Captain Cafe & Bakery

I got the banana rice cake which was yummy! I’ve never seen a banana flavored mochi before so I was excited
They have many options and service is very fast
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A convenient place to grab dessert after eating in the square

This is by far the cleanest bakery in Chinatown! The workers are very nice and helpful.
This is the only bakery that makes the sweet top buns in baby size (which I love) that I’ve been to. They have quite the spread of buns, cookies and cakes. They do make special occasion cakes as well. And they have a small seating area. :)

Captain is my personal favorite bakery in Chinatown (over Chiu Quon and Saint Anna), not because it’s particularly spectacular but because it’s better than the alternatives. I found Captain to offer more varieties, look slightly cleaner and more presentable, and provide more affable service.
I particularly like the curried (chicken or beef) buns as well as the char siu (BBQ) pork bun. The meat filling in all of these buns is decidedly mysterious, and the dough is a little chewier than preferred, but all-​in-​all it’s a great and hearty breakfast. Captain also offers the usual Chinese buns (my wife’s go-​to is red bean, mine is custard) as well as a medley of dimsum-​esque desserts like red bean sesame balls.

We stopped here when visiting Chinatown on our 2^nd day in Chicago. This place has some good selection but the bakery across the plaza had better pineapple bun with coconut and red bean. The price is very good so hey, nothing to complain. We finished our treats for the next couple of days, so it was nice to have something for breakfast.

Bread are good and cheap. The breads are however oily (not to my surprise). The bag they put the bread in is very oily.
To get bread, you tell the lady at the counter what you want.

Yes … Good pastries & coffee to have while you are in rainy, chilly Chi town ! Right in the center of shop/​walking in Chinatown …

The service here is terrible.
I was here about an hour ago looking for nian gao. I came in with 2 friends and there were a few other customers ordering baked goods. My friend and I wanted to split a pan of nian gao. We spotted some containers by the wall and when we went to pay, we asked for a container. They told us we couldn’t split it, and I pointed to the containers and asked if we could have one. Eventually, they handed one to me. The man said we’d need a knife to split it. I asked if they had one I could use, and he said no. I saw some plasticware behind the counter, and I asked if I could have a plastic knife. The man said he would not give me a knife, and the woman tossed a fork into my bag. At this point, all the other customers had left, so it was my 2 friends and me. We put our things down at the table and went about splitting the nian gao in half with a plastic fork. The man behind the counter kept yelling at us that we needed a knife and that we couldn’t split it with the fork. However, when I asked again if he had a knife, he laughed at me, mocked us, and said no because they were closing soon. We successfully split the nian gao in half with the fork and into 2 containers.
I don’t expect 5-​star service all the time in Chinatown, but I have never gone to a bakery that had such rude staff. I usually go to the bakeries in old Chinatown, but it’s a cold day and Captain was on the way to the Red Line. I’m not sure why the man was so rude to us for no apparent reason. It’s Chinese New Year, after all. Why not be kind?
The nian gao itself is okay. It’s very plain. What I’m really craving is a little red bean on it with a nice flaky crust and maybe some coconut. I guess I shouldn’t expect so much out of this place.
The bottom line is that I will not patronize Captain Café & Bakery again. I’ll stick to old Chinatown.

The bakery sold things that I grew up, such as the sweet pork bun sticky rice. They also had great sweet treats like cake. The cakes were a little dry and wasn’t sweet enough. The sweet pork bun was cold; it seemed like it was out for awhile. My boyfriend didn’t like any of the things we bought there. We haven’t been back since.

Cash only still!
I’m hooked on these curry buns they have. I’m sure they taste better warmed up, but my guy already eats them cold in the car.

GREEN TEA MOUSSE CAKE
i repeat… GREEN TEA MOUSSE CAKE!
ermagerd. muy muy delicioso. so fluffy. so light.
I will admit… if you like really sweet things you probably wont like this cake. I, on the other hand, I dont like when I feel weighed down by a super crazy rich desert. I would recommend this to you if you’re not really a sweets person but you’re craving something on the sweeter side and you like green tea. I love this ambiance in the bakery as well. It’s probably had the same interior for the last 30 years and I think thats part of the mystique of visiting a place like this in Chinatown.

I am a bit impatient when it comes to food, so when I was told I had to wait an hour for my lunch (dim sum), I looked for some snacks to munch on. I stumbled to this place because of the proximity to the restaurant we waited for. CASH ONLY
+ huge variety ranging from cakes (whole and slices) to cookies to ham and egg asian buns
+ cheap
+ fast service
+ some (albeit limited) seating
+ Durian pancakes: I love exotic fruits (and just weird food), and growing up I’ve gotten used to durian in my household. (This is a rough patch with my boyfriend: P) This place sells durian filled pancake, i.e., pancake with just a HINT of durian jelly/​jam so you have a bit of the vanilla fruit taste without the smell. Never seen this before and was immediately in my belly.
— rice crêpe with shrimp we had were cold and bland
— the coconut tart is too crumbly and dry. They need to work on the tart/​crust which was too bland
— egg tart — I absolutely love love love egg tarts. (Golden Gate bakery for the win in San Fran!) And I would still stand by my word that this tiny booth in shanghai food court sold the best egg custard tarts I’ve ever had in my life. But these were just beyond terrible. They were very very very eggy. A good egg custard tart would have filling that is just lightly sweetened and still soft. The eggs here are overdone and almost looked like curdles. It’s like eating scrambled yolk. As noted above, the tart/​crust was also bland.
— cream buns are not nearly as good as places in San Francisco Chinatown. The cream was a bit over salted and dense, which that it reminded me of eating lighter butter. It does’t have the light whip cream that you get in other places.
Overall, I was semi-​happy that i was not starving while waiting for dim sum but wish I tried another bakery down the block. The pastries were decent but not even close to some places (even Ranch 99 bakery). I would suggest trying only a few unique items here and save the standard stuff (pineapple buns, cream buns, egg tarts, etc.) for other places.
Food was too meh for the camera

I have been coming here pretty often since moving to Chicago,
Their curry beef buns, curry chicken buns, and cha siu baos are so good and fresh. I also love their curry beef pastry, ga lei ngau yuk soa, and lo po beng (wife cake).
I think this is a family owned bakery, because there is always an older man that is sitting down on the tables .
Prices are pretty affordable for the size of the buns. They also have pei dan sou (duck egg pastry), and gei dzai beng (little chicken biscuits. The egg tarts here are pretty good and fresh as well (they have both regular and macau style egg tarts).
I wouldn’t get the American style baked goods here, because I feel like they would probably be stale since most customers only purchase the more traditional style Chinese baked goods.
I also want to try the puffed rice pastry that they have!
CASH ONLY

I haven’t been here for a long time, mostly because I can the items that I want for a much lower prices and better quantity in the other places around the neighborhood.

I can’t get enough! I love Asian pastries because they are not TOO sweet but still have that puffy, soft, spongy texture that i ADORE.
This bakery had very good pastries including:
Sweet Top Bun
Coconut Sugar Top Bun
(i love all of the Sugar Top Buns and Coconut Pastries)
Egg tart
Sesame Seed Ball
The only one I did not like was the tiny coconut puff pastry that tasted like butter and no coconut. But otherwise the buns hold up very well even after a few days and the best way to heat up the pastries is in a toaster oven because the Sugar Tops get all crisp and delicious again like they were just freshly baked!
Pastries here seem to change based on the day but I can’t wait to try more pastries soon!

I’m not a huge regular to Chinatown (a bit difficult for me to get to on public transport without planning), but my parents are big fans, so I’ve been there regularly over the years. This is probably my favorite bakery in the area. I LOVE the soft buns (get there early for the ham and cheese!) and my mother is a big fan of the winter melon cakes. My father is also a huge fan of the mousse cakes.
The prices are good — you can get a bag of stuff for under $ 10! Not something common in Chicago any longer. Additionally, the space is fairly quiet if you get there early, and I’ve spent several comfortable mornings reading and drinking tea while snacking on a bun. I like the atmosphere and food.
That said, bring cash! Also, there’s no public wastebasket in the café area, so take your trash out or hand it to the staff. (That was very confusing for me, initially and just want to pass on a tip!)

I threw away most or the stuff I got here.
Green tea cake was wayyy too oily.
The sticky rice wrapped in some leaves was so bland, it was disgusting.
The yellow rice cake was again so bad I threw it away after a bite.
One good thing: everything here was pretty cheap, so I didn’t throw away a lot of money.
I don’t usually give one star reviews
But damn I really did not like this place.

DESSERT TIME
We had just finished a huge dinner at our favorite nearby Chinatown restaurant, when we decided to check out a new business. We were feeling for some desert, so we stopped in here.
There is a huge selection of deserts to choose from. Check out my photos. We really had a hard time deciding what to order, considering we were going to being splitting it 3 ways. We finally went with a slice of chocolate cake because it looked amazing.
My 4 star review is for the staff here. They were so nice and kind to us. They went out of there way to make us feel welcome. I could feel the customer service in the air and I love that. I should have asked them to make a few recommendations but we went on our own limb and that’s our own fault.
We took our cake to go even though there were plenty of places to sit inside. Then found a bench outside and sat down to dive into our slice of cake.
I will say that the chocolate cake was very dry. But I can not give a low star rating to a sweet small family business because I chose the one wrong dessert. Maybe this is how chocolate cake is prepared in China? There were so many dessert items to choose from. Next time I will do a little research before going in here. In fact, I didn’t even check Unilocal before I walked in. I see now that many of my fellow Unilocaler friends have eaten here. I also now know what I should have ordered. Sometimes being spontaneous doesn’t work out well but I tried.
I will say that my wife & I were one bite and done with the chocolate cake. Now our little one devoured it. We were suppose to share it but she didn’t stop to offer us a second bite. Kids love chocolate deserts no matter what. I will say that the cake was incredibly dried out The icing couldn’t even help because it was also not very moist.
The prices were really reasonable in here. So I can see myself coming back and trying a few more items, until I find that one killer dessert that becomes my staple during my visits to Chinatown.
Just some words of advice. Always remember the sense of adventure, when eating at a new place. And always be respectful of other cultures because it may not taste good to you in America but it could be amazing on the other side of the world. That is what makes Chicago so rich in food culture. Within 10 – 15 minutes of downtown you can be eating authentic food from anywhere in the World. We will be back here on our next visit to Chinatown and were gonna find that killer dessert to end our meal.

I love the regular egg tarts from here and you can definitely keep it in the fridge for at least a week and it’ll still taste good. The sesame balls are excellent too. I thought it was slightly greasy but it’s nothing that a napkin can’t take care of. My friend loves them so I’ll be sure to purchase more next time I stop by. The mango pudding was pretty good as well but the almond cookie… mm…not so much… it left a weird taste in my mouth.

Let me preface this review by saying I don’t have anything to compare this to but I do know what’s a good deal and what tastes good. I’ve been here a couple times and each time I’m opened up to a whole new world of unique pastries, both sweet and savory, from a culture I’m really starting to embrace. :)
Now that doesn’t mean I liked everything. The preserved egg cake? Definitely not for me. There was a whole egg in there, like a hard boiled egg inside this pastry. Blech! I don’t like hard boiled eggs at all and I think this one was fermented. However, everything else I tried there was delicious from the sesame ball filled with sweetened bean paste, to the light and elegant coconut twist (artful), to the individual heavenly little sponge cakes.
The point isn’t to like every single thing that is presented in the store, but rather to embrace trying these new (to me) delights. I love that I can try something new with each visit and I super love how affordable these items are. Be warned, it’s cash only not that you’ll need a lot of it because the prices are so low.
Please bring your cash and patience with you because you are in Chinatown, and if you don’t speak Chinese there is a little bit of a language barrier, and they are often kind of busy so let’s hope the patience is extended to you as well. There are only a couple tables in the shop plus it gets a lot of foot traffic so it’s pretty cramped and busy at times. Keep that in mind, as it is definitely not a good place for groups.
I’m looking forward to my future visits, and the bags I bring home with me as well. :-) As a matter of fact, when I was sitting waiting for my train at Union Station enjoying my sesame ball filled with bean paste, a table full of girls was eyeing what was on my plate and one asked me «what is that you’re eating?», so I feel like I paid it forward. Haha

The location is convenient. The servers are friendly and helpful. There’s always a long line when I go but that gives me a chance to look at the delicious sweets behind the glass case.
I feel like a kid in a candy store, wanting everything! The fruit cake slice is always a must — the cake is airy, the whipped cream is not sugary sweet just how I like it, and the fruit is fresh. Some cake slices are only $ 1!
A must stop, you won’t be disappointed!