“After experiencing the magical culinary delight that the plum blossom had to offer I will never be eating at another Chinese restaurant in the area. Everything we had at this place was 100% on point and the price point was abnormally low for the quality of food.“
“About 18% of the world's population lives in China while the U.S. has approximately 4.5% of the population. I've tended to think of Chinese cuisine as a monolithic entity rather than a dynamic mix of regional cuisines. I've been trying to address my ignorance by eating at Chinese restaurants that advertise their regionality. Hong Kong Bakery & Bistro is Cantonese/Guangdong. From my very limited research, the cuisine is light and mild, steamed rather than stir fried. This is certainly a simplification but it is a starting point. One of the more famous dishes from the region is dim sum. Dim sum means "touch the heart". They are small steamed or fried savory items, snacks. These are the items I focused on during my visits to the bakery/bistro. Each item was different enough from the other to make for a pleasant and satisfying meal. Steamed dishes - beef ball with bean curd skin, shrimp with spinach dumpling, roast duck dumpling, rice rolls with roast duck. Fried dishes included deep fried pork dumpling and fried shrimp ball. Most of the rolls were made with glutinous rice of varying thickness or cornstarch, either steamed or deep fried. The sauces were also wide-ranging, savory to sweet, and added much to the meal. What I didn't know - dim sum is usually accompanied with tea. I can see how that can elevate the experience. Since it is a bakery, I also tried some of those items. Custard buns, coconut custard buns, coconut pudding, dried pork buns, and even tiramisu were tested. Some notes - The dried pork buns added pork floss (dried pork manipulated to the texture of rough cotton candy) to the outside of the bun. Coconut pudding - subtle fragrance and flavor of coconut coagulated with agar agar as the gelling agent. It's more "bouncy" than jello - not my favorite. I think some of the baked items were bought from a wholesaler - there's a whole lot there. The most underwhelming item was the tiramisu. Well, who gets tiramisu at a Cantonese place? I guess I do. This taught me a lesson as this item seemed to have languished in the display case for a bit longer than it should. Overall, it's a really good place to try different dim sum. A word of warning - Italian desserts might be saved for another place.“
“From my 9 year old: This is the best place in the city, EVER. I love it so much, the food is so good and the people are so nice. It has a perfect name complimented by the water feature in the lobby. I would rate it one thousand million stars if I could. The staff is genuine and warm, just the best. I wish there were more places like this.“