Wong Wong Bakery

Very Chinese Bakery
It’s easy to miss this odd little café bakery just outside central Chinatown but I recommend you check it out. This is not your usual bakery if there is such a thing in this century anymore, Wong Wongs sets out to do things their own way whether you like that or not. This in turn is what will define whether you hate or love what is on offer in this establishment.
Yes most of the staff don’t have a clue about proper English yes sometimes interaction is awkward including the creepy looks from the bakers but they also do a lot well, very well. What you will actually notice before you bump into the culture shock is the incredibly exquisite cakes and baked goods they display. If you’re planning for a wedding etc a strongly recommend you consider asking what Wong Wongs can do because I’m damned sure they’ll surprise you.
I usually go in for a change indulging in their interesting Chinese treats that you can’t find anywhere else outside of Chinatown with some very unique flavours. If that’s not your bag they also do a lot of food that is typically delicious in a mainstream manner. Oh and did I mention there’s a cheap internet/​gaming café round the back!
Overall I like the diversity this adds to my options in Manchester, which means I can put up with some of the awkwardness found here to pop in for a unique treat. I hope you find the courage to pop in and sample a bag of goods because you might just end up loving it.

Their baked goods is standard, but customer service is the worst I’ve ever experienced.

I am officially a fan!
I popped in for an afternoon snack and bought a pineapple pork roll, egg tarte, and a sweet bean ball. The pork roll was delicious — the best of the three for me! The other two I would definitely recommend if only for the experience if you’re not familiar with Chinese baking and desserts. The service was a bit brusque but efficient — no particular complaints there. There are a few tables and window seating to eat in if you would like. There is also a good selection of drinks (including boba tea) that look good as well. I’m looking forward to my next discovery at this bakery!

The bakery is well-​known in Manchester not only for its tasty food also for the unfriendly staffs. Don’t know why they always look miserable with frown while speaking to customers. I don’t like the big cakes but buns and Swiss rolls are good.

This place is fun. Even the buns have faces on them!
You get a plastic tray and approach the bright lights of the cabinet. Rows and rows of buns, rolls, tarts and cakes await.
They have everything; from pineapple buns to Meat Meat buns — whatever they are. Some things look a little suspect — the sausage in the frankfurter and cheese roll is suspiciously pink and the fact they named the meat bun twice makes me think that they’re trying too hard to convince us that there’s meat in it, but overall you can’t go wrong.
Average price is about £1.30 per item. My tip would be to go for whatever is most fresh. There’s a window through to the kitchen at the back where all the treats are prepared. Staff regularly bring tray after tray of new batches through. We also observed locals coming in and making their choices within a split second — their direct, confident approach made us think that whatever they chose was worth a try.
There’s also a seating area at the front of the bakery where you can devour your treats.
We went for the honey roast pork bun. It was amazingly sweet — the bread and the filling — but overall very tasty. A main course and pudding in one!
It’ll take me a while to sample all of their offerings… but that’s a challenge I’m more than willing to accept.

If you want lovely Chinese buns and cakes, this is the place to go. You can also order cakes for special occasions like birthdays. Tastes very good!
It reminds me when I was on Hong Kong and the bakeries there were you help yourself to the cakes and pile it up high on a tray.
There is a small area with a few tables if you want to eat in and some seats by the window — to people watch.

If you’re after a cheap bite to eat on the hoof then you can’t do much better than Wongs.
A small but perfectly formed bakery in Chinatown, the wares are basically all bread based but that beautifully pillowy soft Chinese style bread that just melts in your mouth.
The self-​serve cabinet is full of various sweet and savoury options, some more desirable looking than others (the ham didn’t look like it’d been anywhere near a pig for e. g) but you can’t go wrong with either the deliciously spiced pork or pork and pineapple bun to start and a honey bun for afters.
Prices are around the £1.50 mark and you can eat in or takeaway. Compared to what you pay for a rubbish pre-​made sandwich from a ‘meal deal’ this has to be the biggest bargain in town.

For a small town boy living in the big city, a trip to a place like Wong’s is something that I love as it’s so different from anything I grew up with. I also can’t get enough of Pork Buns at the moment, I mean it’s kind of like an addiction and when they’re so cheap they’re the perfect things to grab when you’re in a bit of a hurry.
We popped in when the Chinese New Year Parade was on, to find it busy but not as busy as it could have been. There’s usually around 20 seats in the front where you can chill out and watch the street below but unfortunately these were all taken by «dragon spotters’ there for the parade. They’ve a big counter with really effective staff who get the crowds moving thick and fast and after choosing what we wanted as a snack, we decided to take them out to eat on the street.
And what about these buns? We’ll for £3.10 we had one pork and pineapple bun — double yum, a corned beef one that was ok but probably will never need to be purchased again and a fairly unique red bean pancake (the taste was «unique» — not unpleasant but definitely one you should try as it was only 50p). I split all this with my wife but it would easily fill you up if you were just eating them yourself. Also on offer is a great selection of bubble teas, Chinese teas and shakes as well as a multitude of sweet cakey options.
Great for a quick snack, cheap lunch or you want a takeout for home later on. I can’t wait to go back!

While I’m always tempted by the numerous tasty-​looking cakes and breads they have on display, I’ve unfortunately never gotten their baked goods — this is a review targeting their pearl tea.
This was the first place I found in Manchester that does pearl tea. For the uninitiated, boba tea is a type of milk tea (flavoured, if you wish) with tapioca balls in it (the «pearls» or «boba») that you chew as you drink the tea. It’s quite tasty, and a fun way to eat your drink.
Their taro milk tea is pretty good, my standard go-​to when trying a new place out. I’ve had that a few times here, and it always hits the spot. However, I’ve recently become a bigger fan of a place across the street — ICFT. While Wong Wong has good milk tea and pearls, ICFT has good milk tea and *also* lets you choose the type of bottom you’d like — you can get boba, or assorted jelly flavours.
While I still want to go to Wong Wong for their baked goods, I don’t know if I’ll be getting the milk teas here anymore. Still, the bakery should be more than enough to bring me back!

Lovely selection of cakes and savoury snacks — and very reasonable (even quite cheap) prices. Tends to be a little bit sweet for me, personally, but the presentation is fabulous and from the reaction of friends it’s great if you do have a sweet tooth.

The lotus/​chestnut and chestnut rolls were great. Curry roll was tasty –a little oily.

There is an internet café in the back of here too but it is abit expensive at £2 an hour. If you want some Chinese style bread this is the place to come, a real chinese style bakery.

I was searching high and low for an internet café one day, as I had an urgent desire to print something. Rumour has it there were a few in Chinatown, so we made our way and started searching the signs. When we finally found one, it was located in the back of this bakery.
Talk about marketing! To have to walk through the bakery, seeing and smelling the wonderful pastries. Oh, it was torture! After seeing to a printer, we walked back into the bakery, and to my delight they had BBQ Pork Buns (as I’m used to knowing them in American Chinatowns).
Low cost, and tasty, I will definitely go back! They even had a display of cakes decorated beautifully with various fruits. I think I’m hungry again…

The only reason I visited this place is because of William G and Unilocal.
Normally I think I would have just wandered past but I remember reading William’s review about these weird bean balls…
So Chinese New Year was here and we found ourselves waiting for the dragon with enough time to go in and try some Chinese delicacies… red bean balls, peanut butter pancakes (not as sweet as they sound) and super yellow strawberry pancakes. I ‘liked’ them all but I wasn’t thrilled. I would go back and try more of the stuff they have for sale, but it would take a while to get through it all. It took us about 15 minutes just to decide which yellow balls to try on this visit!
The shop was packed out and the ladies behind the counter seemed very stressed out (understandable because of the number of people in China Town today) but served us quickly and efficiently.
One day I will stick my face in one of the gateaux too!

A classic example of how useful Unilocal is. So I’d been to the Christmas markets with my mateys and boyfriend on Sunday, and as they’d all consumed a quantity of meat at St Ann’s Square, I was a bit stuck as to a snack. I wasn’t massively hungry, but after we dropped our chums at the bus stop we realised we were sauntering past Ho’s Bakery. ‘You didn’t get to eat anything at the markets,’ my beloved said. ‘Why don’t we get you a nice bun from one of these Chinese bakeries?’ He’s a keeper, ain’t he. I responded, ‘Ooh, I could have some bubble tea! A drink that you chew! That’d fill me up.’
And as we approached Ho’s, I suddenly remembered something. ‘Wait,’ I said, ‘William said that this one isn’t as good as Wong Wong!’ Out came our Unilocal apps just to check where it was, and happily it was right around the corner. In we walked to a sunshiney yellow beam of warmth, and we were happy to find it fairly full on a Sunday evening past six. Good sign. I oohed and ahhed over all the pastries, buns, cakes and tarts, and we went to get our treats. The other half wanted a little yellow egg tart, I opted for taro pearl tea. Both were yum. I found it a little difficult to get to my tapioca bubbles because of a layer of ice was in the way, something I haven’t experienced with boba before, but maaaaan it was good. This’ll definitely be my pre-​bus Chinatown stop for my bubble tea fix after poor Bubble Café left us. Sadface. But it’s okay, because I have Wong.
Chris thought the tart was just okay, but I blame the fact that he’d been munching on Birds Bakery pastry all day. He did too, to be fair. I really liked it, I embraced the fact that this particular sweet wasn’t going to be anything like the buttery English fare we’re used to and I plan to purchase more next time I’m heading past. Along with one of those sweet bean buns William’s recommended.
Taking in what other Unilocalers have said, as long as one follows the advice on this here site you can’t go wong here. Oh no I *didn’t*.

I can’t say I’m a huge fan of Chinese bakeries, based solely on the two Manchester outlets I’ve sampled so far — yellow eggy pastry, too many pork or chicken buns and over-​the-​top gateaux don’t really do it for this vegetarian!
However, I must admit Chinese bakeries are different and unique, and I am fascinated by buns and balls filled with sweetened aduki bean paste. I’ve posted a cross-​sectional photo of one of Wong Wong’s sweet bean balls
I’m still under the impression that these two Manchester’s Chinese bakeries could very well be much of a muchness — *but* Wong Wong’s sweet bean balls are far superior to Ho’s. At Wong Wong, you get a smaller ball, but the filling is still more than Ho’s bigger size, plus the Wong Wong ball has an amazing, complex and delicious mouth-​feel. In Rice Krispie commercial-​speak — it’s a Crunch, Bend, Snap, Squish experience. Crunch of the sesame coating, bend of the leathery pastry which eventually snaps yield a squish of sweet bean filling!
Decide for yourself whether you need to mix it up a bit from time-​to-​time with some Chinese bakery goodness.

Chinese and bakery didn’t go together for me until I cam across the Wong Wong which almost definitely can can deliver satisfaction for any baked good lovers. Now just go with me here as I was just as skeptical when I first ventured in. They have some great and unusual treats here, some refreshing faluda like drinks are on offer, as well as cup cakes galore.
I also today ordered my sister’s cake from here, while it was difficult communication effort we got there in the end. I’m picking up the cake in an hour so watch out for the update.
Ok here’s the update folks. The cake was out of this world, and they did manage to correctly spell my sisters name. They have found themselves a lifelong birthday cake customer. Thank you Wong’s!!! Oh a word of advice DO NOT order your cake over the phone! It will will b a long and awkward conversation at the end of which you’ll be tearing your hairs out! There will be language barrier problems over the phone trust me. Other than that, fantastico!!!
With this delightful bakery you simply can can not go «Wong Wong».

I always order the birthday cakes from wong wong’s as they do a lovely mango cake. Sadly though they have yet to spell any of my friend’s name and mine for that matter correctly. It’s become a running joke now wondering what incorrect spelling will be on the next birthday cake.
Aside from that the bakery is ok. I prefer the other chinese bakery but when time is short and you are here picking up a cake I will pick up some buns. Avoid there fried bread sticks. Last few times we have bought them they have gone in the bin. Just could be me and my boyfriend luck, but we don’t like them from here.
I ordered a mango boba drink on my last visit (feb 2010). It wasn’t very mango like so they either got my order wrong or they don’t make a very nice mango boba drink… Either way won’t be trying anymore drinks on future visits.
3 stars mainly for the birthday cakes they make.

One of many reasons I’m a fan of Manchester!
Leeds doesn’t get a great selection of Chinese bakeries, let alone Chinese food in general, so my friends and I go to Manchester to get our fix on the good stuff… in fact we’re going this weekend for Chinese New Year and there’s no doubt in my mind how the first 15 minutes of that trip is going to go…
1) get off bus
2) check that I didn’t leave my passport some where stupid
3) walk down to Portland
4) take a right on Princess St
5) Walk into that bakery
6) Get my fix on Boba, Egg tarts, Cream cake rolls, and sweet buns
Pretty much everything there is gonna be good. They have a really good boba flavor selection PLUS they make boba right… not too chewy not too hard in the middle. Many of their treats are around £1 which make it affordable Chinese treats for the UK.
The only downer is that I’ve never had a place to sit during any of the times I’ve been there… I guess that just goes to show you how packed with people it is… both a good and a bad thing.

A Chinese deli/​café just on the outskirts of Chinatown. The name alone bumps it stars up! If you grab a window seat, there is certainly loads you will see going on in the busy Chinatown and I can imagine it would be an excellent vantage point for Chinese New Year! There are many wonderful delicacies like Chinese buns, cakes and decent enough coffee and pearl tea. with buns coasting around £1 It’s a hive of activity all round, and as it’s fairly open-​plan you can watch the staff create away in the bakery!
I highly recommend this cute café as a vibrant independent venue, and at a time when the city is hemmed in by the likes of Nero and Starbucks (sadly, there is nearly one on every street now) it’s a refreshing change. Very possibly one of those places that should invariably have a cult following!