Mei Lai Wah
The Chan family have baked the same char siu bao since 1968, and the counter is now at 41 Mott Street after more than fifty years on Bayard.
Why go
Mr and Mrs Chan came from Taishan and opened this counter in 1968, after Mr Chan trained at Gum Moon Bakery. The shop still turns on one item, the roast pork bun, sold baked or steamed, with the pineapple-crust version alongside it. The move is the thing to know before you set out: the shop's own account says it traded on Bayard Street for over fifty years and relocated to Mott Street to take more customers and cut the crowding. Its own history is unvarnished about the rest, including a 2008 closure over a health department matter and the reopening that followed.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the baked char siu bao first, then the pineapple roast pork bun for the "crackly sweet crust" over the same filling. Take the steamed version if you want the softer crumb, and milk tea beside it.
- Avoid: the Bayard Street address. That door is the old one.
What locals & experts say
- The New Yorker: the line saved on Jeff's list is theirs, not his, and it runs: "Try a roasted pork bun, just a dollar apiece and baked fresh throughout the day, plus a cup of insanely milky tea." The piece itself has not been located, so the price in it is the writer's at the time and not today's.
- Mei Lai Wah, on its own history: the shop dates itself to 1968 under Mr and Mrs Chan of Taishan, and names the two buns it stands on, char siu bao
steamed or baked
and thepineapple roast pork bun, with its crackly sweet crust.
1
Good to know
- Timing: a morning and daytime counter. Buns bake through the day and the trays thin out.
- Booking: walk in. It is a bakery counter.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: Saved with no note of his own. The line on his list is The New Yorker's and is quoted above.
Verdict
could-visit — A Cantonese bakery counter that the Chan family opened in 1968 and that has sold the same roast pork bun ever since, baked and steamed, with the pineapple-crust version beside it. Mr Chan trained at Gum Moon before he opened his own door, and the shop's own account is straightforward about the harder chapters, including a 2008 closure over a health department matter and the reopening after it. It moved off Bayard Street after more than fifty years, which is the single fact most likely to send somebody to the wrong block. What keeps it off a higher rung here is evidence: no critic on file in a publication this site cites, no current price, and the best-known line about the buns belongs to The New Yorker rather than to anyone this DB can cite with a link.