Diamond Bakery

Having friends in Calgary is the best. Especially those that like to eat and show me new places that I haven’t been to yet. After grabbing bubble tea, we hit up my friend O’s favourite place to grab Chinese buns. This is her go to place in Chinatown. Nestled in the basement of the HSBC strip mall, you’ll spot it the moment you walk downstairs.
We were going for lunch afterwards so we decided to grab a small box of pastries for the ride back to Edmonton. Chinese buns = the perfect snack. We were there on Monday around 1pm and they were well stocked with various buns and pastries. The selection includes dan tat, cha siu bao, pineapple bun, fresh pineapple (yup, there’s a difference), and mexico buns to name a few.
— Egg tarts ($ 1.30), coconut bun ($ 1.20), pineapple bun ($ 1.20) and BBQ pork bun ($ 1.30) — the coconut bun was the only thing I sampled. These are my favourite from when I was kid (hello childhood) so I always end up ordering them. Fluffy with a good amount of filling, no complaints over here. My mom ended up devouring the egg tart and BBQ pork bun at home. The egg tart looked delicious — super flaky and the custard looked nice and smooth.
Remember, it’s cash only! Great spot to grab a few buns to go.

After reading reviews and craving some delicious egg tarts, I decided to stop by here after dim-​sum lunch in Chinatown. I have not visited a lot of Chinese bakeries but I do have to say that this place does live up to the reviews. The egg tarts are delicious. The pastry is nice and flakey and the custard is smooth, with that touch if sweetness. They weren’t fresh out of he oven when I got them but still were great. Pop them into the toaster oven and reheat for a short bit of time and you get the freshly bake feel. I need to return to try more of their pastries. But remember, bring cash because they don’t take cards.

Solid bakery. It’s cheap and on par with the rest of chinatown. Quick service.
Pastries are big and the bread quality is soft and fluffy, even after the second day as we bought a LOT to take with us to banff and were pleasantly surprised to see the quality for day old bakery was still great.
We got hot dog buns, pineapple bun with red bean, cream buns, bbq pork buns and egg tarts. The hot dog buns were excellent, though perhaps a bit too salty on the hot dog. Pineapple buns are normally great — add red bean and its even better. The bbq pork bun is just sweet enough and quite meaty. Egg tarts here are not quite as yellow as other places I’ve been nor as sweet but I prefer it that way. The cream bun is good if you have a sweet tooth (a bit too much for me).
Would definitely come back for more if in the area!

Love the bakery!
Have been coming here since I moved to Calgary from HK in 2001. I like the buns and egg tart, but the reason I started going there is because it has «put chai ko» (Red Bean Pudding)! And it tastes as good as what I used to have when I was a kid in HK.
Today, I just found out they make their own mooncakes during Mid-​Autumn Festival.
My family usually bought the famous brands imported from HK from T&T (super pricey), but this year we tried the one we saw from Costco… it was a very bad idea, and we made a big mistake!!! So we only bought an individual one from Diamond Bakery today, just in case it’s not good. But it’s actually very good, as good as those famous brands from HK. The mooncakes were fresh baked without preservative, the thick filling of lotus seed paste & big moist egg yolk were surrounded by a very thin crust. The baker believes this is a Chinese tradition, that everyone should have some mooncake during the festival, but like all sweat treats, it’s not healthy to have too much.

* Good dan tat *
I live in Vancouver — what is billed as the mecca of Chinese food in North America, and continually search for a good dan tat:
But I have to say this was a damn good dan tat. This little bakery appropriately tucked under an HSBC in a small mall offered them up fresh from the oven so the custard was still nice and warm and surrounded by a flaky crust. The custard was the lighter type — a bit light on the eggs, but very tasty. I enjoyed this little unexpected treat in Calgary!
Photo:

DO NOT GO TO THIS BAKERY!!! We ordered our wedding pastries from Diamond bakery a month ago… When we went to pick up our order, the owner had the decency to say he forgot about them and why did we not call to remind him… Really?!? Anyone who has come across a Chinese wedding knows these traditional Chinese wedding pastries are a vital part of the ceremony and he simply forgot to make them and without an apology given. He was rude, mean and simply a bully. My husband and I were fortunate enough to have a large extended family that was able to find a bakery in Edmonton to rush the pastries and have them for the ceremony! I highly suggest that if you are wanting a smooth wedding don’t go here!

Everyone is right, this IS the best place in Calgary to get egg tarts. They have other things too like cake rolls, sweet buns, savoury buns, etc. which are all very good, but these egg tarts are just FANTASTIC.
Just walk along 3^rd Ave and follow your nose downstairs to Diamond Bakery. These sweet, smooth, flaky little tarts will only set you back $ 1.20! Pretty cheap for a moment in pastry heaven, right?

THIS … is THE place to get Egg Tarts!!! (Daan Taaat). When I’m in Chinatown and craving an egg tart, I always stop by and the best is when it’s fresh and warm!
flakiest tart shell, and smooth egg tart filling…=) yummmmmm.

This little bakery still exists after all these years. It’s the bakery that’s in the basement of the building that houses the HongKong and Shanghai Bank in Chinatown.
Great Egg Tarts! A little pricey, though, @ $ 1.20 ea. BBQ Pork Buns were not bad.