Tao Yuen Pastry

Every trip coming to Oakland, this is a stop I have to make. The food is delicious, the amount of food you get for the price is huge! It goes by weight but so totally worth it. They have a bunch of different Asian treats/pastry. Love love love the food. You’ll just have to see the pictures. This is located in China town, the only thing I don’t like is whenever I go here is always homeless people begging for money and food and the smell outside is not pretty.

Inexpensive place to get expensive tasting food. Love the mixed vegetables, with green beans carrots tofu onions and mushrooms. They make a delicious fried chicken from dark meat. It's kind of like grown-up chicken nuggets. Also enjoy the chow mein, chow fun and really good dim sum. One of the other stars of the show are the baked barbecue pork buns.

Despite having "pastry" in the name, this is essentially a dim sum place, including steamed, stir-fried, and baked items. No seating, take-out only. Most items are savory, though they do have sweet sesame balls and custard buns. Reasonably popular and crowded on a Saturday morning, but the line moves fast because the items are already cooked, so they only have to serve them up and accept payment.

Prices went up. Bought over $40 in dim sum, the clerk short changed me and didn't give change even when I asked. Before I got to the counter, an elderly Chinese woman was complaining that they overcharged her too. Count your change before you leave because it seems they are keeping the change lately. Dim sum is good. The glutinous rice skins are thicker if you are watching your carb intake. I don't order the Char Siu Bau/Pork Buns anymore because they use fatty pork. I would find pieces of char siu that was pure fat in the bun. I used to love this item. The dumplings are large. Har Gow - I used to love these but they had a practice of mixing fish paste as a filler for years that I stopped ordering them. In the most recent visit, I accidentally ordered it and the filling is better now back to shrimp and bamboo shoots--more consistent with other recipes. Good but the quality might fluctuate on this depending on the chef. I usually order steam dumplings. Shark fin dumpling - Good. There is no shark fin in it, but they put in clear noodles to mimick shark fin after a customer complaint. The folds on the top resemble a shark fin. Ground pork, mince carrot. Chives dumpling - ground pork and chives. Ok. Spinach dumpling - spinach and ground pork. Ok. Pumpkin dumpling- kobucha squash & pork with a glutinous rice shell. Round shaped. Slightly sweet. OK. Siu Mi - Pork. Ok. Like a big meatball. Fun gow - Good. Ground pork, shrimp, green onion, wood ear, carrot, cilantro. Crescent shaped. Skin is thicker than i have seen relative to other estabslishments. Taro dumpling - Good. Ground pork, taro root with a five spice seasoning. Triangle shaped. Scallops dumpling - Good. Real scallops with a glutinous rice shell. Triangle shaped. My favorite is the taro root dumpling with the fun gow a close second. The Siu Mi and Shark Fin are similar in texture and taste. Dried shrimp chong fun - Good. this used to be a $1 a roll but has gone up to 2.50 each. It has bits of green onions, dried shrimp, green onion and turnips in the rice noodle. Turnips make it slightly sweet crunchiness to it. Chow mein - too greasy for my tastes. It is hearty and comes with char siu.

Tasty Chinese takeout staples like chow mein, stir fried eggplant and tofu, and fried rice. These are sold by the box size (small or large), and they really stuff them! They also have your go-to dim sum dishes like har gow, shu mai, rice rolls, and turnip cake (my personal favorite). They had apparently really good pork bao but I didn’t get them. This place is near my office and I am definitely intending on coming back!

Was my first time saw a line..waited 20 minutes..thought i woukd yru out their food..tasted good..i us ut ally do a lunch combo special..was noodjes ir ruce witj 2 items for about 10.00 almost..their dim sim is bigger thsm mormal ones..just a hole in the wall place in Chinatown ..parking is a hassle depends on time you go .just too crowdef in certain. Blocks there.. People did not stand 6ft apart ..if i ho again in that area i will check out other stores.. .