We came here mainly to look at the pretty desserts in the window. We were going to get bubble tea but there was a group of five ladies in front of us. They were taking so long that we decided to leave. However, the desserts did lol nice. read more

See all

This gem of a place has been around forever and everything they make is spectacular in taste and criminally underpriced. I frequently buy a breakfast spread for my staff here and it is always heartily devoured. The scallion bun is my favorite, though it has bacon in it. My sweet-toothed vegetarian staff prefer the custard buns. read more

Their mooncakes are honestly some of the best I've ever had in Philly and in New York. Seriously, the egg yolk and lotus paste mooncake was so delicious I drooled. My mouth literally filled up with saliva and it fell out. read more

Bread Top House - Lotus and egg yolk mooncake - Bakeries Near Me - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Ahmazinggg!! I came into bread top house the other morning and was able to see all of the delicious buns and pastries lined up. I got a chicken curry bun, a bbq pork bun, a taro bun and a milk tea bubble tea. The taro bun wasn't too sweet, it was just perfect. They were all tasty!! The bubbles in the tea were really big so it was kind of hard to slurp them through the straw but it was still good! I'd come here for breakfast everyday if I could.. and it's quite affordable too! read more

See all

This house is on the edge of China Town. I came with my wife as part of a food tour. We tried the pork pie. The white bread is really good. They have a huge selection of sweet and savory items for $1 - $2 so a great deal. read more

See all

The service of this bakery is so bad. I really don't understand why many people view it as a friendly place...Especially compared with other places in Chinatown, its service cannot be viewed as good enough. Rude lady likes to yell at people and only accepts cash. Don't recommend it. read more

I've passed this bakery many times so I was glad to finally try it while in Chinatown this weekend! My boyfriend and I each got a pineapple bun: mine the butter variety, and his the custard. The bread was SO fresh and delicious. Very soft with great flavor and topping. I had never had a butter-filled pineapple bun before, so I decided to go for something new. I did like the contrast of salty and sweet, but honestly I'd probably stick with the classic next time just because the inside was a little too gooey for me with the butter. I did enjoy my boyfriend's custard version as well. Price was great at just over $1 per bun. Store is cash only. I'll be back! read more

The officially unofficial best boba spot in Chinatown. Reason why? They use fresh fruit for their boba. Nice cuts of mango or tea taro. Plus their bakery items are delicious. Protip: this is one of only 3-4 of the Chinese bakeries in the area that do steamed meat buns. And in my opinion, the best tasting and bang for buck. Overall: 5/5 if you get the taro or mango bubble tea, you won't be disappointed. Enjoy! read more

If you find yourself in Chinatown in The City of Brotherly Love at breakfast time, this is the spot. Iced milk tea, pastries, buns, whatever. Old school Hong Kong style. Got to love it. read more

I'm not very experienced in Asian bakeries however, this place was pretty cool. Small, little place on the SW corner of Chinatown. Lots of different types of buns both sweet and savory. It's mostly serve yourself. I grabbed three items and my bill was $3. Apparently they have excellent smoothies and tapioca teas too. I wasn't thirsty. 1. The roast pork bun. It was light, fluffy with a good amt of filling. The pork was tender, flavorful with Small amt of onions. 2. I also grabbed a fried shrimp dumpling. Small but very tasty. Not over oily. 3. Last but certainly not least, the egg tart. The crust was flaky, buttery and delicious. The filling was light, tasty and ever so slightly sweet. If I lived here I'd try everything!! With only one visit I can't give five stars but I imagine they would earn another. read more

Really good Chinese pastry/bakery! One of our new favorites with lots of variety and selection

So good. Best bakery in chinatown. So affordable, so delicious. I believe there's a $10 card minimum but well worth it

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. read more

Although a Bakery, this is my go-to place for bubble tea downtown. It runs about $2.50. I usually grab one of these before dining at Ocean Harbor, my #1 pick for Chinese in Chinatown. With bubble tea, the bubbles (boba) are the most important part! They haven't screwed it up ever, which is a lot more than I can say for other places around town that make it too hard and undercooked or too soft and overcooked. I've had the cakes here and it is delicious, but still- the bubble tea! Thats what I'm there for! Milk tea with boba is my fav. read more

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. read more

Bread Top House - Buns, buns, buns - Bakeries Near Me - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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. read more

See all

I love Bread Top House so much. A friend in my class introduced me to it when I was going to school at TJU over a decade ago, and I've been a customer ever since. Some personal favorites are the taro bun, sticky rice, and red bean cake. Absolutely the best hidden gem lunch under 5$ in Philly! read more

Pastries are okay. There are better ones out there in the city. The bread who is very bland. It's really either the filling or toppings that makes up for it here. read more

I was in the mood for egg tarts, so decided to try this place, based on the positive reviews. We came here and got two egg tarts, a sesame ball, a pineapple bun, and two pork buns to go. The service was really friendly, so I had high hopes. We got home and the pork buns had almost no meat in them. They were the most pathetic pork buns (baked bao) that I've ever had, and I've had these all over. The pineapple bun was the same - hardly any topping - just pathetic. The egg tarts were extremely bland, with that curdled eggy texture that I do not like. Gross. Last, but not least, was the sesame ball - this was awesome! Great size, perfect red azuki bean filling, and cooked to perfection - loved it! With all the other Chinese bakeries in town, we won't be back here - too bad, as the service was so nice! read more

Delicious - the roast pork buns were just like my fav pork bun place in NYC that recently went out of business. The cheese pastry was light and delicious. Overall a very good deal - I bought 6 pork buns, 2 cheese pastries and 2 almond dessert type pastries and it was all under $15. Will definitely be going back on next visit to Philly. read more

Some of the best congee, moon cakes, sesame balls, and sponge cake in town. One of my favorite bakeries!

We got here in the early evening and they only had vegetable bao left. The bread part of the bun was great, very flavorful and soft. The vegetable part was more like the wheat gluten imitation meat type stuff rather than minced pieces of vegetable like I was hoping for. It tasted ok, but not spectacular. The bubble tea, however, is a definite win. I've actually never had fresh taro bubble tea before until I came here, and now I've been eternally spoiled and will always sigh with resignation when I get the powdered mix, sugar laden stuff instead. The strawberry bubble tea was also made with fresh ingredients and quite tasty. The tapioca had the right amount of chewiness and softness. The lemon sponge cake was also very good! read more

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. read more

Bread Top House - Cream bun, tsao shao bao, and taro bun. Smells so good. And bread is very fluffy! - Bakeries Near Me - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

I go there for their traditional "crispy crust" egg tarts every time I visit Chinatown. Many other pastry stores offer the easier-to-make "butter crust" variety. (The crispy crust requires careful layering of two different doughs.) Their other pastries are all OK and I buy them without hesitation, but the crispy crust egg tarts and the bright clean environment set Bread Top apart. read more

Bread Top House - crispy crust egg tart (sorry, I crushed it on the way home) - Bakeries Near Me - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The tapioca drinks here are amazing since real fruit is used and not just powder. So if you're craving a pearl drink, get it here. I give this place 3 stars because as I was waiting in front of the baking window, the one person working skipped me and served other people who came after me--I was about to walk out. The taro drink I got was $3. It can get hot inside this place. read more

Rapidly becoming my new favorite bakery in Chinatown. Everything I tried i really enjoyed: Taro Bubble Tea, Mango Bubble Tea, made with real taro, fresh mango,perfect! Coconut Custard Tart- Nice flavor, texture, not too sweet Lotus Seed Bun- Nice bun texture, filling really nutty tasty, again not too sweet Shrimp Dumplings- Fried, great flavor, crunchy, great w/ Thai Sweet Chili Sauce Taro Cakes- Also Fried, worth a try Everything was under a buck, cept the Bubble tea which was only $3 Can't wait to go back and try the pineapple butter bun and a moon cake. read more

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 (10th). 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! read more

I liked the taro bun, reminded me of Hawaii but had a more mild flavor. I didn't expect it to taste like Hawaii and this was better than I expected. The three stars is because the moon cake was cold and flavorless and the sweet bun was supposed to have cream inside and didn't so it was just a plain bun with some sweet egg on top. Very disappointing. Might come back for the taro bun but with so many places to try, not too sure I will read more

Bread Top House - So many pastries - Bakeries Near Me - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

See all

My goto destination for mooncakes! The tarts are delicious, too. The only thing is I got the pineapple buns with custard filling and the inside bread part touching the filling is slightly undercooked. =/ read more

Small storefront but amazing! Everything we bought (egg tart, pork bao, pineapple bao, Swiss roll triangles...) are good with very reasonable price. Family-run business. Owner is friendly and working very hard. read more

My favorite bakery!!! I've gone at least a dozen times over the past few years. Sure, Paris baguette is good but this place is very great, authentic and you can get yummy buns for a dollar read more

This review is just for their boba. They have a small selection depending on what fruits they have available, but I love that they use real fruit and not powder. If you just want the smoothie with no boba, she'll even deduct $0.50 off which was a nice surprise to me since other places don't do that. I'll have to try their pastries and buns next time when I'm in the mood. read more

We love you, Mai! And we love the treats from BTH - especially the 70 cent egg tarts and $1 chocolate croissants. The sponge cake treats in the fridge are a fave for our 7 year old. Still some of the best tapioca pearl tea in the city! BTH rocks! read more

Seriously, I love stopping in here for snacks, for buns, for pastries, for bubble tea... WHAT ELSE DO YOU NEED??? And the woman behind the counter is always super nice and writes me out a receipt whenever I need one (which is always)! Their bubble tea is awesome. Bubbles perfectly chewy, perfectly blended tea and milk. And their curry beef pastry is kept on a warm heated metal thing which was awesome. 3 buns (or was it 4??) + bubble tea = $5! CRAZY! read more

Ok, this review is ONLY for the bubble tea and egg tart. But my, what a bubble tea and egg tart it was! My friend and I decided to do a joint birthday outing and do a bubble tea tasting extravaganza. This is her favorite place and I have to give her credit, it ended up being right at the top of the list despite a good amount of other competitors. The tea is made from real tea (not powdered stuff like from some places). The fruit bubble tea has real fruit blended in (again, not powder). It was delicious with a good amount of sugar and cream. My sweet tooth could use a bit more sugar, but we are talking about Asian desserts after all, so, this is probably as good as it gets :p. The price is a bit higher (~ $.50 - $1.00) more, but with the real fruit and real tea, I would say, ok, worth it. The egg tart was delicious too. The flaky pastry was completely melt in your mouth yummy. Only caveat - eat over something or don't forget to brush yourself off before moving on. Hahaha. read more

My partner and I absolutely love Bread Top House. Almost any time we visit downtown, we have to stop by Bread Top for our favorite treats, a Pineapple Butter Bun, iced Thai Tea, and an Avocado Bubble Tea. Since we've been together, Bread Top has become such a special place for us that we asked Mai to help us with our wedding in April--we ordered 160 Pineapple Butter Buns as favors for our reception! When I stopped by to make the order, I couldn't help but bring two with me to enjoy at home with Christy and I was so shocked that Mai gave them to me on the house. When it was time for pick-up the day before, I arrived and each of the 160 were perfectly packaged in the Bread Top House wrappings, and neatly stacked in boxes. It was easy, it was efficient, and boy was it a bargain! We talk about Bread Top House to everyone, even our officient had to mention them in our ceremony! At the reception, guests were RAVING about the Pineapple Butter Buns that were at each of their seats. People were so spellbound that guests were stealing them from other tables! Our wedding and reception were fantastic and Bread Top House gave each the extra personal touch we wanted. To Mai and the folks at Bread Top House, Thank you for being a part of a day in our lives that we will never forget. Thank you for providing us joy each time we walk in, producing quality with every pastry and item, and for your continued commitment to your loyal customers. Christy and I are surely some of your biggest fans! read more

I literally go here almost every week at least once! The baked goods are delicious and fresh and well worth the price! It is very cheap approx. 75 cents per pastry. The one thing that drives me back the most is the Roast Pork Bun and their smoothies! Bread Top's smoothies are fresh and made with real fruit unlike some other places in Chinatown where you are paying $3.50 - 4.50 for powdered and syrup drinks. At Bread Top, drinks are $3.00 to 3.50. I highly recommend strawberry, mango and watermelon. Their watermelon smoothie is a refreshing drink only offered in the summer. I wait for the summer just to have this drink! It's that good! Also, their cakes are delicious if you are ever need an Asian birthday cake. =] read more

Definitely one of my favorite places in Chinatown, and so conveniently located across the street from the supermarket that I almost always stop in for pastries after I make a Chinese grocery run. My personal favorites are the cocktail buns and the pineapple buns, which are always fresh and have a good ratio of bun to adornment. But, I've sampled almost every kind of pastry here and found that they're generally the right texture and consistency, and very fresh. The one thing I've been sort of skeeved out by is the pre-made banh mi; I'm not sure it would be very good. Now I'm turning on my Hong Kong-nese pastry snob/know-it-all mode, so feel free to skip this paragraph if you don't want to hear it: the only pastry that isn't up to par with a Chinatown competitor is the egg custard tart. Egg custard filling is easy -- hell, my lily white significant other made perfect filling his very first time attempting egg custard tarts; the real measure of a good egg custard tart is how well the crust is done. Here, the crust of the tart is too flour-y and not particularly flaky, the way good egg custard tart crust should be. I haven't done all of the Philadelphia Chinatown bakeries, but Hong Kong Bakery is the only one of the four or five that I've tried that has a decent crust. I grew up eating egg custard tarts, see, once a week every week until I was at least 10; plus I've lived in Hong Kong and probably had one every day while I lived there. As other people have noted extensively, Bread Top House also has real fruit smoothies. You can ask for the fruit "bubble teas" without boba and it will be 50 cents less. It's not the ABSOLUTE cheapest place in Chinatown, but it's still cheap and the cheaper places all use powder, yuck. I love Bread Top House's mango fruit smoothie! read more

I was in Philly for the weekend and after eating some dimsum, it was only fitting that we get some bubble tea in the area. A place we heard about called Zen was closed, so we came upon Bread Top House. I ordered a milk tea, and my friends ordered a Taro Tea and a Green Milk Tea. We also got a strawberry tea for our other friend. Worst bubble tea ever. I'm no connoisseur on bubble tea, but I've definitely tasted my fair share to the point where my opinion would matter. The Taro tea could only be described as "frothy" - as in that's what your mouth felt like after sipping it. My simple milk tea tasted like it was overdosed with Splenda. The only reason why this place even gets 1 star is b/c the Strawberry Tea wasn't half-bad, but it's going to be slightly decent after 3 poor tasting bubble teas. Maybe the desserts are why this place is rated somewhat high -- but don't come here for the traditional bubble teas. Thanks. read more

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! read more