Chinese Bakery in Sunset Park: Xin Fa's Egg Tart Line

Xin Fa Bakery closes at 5:30 pm every day, so its famous egg tarts are strictly a daytime habit. The shop is at 5617 8th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11220, between 56th and 57th Streets in the Chinatown of Sunset Park, and it opens at 7:30 am daily. Its Portuguese-style egg tarts come out of the oven in large batches through the day. If chinese bakery near me brings up a dozen names in southwest Brooklyn, this is the one with the line.

The Infatuation's Carina Finn wrote flatly that the best egg tarts in the five boroughs come from Xin Fa, and told readers to buy more than they think they need, then spend a few minutes eating one or three on the sidewalk while the batch is still warm. NYC Tourism describes the tarts as cups of flaky pastry filled with thick, creamy custard under a blackened, caramelized top, a style that traveled from Lisbon to Macau and on to Hong Kong.

The MTA's travel site, MTA Away, calls Xin Fa the best and most popular bakery in Sunset Park's Chinatown. Writer Jon Tayler describes tarts about as wide as a mug, made in large batches throughout the day, and says the one to wait for is fresh out of the oven: piping hot, creamy egg and soft sweet custard in flaky dough with a properly browned crust. That warm-tart moment is why the line forms.

Inside the narrow shop are bread, buns, cakes and coffee, plus a list of bubble teas, according to NYC Tourism and MTA Away. Forbes España, in a 2025 guide to Chinese food routes in New York, suggested pairing the egg tarts with a cup of smooth Hong Kong milk tea. Wanderlog's summary of hundreds of Google reviews adds pineapple buns and pork floss buns to the list of items customers come back for, and the Infatuation also recommends the sponge cakes.

The local writer behind the What About Wine newsletter, who walks readers through Sunset Park food stops, had a different favorite in a March 2025 post: the sesame ball. He described a dairy-free fried ball with a crisp, golden, almost buttery shell around lotus bean filling, and said it converted him from a lifetime of red bean. On his visit he left with one egg tart and two sesame balls, saved for the walk up to the park.

MTA Away describes a long line snaking from the door to the counter, and the Infatuation tells newcomers not to be intimidated when it runs out the door, because the staff are extremely efficient. One tip from the What About Wine visit is worth knowing before you reach the front: the egg tarts are sometimes kept behind the counter rather than on the open trays, so ask a worker for them instead of hunting the shelves.

Here is the honest timing call. Do not plan Xin Fa as an evening dessert stop; it closes at 5:30 pm, and Wanderlog's summary of Google reviews notes that the boxes of tarts sell out quickly. Come in the morning or around lunch for the best chance at a warm batch. Many Google reviewers also say a tart straight from the oven tastes flatter than one left to cool for a few minutes, so buy a box and let the custard set while you walk.

Payment is mixed. The same 2025 newsletter visit reported cash preferred, with cards accepted only for purchases over $10, so a single tart is easiest with bills. NYC Tourism notes that seating is limited, and most customers simply eat on the go. Reviewers describe customers leaving with whole boxes of tarts, and the Infatuation's advice to over-order is the one piece of guidance that keeps coming up.

If Xin Fa is sold out or the queue is longer than you want to stand in, walk four blocks north to Baker Wah on 8th Avenue near 52nd Street. Its Google listing shows it opening at 6:30 am, an hour before Xin Fa, and it is another Hong Kong-style bakery stocked with pineapple buns, coconut buns, pork floss buns and egg tarts. Baker Wah 2, its sibling farther north near 44th Street, opens at 7 am.

The What About Wine newsletter suggests another quick fallback when sesame balls run out: Fortune Bakery, across 8th Avenue from Xin Fa. Golden Steamer, the Manhattan Chinatown bun shop known for pumpkin and salted egg yolk buns, also has an 8th Avenue outpost a few blocks south. With that many ovens in a ten-block stretch, a sold-out tray here costs you a short walk rather than a wasted trip.

The nearest station is 8 Av on the N line, at 62nd Street, about 0.3 mile and a six-minute walk south of the bakery along 8th Avenue. MTA Away names it the closest stop to Sunset Park's Chinatown. Coming from Manhattan, the N is the most direct ride in. Exit the station, walk north up 8th Avenue and Xin Fa is on the block between 57th and 56th Streets.

Eighth Avenue itself has a long immigrant history. Wikipedia notes that it was long a Norwegian and Norwegian-American enclave before Chinese and Arabic-speaking newcomers settled along it, and parts of the avenue have been nicknamed Little Hong Kong. Today the stretch through the 50s is lined with Chinese groceries, bakeries and banh mi shops, including Little Thanh Da, the takeout offshoot of Thanh Da, which MTA Away highlights across the avenue from the bakery.

Do what the What About Wine walk did and carry the box roughly a dozen blocks north to Sunset Park itself, the 24.5-acre park between 41st and 44th Streets and 5th and 7th Avenues. It sits on top of a hill roughly 164 feet high, part of the Harbor Hill Moraine left by the last glaciers, which is why its slopes look out over New York Harbor, the Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty.

The land was assembled from 1891 to 1905, and the Sunset Play Center, a neoclassical and Art Deco pool and bathhouse built under the Works Progress Administration in 1936, is a designated city landmark inside and out. The park is open 7 am to 10 pm. Pick a bench on the western slope facing the harbor; it is the best seat within a mile of Xin Fa for working through a box of still-warm egg tarts.

Xin Fa Bakery, 5617 8th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11220, between 56th and 57th Streets in Sunset Park's Chinatown. Open daily 7:30 am to 5:30 pm. Known for Portuguese-style egg tarts baked in batches all day, plus sesame balls, pineapple buns, pork floss buns, sponge cakes, milk tea and bubble tea. Cash preferred; cards reported for orders over $10. Limited seating. Subway: N to 8 Av, a six-minute walk.