Bread Top House

Funny to me, went to this place because Unilocal listed that they were selling French Macaroons, and they don’t sell it. But on the brighter side I fell in love with their moon cakes. Red bean, is a must have, a natural sweet taste not strong at all. And I will be returning for more. The only downside is that service is not all the way friendly, I wasn’t receiving a warm welcome but the cakes made up for it. Hopefully my next visit will be more welcoming.

I just love this bakery. My favorite are the egg custards! Yum!!! My husband loves the red bean cakes and I enjoy the pineapple ones. This time he also tried a shrimp pastry which he loved too. Great prices and great service! Go get yourself an egg custard!!!

This is my go to spot after having lunch at Sakura or Dim Sum Garden. I grab a bubble tea and if I’m feeling feisty a pineapple bun or some Bao for later. It is a small corner space that is cash only. Almost every time I am in there the few tables that they have are filled with the OG’s of chinatown sitting and chatting. I love it. The pastries are great but my fave is the warming case that sits on top of the counter that houses the steamed buns. Reminds me of early days with my grandfather in Taiwan at the markets as a child and eating giant hot steamed buns.

The pineapple buns here are soooo good. Contrary to the name, there are no pineapples inside. The name comes from the pineapple-​like pattern. This bun is made by layering two different dough on top of each other. After baking, the two layers becomes one. The top layer has a nice sweet crunch and it’s flaky. The bottom layer is nice and fluffy. Bread top house has the right combination down. The two layers work well together and taste amazing.
One of my friend was addicted to the pineapple buns here. I am not kidding! He went here multiple times a week to buy multiple pineapple buns. When he realized his addiction was out of control, he decided that his problem would be solved by not carrying cash. Boy was he wrong, his cravings got the best of him most days, and he ended up asking around for change to buy his pineapple buns. A lot of my classmates would give him money to do a pineapple bun run! He created such a demand for the pineapple buns at this place that the price of the pineapple bun increased by a few cents! I think he has eased up on the pineapple bun these days, so there should be plenty for everyone else.
I have tried other pastries from here and it’s solid, but my favorite is the pineapple bun. Give it a try!

I was expecting to be. amazed by the bakery items here, but they weren’t anything jaw dropping. I really wanted to try the egg tart since many Unilocal reviews raved about them, but they had none left when I got there.
This place is cash only; much like many of the other establishments in Chinatown.
I got the pandan slice, a couple of small moon pies, a custard bun, a coconut bun, and a few other things. The pastries I got were light, fluffy, and very cheap! I got a bag full of stuff for only $ 8!
Other Unilocal reviews say that the smoothies and bubble tea here is good so I’ll try that next time I stop by!

Small place with small selection, but what they offer all seems really good. Picked up a few tiny home-​made mooncakes, which was really cool as a lot of places really just sell pre-​made mooncakes. The prices are also unbeatable. The mooncakes for example were just $ 1 each? And a lot of their other baked goods had similarly cheap prices.

My go-​to bakery in Chinatown!
As other reviewers mentioned, they make their smoothie bubble tea with real fruit – none of that artificial sugary powder stuff! I’ve tried the papaya, honeydew, taro, mango, and red bean (doesn’t come with bubbles but I’m sure you can ask for some). They’re all good-​looking but you especially HAVE to try the taro smoothie. You can never go back to powdered bubble tea after this.
Their buns are solid as well – my favorite is the roast pork bun, but I like all of their buns that I’ve tried (taro, curry chicken, curry pork pie, etc.). Their combination bun is exceptional as well. So warm and fluffy! So good for a cold winter morning after a run. :)

This bakery probably has some of the best quality baos (that’s what Chinese people call the breads/​buns) in Chinatown for such a cheap price! I personally LOVE the combination steamed bun and the egg custard tarts here. The combination steamed bun is so warm and fluffy and filled with goodness on the inside (the boiled egg is the highlight) while the egg custard tarts are so well prepared with just the right sweetness and consistency (and trust me, you really just can’t get one).
They also have drinks, but I usually get my bubble tea and smoothies at other places in Chinatown, but their bao game is solid so keep an eye out for this corner bakery!
There’s not much seating available inside so you’ll most likely have to take your food to go, but the inside is very clean and bright (thanks to all the windows), which gives a nice lively vibe to the bakery.

Had bubble tea and egg tarts from Bread Top House. The egg tarts are the best in Chinatown. I haven’t found another bakery that makes these with a flaky crust.

A bakery with amazing bubble tea that I think often gets overlooked.
Bread Top is my favorite Chinatown bakery. I find that the different buns that are available here are much fresher than some other places in Chinatown. This is also my favorite place to get egg tarts, which have a nice and flaky crust with a soft sweet egg filling in the middle. I think part of the reason people skip over this place is because it’s not located on the «central» street of the Philadelphia Chinatown (10^th).
The only reason Bread Top is so great is their bubble tea (which I think is their hidden gem). While their tapioca isn’t the best I’ve had (it’s a little soft, but still very chewy which is good), this place is the only place I know of that makes their drinks with real fruit. In the fridge they have near the counter, you can see tubs of fresh fruit (watermelon, honeydew, strawberries, etc…), and when you order one of the drinks, they’ll scoop the fruit right out of the container into a blender. My favorite is the taro.
The store owners are also very friendly. If you haven’t been here, you should definitely try it out. Otherwise, you’re missing out!

This place serves the best egg custard tart I’ve ever had! Also try and their pineapple bun. It’s simple, light, and delicately delish!
For bubble tea, I’m on a anything and everything coconut crave! The coconut flavor bubble tea won’t disappoint.

There are so many options for boba/​bubble tea in Chinatown, but this little bakery gets my vote. If you’re looking for a satisfying drink this summer, come here! Other bubble tea places will use the powder substitute, but they use real fruit here which is a big plus on freshness. In fact, if you pick something that they run out of, they’ll send someone to the local grocery to get fresh fruit for your drink.
While they don’t have the manpower to expedite for large crowds, their drinks are certainly worth the wait. My go-​to drink here is the mango bubble tea. My judging criteria relies on three components — freshness, sweetness, and tapioca consistency. Can’t go wrong with the natural flavors of fresh fruit, sweetened with condensed milk (rather than syrup), and perfectly cooked tapioca pearls (cooked for the right amount of chewiness). Worth dishing the $ 3 for a sweet cold drink this summer!

The mango smoothie bubble tea. Seriously. Just do it. When I ordered it, the lady apologized in advance that it would take a minute to make because she makes each one fresh from real fruit and not with powder out of a can. As far as I’m concerned, by all means, take that extra minute — I’m more than happy to wait a sec for this crave-​worthy drink! It’s just so hard to find such a high-​quality fruit smoothie these days that isn’t chock full of sugary syrup and fake tasting — and she has really perfected this beverage. Boba is tasty and chewy as well!
I haven’t tried all the buns, but they are absurdly cheap. There’s char siu bao in the snack buns selection to the left of the counter that are quite tasty and less than a dollar each.
I just gotta say again that the lady who runs this place is literally the nicest, sweetest lady in probably all of Chinatown. She’s soft spoken and always smiling. Love supporting nice people who have great products.

I love love love papaya milk, but unfortunately it’s not easy to find in Philly. The next best thing I could find was papaya smoothies, but it’s not quite the same as papaya milk with sweet and chewy boba. The first slurp of papaya milk boba from Bread Top House made up for the lost year without this delicious drink. I saw the lady pulled a container of cut papayas from the fridge before she made my order, so I knew that my papaya milk was made from fresh, real papaya. No powder or nonsense syrup.
Another reason to love Bread Top House is the moon cakes. Bread Top House has enabled my obsession with moon cakes; now I don’t have to wait until Mid-​Autumn Festival to satisfy my sweet tooth. My favorite filling is pineapple. So good! Bread Top House also offers lotus, red bean, green bean, and winter melon moon cakes.
My trip to Bread Top House is never complete without the delicious and cheap chocolate croissants. Chocolate croissants at Starbucks and other cafes tend to be priced around $ 2.50−3.00. But at Bread Top House, it’s only $ 1.25 for a decent quality chocolate croissant.
When I feel particularly gluttonous, I would add a fried sticky rice with lotus paste filling to my bounty. The list can go on forever… Actually, when I think about it, I haven’t had anything bad from Bread Top House. I approve of this bakery.

For what it is, Bread Top House is as good as it gets!

Small and quant little bakery shop. Good selection at an affordable price (everything was really cheap)

Bubble-​tea here is really good; buns are cheap and fresh. There’s really nothing wrong with this place The prices are very competitive too.
There is a surplus of good bakeries in the area, but this one is a personal favorite, not much to say about this subject I guess. Try em all and then pick one.
The rolls are really good too

Left another chinatown restaurant and wanted to stop by a bakery to buy some to «save for later»
I got the barbeque pork bun, cream bun, and taro bun. each looked fluffy and soft and buttery (I think my stomach saw itself in them). They smelled so good both in the bakery and in my room.
Super cheap and pretty good. Can’t say if its better than the other area bakeries. Felt pretty similar to other cities.
Inside wasn’t the nicest or cleanest, but you know, standard Chinatown fare.

If you are looking for fresh fruit bubble tea, this is the place to go to! This is one of the few places that use fresh fruit… not that nasty powder stuff. Bubbles are good too!
The buns are also delicious. Get the pineapple bun and the pork bun. At $ 1 each, you’ll fall in love.
This place is not as hip as some of the newer bubble tea places because they don’t have games and loud music. They also only have two small tables, so you usually have to take out. But the quality makes up for it.
Staff super friendly. Cash only.

I was gonna add another start for price and quality — the roast pork buns are probably the best in Chinatown and they gave me 15 for $ 11.25!
But service… I ordered in advanced by placing the order the day before, for pick up at 5pm… they didn’t start making them until 4:55pm. Luckily, they were super fast, but still… actually I’m gonna give them benefit of the doubt I did say that I would be a little after 5pm since I didn’t know I was going to be let off work early :/​Yay Bread Top House! Definitely gonna come back — while I was waiting… those moon cakes were calling me~