Brown Bear Baking

Amazing! We stopped in twice and had croissants and scones. All were delicious. The croissants are bigger than my hand and worth the price. Service was incredibly welcoming and not rushed. The coffee was also delicious.

MMMMMM. Get the Bear bread to go. Full of nuts and seeds. Gluten free too. Great toasted with jam! The bread pudding is delish as is their muffins. Coffee is just fair. Cool you can see the owners’ and other bakers prepping all the food as you wait

I did not get coffee, so my comments are about the pastries.
If you only have time for one stop in Orcas Island, you should definitely go to Brown Bear. I have been here a couple of time in the afternoon and was disappointed with the selection. They are not the mass production kind so not many croissants left at 3 PM. Today I made a special trip at 9, wow! The Croissant Pomme is a must try, can’t go wrong with the bear claws or Chocolate croissant. I wanted to GE the sticky buns and the orange-​flavored crispy thing but my husband put a stop to it.
They also served soup, bread, and savory croissants. More reason to come back again and again.
P. S. No WiFi.

This is a nice bakery spot honestly. Situated in the Eastsound village, this is a nice cozy spot to have coffee and a pastry.
The inside is really cozy. And considering how cold Washington is during December when I went, this is a really great place to warm up. It’s pretty tiny and the ceilings are low but I feel like this is the right way to build a coffee shop so I loved it. They had dim lighting and overall, it was just a comfy atmosphere.
I ordered a chocolate croissant and a cappuccino. The chocolate croissant was amazing and tasted warm and fresh but also had a crunch.
The reason I’m giving this place only 3 stars however for my visit there is for the cappuccino. The way the cappuccino was made was a lot more dry than you’d expect from other coffee shops (which I understand that dry cappuccinos are actually a preference for some but was still off-​putting to be the standard way of making one). Basically, my cappuccino was just drinking foam that sat on top of dead and bitter espresso shots.
Also, the service when I went felt just like «here’s your food and coffee» if you know what I mean. Not terrible but just not really anything either.
Still though, I would come back here for sure. Maybe ask for a wetter cappuccino or just ask for a latte. The pastries all looked fresh and delicious.
A nice place in Eastsound!

From Espressos, quiche and rotating yummy pastries this place is great and in the heart of Eastsound!
Don’t miss the daily made chocolate muffins

This Bakery is PERFECT. I will admit that my review is a little biased since I quite possibly had the most amazing day of my life thus far on this Island, but Brown Bear was a part of this epic day!
This place embodies the islands mantra of Quality everything. Quality product, service, and atmosphere. I really do believe that you can not go wrong with any decision here. Everything is rustically made in an eye-​shots distance from the front counter, and boy oh boy is it made well.
Organic most everything and a spectrum of savory to sweet will satisfy any mood that you or your group is in.
Rain, shine, inside, or out you will leave happier than when you arrived. The service is top notch and I would move in if I could :)
GO…

Super Crowded, service was slow, the «line» was a bit chaotic and there wasn’t a menu to Be found which made choosing difficult. I purchased two items; one was delicious and the other was so-​so.
I will go back when Eastsound isn’t overrun with tourists. I hope to have a better experience!

This place is awesome! Small and super cute. We went in on Saturday afternoon to try the sticky pecan buns everyone was raving about here on Unilocal.They sold out, so we «settled» for the almond croissant, which was SO good and some coffee. We came back on Sunday and not only did the guy (the owner I think?) remember me BY NAME, he said immediately that the pecan buns were in the oven and we should wait. We got some coffee and waited (coffee is really excellent, by the way), pecan buns were totally worth the wait – warm, sticky, caramell-​y and soft/​crunchy. This is happiness in a bun.
Boyfriend is still talking about how good they were a few days later. We love this place, their drool-​worthy baked goods and their customer service.

Cute inside and very festive for the holidays. Expect to be a little cramped while you wait in line, especially if you’re here on a weekend. My hot cocoa was pretty good, but I was disappointed by the small bits of chocolate in my pain au chocolat.

We have been here multiple times, on this particular visit we ordered the ham and Swiss croissants.
They pride themselves on making their pasties fresh everyday from scratch and this extra time and care comes through in the food. The croissants were heaven, so buttery and flakey they could stand up to anything you can get on the mainland. However, it’s a shame they don’t offer to warm their pasties: it would really highlight all the effort they put into their product.
I cannot give Brown Bear 5 stars, though, for two reasons. The first being that every time I’ve stopped here the line has been out the door and the tiny indoor seating area is packed. As much as I enjoy the current quaint, stylish lobby they should really get a bigger place and more than one register. Secondly, I’ve notice a lack of classic, plain croissants and savory vegetarian options. It might have been they just didn’t have them the times I was there, but they should consider making sure they are available during peak hours.

This place has amazing coffee, amazing pastries, and a super friendly staff. I had a vanilla soy latte and it was out of this world. Their yogurt parfaits are to die for and I had one of their orange rolls and it was so delicious (and covered in granules of sugar, yum!).
The place is supremely popular, so the line can get long, but it moves fast! The staff are awesome, the prices are great, and there is a lot of outdoor seating for those sunny, summer days.
I wish Brown Bear was much closer to where I live because I would likely go there every weekend. So good!

Wow, just wow. This place is a must when visiting Orcas Island. We shared the veggie quiche and salmon quiche and they were both amazing. I loved the bold taste of the veggie and my wife preferred the salmon. We also got a blueberry muffin, bear claw, sticky bun, and orange roll sampling each of them leaving some to take back home. I’m not sure if they will make it home though. I definitely recommend getting here when they open to take full advantage of right out of the oven goodness.

One of my friends from work recommended that I check out this place and it was pretty good – the morning bun and cup of joe were pretty darn good. Like other folks have stated, there’s not too much competition to be had around these parts… but was still pretty good.

Get there early as the line starts before opening. I can’t imagine visiting Orcas without BBB fix. This time around wife and I had usual lattes accompanied by fantastic pastries. The kougin amans are literally to die for. Chocolate croissant was light and delectable, patte d’ours crunchy, light and not too sweet — perfect.
We went more than once to satisfy this itch. Can’t wait for return trip to continue the enjoyment. Make sure to ask what they have on the cooling rack or what’s about to go In the oven. There’s a lot to choose from and you might not see it all displayed.

Decent food but overpriced. Also, your tip options are «18,19,20)% for a place that doesn’t wait on you ;). Food was decent but this is their chocolate croissant (see the picture). Good food but expensive and beware of the chocolate croissant lol

I swear the best pastry place you can go to on orcas island. If you were to pick anything from this bakery, you should not skip on the buttery croissants that they have on display. I had the sausage croissant which was the most amazing croissant I have ever had. It was flakey on the outside and soft on the inside. I imagine that they put in a lot of butter in their croissants.
Their beverages for espresso were also on par and a good pair with your pastry.
Additionally by a loaf of sunflower seed bread which was unique an amazing! It went really well with our orcas island dinner we made at our place with the buck bay shellfish farm.
Overall I thought this place was amazing however, I am taking one star off because I felt like the prices were a little too outrageous for what we were getting. It was 9 dollars for a loaf of bread!
In any case, I’ll still probably end up at the bakery again in the future because this is the best bakery on the island.

Dropped by this cute place on the way to a day of exploring Moran State park and whale watching. Not only was it one of the few places open for breakfast when we arrived, but everything was made from scratch and you could tell they really took pride in what they made and served. The smells that greet you at the door could easily make one suddenly hungry — and everything we ordered was fabulous — the vegetable quiche, the asparagus, tomato, veggie croque monsieur, and the salted caramel iced coffee were all perfect. My friend, who is a pretty picky eater, even loved everything!
What could have made things better is having some kind of blackboard or menu to share what was available drink or food wise. I didn’t realize there were more items than first seen from the display case that could be ordered until I went in a second time and happened to see certain items being taken out of the oven and placed on a cooling rack. Looking forward to trying more items the next time I come back!

I think the reason why this place has such stellar reviews is because it is the only cute bakery in town. Orcas Island is pretty small so you don’t have too many choices. However, for a restaurant that has very little competition, it appears that it strives pretty hard to do well in what it does.
When we entered the store, it was clean and nicely decorated. The décor is a nice mix of Pacific Northwest wood/​cedar look mixed in with a French artisan shop feel. There were a lot of people waiting in line to place their orders. In fact, it went out the door. We were surprised by the steady in flow of people coming in to buy their goods.
The staff here were helpful and great. Even though there were many customers, the woman helping us took the time to explain what was delicious/​popular and suggestions on what to order. We decided to get the chili, chocolate muffin, and salmon quiche. We had to wait about 5 minutes before the chili was served.
The chili came with a side of corn bread. I didn’t think the chili was particularly good. The quiche and chocolate muffin on the other hand were delicious. The muffin tasted like a fluffy brownie. It was chocolatey and baked to perfection. The quiche was also quite good where the center tasted kind of like a custard. I really thought the texture was unique. If you make your way to the Orcas, definitely stop here.

We waited for 10 minutes outside for them to open. I have eaten here before and liked it so I wanted to bring my group of friends in to try it.
When we got in my sister asked if there was a menu to which the front counter person rudely replied that it’s visual and motioned to the goods in the case. My sister didn’t understand so the woman just repeated herself again with a snotty attitude. Not great service so we all just left and went down the street to Enzo’s where the service and food are much better.

Absolutely fantastic, top-​notch baked goods here at Brown Bear, and you can smell them from a block away. Nice shop, too! Cute and chi-​chi touches all over, with about 10 seats inside. I saved up calories all day to splurge on an afternoon almond croissant and a coffee and my god, it was worth every cent (the pastry was about $ 6). Delicious.
I saw some delectable-​looking sandwiches served a table over, totes drool-​worthy.
Very nice spot to sit and write out some postcards on the Island. Note: if you’re a non-​local, don’t even try for the wi-​fi password. Just don’t. You won’t get it.