Fresh Bakery

Sat at the bar and were well entertained by the staff. As for the food, I’d try somewhere else. The mussel appetizer was good, not hot enough, but French bread for dipping, they make it there and it’s great. That’s the good news. As for the entrees, they came out 5 minutes after we ordered so we didn’t have time to enjoy a second glass of wine and settle in. The «organic» salmon, I’ll take that as not farm raised, was over cooked but still just warm — hard to imagine how it wasn’t hot as it arrived so quickly. It was served atop a mountain of mashed sweet potatoes embedded with 5 asparagus spears (also over cooked) and drizzled with a too sweet mango sauce. My wife’s lobster «ravioli» were frozen — not fresh as the restaurant name would imply — filled with rather tasteless lobster, smothered in a spicy sauce with half of a small cold lobster tail on the side. It arrived warm at the edges and cold in the center, needing another minute or two in the micro wave. FRESH is the name of the restaurant. We returned it and it was reheated, not replaced. I was left to eat my now cool salmon while waiting for my wife’s reheated meal. The bartender sensed we were not satisfied and when asked we told her why. The «ravioli» was taken off the bill and we got a complementary piece of blueberry pie to go. We haven’t eaten it yet but it looks good. Bottomline, FRESH needs to simplify and better manage and supervise the very young cooking staff. Couldn’t help but think I was just another tourist to be overcharged.

great lunch spot. best mussels i’ve had in a very long time! wonderful server too.

I am a true believer that the bread is the most important part of the sandwich — and Fresh Bakery knows how to make an amazing loaf of bread. There is nothing incredibly unique about their sandwiches, but paired with their fresh baked bread, they make for an utterly delicious plate of food. Factor in price (most expensive sandwich is $ 7) and I am pretty sure Fresh Bakery officially qualifies as a hidden gem.

A nice fresh cup of coffee with a delicious muffin right now, and a basil flavored sandwich for the road, how can you go wrong? You really can’t. Definately a great place to grab some fresh and tasty baked goods if you’re passing through the area. Thats about all I can say!

The service is great here. The bread and pastries are fabulous. The bread has «the crust»…if you are a bread fan or a bread baker, you know about «the crust». The cookies are delicious and taste the way that they should, with no unexpected surprises. The scones are heavenly and the croissants are delicious. Everything is very fresh and they act like a true quality bakery… they get rid of yesterdays stuff at a discount (truly day-​old). I have not seen that in Maine since moving here almost two decades ago (I’m pretty disgusted with the bakeries in Maine, so am thrilled to have found this one). The cakes and other desserts are not up my alley at all. They all have way too much going on for my tastes. I got a carrot cupcake (surprisingly bland), a peanut butter square (unpleasant mouthfeel), a slice of lemon almond tart (didn’t taste much lemon or almond in it, plus the crust had an unpleasant texture), and a chocolate pistachio slice (again, very little flavor and five textures are too many in the same dessert). They would do well to put some classics in the case… simple lemon tart, plain flourless chocolate cake dressed with a few fresh raspberries, bread pudding (made with their leftover day-​old bread). I don’t necessarily believe that «less is more» but I do know that sometimes there can be too much going on in one desert. Although I won’t be getting desserts here (my doctor and waistline thank me), I will be making the trip to this bakery weekly for bread and pastries. Their ginger scones are worth the trip!