First Taste Bakery

Today I tried the Ham and Egg bun and the baked roast pork bun. I measure the Chinese bakeries by this standard, how is their Ham & Egg, baked roast pork buns and their egg tarts.
Their ham and egg bun has lettuce. I can appreciate some nice crisp fresh lettuce, their egg and ham… barely any and the bun is huge. Not the best I had and not the absolute worst but they are lucky they are so close to the train because if it wasn’t, I would not come back. When it comes to this type of Chinese bakery, their location is everything, they are steps from teh train. The food at this bakery is not a destination thing. No one would ever travel, not even 4 blocks for the food at First Taste Bakery or at least I wouldn’t.
Their baked roast pork bun. BLECH. I bit into chunks of white fat. OMG. It was gross. Never again. It was also not that much filling and it was tasteless. They have nothing on Hop Shing in Manhattan when it comes to baked roast pork buns.
The Chinese bakeries by the Jackson Heights train station is awful! Someone should come here and just make really good Chinese bakery items and blow the two Chinese bakeries in the area out of the water. Conclusion: Chinese bakeries by the 7, E, F, R, M Jackson Heights train station are bad. They make money based on their location and convenience only.

The one Star is for the carrot cake.
‘NO’ stars for the lack of service :(. If you do not speak mandarin, don’t bother coming in here. The cashiers only serve customers that speak mandarin first, others wise you have to wait day & night for them to help you. Even when you are waiting patiently and have eye contact with the cashiers, they still by pass you b/​c they would rather help the customer that speaks mandarin first.
I hope the managers read this review!!!

It was alright. I had a lai cha (tea with milk) with sugar. It was just what I expected. I saw a small pastry selection. Somehow I wish there were more pastries. I did notice a whole wheat bun. Not sure what’s inside though. I saw fresh bread and loaves to take to go. Older people sit inside and read their newspaper drinking their coffee and catching up with friends. I notice the ladies who work here speak Mandarin. It is conveniently located next to the Roosevelt Ave. E/​M/​R/​7 train station if that helps.

Always walk by here to get on the subway and thought, «Let’s give it a shot» so I ordered whatever I felt like. I ordered their chocolate moose cake for my friend, tiramisu, and vanilla latte green tea.
I was thinking about adding boba to my drink and I remembered how picky I was and asked the girl how fresh the boba was. She was honest and said «It’s a little hot :» So I ordered it without boba and sure enough, I’m actually glad I didn’t add boba. The drink was not bad. It wasn’t too sweet and the flavors were okay.
The tiramisu was downhill though. Dang, that tiramisu was so off the mark I didn’t want to finish it. It might have been sitting in that fridge display for too long or something. The cake part of the tiramisu was not spongy, I couldn’t really cut it with a fork. The cream part wasn’t as fluffy as it should be. Sorry but that may have been the worst tiramisu cake I ever ate. I think I should have bought a tiramisu cake from trader joes. :(
No idea how my friend feels about the chocolate moose cake but she should know how she feels about the place from trying that.
This place might be better in the mornings but I didn’t have a nice evening with the tiramisu. The drink on the other hand was okay at best. It should be a 1 star but +1 for the drink and honesty.

Not gona lie, I’ve only had the BUBBLE TEA here. Usually its awesome but it can be inconsistent. The «bubbles» aren’t always the perfect texture, but most of the time they are. Every time I take the train over here (once every few months) I have to stop in and get a bubble tea. There aren’t any other places I’ve seen around this side of queens that sells it. I suggest the taro flavor. So delicious. It’s like a meal though it’s very filling! The food always looks suspicious to me so I never buy it :)

I’d have to give this place a 2.5… but since Unilocal doesn’t allow for ½ stars, it’ll roll down to a 2.
I’ll admit that I am a regular at First Taste because of it’s to-​die-​for location and lack of (close-​by) competitors. The AM baked goods and service are okay at best. I usually get the charsiu pao (roast pork bun) and it’s never the same from day to day. Some days the bun is perfect (great texture and great flavors) while on other days it’s atrocious (the bone-​filled pork filling oozing half way out of stale dough). Thankfully, these items go down to half price in the evening. Speaking of the evening… I do my best to avoid the «non-​AM» goods here. It’s like every cake is made with the same Asian sponge-​cake base (yes, even the black forest — which we call «fake forest») and just full of sugar.

Made a quick stop here for a little snack. While the donut I got was okay, the baked good didn’t look too appealing. Mediocre service.

To start off, they have the perfect location right above the train station. Business is always good from morning to afternoon rush hour time. They have seating area where a lot of the local Chinese bakery does not offer.
Unfortunately, their bread quality are not that great. The buns are pretty bland and the coffee are simply whack!!! They offer bubble tea which I never order due to my lack of trust or maybe just plain fear.
Their secret weapon, in my eyes, is the 2 for 1 special on their buns after 7 pm. Gets me some «just OK» buns for cheap for my next morning breakfast.

First Taste Bakery is an excellent bakery for those with hypertension or borderline diabetes. But I’m not a doctor, so don’t take what I say too seriously.
I’m also youngish and negligent to my health 15 years down the road. I like my food high in salt and saturated with sugar from time to time. But then again, I just blame that on the curses of womanhood.
If you have an opportunity to buy buns elsewhere, do it. The buns at First Taste Bakery are huge and cheap at one dollar a piece but they are also bland. So bland that they taste like nothing. They had run out of pork buns so I settled for chicken and the chicken is as pale and dry as overcooked and underseasoned chicken breast. I’m pretty sure they used dark meat too. It is so bland that I am tempted to add soy sauce, salt and pepper, oyster sauce, or even hoisin sauce to it. There is also not much in there but a few strands and minced pieces of chicken and chopped onions. The onions are also tasteless and nowhere near caramelized or clear. From now on, I will only buy my char siu bao /​siopao from Chinatown or Woodside.
I also bought two apple turnovers for a dollar. Its a great deal but they are also bland as heck. It is full of apples and goo but very minimal in terms of sweetness and taste. I think the sugar free items at the grocery store taste sweeter than these and are more satisfying (probably all the preservatives and artificial flavors).
Maybe I’m just too young to appreciate what they have to offer. Maybe I’ll like them 20 years later. I’ll be seasoned by then and won’t need any of theirs which is good because they don’t provide any.

hmm — first taste bakery has its «hidden gems» that pleases my sugar craving situations.
i agree with what Mika Z. and Rachel A. says — they are spot on their reviews. however i come here for other things…
a. their hearty breakfast sandwiches — it looks like a chicken cutlet eruption in a bun, complete with some thousand island lava dressing but its GOOD! its annoyingly amazingly good and filling. id even eat this for lunch. (this is inside the display case)
b. they have a pancake rollup thing that has pork floss/​shredded pork in it — its that sugary salty goodness. (find it wrapped in cellophane on top of the counter)
c. the almond sliver cookies are good and amazing– if they dont come out burnt. its on that rack behind you if you are facing the counter. my boss loves these cookies. (yes i feed my coworkers sometimes)
d. vanilla chiffon and chocolate chiffon slice cake — half chiffon, half chocolate, glued together with some sort of icing. soft and fluffy and at dollar-​fifty it is nifty!
the birthday cakes are meh, the bubble tea drinks are horrible and i havent bothered with their buns.
what i dislike about this place is their operating hours. i think they function 9 – 5. lol
«chicken cutlet eruption in a bun with thousand island lava dressing» is totally cracking me up

This bakery is your standard bakery. It’s really not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Everything that I’ve had from here has been good. Plus it’s cheap!
Not amazing enough to go out of your way to get something here, but if you happen to be in the neighborhood or pass by, it’s worth grabbing something quick.

The first taste at First Taste Bakery is blah! Maybe we went at an off time, I think they were about to close. I ordered a coconut bubble tea. The lady didn’t even use the machine to mix it. She hand shook the tea!!! When I got the tea it wasn’t mixed well at all and the tapioca pearls were hard like they were really old and stale! The banana bread slice was tasty, moist, and flavorful but I can’t recommend the tea!

this is a tiny little bakery on the corner across the street from the giant broadway-​roosevelt terminal in jackson heights. their ice teas are pretty decent. they make an okay pork bun and they have a sandwich which consists of sweet butter, lettuce, egg and ham that i would kill for. their bubble tea is good awful and the pearls are like little rocks. otherwise it’s fine.