Sheng Kee Bakery

I love this bakery. The cakes aren’t so sweet which I like. They are decorated beautifully. I don’t live near this bakery. I only get to eat here when every I’m in the City. But boy is it a treat!!!

I’ve been to Sheng Kee locations before, just not this location until now. Since I work nearby, I decided to come by to get something quick to eat. I walk in and am greeted by the workers.
Then I grabbed a tray and a parchment paper and began looking at the selection of buns. Some of the cabinets weren’t full, so I’m guessing they sell certain buns quick. After looking around for a minute, I settled on their bun of the week: the green onion bun. It was a decent size and I didn’t want a bun too sweet anyways, so it was perfect! The bun was really good and flavorful from the green onion. I’m not sure if the bun of the week is always going to be 99 cents but I think it’s pretty cool deal. Definitely will be back!

This place is right next to One Medical, so I often schedule any doctor appointments I may need here just so I can come by and have an excuse to also get some breads and cakes. Ohhh, I’m sick… time to get some pineapple buns… you know, that kind of thing. (Not really.)
I came in at around 1030 am, so everything was abundant and warm! Oh my gosh. I should really just go to bakeries early, because there is really nothing like a freshly baked green tea mochi danish. The texture difference is huge. I also picked up a tuna and corn danish for tea later on, which I just ate. Oh man. So good. The tuna didn’t have mayo, which is a plus for me and my allergies, and it went really well with my tea here at home. This Sheng Kee location had WAY more things than the one back in Pacifica. Fried fish sandwiches!!! Noms.
The service was friendly and quick. The woman behind the cash register asked if I’d like my breads packed separately, since I had some savories and some sweets, and that was a small act I appreciated. I like that they had some tea selections as well. The oolong creama was surprisingly good in that the oolong taste was quite strong.
I’d definitely go back. Maybe next time I won’t even wait til I have to visit the doctor.

They setup new rules. Poor service especially that cashier girl gave me a hard time.

Stumbled upon this place looking for a quick snack, glad I went in. Very clean and very cheap bakery. Staff is polite and nice, welcoming. The food is delicious, you get way more than you pay for.
If you have some loose change in pocket and want a quick bite this place is great for you. If this was near my school when I was younger hands down they see me every day.

Highlights
— Sheng Kee is my go to spot when I need to grab some last minute beautifully presented pastries, bread, and cake.
— Pineapple buns: Soft, fluffy, and slightly sweet top (not the crumbly layer that falls all over the place on top of the bun like some other bakeries).
— Taiwan toast: Thick, carb loaded, bread slices. My favorite to eat plain or with jam!
— Hot dog buns: You would never think to get hot dog buns at a Chinese bakery, but it’s really not bad from here.
— Vanilla cake with fruit filling is the best choice, skip the mousse cakes. You can count on them to not make it overly sweet and the cream is like a whipped cream.
— There is seating and tables here as well as drink offerings.
Improvements
— Pastry items don’t look to fresh at this location compared to what I’ve gotten in the South Bay locations and some are on the verge of being burnt or on the dry side. Maybe it’s because they don’t individually package each bun in plastic bags, but it does save the environment!
— If you decide to get a chocolate cake, don’t count on it being rich and chocolatey like American chocolate cakes. Think hint of chocolate like cocoa powdered cake instead.
Tip
— Parking is difficult here, take public transit or good luck finding metered or street parking nearby.

This place smells heavenly! This is the place to go for yummy Chinese pastries, but stay away from their American desserts (e.g., cheesecake). The buns, even the savory ones, are really good because the breads are so nice and fluffy.
This is also a very big bakery because there are a lot of seats in the back. The workers are also really nice.

Pretty standard Asian bakery with a good assortment of both the sweet (brioche, blueberry middle buns) and the savory (fried chicken sandwiches and ham and mushroom buns). The selection is smaller than an 85 or a Paris Baguette but they have the basics like the hot dog bun, moon cakes, chocolate bread, and brioche bun (my fave) so you’ll be sure to satisfy a light bread craving.
What was surprising was that this place had similar items to an 85.
Good back area with a lot of comfortable chairs and tables for work!

Some of the baked goods are hit or miss. When you arrive to pick up food at 7AM when they’ve just opened, things are just coming out of the oven and they may not have what you are looking for. There are 3 items I like to buy from Sheng Kee Bakery (chain) — their egg tarts are not as good as the ones you can find in Chinatown (Napolean Bakery or Golden Gate Bakery) and cost more, their Portuguese egg tarts are better — less sugar and the tops are caramelized, and their coconut buns are good. I really like their chicken pot pies. They’re a pastry puff shell filled with thickened gravy with chunks of chicken (some days more chicken than others), a little too salty but satisfying. Not to be mistaken for the frozen Banquet, Marie Callender’s or Swanson chicken pot pies you buy in the supermarket. Staff is always pleasant here.

Affordable, delectable Asian pastries here. You can get breakfast or lunch here for under $ 5 or $ 10, respectively. I usually buy a whole wheat loaf of bread for my parents. It’s soft and slightly buttery, and reminds them of Hong Kong bread. For me, I always get the Hong Kong style milk tea ($ 2). It’s a delicious black tea with cream, and I highly recommend it.
I’ve bought their cakes twice for my friends’ birthdays. I liked the designs of the cakes. Once, we got a strawberry cake shaped like the face of a cute pig. The taste wasn’t particularly remarkable or memorable though. Another time, I got a Black Forest currant cake. That tasted very tart (frozen yogurt tart), which I personally liked. If you’re someone who’s not a fan of tart-​tasting foods, this may not be the best cake for you.

I work in the neighborhood, so I depended on this place for lunch the first few weeks. That was changed when I discovered all of their food is served cold and often has hair in it. The prices are amazing, but. what are you paying for, exactly?
Their sponge rolls are the best and that’s about it. The rest is cold and hairy.

I’ve been to other Sheng Kee locations before and this one just didn’t live up to my expectations. However, I did freestyle my order and went with s Beef Curry Bun and a Bacon Bun, about $ 1.60 each, instead of going with the Unilocal Highlighted items.
Beef Curry Bun: It was like a BBQ pork bun except with curry beef inside. Not great flavor and thought there should be more savoriness to it.
Bacon Bun: Open faced with BBQ sauce, soft bacon, and cheese baked on top. I expected it to not taste like a bunch of grease for some reason. Aside from that, the flavor was okay.
One star for price and one star for service. I’ll come back and try and egg tart or milk tea sometime but this was a 2 star experience in my book.

I like this place! It’s clean, cheap, and tasty.
They have a refrigerated area with drinks, salads, and sandwiches, as well as the section where you can choose your baked goods. They even have a few tables to sit and enjoy your treats at! And it smells divine inside. If I weren’t watching my weight, this place would be a huge problem for me.
I got the taro-​pineapple bun, the green tea mochi bun, and the almond croissant.
The taro-​pineapple bun was delicious and sweet, but not too sweet. It was soft and tasted better warm. The green tea mochi bun was good too, soft and flaky on the outside and chewy on the inside. It was probably better for those with a sweet tooth. The almond croissant was perfect too. I’d have loved to have it with some coffee.
Overall, great place to visit. If you find yourself in the area, spend a good $ 5 – 7 and walk out with a box full of delicious pastries.

Turns out there are two Sheng Kee bakeries on Irving!
Sheng Kee Bakery has a wide selection of sweet and savory and plain breads and pastries in Asian and European styles. They also serve sandwiches, soups, and Peet’s Coffee.
Each time I have gone to Sheng Kee, the quality has been consistently good. Their BBQ pork buns are always solid (as in reliable and good, not rock hard), and especially delicious when they’re hot out of the oven. I like their sweet buns such as the taro bun and the yam bun. Their chocolate croissants and turnovers are also top notch.
The staff are always friendly and helpful. The prices are well marked and quite reasonable. While, for example, the pork buns here are $ 1.80 instead of more traditional dim sum bakeries which may sell for $ 0.75, the quality is more consistent.
The bakery does feel like a chain, which it is, but the quality makes it a good neighborhood staple.

My Taiwanese friends introduced me to this bakery. They have one of the best bread I ever tasted. The whole wheat bread is great here. I try to avoid the other types of bread like the regular white bread or raisin or red bean or other as they won’t last long. They’re so delicious.
Both locations in the sunset have consistent high quality pastries.
This bakery adds a nice Asian touch to the lifestyle of city of San Francisco. The atmosphere, the service, the quality and everything is great.
I will miss this place for sure.

Really cute little bakery, super bright and airy inside, with a pretty decent selection of Chinese baked goods. Perusing the shelves of pastries with a tray and tongs in hand reminded me of the way it’s done in a panaderia picking out pan dulce. Premade sandwiches and delicious looking fruit cakes are at the front of the bakery, as well, and you can get boba drinks, too.
I went with the pineapple bun, a mocha almond bun that looked pretty good, the BBQ pork pastry, and a chicken salad sandwich from the deli case. With a bottle of water my total came out to a little over $ 9.
The sandwich was really good, with a ton of fruit mixed in with the chicken, between a tasty raisin bread. The pineapple bun was good except for the crust, which was too hard, especially compared to ones I’ve had from other Chinese bakeries where everything was incredibly soft. The BBQ pork pastry I had mixed feelings about; there were way too many layers of pastry wrapped around the BBQ pork filling, so much so it stuck to the roof of your mouth and masked the flavor of the pork. And yet, when I managed to taste the pork, it was really good, and the pastry crust was very flaky and buttery, so it was a bit of a mixed bag. The almond mocha bun, however, wasn’t that great, as it was a victim of total overkill with the mocha cream filling. Way too rich, and because the bun was so soft (a plus, at least) it didn’t have a whole lot of substance and just became a big mess.
I would definitely want to try the things I liked here again and come back to try some of those great looking cakes, get a boba, and taste some of the other baked goods, but I’m not so sure if it’s worth a special trip from the East Bay. If I was in the area, then I’d come back, but for now I’ll stick to the bakeries that are much closer.

I don’t know whether I’m getting old or becoming a tea snob (probably a little bit of both), but I’m just not so excited anymore about spending $ 2 on sweet boba milk tea or buttery Asian pastries.
[THE TEA]
Tea quality is definitely not bad – they brew their own tea so it is a huge step up from all the powder places frequented by high schoolers who don’t know better (Quickly, Tpumps, etc… plus Sheng Kee service is just as Quick and the ambiance is just as Pumped). The main problem is that everything is pre-​mixed, so you can’t request light sugar unless you ask them to dilute it. Otherwise, $ 2 for milk tea, boba option included, is quite a deal. I especially like the HK milk tea, which features a supratherapeutic dose of caffeine.
[THE BAKED GOODS]
All their pastries are deliciously buttery with a soft, flaky texture. There are quite a lot of choices encompassing from savory to snack to dessert, traditional Chinese to fusion to western, and everything in between! They also have a wide variety of cakes and candles, so it’s a convenient go-​to for special occasions because colorful glossy Sheng Kee cakes look so much better than the boring ones from Safeway.
[CONCLUSION]
Very good prices (when is the last time you got anything from Starbucks or Peet’s for $ 2 or less?!), decent quality, and addictively tasty, just very sweet! (I once got a milk tea and a green tea mochi pastry for lunch… though I like both, when you have both in one meal it tastes like diabetes)

I love Sheng Kee, all of them.
This one particularly, they are very clean inside. Which you don’t always find. They usually had a full stock of all their items. They have different types of deals all the time, several times a week sometimes.
They have not only pastries but different types of sandwiches also.
Coffee, tea, etc.
The downside? They only take credit if you spend more than $ 5. So make sure you bring cash!
They’re pretty quick so I think their customer service is good? I’m only ever in and out quick with no problems. Sounds good right?!

I enjoy Sheng Kee Bakery because much like most Chinese Bakeries, the food items are less sweet but not bland and still tasty and fresh compared to their non-​Asian counterparts like the stuff you get in the supermarkets or other desert places, so it’s lighter and more delicious as well as priced well.
Parking can be difficult, but not impossible depending on your karma. There’s meters and street parking in the area.

TL;DR? Pretty decent! I am fairly and positively surprised I ran into Sheng Kee by a stroke of luck but this place fares well for a delicious Asian bakery. Definitely recommend– clean, fairly priced, and great service!
Ambiance, Prices: A
Food Quality, Service, Location: B
I was leaving UCSF and wanted to stop by a Bank of America to withdraw cash in case of toll. As I was leaving BoA, I noticed Sheng Kee was next to it! A purely happy coincidence :) I headed straight in as the place looked alluring with its delicious baked goods. I figured that if I was leaving the city during rush hour (Thursday 4:30PM) that I was not going to brave the storm snack-​less!
In I go through the door, the store interior is very airy and spacious. Directly in front of me is the cashier/​bakery counter and to my left were the dining area and product shelves. Their selection and variety of baked goods were not as many as I had anticipated, perhaps because I have been spoiled by 85C? They also offered boba, coffe, and teas for cheap (less than $ 3). Regardless, they had the usual breads of hot dog, bacon, taro, bbq pork, etc. and additionally some new kinds such as milk and chocolate roll. I ended up buying 3 BBQ pork buns, 1 hot dog bun, and 1 green tea mochi bun. Total price came to $ 7.13 which was pretty cheap! The cashier was very cheery and pleasant and offered to place my buns in a box ;) Good solid experience. Nothing extraordinary but thankfully not a disappointing disaster.