Chinese Traditional Buns

If there is option I would rate 10 stars!
The name is very unappealing: Cvinese traditional buns. They simply translated their Chinese name to English. But what the restaurant sign really reads: Chinese Staple Classic Buns. Which is quite telling what they sell— things that taste like mainland China. Judging how big the Chinese population is in Toronto u’d be surprised how Difficult to find Mainland Chinese food that is eaten by billion people back home. In Canada majority Asian population is Hongkong background related n they have complete different diet.
This is a place that brings u straight to the alley way in China that has little dinners making fresh buns n dumplings and noodles from scratch! That you could smell the aroma from distance. U instantly feel like you are in China.
They have the most DELICIOUS buns! And dumplings. I have tried true pork buns, red bean buns. All delicious and fluffy mouth watering. I have tried their beef and Chive dumplings, pork dumplings and egg Chive dumplings. All 5 stars !
My personal favourite is NO.7 called —-pan fried steam buns. On the menu they look boring (upside down flipped over with browned bottoms up) but when they are served they are Sooo moist fluffy, there juices flowing inside the pork with ginger n green onion inside is so delicate. The white buns are freshly hand made, steamed to perfection and then pan fried at bottom. I have brought 6 friends there n each of them r hooked on these. And since then they have been coming back on their own. My bf’s first time here he refused to order saying he was not hungry that he ate already. When these were served, he tried one n ate all my serving saying it’s the best thing he has ever had.
Their Chive egg dumplings r so yum. I am a meat lover but these are so tasty that is one thing I order without meat.
—- how to make steam bun/​dumpling dipping sauce:
Sniff the sauce bottles (because they both say Soy sauce but one is soy, the other is VINEGAR!!! Lol). Mix 2 parts soy sauce, 1part vinegar, some chilly oil .
I have since tried other locations in China town, still not one place has more authentic flavour than this one. This place specialize in dumplings too which is 100x better than the Dumpling House .
The service here is very good. They are very polite and very attentive. The menu is old and sticky and non explanatory. So if you bring someone speaks Cantonese or from Hongkong expect them to help with the menu then won’t be much help. lol but just trust that the food here is good. Start with Their beef noodles and dumplings and pan fried buns.
They recently renovated the place entirely. So previous ratings saying they were dingy which was true, you no longer need to worry. The place is very inviting now :):)

Where I’m from, there is no Chinatown, and the available Chinese restaurants offer typical American-​Chinese faire. Whenever I am in a big city, I make sure to check out real Chinese restaurants, which led me to this place.
My favorite food, arguably, are soup dumplings. Checking Unilocal reviews, I noticed this place had soup dumplings. Then I discovered, «The Incident.» I immediately knew I had to come here.
It’s a pit: basement level, dusty, open containers, sticky tables, the most cluttered kitchen I have ever seen. I took my fellow Unilocalers advice to not look around and just trust it. My friend and I gave each other several of the, «Should we just leave» looks before deciding to bite the bullet and order.
The tea they serve was delicious. I think I drank two pots just myself. We ordered some type of noodle dish, soup dumplings, and soup buns. I discovered (when my food came out) that this place calls what I know as soup dumplings soup buns. Luckily I ordered them. And they were delicious. We were full so did not finish everything, and one of the workers came over and thought we did not like the food. She was apologetic, although we tried to tell her we loved the food, it was just that we were full. Very nice and caring.
We thoroughly enjoyed our meal here, and I would recommend this place to others. Just follow everyone else’s advice: don’t look around, just order.

Go for the Soup Dumplings. We stopped for a quick lunch before going to a matinée show. After hearing so much raving about the soup dumplings here, we had to make sure we tried them on a quick visit to the area.
We ordered both the pork soup dumplings. I understand they are made to order, so I wasn’t surprised that it took a good 15 minutes for them to be served even though the restaurant was not busy at this hour. I was surprised at how large the dumplings were. I understand that some people say the proper method of eating them is to bite or puncture the dumpling so that the soup drains into your spoon. But since I’m accustomed to slightly smaller dumplings I like to put the whole dumpling into my mouth and feel the release of the soup in my mouth as the dumpling bursts. That way I experience the full flavor of the soup along with the filling.
It was not an easy chore to get a whole dumpling into my mouth. It was impossible for my wife to do so. Letting the dumplings cool considerably was the key to not burning my mouth. By the time we finished the half dozen pork dumplings, it was a lot easier to deal with the cooler, remaining 6 crab dumplings.
The soup flavor of the pork dumplings was simply outstanding. So much flavor!!! The crab dumplings had a lot of crab/​fish flavor, but our favorite was the pork.

There is a serious lack of northern Chinese food. Traditional Chinese Bun is the only place I can think of that actually makes me feel like I’m in Beijing. It’s my go to. Don’t order outside of their specialty (soups, steam buns, and some northern style noodles). Don’t expect wonderful service or a clean environment, but for the price it’s just wonderful. Also the people are super nice. Don’t base your interpretation of their service quality on their English skills.

Went a few day ago around 3 pm… the owner is very friendly but really care more about the food. See photos attached for those
Very tasty buns tasty Jian Bing like from that movie Jian Bing Man
Very good price
Get pickup to go if you want a nice place to eat. This place is designed for making good food not sit in extravagance.
Will try Dan Dan noodles next time

Chinese Traditional Bun is this tiny hole in the wall in downtown Chinatown. The place itself is in a basement on the small strip of Dundas near the corner of Spadina. This is certainly a place I would have walked by 9 times out of 10, but the girlfriend stopped me because she definitely wanted to give them a shot.
The place itself is small, dank, and a bit dirty. The menu offers a wide variety of steamed buns and dumplings. The dumping soup was actually not that bad. The dumplings, though small, tasted pretty good, and had a good amount of fat in it. The broth was fine as well. The steamed buns were decent, but much better could be had uptown.
Not an ideal place for a date by the way. If you are looking for some place nice to take a date, get out of Chinatown. Otherwise, if you are alone (aren’t we all), feel free to drop by to satisfy any quick dumpling or bao cravings.

This place feels like home. There is no where in downtown Toronto that truly has authentic Northern Chinese Food.
Yes their menus are a bit sticky, the basement stairway is pretty precarious and they leave meat lying around but if you mind that, then good luck eating in China for real.
My favorite order is usually pan fried buns, cucumber salad and a soup (Hot & Sour, Mutton and actually any of them are solid choices).
What makes me sad is the handmade noodle master has moved back to China, I pray for the day he returns.
Overall, my favorite place to eat.

I was once a staunch believer that authentic Chinese food, beyond the typical Cantonese/​HK staples, COULD NOT be found in downtown Chinatown.
And then Chinese Traditional Bun proved me wrong.
Their noodles and buns are delicious and legit. Here are some things I liked:
-«go-​bu-​li» buns (translates roughly to «buns that dogs don’t want»… But trust me, human will want it!)
–all their non-​soup noodles (eg Dan Dan mein), get the hand made noodles
–dumplings aren’t bad either
It is a true hole in the wall. Actually, more like a hole in the ground (basement). BUT THE FOOD!

The buns are too die for, and the hot soup buns seem quite the feat. The interior of this basement restaurant is slightly dilapidated so I’d recommend takeout buns for the diner who is picky about atmosphere.

The restaurant itself is situated in a basement next to Dragon City. Overall, my first impressions of the restaurant was that it was very filthy and sketchy. I quickly changed my mind when I tried their dan dan noodles and soup dumplings. My take on the restaurant? Don’t judge a book by its cover. The restaurant may be borderline fugly when you first walk in, but you’ll walk out feeling very satisfied and wanting to come back for more in the future.

Ordered fried noodles but not what i expected, decent though. Soup filled pork buns are like xiao long bao but thicker wrap or almost dough-​like. Pork/​shrimp dumplings are good too. The jasmine-​like tea served is ok, but the highlight is the hot soy milk for free which goes well with the cold weather. The tables are covered with white plastic so its kind of awkward to the eye, maybe better if its the transparent table cover instead of plastic. its a plus if you are with a cantonese, mandarin, chinese speaking friend.

Authentic street baozi in every sense. Food will spoil your mouth, ambiance will spoil your immune system. Toronto Western Hospital within walking distance. Yes, there are more gourmet and photogenic buns uptown, but they are not within walking distance to Cold Tea and warm hookahs.
Pros:
Accurate street bun mouthfeel.
Dan DAMN mien.
Cons:
Tuberculosis.
Maybe haunted.

Worst restaurant I have been in Toronto! This place is really disgusting, poor service, disgusting food, dirty environment… After eating the «Chinese cold noodles» which I think is their specialty, I felt uncomfortable the whole day. They put a lot of salt, garlic, and MSG into it like they are free! And the dumpling I ordered is full of green onion instead of meat! Really disgusting, the food, the décor, the service… Never again!!!

Oh CTB… where shall I start? We’ve been through a lot in the past few years.
I still remember when I first found you, a small underground treasure that served the most delicious Northern Chinese street/​comfort food. You felt like «home» when Ness Y. and I would share a big bowl of hand-​pulled noodles and dumplings after strolls around downtown and talks of race, equity, politics and boys. At first, I guarded you. Only my closest friends got to meet you, and they were warned, «you’ll probably end up sitting on the toilet all night but don’t worry, totally worth it and only happens the first time… consider this an initiation». When my dating got serious, you would vet the boyfriends and their level of spice tolerance — many did not make the cut. You were there when my then-​boyfriend pulled out a ring and proposed, I nearly choked on a mouthful of crispy spicy beef — those tears were not just tears of happiness. We wanted you at our wedding, but then…
Then that horrible thing happened, so horrible that I could not face you for years. I was shocked, sad and confused. What do I say? How do we move on from this?
A few months ago, I came back. It was nice seeing you again and I’m glad you’re back on your feet. It was awkward, but I think we can do this. Your crispy beef is just as tantalizing as ever, the buns are fresh and juicy, the cold noodles are still my favourite. It’s good to know that you haven’t changed and we can pick up where we left off. It’s like dining with an old friend.

Chinese Traditional Bun is literally a dirty little secret. It’s filthy. It’s small. It’s hidden in a basement in Chinatown.
They pull their own dan dan noodles and have an extraordinarily long menu of soups, noodles, dumplings and buns. The staff doesn’t speak much English, so if you have questions about one of their dishes and don’t rock Cantonese, you’re screwed. Write your number on the piece of printer paper and hope like hell.
PEPPER TAKES PAUSE: It’s really dirty in here. My kitchen has a better chance of getting a passing health code grade.

Don’t be fooled by the basement setting and pile of garbage mops outside the doorway. Or the slaughter house style plastic portal behind the front door you dirtily push through. Don’t be fooled by the lack of English language skills or open door to the kitchen in the back which looks a little too dirty to be open. Don’t be fooled by the many, many tasty options on the menu… get the Dan Dan noodles (#95) and pay the extra $ 1 to get the homemade hand pulled ones. It’s a treat.

This place is not good despite its promising name and appearance. I know a lot of you *cough*nonasians*cough* might think that this is one of those hole in the wall places that look disgusting but the food is amazing and authentic. Yes, this is a whole in the wall, and its physical appearance is a direct reflection on the quality of the food. Your reverse psychology just backfired!
I tried two kinds of their buns, they were soggy and looked sloppy. Making buns is like an art form; they should be beautifully made and uniform. The buns here are more towards the home made side, and not by a great home cook either. The fillings were overly processed to the point that the meat has lost its texture. Their handmade noodles were no better; they were doughy but lacked bite (signs of staleness). To add insult to injury, this place wasn’t cheap! I got an order of buns, noodles, and an orange juice; my bill came to over $ 20!
This place is typical to the restaurants that you would find in the run-​down parts of China, where even the locals may have reservations about. Their transplant here doesn’t make them any better. The bun store at the Finch and Midland plaza in Scarborough is waaaayyyy better.

The buns are really legit. The skin and filling are both delicious and exactly like grandma’s cooking. Prices are low as well so you can definitely get full without spending a lot.
Service has never been a strength here. After the unfortunate incident last year that ended up on the news, it seems that they renovated and changed some things so the ambiance is slightly better. Still, it helps a lot to go with someone who speaks/​reads chinese as not all the employees understand english.

I would have give Chinese Traditional Bun a 3 star.
The floor is sticky. but is ok, I am not eating from it.
The deco is plain and non existent, but is ok, I am not eating that
The food is decently good made fresh. and I have fun with a group of my fellow Unilocaler.
The dumplings are all made to order, served fresh and steamy hot!
But why 1 star?
Not only the ready made buns were lying around exposed and that lady that making the dumplings in the storefront didn’t even bother washing her hands after she finishing using the bathroom…
If I didn’t witness. I would say ok… anything can happen when I am not looking. but…
GROSS!

Chinese Traditional Bun, a dirty little secret tucked away in a basement spot on Dundas across from Phở Pasteur.
This place is surprisingly under-​yelped but it kept coming up on Chowhound and Urbanspoon as a good place for dumplings and I thought it deserved investigation.
When I say dirty, it really is. The floors were littered with food and was in desperate need of a sweeping up. The food was honestly so good that I’m still giving 4 stars regardless of it’s dinginess.
There are a few nice ladies running this place. One speaks English and is happy to make menu recommendations. There is another older lady who is making fresh dumplings and noodles when you enter.
Chinese Traditional Buns has a very unique menu with lots of Northern Chinese dishes that I haven’t seen on any other menus.
First up was the Xian cured pork sandwich ($ 2.29, bargain). Looks like a CHINESE HAMBURGER! The pork was served on a small thin bun which looked something like an english muffin, and was flavoured and garnished with green onion. This was really tasty.
Next came the dumplings — egg & zucchini steamed ones. (12 for $ 4.99). This was my favourite dish, REALLY tasty and fresh. I want more!
Next were some steamed buns «Gou-​Bu-​Li buns of Tianjin». Whatever that means. 6 meat filled buns for $ 3.99! These were good too but not as delicious as the dumplings.
We also ate a delicious eggplant dish that was properly spicy in a sweet glaze sauce. ($ 7.99 for a giant plate)
Tons of unique menu items here, I will be back to investigate further.