Golden Steamer: Discover Authentic Chinese Buns & Desserts in NYC

If you're a fan of fresh authentic steamed buns, this is the spot for you! It's a cozy little shop on Mott, the staff were very friendly, the buns were incredibly delicious. I wish I had a place like this near home !

4/5/18 visit: This place specializes in steamed pork buns. They are crazy cheap at only 90 cents for a full size roast pork bun right out of the steamer. I also tried a steamed pork and cabbage bun which was also good. They have a pumpkin bun which I'd like to try next time. 1/21/22 visit: Had the pumpkin (amazing, 5 stars), custard cream (5 stars), red bean (4.5 stars), and roast pork (4.75 stars) steamed buns.

Got the pumpkin bun $1.75 and the da bao $2.25. pumpkin bun was light, fluffy, sweet with a soft filling inside. Da bao was also fluffy with a meat center of ground chicken, a quail egg, and a piece of sausage. The bun though is kinda thick. Pumpkin bun 7.5/10. Da bao 7.7/10.

4.4 stars. Reasonably priced boxed take to take home stuffed buns. The bun is very light and fluffy. The red roast pork filling was a good amount and the taste was pretty good. We liked the smaller, slightly sweet, baked, 8-to-a-box, red roast pork buns better because of the higher meat to bun ratio. I tried the salted egg custard bun for the first time and it was pretty good. Comparable to Go Believe Bakery on Grand, which always has a consistent amount of meat but less airy bun.

I stumbled upon this little bakery as it was across the street from my favorite Chinese grocery store. It's a tiny shop on a busy street full of shops. It's a pretty generic looking bakery so you can easily walk past and miss it. The place specializes in all sorts of steamed buns. I visited a few times and bought several different ones. I always buy the convenient prepackaged box of 6 buns to steam at home. They are freshly made, and I often see condensation inside the lid. You don't need a fancy bamboo steamer to reheat at home either! I use a trivet inside a low stock pot and the buns heat up wonderfully! They come out soft and fluffy like the first day! Notably, there is more bun to filling. However, the fillings are very sweet, so I think the ratio is on point! My favorites include the pumpkin, custard, and roast pork buns. The buns are very inexpensive too for the quality!

OH MY GOSH i wish we had this where I live. Less than $3 for a HUGE 大包 (the “Big Bun”) in NYC?? Sooo good! Pork bun is also yummy <33 I’m gonna bring some home in my luggage LOL. The place is cash or venmo only I believe. They also had mooncakes (unsure if it’s seasonal for October) and packaged Asian bread/pastries.

Staff was super nice and explained what each bun was. There's no seating, but we stood to the side to try out the buns. The buns were very soft and had the right amount of moisture, not soggy at all. The filling was flavorful. We ended up getting three boxes for about $20!

I know this place got kind of popular online so I was expecting to have to shell out a little more than you do at some of the “underground” places. I was pleasantly surprised; I bought 5 buns and the total was like 8-12$ (I forgot the number but remember my shock at the steal). Not only was the food super cheap, it was also really good! I’m a fan of lean cuts of meat and normally compromise when I get a roast pork bun, but there was only 1-2 big chunks of fat. I also got the chicken bun and that was great as well. The red bean bun I liked less—definitely not sweet enough for my western tastes .