Kiki Bakery

Hours say open are Mon thru Sat 9am to 8 pm.
It’s sat now and it’s 6:53 and they’re are closed.
Bad business practice.

My sister had a track meet in Irvine so we were slightly unfamiliar with brunch options near the HS. We came across this bakery and we just happen to be huge Hayao Miyazaki fans. Thought it was a cute tribute to Kiki’s Delivery Service and also a great bakery. We arrived just as they opened and everything smelled amazing and all the selections were fresh and toasty. They offered a little something for everyone. From hot dogs to pastries and sandwiches. Yum. I had ordered a coffee and the girls brewed it in front of me. It was a dark roast. Perfect. The service was awesome and we will be returning.

We usually go to the mall where KiKi is located to shop at Daiso. Found this little bakery one afternoon that we were around and hungry and discovered the vanilla and chocolate breads that they sell. I’ve never tried a softer bread in my life! The price is great too, they are only $ 1.75 each. Definitely coming again to check their other products.

This place is cute, since the trays here function similar to baskets. I saw this particular brand in a building in Taiwan, but it wasn’t a bakery – it was a restaurant. That aside, this particular establishment is a bakery.
The staff fumbled around during my visit with the cash register (I wonder if I’m bad luck for cash registers) but at least the transaction went through (though they used a calculator). They have a minimum charge for credit cards.
As far as bread goes, it’s nothing special, although they do carry some variant bread recipes that 85 °C doesn’t carry. The bread I ate was edible and had no problems with it. One unit was pretty filling, so I had very little craving for my next meal.

You will never praise for it if you eat and feel stomachache.
Not only 1 person but 3 persons all felt strange after eating the bread.
We bought just the Thanksgiving day, the first time purchase.
I never felt that uncomfortable with my strong stomach.
My wife also felt uncomfortable after eating that.
One of my kids, too.
The bread is not so attractive when we purchased it, if in comparison to 85C.
Now the freshness and safety becomes a major issue.
I never have problem after eating bread. Only Kiki can make it.
Try to avoid this until they really find out how to make safe food.

Close to my house and has a decent selection. They do have some breads that 85 degrees but the selection is smaller. I like their refrigerator section with the ham and cheese sandwiches. Their cakes are very cute critters. They are also very light and airy. They do claim they have ice cream macarons but they are not that great. The cookie is so chewy and taste very processed. I would skip it.

I keep trying to like this place since it’s super close to where I live, but they keep giving me no reason to like them.
Their selection is paltry and the 3-​fer deal is a joke. They have a «buy 3 breads, for $ 3.50» «deal» but the only items that are marked with this «special» price are the ones priced at $ 1.20. The breakdown of the deal makes each bread $ 1.17, making your savings a grand total of $ 0.03 each. Oooooh, hold me back, I wanna buy a case.
Worse than that is their breads don’t have much flavor. The store can probably handle about 2 – 3 times the selection they put out. It’s like they aren’t even trying. My sister has some favorites she gets from their Monterey Park location. We asked if they sold them since they’re the same chain but they just shook their heads. Also the service is terrible with then just staring at you when you come in and ringing you up in complete silence until they give you the total. No greetings or thanks for shopping, etc. With so many other Asian bakeries in the area like the über popular 85C and JJ Sweets serving better versions of the same thing, I’ll continue to drive an extra 5 minutes for those shops.

Uhm… okay, I‘m probably not a good person to review these things. I mean, I can definitely appreciate the nature of Asian bakery goods, but dammit if I can‘t ignore the stupid lines at 85 degrees or the ridiculous pricing resulting from decorative packaging that you can‘t eat.
Okay. Back on track.
Taro bread puffy thing with black spots or something. Good, but bread seemed only half baked. Really odd and my stomach felt weird after eating this. Ground taro inside was good but the mochi was unexpected and sort of gross. It wasn‘t clean mochi. It was a bit wet and snotty and didn‘t help the already sticky and wet half baked texture of the loaf.
Milk bread was good. Custard was a bit lumpy but maybe that was how it was supposed to be???
Strawberry roll cake was bland and dry and left my mouth wondering, «What is this supposed to be? The eyes are telling me one thing but I‘m going to disagree here.»
Service is… how can I put this??? …uhm…it‘s forced. I‘m sure the people here are nice enough, but the three times I‘ve been here have been experiences of vague courtesy bordering on impatience. Not pleasant.
The stuff here looks dry and is fairly boring. Variety is lacking and pricing is either really fair or really high. Also, there‘s a $ 10 minimum for using a credit card. Kinda hard to do when you just want a snack that‘s only $ 1.50.
Not bad, but there‘s so much better just a quick walk down to Mitsuwa.
First visit was on a hot day and I wanted a place to sit and have a snack. That was the strawberry roll fiasco.
Second visit was for a friend and picked up a sample of their chocolate mouse and strawberry cake. Mouse was like shaving foam and the strawberry cake was the same as before, except it was even drier than before.
Third visit was for taro brea and milk bread as reviewed above. Fair enough but really not good enough to warrant a voluntary return.
Thanks, but no thanks. I‘ll stick with Japanese pastries.

Great service! Came from Hong Kong and ordered a fish cake for my daughter. My daughter and her friends lived it and so did I!

I came here several times and I would of given them a 2.5 star for their bread and pastries, but their service is amazing! So I rounded it up to a 3 star.
The name of the store is very cute and it reminded me of the animation called «Kiki’s Delivery Service» where a little girl (young witch) and her cat delivers bake goods to the people of the town.
Here is a trailer of the animation if you haven’t seen it:

Kiki Bakery makes okay bread and pastries. I really like the lay out of the store! It is very clean and organized. The owners of the store are very nice! They really appreciate it when a customer buys a lot from them.
I recently got their buy 5 pastries and get one free deal. So I bought:
Tiramisu Cake Slice — this was not good and I was so sad because I love Tiramisu
Tiramisu Cup — it was okay
Strawberry Mousse — still need to eat it
Chocolate Mousse — I ate a bite of it and thought it was decent
Cheesecake — it was okay
Other cakes that I bought on different days:
Green Tea Slice Cake — it was okay
Black Forest Slice Cake — it was okay and I had better
The bread that I’ve had:
4 tiny breads with ham inside — I like getting this because its small and quick to eat
Bread with bits of ham and corn — it was okay
Green Tea bread roll — still need to try it
Taro bread — still need to try it
Overall, I’ve been to better places that have better bread and pastries. But to meet super friendly owners and workers is very rare! (:

Decent prices for Taiwanese baked goods. There’s no line here like at 85C. I had my choice of taro filled rolls, custard buns, and they even sell milk tea here. Credit card minimum is $ 10. 3 mix and match items for $ 3.50. It’s a great deal! They have cakes here that are made to order as well. Friendly service from the staff.

Like a fellow Unilocal reviewer, I stumbled upon this bakery on a weekend afternoon with my husband. We were looking for a quieter place to take a break from our errands; somewhere to have coffee and a midday snack but they had no coffee.
Mid Autumn Festival was approaching so I got some mooncakes instead. If they had coffee, we would have sat in the bakery and had some mooncakes. Then we would have realized just how amazing they were and we would have gotten more on the very same visit — a whole lot more — for us and for our friends. The mooncakes were just the way we like it — not too sweet but just enough to enhance the freshness of the ingredients instead of taking over.
Now we have to wait a whole year to taste those mooncakes again :(
We returned to Kiki’s a few weeks later to try their cookies, cakes and buns. They were just as good. They don’t offer as wide a variety of baked goods as other more popular bakeries in the area but what they do have is good. And not having to deal with obscene lines at the cash register is an added plus.
Kiki’s is now my favorite bakery in the area.
I hope the owner will consider getting at least a Keurig single-​cup coffee maker. When that happens, I’ll be back to change my rating to a 5-​star.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars.
This is a Taiwanese bakery similar to JJ. I have been there several times and bought various buns and pastry items. The quality is good. Their signature pineapple bun is good and its crust is crunchy as it is supposed to be. It is, however, a bit dry but then it is not overly buttery like those from some other bakeries.
The white toast is good, and I like it better than those from JJ. The white toast from Kiki has a softer consistency that is less chewy if not toasted. When toasted, it is close to perfection. Service is good. The employees there are always pleasant and friendly.
This is a bakery that I will certainly revisit. The only reason that I give it 3.5 stars is that the variety and selections are lacking, compared to similar Taiwanese style bakeries in the area. The reason that I round it up to 4 stars is that the pastries are not overly buttery, and that the employees are cool and upbeat.
This place is authentic, cool and sweet, and I will return and recommend.

I was leaving Daiso Japan, and I felt like I needed a sweet snack. I decided to try Kiki Bakery, as it was right next door. I should have went with my first instinct, and that was to drive to 85 bakery to satisfy my inner fat girl pleasure… Instead, I walked in. There wasn’t a soul inside, other than the cashiers. I just figured I was lucky…
«Well, not so much :(«
I purchased two items:
Buttermilk Bun: it taste like a brick of sawdust! OMG, why was it so dry… Nothing involving buttermilk should be so damn dry, smh.
Custard bun: isn’t custard suppose to be sweet… I think yes… The bread was soft, yet flavorless and the custard was just there… that’s it no sweetness, just there…
I would have loved for this relationship to work out, but I’m sorry KiKi, it’s over before it began!

Totally different than what I am used to when it comes to sweets (in a good way)!
I loved the buttermilk bun and the custard bun. We also got a green tea cake for mother’s day from here. Everything was fresh and delicious. Pastries are individually wrapped so they stay fresh.
The folks behind the counter were friendly and helpful.
I was sad I didn’t try the green tea bun, maybe next time?

Can someone tell me that this place is «another» 85C or JJ Bakery???
Compared to the more «well known» bakeries in Irvine, Kiki strives to offer their own uniqueness…
Uniqueness:
* «Cute-​sy» character bread and cake
* Tiramisu in a cup
* Kiki Bakery claims to be «healthy, delicious fresh»
Same as others/​Cons
* Same Muffin cup paper and design as 85C
* Same flavors: «taro bread», «red bean bread», etc.
* VERY LIMITED flavors/​variety of breads
* Buns, cakes, puddings, etc.
* Not-​so friendly service.

This is the fourth Kiki Bakery to open in California. Kiki did not appear to be a popular bakery in the San Gabriel Valley branches (Monterey Park, Alhambra, Rowland Heights) so the expansion to Irvine did not appear to be exciting. However for the sake of trying a new business, I stopped by to sample a few items.
Below lists a few concerns:
1. The operating hours of Kiki appear to be strange. 9 AM to 8:30 PM. I understand that some Irvine citizens may be retired or are unemployed, but I do know that many people enjoy picking up fresh bread in the morning before going to work (based on observations at 85C Bakery)! Fresh Chinese pastries make a good breakfast. Is there a reason for this shop not to revise their opening time to 7:30 or 8:00 AM such that the working class can be served? Is the late opening because the bread was not prepared in Irvine? The late opening means I may have to purchase bread sitting on on the counter for over 10 hours and then wait an additional 12 more hours before eating it for breakfast the next morning. Doesn’t sound too appealing.
2. Variety was extremely limited. There were only about eight types of classic Chinese pastries on display, with some types overlapping (pineapple bun vs. pineapple pork sung bun). The signature pineapple bun does not stand out and can be found at similar Chinese bakeries. But at least it did not contain a lot of butter that is characteristic of the 85C pastries
3. Although the window paint banner suggested Kiki served tea and coffee, I did not them available. Only pastries were sold here.
4. As Minsey mentioned, the 3 for $ 3.50 grand opening special was embarrassing since it entitles customers to a meager $ 0.25 saving with purchases of 3 items. A more generous promotion will be required for Kiki to draw new customers, especially in a competitive area containing superior Taiwanese style bakeries (JJ, 85C Bakery, J Sweet).
After several paragraphs of bashing Kiki, I will turn to two positive points. First, is the inclusion of tax in their price tags. Second, is the light amount of ingredients used in their signature pineapple bun, with respect to the oily and buttered filled 85C Bakery pastries.
Overall, Kiki is still a large step behind JJ Bakery that is just a few blocks down on Culver. Kiki is unremarkable and does not feature any aspects that would make me eager to return.

Pastries are my weakness, so it’s kind of both a good and bad thing this place opened up by my house. It’s a pretty small bakery with limited selections. It seems that their pineapple bread is what they’re known for, and they have a couple of variations of it. It tastes like a slightly sweeter King’s Hawaiian bread. You can’t taste pineapple at all. Some of the other breads I got were green bean (tastes just like red bean bread), and taro mochi. The taro mochi was pretty yummy since it has a taro filling with a mochi layer inside. Two of some of my favorite things. It’s pretty cheap and decent, but nothing close to amazing.
Their «sale» prices are laughable. It cost $ 1.25 for each bread, and they have a 3 for $ 3.50 special going on. A whopping savings of $ 0.25… I hope you can tell I’m being sarcastic.

The store is new and currently having a soft opening (not full menu). I tried 4 items, and was disappointed with 3 of them. In general, the pastries here taste like there is an ingredient added that makes them taste chock full of preservatives.
1– pineapple bun. crunchy top was not crunchy and there wasn’t really much flavor. Took 2 bites and threw it out.
2– butter raisin. dry dry dry. like eating a box pastry from the philippines. Ate ½ and threw it out.
3– apple bun. The filling was purple and pretty nasty, leaking out of the side. It did not taste like apple, but more like apple jam from a Hostess apple pie. Actually, it was worse than that. I took a bite and threw it out.
4– custard bun– a surprisingly good find. After eating the other 3, this pastry redeemed the bakery back up to 2 stars. I would definitely grab this again if I were in the immediate area.
I will probably come back here to try more pastries, so I can maybe give them a better rating.
They’re having a 10% off 6in and larger cakes, and 3 for $ 3.50 selected breads. The real opening is on the 18^th.

New Taiwanese bakery in Irvine. They have a few stores in the SGV area. It’s a smaller selection of bread than compared to 85C bakery. Their name in Chinese is pineapple bun house, so they’re supposed to be known for that I guess. The pineapple bun tasted pretty good, it had a sweet crunchy top like it’s supposed to have. Also tried the Taiwanese style sandwich, it had good flavor and didn’t taste old like some other bakeries. They also have a selection of cakes and desserts. I saw some Taiwanese pineapple cakes too, the square little pastries. They were running a promotion when I went (1÷5÷13), certain breads 3 for $ 3.50 and buy 2 sandwiches get 1 free. Always nice to have more Asian bread selection in Irvine. Go try!
-$ 10 cc minimum