A bakery café you really shouldn’t skip on a Hong Kong trip
Bakehouse egg tarts
Honestly, who goes to Hong Kong
and doesn’t eat an egg tart..?
There are a lot of famous egg tart shops in the city,
but we only made it to Bakehouse,
which shows up on pretty much every Hong Kong food recommendation list.
There are a few branches around Hong Kong,
and we visited the Central Soho branch!
Google Maps doesn’t label this branch very clearly,
so some people call it the Sheung Wan branch,
and it seems like everyone refers to it a little differently.
Hours are 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM.
We didn’t actually go out of our way just for this place.
We were riding up the Mid-Levels Escalator,
and it just popped up on the left, so we stopped in.
I’d heard the line could get long, but when we went, there was no wait at all!
This Bakehouse Central branch in Hong Kong
is mainly a takeaway shop,
so there aren’t any tables to sit and eat. Kind of a shame.
All the pastries are kept inside the display case,
and when you order, the staff pulls out whatever you want.
It’s so famous for egg tarts that
I had no idea they had this many other breads and pastries too.
The locals—or at least the people who looked like locals—
were buying all kinds of baked goods, while tourists were mostly just grabbing egg tarts.
In this photo, the ones almost sold out in the back
are the egg tarts.
I’m not sure if they stop once those are gone
or keep baking more.
This Sheung Wan/Central area gets a ton of foot traffic, so if you go later in the afternoon, they do sometimes sell out—just something to keep in mind.
The most expensive pastry I photographed was HK$44,
which is about $5.60, so overall it didn’t feel too pricey.
The Bakehouse egg tart price was
HK$12.5, about $1.60!
These days, some bakeries in Korea charge
$2 to $3 for an egg tart,
so this felt pretty reasonable
and easy to justify as a snack.
Besides bread and pastries, they also sell jam, granola, and merch.
They had coffee too, so we picked up a cup.
The prices were listed in Hong Kong dollars, and
I didn’t really think much about it when ordering,
but my iced Americano ended up being about $4.50.
We packed up just two egg tarts!
If you’re ordering coffee rather than pastries,
you can place that order separately at the side window.
This side area was actually really pretty,
so it’s a nice little photo spot too.
My husband took my photo first, then I took his,
and this round he definitely won. Mine came out so bad.
Here comes the coffee.
The cup was tiny,
and it wasn’t even filled all the way.
They didn’t give us a straw either, so we just drank straight from the cup,
and after a few sips, it was basically gone.
It had a noticeable acidity, so I didn’t love it.
Honestly, buy the egg tarts here and get your coffee somewhere else.
We ate one tart right in front of the shop
and brought the other back to our hotel.
It was good, for sure, but not in the way people describe it—
like you’d want to eat an endless number of them if only you had more room.
For me, it was more of a fun travel treat
that’s worth trying once while you’re in town, so during our 3-night, 5-day trip,
we only had egg tarts this one time.
It’s definitely one of those places worth visiting in Hong Kong,
but I’d say go in with reasonable expectations.