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Welcome to LOVELY PAO

Looking for snacks?

Lovely Pao snacks - Siopao with Mami

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The Best SIOPAO in town

Authentic Filipino delicacies at Lovely Pao - your premier store and wholesale destination.

The Best Siopao in Town 1
The Best Siopao in Town 2
The Best Siopao in Town 3
The Best Siopao in Town 4

Lovely Pao which translates to "lovely bread"

“In Filipino culture, when you invite guests over, you offer them food, it’s usually the first thing you do,” said Khan. 

He says for the first few years, the restaurant only sold siopao. As time progressed, the three added a few additional authentic Filipino dishes while focusing on the quality of the products. 

“When people try it, they’re like ‘oh wow, that’s so good,’ they ask ‘where do you buy it from? And they give our address, they come, they buy one and the effect continues and it's an upwards spiral,” says Khan adding that for four years, the business spent zero dollars on marketing its brand and only relied on word of mouth.

Flour that started the journey

"it all started with a bag of flour" - Ms. Lovely (Connie)

 

How the opening of Guelph's first Filipino

restaurant saved a family.

Read the full article written by Anam Khan from Guelph Today.

Award

We are pleased to inform that Lovely Pao has been awarded a Recommendation badge by Restaurant Guru, one of the world’s most popular foodie websites with over 30 millions monthly users. Congratulations on your achievement!

 

Multicultural Festival
June 7 to 9, 2024

38th Annual Guelph & District

How it all started

Mother and son

Lovely Pao Inc. was founded by Connie Laoyan, as a means to pay their rent as they were about to be evicted from their apartment. Connie had a hip replacement surgery and couldn’t work and Shahraz was still in college at the time. After being laid off because she couldn’t recover quick enough, she took matters into her own hands and used her last paycheque to make some steamed buns and sold them to friends and family. They made enough revenue to repurchase supplies and pay off the rent that month, so they did it again the following month, and again until they eventually opened up their first location in Toronto within a year.Fast forward seven years and they officially opened their Guelph location in March 2020. Her son, Shahraz chose Guelph as the business’s second location because it is located in the centre of many neighbouring cities. This makes their deliveries to surrounding communities such as Hamilton, St. Catharines, Niagara, London, and Toronto quicker and easier. When asked what makes the business unique, Shahraz said “No one makes fresh steamed buns with an egg inside. It’s easier, cheaper and has less returns when you freeze the products. That’s exactly what everyone else does so we took a different approach and decided to reduce our profits for customer satisfaction.”The business has been thriving due to the great local support throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Lovely Pao Inc. currently sells their buns to over 50 grocery stores across Ontario and would like to have their buns present in 100 or more grocery stores. The company is also planning on franchising in the near future to continue their growth.

Wooden curved signage
Enjoying Siopao
The Best Siopao in Town
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