Marui Bakery

Came here because of the rave for their eggtarts. I knew I couldn’t make it in the early morning or noon even. So I called them after work to check whether there were still any left. Luckily, there was. The guy on the phone was super nice and immediately told me he would save half a dozen for me (didn’t even ask for my name or number). What if I didn’t come?
I got there earlier than I expected. Marui Bakery is a very small bakery hidden behind Honolulu Café and in front of London Drugs. There weren’t much pastries left at the end of the day. Apart from the eggtarts, I was really hoping to also get the chicken pie. Looked around but didn’t find them so I just asked for the eggtarts that I reserved. There weren’t any on display either so I wondered if I hadn’t had called would I not have gotten any or were they just hiding in the back?
The lady behind in the register was busy watching something on youtube. Didn’t look up or greeted me. Being the proud EBC (European-​born-​Chinese) as I am, I asked for my eggtarts in Cantonese. The lady went to the back grabbed them and started talking to me in fluent English. To be honest, I was a bit shocked. I would expect a small bakery like this was opened by a mom & pop straight from Asia, guess not. Paid for them and went to devoured them elsewhere.
The box was hot from the eggtarts, but the eggtart themselves were just warm. The first two on top was a bit weird shaped and I must say I wasn’t totally impressed by the looks of them. I did noticed the flaky layers of the crust (
). Definitely give props to that. The custard could do with a bit more sugar but other than that I would say it’s a 4 out 5.

Ever since a friend posted about this egg tart I’ve been dying to try it and I finally got to see what he was talking about. Wow. One of the best egg tarts I’ve ever had and this beats out SF golden gate bakery hands down. No hype. Ultra flakey crust, excellent custard to crust ratio, silky smooth bouncy egg custard middle. I don’t think Ive even had a better in HK from memory… I had to wait because the first batch came out of the oven and for the custard to settle and be eaten properly, be patient… You gotta let these guys cool off!

It’s one of those places where they just do what they are known for ‘RIGHT’… and we have many places for those certain items, this one is no different but the one thing I have been coming here for years is their egg tart (蛋撻) and it always delivers. Reading some old reviews I see that this item has gone up in price… it’s $ 1.00 now, well it’s not going to break your bank still, and these things aren’t the easy to make. If you come here on any given time, don’t expect them to just have the egg tart… they do sell out, and looking at reviews, does this deserve a less of a star? Think about it. if they didn’t sell out. would you want that piece of pastry hanging under some warm light. or better yet, in open air for me to come by to buy it? Be patient, and feel lucky when you can actually fill up a half dozen back home!
This is your standard Chinese bakery in a very tight plaza, where businesses are side-​to-​side on each other, where finding a parking spot is already being lucky, this place is packed, and I am not talking about the bakery, but everything else, from the Papa John’s, to the Gold Train Vietnamese, to the Honolulu Café, add in a London Drugs, and a Shanghainese place that looks to come open, and there just isn’t enough spots, but when you do come into this place, you can choose to sit right at the window, or do what most do, choose, buy, get out!
I haven’t really tempted anything else here, but if your looking for a place for a quick Chinese pastry bite, you cannot go wrong here, they serve up breads, filled buns (bbq pork, chicken), sponge cakes, and every normal item you would find at a Maxim’s or St. Germain’s, except this is the only location.
Getting back to the egg tart, the main focus of why you should come here… is that they are a fair size, not too massive, and not too miniature like the one’s found at dim sum. The complaint I have with this item is usually the crust, far too often have I had one where the crust is too thick, too solid, too hard, too emphasized, but the crust at Marui, if someone was to do a macro-​filming of you taking a bite out of one of these, you would see an explosion of flakes, so yes. eat with a napkin or plate, this could get messy (puff pastry at it’s best)! The other main piece, is the filling, surely this is not bright deep yellow, some may call it pale, until you bite in. the custard is smooth, not overly candy sweet, just a perfect balance of light taste with smooth texture, and they have been doing this for awhile, still consistent as ever.
Just remember when you bring these suckers home, if you don’t gobble them up like some monster at the store, to warm them up lightly in the oven, they taste ok when they get cold, but you can revive the life out of these things once the heat is on. It doesn’t matter if you are doing nothing, or maybe watching a movie, or for me. on the next day, playing a video game… it’s a great treat, and still one of the best in town!

I typically don’t eat cakes or desserts, but I just LOVE their fresh mango cake and hazelnut cake. It almost has become a tradition for me to order a cake from Marui Bakery on every special occasion. I pre-​ordered a mango cake for Father’s Day and brought it with me to meet my boyfriend’s family for the first time. Everyone absolutely loved it!
The entire cake was covered by slices of golden mangos. The cake itself was light and soft; the mangos on top and all of that mango chucks in between layers were fresh and sweet!
Cakes from Marui are not overly sweet or heavy– just perfect!

My advice forgo the buns and stick to the cake. Standout items include sponge cake, fresh mango cake & egg tarts are a must. Now they increase the price of the egg tarts to $ 1 each. Still reasonable.
Note for the egg tarts you may wish to call ahead to reserve or there may be a 10 — 15 minute wait.
Parking is horrible

This is our go to place for birthday cakes. Their cake is soft and the cream is not too sweet. Try their mango and lychee mousse cake. It’s great!

This is a small unassuming bakery. I have walked by here hundreds of time and finally decide to give them a try.
Thanks to all the other Unilocalers for their comments, it’s true? They do have one of the best Egg Tarts I have ever tasted here.
Egg Tart — for 85 cents, this is one of the flakiest, nicest egg tarts I have tasted, the egg filling is not too sweet and have a creamy smooth texture.
Chicken Tart $ 1.50 — nice flaky shell with lots of fillings inside.
Now onto to the buns…
Curry Beef Bun $ 1.30 — if you like Curry Beef Asian Buns like I do, you will like theirs, very flavorful filling, soft fluffy bun.
BBQ Pork Bun $ 1.10 — great snack size.
Ham and Egg Bun $ 1.10 — don’t let the size fool you, it looks small but it’s very deceiving, the bun is like a mini loaf fill with Ham and Eggs. Full of flavor and the bun is soft and fluffy.
Most buns in Asian Bakeries have a bit of a sweet taste so if you do not like sweet with savory, you might not like the buns.
All the buns are wrapped in individual cellophane bags for easy transport and storage. Perfect for mid afternoon snacks.
Also purchased some Cheese Bread, smells delicious, can’t wait to taste it!
Get there before noon, 2^nd batch of egg tarts comes out along with Chicken Tarts.
While I was waiting for the egg tarts to come out, there were a constant flow of customers coming in to purchase items, everyone left with at least 2 neopolitans. Since I was already purchasing tons of buns and egg tarts, I have to restrict myself to buy that also. Saving it for the next purchase. They also have individual sized pound cakes and Honey Cakes, their cookies look good also.
Thank goodness it’s so far from my home, otherwise I have a feeling I will be there everyday.

Came here b/​c of the thread about best egg tarts, too bad when i arrived here at 2pm, they were sold out, but she did say they would be making more in the next half hour or so.
But I couldn’t wait, things to do, people to see so next time… i’m in the area anyways.
Was impressed by the healthy options available, it’s a bit of a rarity for an asian bakery to cater to the healthy market, as pic of omega-​3 flax seed cookies.
Very small bakery & just a 2-​seat sitting area.
Plenty of parking but it’s tight for wide-​a$$ trucks.

Surprisingly good egg tarts here! I’ve had some great egg tarts in HK and SF and these would be some of the best I’ve sampled in Vancouver!

The quality of the baked goods are excellent but the prices are a little bit higher than other bakeries in the area. They also have a lot of different varieties of cakes and buns that you cannot find in other traditional chinese bakeries. The service is also quite good considering it is a bakery.

Diamond in the rough! I found this small take out bakery by accident 5 yrs ago. Upon return recently, I was so glad everything’s just as good as I remembered. BEST EGG TART and Chicken Pie in N.A. I have tried egg tarts all over the N.A.‘s major cities and even a dozen places in Toronto. Not one can stand up to the quality and freshness of this place. Even after consuming 3 to 4 of their goodies, I wasn’t bloated or too full. For people sensitive to carb, do not worry about this place. Believe me, for people sensitive to gluten or refined carb, the ingredients used here will be no problem. My recommendations besides the egg tart, chicken pie, try the mousse and Hong Kong style bread. You can walk out of here w/​a dozen pieces of goodies and it barely cracks above $ 10 – 11 Canadian dollars, what a deal.

A tiny Chinese bakery on a typical strip mall (with Honolulu Café and London Drugs) on Kingsway — extremely unremarkable and I would have never found it if it wasn’t for Marc D.‘s quest for the perfect egg tart [daan taat].
The bakery is very clean and has tons of offerings seducing you — every pastry looked premium compared to Pine House and was (justifiably) more expensive. Had to try their curry beef buns (one of my all-​time favourites) at $ 1 each and ½ dozen egg tarts at $ 0.80 each (still warm) — taxes included. With a new PS3 release in hand, we retreated to my buddies house for an afternoon of Bioshock 2 and egg tarts. Damn right, I like the life I live.
The egg tart come is a paper cupcake mold instead of the usual aluminium mold. As a result, the crust is über-​flaky and soft — handle delicately as my ogre-​like hands crushed one pulling it out the box. The curry beef bun was great as well — the bun was fluffy and there was the near-​perfect filling blend of onion, curry and beef.
Overall, a good bakery and will drop by again when I’m in the area. Just wished I had the foresight to drop by Honolulu as well to get some milk tea to go with my egg tarts. Then again, I already made enough of a mess flaking egg tart crust over my buddy’s PS3. Once again, HANDLE THE EGG TARTS WITH CARE.

* We have a tie! *
New Town (
) was leading the egg tart quest, with Diane (
) not too far behind.
But we now have a tie for the lead, with Marui.
I hadn’t noticed this little unassuming bakery before, as it is tucked away in the London Drugs parking lot. But they produce a seriously good egg tart.
The crust was the flakiest I have had in the Vancouver area. The custard was nice and eggy without being overly sweet. And it was still warm from the oven.
I don’t know if they regularly have them warm though, or if I just got lucky. But I know I’ll be back to see!
The rest of their pastries looked to be a slight cut above many of the other Chinese bakeries around the Vancouver area. I’ll have to try some of those as well on the next visit.
For now we have a tie between New Town and Marui in the egg tart quest!