Chinese Bakery Near Me in Rowland Heights: Kee Wah's Gale Avenue Bolo Bao

Kee Wah Bakery has run a branch at 18912B E Gale Ave, Rowland Heights, CA 91748 since 1996, inside the Rowland Heights Plaza shopping center. It opens 9:30 am to 5:30 pm every day except Tuesday, when it is closed. Bread comes out of the oven three times a day, and pastries are self-serve. For a chinese bakery near me search along the 60 freeway in Rowland Heights, this is the Hong Kong name that has stood on Gale Avenue for 30 years.

Kee Wah began in Hong Kong in 1938 with Wong Yip Wing, who was born in 1911 and died in 1999. His first business was a humble tuck shop with three staff selling candies and lending comic books to children, and it carried the trademark The Chamber of Dreams. During the lean postwar years of the 1940s and 1950s, Wong and his staff turned to traditional Chinese pastry, and almond cookies became an early favorite.

Wong was also known for offering money back on his products at a time when Hong Kong shops posted signs saying goods sold were not returnable. In 1985 the company opened its first American subsidiary in Monterey Park to serve the growing Chinese immigrant community. San Gabriel followed in 1989 and Rowland Heights in 1996, and two Milpitas stores opened in Northern California around the same years.

Back in Hong Kong, the company marked its 50th anniversary in 1988 by opening a purpose-built production headquarters in Cheung Sha Wan, Kowloon, which now turns out more than 150 kinds of products a day. One early best seller still explains the shop's old-fashioned side: Chicken Biscuits, a snack of nuts, sesame and a little meat. Even the company admits nobody can say why they carry that name.

This is the smallest-feeling of the Los Angeles branches. A recent Google reviewer described it as tiny compared with the other locations and said it is easy to bump into other customers, but praised the ladies at the counter as consistently friendly and courteous. Another called it a cute Hong Kong-style bakery with a very sweet team. The system is self-serve: choose your pastries from the open shelves, then pay at the register.

The bread case is where the shop earns its loyalty. One Google reviewer who came looking for a traditional Chinese bakery rather than modern fusion bought a bolo bao, a char siu bao and a hong dau bao, the red bean bun, and wrote that the buns were big, sprang back to the touch and stayed airy for days. The fillings ran from end to end, and the crackly pineapple topping was crisp and sweet.

Egg tarts come in two crusts, the flaky laminated style and the shortbread-like cookie crust, and the same reviewer found the laminated version creamy and not too sweet. Here is one honest skip: the matcha bolo bao. That reviewer said it had more color than matcha flavor, so take the plain pineapple bun instead. Hot dog buns, chicken pies and curry pork pastries round out the savory shelf.

The packaged side of the shop is Kee Wah's signature trade, and its online store lists prices. A Kee Wah gift box of wife cakes is $24, a bag of 16 Hong Kong-made almond biscuits is $13.50 and a box of six crispy egg rolls is $6.65. The petite walnut cookies are $9.35. Tins of panda cookies and assorted phoenix rolls are popular gifts, and Time Out has described cookie tins stacked in the middle of Kee Wah's stores.

Mooncakes are seasonal and come out around August and September. Those sold in Los Angeles are made in a local facility, while some boxes are imported from Hong Kong, and the bakery says there is no quality difference beyond slightly oilier yolks in the imported ones. They usually sell out by October. David M., reviewing on Yelp in September 2026, noted that mooncake season is when most customers come through the door.

If you buy a box to carry home or ship abroad, the bakery says unopened mooncakes keep for up to eight months in a cool, dry place, since they contain no preservatives. The Best-By date is printed on the box or on each wrapper. Anyone with allergies should read the label closely, because the cakes are made with peanut oil and egg in a facility that also handles gluten.

Chinese bridal cakes, given by families to announce a wedding or sent as engagement gifts, are the other house specialty. They are made to order, and Kee Wah asks for three weeks' notice, with a minimum of five pieces for individual cakes. A bridal lotus seed paste cake is $5.95, the version with a salted yolk is $6.95, and a boxed Dragon Phoenix pair cake is $15.80.

Fresh cream cakes are made for birthdays, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day and Lunar New Year, and custom designs are welcome. The bakery's reward program gives one point for every dollar spent and 200 points for signing up, which the Google reviewer above said was one reason to come back. Through October 31, 2026, Kee Wah is running a fall promotion with a rose gold panda mug.

Come in the morning or around midday, after one of the three daily bakes, and skip Sunday mid-afternoon if you want a drink with your bun. A Google reviewer was surprised to find the milk tea sold out at 2 pm on a Sunday. Not everyone thinks the prices are fair either. Raymond L., writing on Yelp in September 2026, called Chinese bakeries overpriced, even though his family has kept coming to Kee Wah.

Tuesday is the day this branch is dark, and the shelves can run low late in the day. The fallback is a short walk away on Nogales Street: 99 Ranch Market, the first store opened under the 99 Ranch name, in 1989. The chain's stores carry Chinese pastries and decorated cakes, and its Rowland Heights store keeps longer hours than Kee Wah, so a Tuesday craving still has an answer.

Kee Wah Bakery Rowland Heights, 18912B E Gale Ave, Rowland Heights, CA 91748, in the Rowland Heights Plaza shopping center near Gale Avenue and Nogales Street. Open 9:30 am to 5:30 pm, closed Tuesdays. Credit cards accepted. Bridal cakes need three weeks' notice and a five-piece minimum. Foothill Transit Lines 178 and 289 stop nearby. Other LA branches are in Monterey Park, San Gabriel and Arcadia.