Ten things we get asked across the counter

Tuesday to Friday from 7.30am to 3pm, Saturday from 8am to 3pm, and Sunday from 9am to 1pm. We are closed on Mondays, which is when the kitchen gets cleaned properly and the ordering gets done.

We close on a handful of days over Christmas and for one week in August. Those dates go up on the counter about a month beforehand, and we will always tell you if you ask when you are in.

Because we only bake what we can make in one morning, in one kitchen, and we would rather run out than have trays of yesterday going into the bin. There is no back room with more buns in it.

Roughly, the breads come out at six and again at eleven, and the counter is at its fullest between half past eight and ten. Saturday is the busiest day by a long way. Each section of the menu says what tends to go first, so you can plan around it.

Yes, and for anything more than about six items we would prefer you did. Email hello@panbuns.com with what you want and the day you want it, and we will reply to confirm. Two days notice is comfortable, and the same morning is usually too late.

We do not take a deposit for a normal counter pre order. We do ask that you collect before we close, because a box with your name on it is a box we did not sell to someone standing in front of us.

Every item on the menu lists what it contains. That list is kept current, and if a recipe changes the website changes with it.

What we cannot offer is a kitchen free of anything. It is one room. Wheat flour is in the air, and sesame, soya, peanuts, milk and egg are all handled on the same benches. If your reaction is severe, please talk to us before you buy rather than after, and we will tell you honestly whether we think it is safe for you.

Yes, and they are made on their own doughs rather than adapted at the last minute. On the baked side the mushroom and thyme bun is vegan. On the steamed buns side the crispy tofu, mushroom and ginger, sesame and peanut, sweet potato, plain mantou and spring onion rolls are all vegan.

Most of the breads are vegan too, apart from the milk bread, the potato rolls and the flatbreads. Vegetarian choices are much wider, and marked item by item.

No, and we would rather say that plainly than sell you something we are not confident about. Wheat flour is airborne in a bakery this size for most of the day, and we cannot promise a gluten free product would stay that way between the mixer and the counter.

If that changes it will be because we have somewhere separate to do it, and we will say so here first.

Email hello@panbuns.com saying which class and roughly when suits you, and we will send you the next dates with space. Payment is in full when you book, because the ingredients are bought for your place.

Give us seven days notice to move or cancel and you get a full refund or a different date, whichever you prefer. Inside seven days we can usually move you if someone takes the place, and if nobody does we cannot refund it. If we have to cancel, for illness or an oven that has stopped, you get everything back.

The four we run are An Introduction to Steamed Buns, A Filled Bun Afternoon, Sourdough Basics, a Morning and The Family Bun Class.

We do, for a small number of places within about three miles, delivered on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings. It is a real part of what we do rather than a sideline, and it is also the part with the least room in it.

The wholesale page explains minimum orders, delivery days and what we can realistically take on, and tells you how to ask for a price list.

Yes. Counter vouchers in any amount from ten pounds, and class vouchers for a named class. They are paper, we write them out, and they are valid for twelve months from the day they are bought.

Ask at the counter, or email hello@panbuns.com and we will put one aside. We cannot post them abroad and we cannot replace one that is lost, in the same way a shop cannot replace a lost note.

No to both. There is no basket on this website and no courier arrangement. Everything is sold across the counter or delivered to trade accounts by us, on a bike or in a small van.

It is not a matter of principle so much as arithmetic. A bun that spends two hours in a box is not the bun we made. If you want to keep some for later, freezing and reheating buns works far better than posting them would.