Formosa Bakery

This place is awesome! They sell fresh asian bread, cookies and cakes.
Very small store. I’m glad i found this bakery. The bread tastes much better than other asian market in OP

Delicious sweets and desserts ! They are not too sweet, buttery, and fresh !

This place is amazing and I didn’t know about it until I did a Unilocal search for desserts in Lawrence. The reviews were great so I stopped by after work. The gentleman at the counter gave me a small cheesecake type treat that was delicious. It wasn’t overly sweet. I had to buy the green tea cake because I love green tea lattes and green tea icecream. I wasn’t dissapointed. I also got this little dessert that is several little layers that he said are baked separately for about 2 hours. I haven’t tried it yet because I want Jeremy to see how pretty it is. The green tea cookies are like almond sandies only green tea flavor with almonds, so good. I bought a bread he called the buttermilk flavor that had this inside of crispy sugar stuff. It’s hard to explain but it tasted great. I put some money in his tip jar and he threw in a bread with a custard that is also very tasty. I will definitely have to go back and try more things. It wasn’t easy to find because I didn’t even know that stuff was back behind the Office Depot but now I know right where to go.

My sister-​in-​law always uses this bakery to get us goodies. This past weekend, she picked up tiramisu and it was wonderful! In the past, we’ve had their cheesecakes including a special cherry brandy one.
I also recently tried the green tea cheesecake — it’s different but very tasty! Definitely not the typical sugary American type of dessert.
Definitely order ahead during the holidays — this place is worth it!

Amazeballs. So delicious. Everything is good. The snow white was my fave. Then the taro bun. Oh lord. The hours are super strange but I’ll deal with it. I love this place. I wish I could give it more than 5 stars.

Love this place. You don’t come here for the décor or to hang out. You come here for inexpensive, interesting baked goods. Generally, their dishes are not that sweet at all which I find to be a plus.
In particular, I recommend the green tea mousse cake, the cheese bites, and the almond cookies when they have them. The green tea mousse cake in particular has been a huge hit at a couple of parties I’ve taken them to.
As to their savory breads, I did enjoy the crumbled pork bread.

The owner is super nice and he had us tried many desserts and even some of their upcoming milk tea!
Tiramisu was truly tasty since I found tiramisu from some other stores are too sweet for me, even though I love sweets. So their tiramisu has just the right sweetness for my taste buds.
Pudding mixed with caramel was also good.
However my favorite was the cheese bites!
My only complaint is the décor. Hope it could be improved in the near future so making it a good place to chill, having a cup of coffee/​hot chocolate/​milk tea while enjoying desserts!
Actually the location is not bad as it’s next to a quiet neighborhood.

Do you remember what it is like when people love what they do? When people have a calling, as opposed to simply a job? Well, the folks at Formosa Bakery love to bake things for you to stuff in your sad and deprived little mouth. Spend two minutes in the store and it becomes blissfully clear that these people LIVE to make you delicious baked goods. That — plus the fact that this is an authentic Taiwanese bakery in Kansas (of all places) — this place deserves to be on anyone’s best-​of Lawrence list or must-​eat in Lawrence list. As befits a work of love, everything is fresh. In addition, Monday, Wednesday and Friday are fresh snack bun days. If you need an excuse to stuff fresh baked bread in your mouth, here it is. Of course, the varieties on offer are all odd to the US palette but what the hell — chow down on a little mayonnaise-​filled roll sprinkled with roasted pork dust. Stop being such a food yokel. Do it. Live… and, when you are through trying new things, try a freaking fantastic cookie or a piece of cheesecake. Now that you have tried the funky foreign stuff, forget the whole «Asian bakery» thing. DO YOU LIKE COOKIES? Yes, of course you like cookies. DO YOU LIKE CAKE? Yes, of course you do. Well, these people live to make cookies and cake for you and you are a fool if you don’t let them. A damn fool. Drive here in your pickup truck and buy cookies and cake. Better yet, grab one of the six counter-​stye seats and a plastic spork and eat it in the little storefront. We can only hope and pray that some of the coffee places downtown that have less than stellar food offerings (La Prima Tazza, I am thinking of YOU here, you need the help) will start rolling up here every morning, throw piles of money at the proprietor and cart away a mountain of baked goods to feed those who don’t have the moxie to seek out this bakery’s hard to stumble across location.

Soft, delicious, and fresh! The people who work there are really welcoming too!

When I heard an Asian bakery had gone in behind Office Depot I was dubious. I get my hair cut at a salon a few doors down. Surely I would have noticed, and why in the world would someone open a bakery in such a space? Well, there IS one, and it is Asian, apparently Taiwanese (hence, Formosa) but they also turn a little classic French and American pastries. These guys are damn serious with an oven and the goods are first rate all the way. That’s no bull.
Now, you aren’t coming here for atmosphere. This is a new bare bones start-​up and quite frankly I’m not sure where the business is going to come from because there is no foot traffic in this area of town. Nada, none, zero, zilch. However, with this kind of quality I’ll not be surprised if he’s soon supplying some restaurants with desserts.
We came away with about $ 30 of goods between us and took some of what they’re calling their «cheese bites,» a small pastry with a sort of cream cheese taste over to the wine tasting at Cork & Barrel and it received rave reviews. Also picked up, a small coconut pastry, some sweet bread, two kinds of puddings (both remarkably delicious) and a heavenly slice of cheesecake.
Talking to a few food friends apparently the owner is known around town and has an extensive background as a pastry chef. Clearly, some of the goods are more French and American influence but also a mix of some Asian items. Whatever you call it, it’s pretty heavenly. You don’t turn out pastry this good without a significant amount of talent, and a peek in the back room there are a couple of massive ovens that have to go for 5 figures each. What will become of this should be interesting. For now I’m simply happy someone cooking and thinking outside of the box has decided to open a quality venue in town.
I should also mention the owner is a very nice gentleman and offered us free samples of far more than we desired. We were on our way to a wine tasting so a lot of sweets and sugar right before wasn’t quite in the cards. We’ll be back.
According to their Facebook page, hours are as follows:
Mon — Fri: 3:00 pm — 6:00 pm
Sat: 1:00 pm — 4:00 pm
EDIT: stopped in a few days later for more cheese bites for an event and came home with three soft Asian breads: ham and garlic, ham and corn and sweet bean. Sweet mother of Jaysuz! The bomb!

I am so glad that there is now a Taiwanese bakery with delicious pastries in Lawrence!
They have everything from cheesecakes and cookies to custard tarts and Asian buns (taro, salty pork, green onion, etc)! If it’s your first time, go for the slice of cheesecake. And it’s to die for. Seriously, it’s that delicious.
if you’re familiar with the Asian buns and desserts, you’ll love the texture of the bread and the incorporated sweetness. I haven’t tried the ham and corn one (a Formosa original), but I’ve been told that it’s really really good. I personally have had the taro and the shredded pork ones, which were nice and sweet, though the mix of the salty pork and sweet filling (or maybe its a condensed milk?) was a little too weird for me.
The other thing is that they’re only open at odd hours and in a very obscure location (behind Office Depot), making it hard to find and sometimes inconvenient. Still, don’t let that deter you from trying it once!
Lastly, the owners are super sweet and funny, and speak English really well. :).
They also have specials every once in awhile if you check FB or just go in. I definitely recommend trying it once!