101 Bakery

Usually my go to bakery in Chinatown — try the mochi red bean bun, coconut buns are delicious too but very butter heavy, not a bad bun in the mix!
The sponge cakes are sometimes dry so I would stick to the buns or fancy cakes.
Pro tip — CASH ONLY!

Bought a fruit cake slice on a Wednesday around 6pm. Flavor is ok but the slice is so dry, Not sure if the cake is made on the same day or has been in the fridge for several days. If they make the cakes the same day, then their fridge setting is seriously wrong.

Liked — purple colored taro cake, it was under $ 2. Yummy!
Didn’t like — green tea cake for $ 3.5 (they increased the price by $ 1)
Will come back again for taro cake

Not sure if the name comes from Taipei 101 or like a college course, but this place is pretty good. Can get a lot of the pastries for a decent price (about $ 1 but who knows how much «cheap» will be in a couple years). I wouldn’t call it a JJ Bakery or 85C, but it’s alright. The pineapple bread /​菠蘿包 is a little different from what I remembered in Taiwan.

I really like this place. But I do agree that it’s hit or miss depending on what you get. I’ve had the taro bread that’s sort of twisted and it is soft and delicious; definitely not too sweet. But my favorite is the small red bean cake. So delicate and delicious!!! That said, I don’t love their pineapple bun (one of my favorite baked goods); the coconut bread (also twisted) is okay but not my favorite; some of the prices are a little higher than other spots nearby; and they don’t have any individual cookies. Still, I like how clean and organized things are here and how friendly people are, so I tend to pick this place above other nearby bakeries.

Red bean mochi bun is the only thing I purposely come here for. It is almost slightly too sweet, but of the two places that I know to have these buns, 101 place makes it best. The bun is moist and the filling is plentiful.
They offer other interesting options as well, but I haven’t tried any.
They’re 3ish…, but bumping to 4 since they’re the only place I know to go get a red bean mochi bun when I want one.

Cheap, tasty and HUGE egg tarts! I was surprised that they had any egg tarts left at 5pm, and was looking around for a back up option but I wasn’t really impressed with the other offerings. But really the egg tarts here are really big.

Came here to get shaved ice but there wasn’t any. Disappointing! Place is small. There were only 3 tables, good thing we got the last time. I only got one thing from here and it was ok. Won’t be coming back here again.

Best bakery in Chinatown! I went to two other bakeries before I finally came to 101 Bakery and made my purchase. The shop is clean, and the goods are fresh. They have a larger selection than other bakeries in Chinatown. Plus, you can buy bubble tea here! The staff are friendly and helpful. Oh, and the treats are delicious. You can bet I will become a regular.

Bakery selection here for the price was pretty great for how small it was. I’d come back again just knowing that alone. It’s hard to find affordable snacks these days, especially adorable ones! The tea was okay, nothing to run back for though.

A very typical Asian bakery! The reason we came here was because it was raining so hard and we needed somewhere to hide. Who knew, this place had so many bakery options that we enjoyed and for a much cheaper price!
We ordered:
–1 red bean whole wheat roll
–1 walnut and raisin whole wheat roll
–1 taro roll
–1 savory pork-​sung and scallion roll
–1 pineapple glazed roll
Pros:
–the whole wheat rolls are delicious! Packed with a good spread of filling.
–staff was pretty nice. Business was a little slow since it was winding down, but this seems like a pretty popular place around.
–relatively cheap! I like my carbs, and sometimes Asian pastries taste the same. (Besides price and filling) this place is solid 3 stars, and definitely bakes their stuff fresh.
Cons:
–taro bun filling was quite little and savory bun was too oily… it was lathered with pig fat.
Tips/​observations:
–they also sell boba drinks, coffee, cakes, and other pastry items! Give them a try!
Overall, would come here again if I was around!

Judging from the reviews, this place seems like a hit or miss depending on what you get. I’m writing my review to inform you of a HIT that you MUST TRY: the 4 layer sandwich is da bomb diggity. To paraphrase Joey’s quote from «Friends»… What’s not to like? ham, good. mayo, good. pork sung, good! They make this fresh every morning and it’s usually sold out by 2PM, so make sure you drop by earlier in the day. In terms of service, the ladies working here don’t tend to your every need, but I have yet to experience good customer service in Chinatown, so nothing new there. Minus 1 star because it doesn’t make me full.
PS. Watch your back as you enter and leave this place. The front door closes extremely fast and forcefully — smacked me from behind hahaha great start to my morning.

I’ve been here a few times now and finally feel like I’ve tried enough things to write a review. 101 Bakery is a little different from other chinese bakeries in Chinatown because it is supposed to be Taiwanese (a la Taipei 101 – hence «101» bakery) and has more modern pastries. Most of the other bakeries (like Great Taste, Hing Shing, and Ho Yuen) sell more traditional chinese items like Bolo/​Pineapple buns, almond cookies, sponge cakes, and mooncakes. You won’t find the exact same items at 101 Bakery.
I like their red bean+mochi bread. Its a little different from the red bean paste bun that you’d find any other place. There’s mochi in it! My only gripe is that sometimes they skimp on the mochi and I’m eating the bread wondering if I accidentally grabbed the non-​mochi one. Watch out because for some reason they label both the mochi one and the non-​mochi one as «Red Bean Bun». Tip: The one with sesame seeds on top is the non-​mochi one and the with the faintly swirly top is the mochi one.
They have standard taiwanese items like «garlic» gread – not like garlic bread that often comes with Italian food. They have an interesting take on the taro bun. Most places have the taro paste in a regular sweet bun but 101 has a flaky purple bun. They also have a bunch of variations on pork floss buns. If you have no idea what pork floss is (admittedly the name is pretty weird and gross), my non-​Chinese friends who have tried it have said its sort of like «Asian bacon bits»…kind of. Not a huge fan of pork floss buns in general but 101 is one of the only places in Chinatown that has them.
They also sell bubble tea here. It’s decent and cheaper than its competitors Cha Time and Kung Fu Tea. The BBT isn’t super sweet like at Kung Fu (unless you remember to specify 50% sugar). Bubbles usually have a good texture, but nothing super special.
I’ve never ordered a cake from here. It has really pretty looking green tea, mango, and strawberry cakes though. But most Chinatown bakeries have similar cakes.
I have two complaints. Try to go early because around its around 4 – 5 pm the shelves are near empty and there isn’t much variety left. At least this suggests that their breads are made fresh daily. Also, the last time I checked out the small cakes (little blocks of black forest cake, mousses, etc), some of the cakes looked like they had been sitting in the freezer for longer than they should have been. The green tea cake was starting to look brown. Maybe that is the intended color… but it was slightly off-​putting.
One big plus — this bakery has enough seating for 12 people. Meaning, it has 12 stools and 3 tables. So you can sit and enjoy your breads and they don’t pressure you to leave.
This place deserves 3.5 stars. I feel generally positive about it but it’s not anything super special.

We stopped in after having lunch at the Dumpling House next door. They had a nice selection, but the staff were not overly friendly — it felt like we were imposing on them to request something.
Their selections seemed good — very similar to other bakeries on the block. Things looked very appetizing and the place was very clean and neat.
We got a Crème Cake to take away and share, and it was very tasty.

This a really small bakery. If you’re looking to just walk-​in, grab a little dessert with boba, this is the right place. There are only 3 tables. No public bathrooms.
They also have $ 1 egg tarts. The biggest I’ve seen so far in Chinatown.
Just to add, be sure to get a rewards card for the drinks. On the fifth drink, it’s 50% off and the tenth is free :)

The biggest advantage 101 Bakery has over its competitors is in the aesthetics. Most of their items come individually pre-​packaged and I feel like compared to other bakeries in Chinatown, the appearance of each item has more detail and care.
The taste is about even with other bakeries and the price is slightly higher (probably to account for the additional attention paid to aesthetics)
101 is great for buying pastries to give to friends, especially people who don’t have experience with Chinese bakeries. 101 also has a few items with significant Japanese influence which is to be appreciated as well.
I would definitely recommend 101 to a friend.

This is the second bakery i’ve visited in Chinatown and I have to say that this was quite disappointing.
The good thing about this establishment is that the workers are extremely nice, fast service, and very cheap pastries (roughly $ 2/​pastry). I thought this was too good to be true… and it was. All 3 pastries I bought were slices of a larger cake. All 3 were dry (I almost choked to death trying to eat it without milk) and pretty bland in general.
If you’re looking for quality over quantity and cost, I would definitely check out Eldo Cake House. I bought a cake there for my roommate a while back and it was really moist and tasty.

The pineapple buns looked sad and mushy, the cream buns looked sad, the scallion rousong swirly buns looked sad, the coconut raisin buns looked sad…
And they all tasted sad too. Poor texture, stale ingredients, limited selection.
Simply not a good bakery.

cakes are pretty digusting, especially after my friend saw a rat running around on the kitchen floor. NOT OKAY FOR A FOOD SERVICE PLACE.
will never come again. they should be shut down.

The coconut bread was great for breakfast, and it was only one dollar! Such a good deal, definitely come here if you are looking for some cheap but good quality breads :)