The Bread Garden Bakery

I MISS my Bread Garden!!! Used to go there all the time for their yummy Budapest cake if you’re lucky enough to get there before they sold out. I sometimes found myself getting the day-​old ones just to satisfy my Budapest cake craving. Bread Garden used to be the only one who offered it that I knew of any where. What a shame to see them go. May you rest in peace, Bread Garden. You will be sorely missed for many of us!!!

Very sad to hear from a friend that David Morris passed away last week of an aggressive form of cancer. Sad to have the Bread Garden close last year and now even sadder to hear that David did not have a chance to enjoy a second half of life down in Paso Robles. Rest in peace!

Dear Bread Garden,
I think you have been in Berkeley since I started undergraduate school and now my kids are all grown up. I will miss you so much. In this bread oasis called Berkeley my husband loves your whole wheat more than any other, and I’ll take the sourdough rye any day (along with just ONE Mexican wedding cake cookie– the best!).
Thank you, thank you, thank you for so many delicious moments.
Kim McLaughlin

An amazing bakery! You will be missed.
French Almond Macaroons…
Sniff. Sniff.

The best, simply the best, 19^th century baguette in the city. Double Crunchy crust brings tears to my eyes and draws blood from my gums. Delicious.
Morning bun not sweet sweet but easy sweet.
Great crew, fast service,
Oh how I miss them.
Semifredi, about 6 blocks away, no crunch in their buns but a decent seeded baguette, and they’re ½ the price of the Garden, but the Garden was so worth it. Ahhhhhhhh

RIP Bread Garden. The baking’s been everything from great to awful in 40 years, but there will always be that history. Thanks for four decades of memories.

R.I.P. Bread Garden. July 20^th was the last day of this 38 year old bakery. I wish I hadn’t waited years to visit. On the last morning, the cases that were normally filled with cookies, muffins, scones, brownies and dessert bars were mostly empty and the lines were long. Long time customers came by to say goodbye and stock up on whatever they could.
* Garlic cheese baguette ($ 4.50): Softer than your typical baguette but loved that cheesy strong garlicky flavor, a little cheddar was inside throughout the length of the slim loaf
* Cinnamon scone: Dense, moist scone with a thin layer of crunchy crystallized cinnamon sugar on top crunchy crystallized top. The scone was lightly sweet and nutty, seemed like it had oats and it tasted healthier (in a good way).
* Dutch crunch: An odd Dutch crunch… a small round roll, pale top, nice, soft and chewy but not crunchy, the top is harder than the rest.
* Ginger cookie: Thick, soft, chewy with crunchy sugar bits on top and no visible ginger bits
I heard the lemon bars and coconut macaroons were the best around but never had the chance to try them. The Bread Garden is moving to Paso Robles so maybe I’ll find the lemon bar one day.

Dear The Bread Garden,
My heart skipped a few beats when I found out you have closed to move somewhere far far away :(((((Truth be told, I fell in love with you the first time I took a bite of your apple tart. My dog loves you too, he loves your dog biscuits. You’ll be forever missed.
Love,
Katie

A PI at CHORI always brings me their baked goods.
I am so, so, so sad because according to him, this place is closing. :’(
They have these huge, amazing cookies that are like cinnamon bun + cookie combined. SO GOOD.

Came here to try the morning bun when I was going through my morning bun faze. Since La Farine stole my little heart strings, I have yet to find a better bun (or tart for that matter!). It was a little crispy and was covered entirely in sugar. It tasted okay but sweet and was a little dry. I also munched on a bit of the cheese baguette that my dining guest RAVED over. It was average. Needed way more cheese, inside and out! The dessert case wasn’t exciting me, but I still ordered a peanut butter cup to go. Once in the car I tasted it hoping it could salvage my thoughts on the joint. It’s just that it didn’t, and neither did any of the items I tried. To be honest that was one sad little peanut butter cup. I wanted to like this place and hey, they had some pretty yummy looking pastries in the pastry racks — but three failed likes on the first attempt?
I’m cool.
Plus parking sucked and I was being lazy that day.

Great name for a bakery! Their cheese baguette was really great! And a bonus is that it is just down the street from a wine shop and an olive oil shop to add some great accompaniments!

I’m not really a bread eater nor do I have much of a sweet tooth for pastries, however I couldn’t pass up trying a couple of baked goods from the Bread Garden’s display: their pan au chocolat and their blueberry cookies.
I have never seen a bakery with blueberry cookies! Strawberries are done to death in cakes, pies, tarts, etc. But alas the marriage of two things I love to eat– blueberries & cookies? WIN! And they tasted as good as they looked. Not up there with an «OMG THIS IS THE BEST» but it made me smile and make all the happy humming sounds of contentment as I ate.
Bread Garden makes great pan au chocolat! The bread was heaven, and the chocolate center was deeeeeelicious. Filling, yummy, chocolatey, bready, I’ll come back again next year for more I’m sure.
Chipper service, which is just what one needs early in the morning. And I’m so glad our helper was patient, I hate being rushed when I’m a newbie. I especially appreciated his chill demeanor because this bakery gets pretty busy– the line was out the door, and I was trying to hurry the hell up to avoid being THAT guy.
Oh! Yes and their goods are delightfully affordable! Towards the end of my trip that was EXACTLY what I was looking for! hehehe
Altogether, I love the Bread Garden and would gladly recommend them for your morning pastries!

I’m a foodie, an East Coaster with Germanic descent and have lived in Europe, the land of delicious bread for nearly 4 years.
Finding good rye bread and good sourdough is an honest challenge. Finding a bread that incorporates the best from both worlds sounds like mission impossible. Yet the Bread Garden Bakery has delivered the impossible with their Sourdough White Rye. I’ve been able to find a loaf whether 5pm on a weekday or late in the afternoon on the weekend. Absolutely delicious and it holds well through a week. Well worth the $ 4.50/loaf despite being able to get cheaper bread at Safeway (ugh) etc.
Another key point is that you’re supporting a local business. Last Summer the owner was looking at shutting down after many years of business (I think atleast 20) but the owner stuck around and extended the lease atleast 1 year. As they’re looking to hire sales clerks, I imagine things have improved after the Community dug in their heels and kept his business going & thriving.
I don’t buy my bread anywhere else — and when I need a pastry this is the first place I stop! You should check it out soon.

I stop by here 3 times a week on my way back from work.
The baked goods are sold European style (by weight) and are delicious.
Usually the brownies are the best in the world. However, my only complaint is that they are not baked daily.
Sometimes (2 in 6 times) I have gotten a bad batch of brownies where it was not as moist as they usually are. They crumbled on the touch rather than being dense and moist.
The cookies aren’t that great either but are always edible.
Overall, one of the best bakeries in the Bay Area!

This place could stand to turn up their oven — at first I thought I was looking at a display of parbaked goods, ready to finish in your home oven.
But no, they’re just a little pale. The garlic cheese roll was excellent, as was the palmière. However, the spinach croissant could have used some more time in the oven, as could the pan French loaf.
Good but not stellar wares in an excellent location — I think this place benefits from the line for Rick and Ann’s.

I love the staff here — particular Jeremy with his awesome beard and his awesome glasses. Too bad the baked items aren’t as cool as he is. This is the type of bakery you just want to love. Bouchon it ain’t. I’ve enjoyed (or rather, didn’t enjoy) the chocolate chip cookies, some country loaf, and a crossiant. All weren’t to my taste-​palate-​preferences. My girlfriend recently bought a dozen or so cookies and later reported that they, too, weren’t good.
I’m happy to stand in a minority because I’d really like to see this bakery succeed. It seems to have quite a few followers, and I’m delighted about that. I find La Farine, Acme, and Semi-​Freddies more to my taste.

I love this bakery. I’ve been going ever since my mom brought me there as a toddler.
I’ve searched far and wide, but have been unable to find a cinnamon swirl bread that can rival theirs. It is so fantastic, and I will have 4 or 5 pieces for breakfast. Not because I’m hungry, but because I can’t stop eating it.
The pesto-​cheese baugette is also something really special. I love this place.

I think this is an excellent bakery, but not totally to my taste. Like Tartine, it’s just too buttery for me. We tried the much-​recommended walnut twist. It’s pretty big, and had nice sweet threads running through it, along with meaty walnuts. But overall, it was too greasy to me — I would have liked something breadier. I felt similarly about the cheddar cheese roll — it was pretty cheesey, but the overall feeling I had was that it was kind of greasy, rather than tasty. Again, I would have preferred breadier. The cinnamon scone was NOT so greasy, and had a lot of oats. Seemed like a good idea, although it ended up being a little bland. I would try the bread, but probably wouldn’t really have the pastries again.
The cinnamon scone was nicely heavier, with a lot of oats in it. However, the cinnamon only seemed to be on the top, and not mixed throughout, so it was lacking in flavor. I also tried a mexican wedding cookie.
Their pastries looked a lot more appealing than a lot of the cookies. I’d like to come back to try the breads.

3.75?
I’ve had this spot bookmarked for a while, and I was in the area, and so I stopped by, just across from the Claremont’s tennis courts (had the best corporate luncheon there once upon a time. owe you one, Clx (wink!)…
hit or miss, is what I would say.
Hits:
Walnut twist: generous portion of walnuts embedded in a croissant-​like twist that was so great with tea
Danish puff with melted chocolate on top: custard in the middle, fluffy
Not-​so-​hot:
Apple turnover: the turnover pastry was not the proper puff sort, that ought to be flaky, light, fluffy. Theirs was flat, dull, and the apples inside were deflated and their color didn’t look quite right, even baked.
their version of tarte tatin: $ 3 of let-​down. Again, it was about the filling and the pastry crust, and i’d hazard a guess that it was the same as the turnover. Tatin crust also should be made of puff pastry, and it was lackluster all ’round. Filling was scant and though nice mix of sweet/​tart, didn’t do it for me.
Would suggest to fellow Unilocalers not to order any of those two.
The 19^th century baguette looked ever intriguing, and it was patiently explained to me that its texture was more chewy and bit harder crust than a 21^st century baguette (haha), but still just as soft and moist in the center. Dunno; have to try when I make a stew or soup next time.
I’m not sure if perchance, half of my elected order was not their showpiece stoppers or what…
To be sure, the menagerie of goods before me was unrivaled, and I always appreciate a bakery who makes the effort to prepare such a colored selection, but not sure I’d deem it, as one Unilocaler did, the best EB bakery…

–lemon bars
–snickerdoodle
–variety of butter cookies
–oatmeal raisin cookies
I wasn’t really wowed by any of the things I got. The lemon bars were WAY too sweet. The snickerdoodle was too crunchy and not chewy enough. The butter cookies were nothing special… too much buttery taste? The oatmeal raisin cookies were descent. Overall, I wouldn’t come back just because nothing was really that AMAZING. The service was really good. I am a really indecisive person, so the checker was really nice and patient with me… too bad the baked goods were so weak…