling ratting the lunch. So I guess the boss is really generous and he/she allows his/her employees to eat lunch for two hours. I don’t know anyone on the earth will buy this lame excuse. Please come up with something more intelligent. The second time around, I went to buy the egg tarts, they refused to sell me egg tarts. They were saying the the qualities of the egg tarts are not good to sell. I asked them that if I could come back and check if they have any egg tarts later on. They told me that they had no more egg tarts to sell today. Then I said ok and left. Then in the later afternoon, my coworker she bought the egg tarts from this place!! Today the same thing happened. You know today was really cold and you had to wait in line in order to get in to the store. When It was my turn to buy the egg tarts, the egg tarts were just sold out. I asked them if I could place order now since I was here. Thanks Then I could pick them up later. I didn’t feel like to stay in the cold again. Buy the employ said no and showed me the writing in Chinese on a post-it that says they don’t take preorder for egg tarts.They told me that I could come back and check after 30 minute. The employees who are working at there have really bad attitude and e out they don’t have good custom service. They don’t care about their custom and just let them to wait in line in the old weather without letting them know there is no more egg tarts. They just let you to wait in the cold weather for nothing. Third time is a strike. So after 30 minute, I came back to see if they have more egg tarts. Yes. They had more but they refused to sell me the egg tarts again. I asked why. The employee told me that these egg tarts were preordered yesterday. Excuse me, did you just tell me that you don’t take preorder for egg tarts 30 minutes ago. The employee responded that she was not the one who told me. They are so irresponsible and discriminated against me by not selling me egg tarts. I even took the pictures as evidence. They had the egg tarts but they refused to sell me and made up their lame excuses again and again. They made up lame excuses thinking I was such an idiot who would buy them. The employees are full of lies and they are not truthful to their customers. What’s so pathetic that honesty is an important element...

Their pastry is very good and they sell out on fresh pastry very fast. The sweet time to come is either the morning or somewhere between 3-4 pm where they start replacing all the pastry that are already set out with freshly baked pastry(the smell is heavenly). Their egg tarts is the star of their bakery, and they get sold out very fast, which also gets restocked very fast. I have to say, hats off to the baker and his crew because he's doing a magnificent job.

Why 4 stars? The only reason I gave 4 stars is because they lack proper English communication. Due to being an Asian American born in the USA, I couldn't learn much or speak Chinese (their main way of communication) so ordering took painfully long as I had to point at something multiple times. But it's worth it because their pastry is the best I have ever tasted in NYC so far. In actuality, I'll give it a 4.3 stars.

Something to never order: Don't order any drinks from there. They're overpriced (milk tea costs 1.25 at most to make but they charge nearly double) and their combination drinks taste a bit intense for the palate. The only drink I would recommend is the lemon strawberry soda (no carbonation at all so that was a scam) because the citric combination with the sweetness is on point and it reminds me of the soft drinks in Japan. The drinks feel like they've only put half their mind into compared to their pastry. It...

The place is very hyped and there's constantly a long waiting line. They usually keep popping out egg tarts out of oven until 5ish, so it is rather easy to get freshly baked pastries.

＊ Portugese Egg Tart 葡撻 The egg custard filling is dense and stuffed, probably 2x larger than normal ones found in other Chinese bakeries. Jiggly like soft pudding, sometimes coated with bubbles of caramelized sugar. Given the outstanding custard and cheap price ($1.75 each), I am very fine with the underwhelming soggy crust.

＊ Hong Kong Style Milk Tea 港式奶茶 My go-to HK Milk Tea spot in Brooklyn. Silky, smooth and rich, bringing the taste of home. You could pick either condensed milk if you are a sweet tooth, or evaporated milk with added sugar (I usually request it without sugar).

*Make sure you order "HK Style Milk Tea 港式奶茶" instead of simply "Milk Tea 奶茶". My mom mixed them up once, they gave us teabag milk tea. The aroma was very weak and the evaporate milk failed to blend with the tea base :-(

Worth Returning ? YES I've already lost count of how many times my fam has...