Grove Pastry Shop

Holy crap, did this bakery shut down? That sucks big time.
I got married a year ago at the Prado, and booked the Grove for my cupcakes. We also got a 6 inch round to keep, freeze, and enjoy on our 1 year anniversary.
We got 3 flavors of cupcakes: the mango mousse charlotte, fresh apple, and chocolate. All three were delicious.
The Grove delivered and set up our display — professional and beautiful.
When I defrosted the 6 inch round last week to enjoy on our anniversary, I was expecting it to be something we did as a ceremonial thing, to remember our amazing wedding. I figured the cake would be OK — but maybe we’d take a bite, say «alright, so we did that…» and throw the rest away.
WRONG.
The cake was moist, flavorful, and completely delightful.
I took the rest to work and was told by some it was the best cake they had ever had (a YEAR later!!).
My sincerest thanks to the Grove Pastry Shop. I’m very grateful to have had your cupcakes and cake at my wedding.

So I guess they closed down, which is extremely disappointing, but I wanted to write a review on the wedding cake they made for us anyways. My husband and I got married last August on Camp Pendleton. I’m stationed in WA with the Navy, so we pretty much planned the entire wedding out of state. Before we moved, we discovered this bakery at a bridal bizarre and knew we wanted them to make our cake. They were extremely flexible with what we wanted and our changing venues. They delivered with no problems, and of course the cake was delicious. Scratch that, it was honestly the best cake I’ve ever had. My husband and guests agreed. We had NO leftovers! I was looking forward to going back to San Diego and stopping in to get some pastries and cupcakes, but I’m just happy they helped us so much with our wedding cake :) Thank you Grove Pastry Shop!

Stale cupcakes and over priced cake for a single layer cake at 18 dollars is insane.

Great whipped cream frosting
My hands down go to comfort food
It’s a hit or miss with customer service but I ignore it because of the cake

I’m a grove pastry lifer! Just got a piece of whipped cream cake and was disappointed, taste was quite the same but the fillings were not the same. Looks like they skimped out on layers and not enough whipped cream!

Yes I’m posting my review a bit late but better late than never. Ok I’m going to make this short and sweet… THIS PLACE IS PHENOMENA! Karla is the best!!! My two wedding cakes for ¹⁰⁄₀₉ and ¹⁰⁄₁₀ came out great. I highly recommend this place to everyone!
xo,
Ameera

I was invited to my daughter’s home for dinner and decided to go by the Grove Bakery for a couple of pies. When I got there… and it was shortly before closing… they had no pies! I did buy a dozen cupcakes and the last of the Halloween cookies… which was eight cookies.
The cookies were cute but they were also dry and bland! The cupcakes were pretty but only tasted okay. When I got to the register to pay, I was totally shocked at the bill…$ 31.85!!! I will
not go back again.

It was my first time coming to the Grove Pastry Shop. I liked the old west building design. I had to drive to an unfamiliar area of San Diego. I walked in about 9 am and I was greater with a smile by a young lady at the counter. She helped me find a Birthday Cake for my brother. I ordered the two layered Whip Cream Cake they are famous for.
She put a nice Happy Birthday Mike on top in blue icing. I wish I took a photo of this master piece. I was a good girl and didn’t get anything else. I did have fun looking at the other desserts and noticed they have extra large cream puffs and mini upside down pineapple cakes.
I hoped my brother loves the cake.
Old family history, their Whip Cream Layered Cake used to be able to find at Little Bit Of Sweden Smörgåsbord on El Cajon Blvd. back in the early eighties my family would go there for Easter.
So glad to be able to find this cake. I do plan to return maybe during the upcoming holidays.

They have the BEST carrot cake in town.
Period.

Full disclosure: I went in, looked around, shuddered, and left, so I can’t really tell you how anything tasted!
This place is in a sketchy area… yeah, there’s a Starbucks near by. But there are also a lot of payday loan shark shops, «adult» stores, and a strip club pretty close.
I’ve been checking out a lot of bakeries lately and wanted to give this one a shot. Walked in. The place looked like that line from The Emperor’s New Groove: Hey, everyone hits their stride, you just hit yours 50 years ago. Just kind of old, worn out, not particularly clean. The adjective that comes to mind is «fly-​blown».
Most small shops, someone says hello when you walk in, asks if they can help. Their was one worker there, one customer, and I was completely ignored. They were discussing a cake and I think I could have keeled over with a fatal heart attack and the worker would not have noticed until it was time to lock up, when I assume they would have lugged my body out and thrown it in a dumpster.
I walked over and looked at the «pastries» in the case. As someone else has noticed, they did not look like they were made there; they looked like the exact same chemical filled crap sent to the ‘bakeries’ at grocery stores.
Maybe the wedding cakes are good; I have no idea. But if you’re looking for anything else — look elsewhere!

I had Grove Pastry make my wedding cake for last week and it was amazing! My cake was a two layer small cake with mango champagne flavoring on top and strawberry flavoring on the bottom. My guests thought the strawberry flavored cake was the best strawberry cake that they have ever had at a wedding. And of course the champagne mango flavor was outstanding and a huge hit with everyone. I would definitely return to Grove pastry and recommend them to anybody who is looking for a delicious cake. The whole process was also very simple from cake tasting to ordering to getting the perfect decorations.

Why have I never been to this place? My in-​laws ordered their wedding cake from here over 30 years ago! There is a reason this place has been in business for so long!
I indulged in the large cinnamon roll dripping and is oozing with frosting! When I can’t Drive five hours north of the 101 to old West cinnamon rolls in Pismo beach… I have a local place to get my fix for cinnamon rolls!
My daughter enjoyed her white chocolate raspberry slice of cake. I love that the frosting was not light like whip cream yet not super dense like butter cream.
My little son chose the white cupcake with white butter cream frosting and a colorful flower on top… It was OK but I think there are better choices. The cake was tasty but dense in consistency.
I couldn’t believe the cakes that were being picked up today! I am totally coming here for my cake needs from here on out!
I think it’s really cute how all the customers are super excited about all the fun colorful cakes that taste good too! It is a little sad that some of the workers have lost that excitement… oh well! Sugar can solve that problem in a second!

Learned about this bakery at a wedding event and they had the most delicious samples that I had to set an appointment and see if what they offered could fit into our budget. We scheduled a cake tasting which was incredible! There were somewhere between 15 – 18 individual slices of cake for my (now) husband to try. I loved how they explained each flavor to us of what we were trying. The hardest part was choosing.
Fortunately, if you’re having a multi-​tier or multiple cakes, like we did, then you can choose a few flavors. The mango champagne is what I tasted at the event and it’s the main flavor we ended up choosing for the wedding cake. It’s moist and kind of like a traditional wedding cake flavor with an exotic twist. Our other layers were chocolate marble and cranberry orange.
I requested simple for the actual look of the cake, but with some texture. To get the 3-​D look, it would’ve had to be fondant, and we wanted buttercream, but when I saw our cake, they had listened to exactly what I wanted and the «peaks» of the cake were exactly what I imagined — but with the delicious buttercream.
We are Beach Boys fans and for the groom’s cake, we requested it look like a Beach Boys album. We brought in a printout and chose good ol’ vanilla for this cake. What we received was beyond our expectations! We had imagined they’d make it on a square cake, but they made it look like the actual album disc. I’ll have to upload photos when we receive them. It was incredible.
Cost-​wise, this bakery was GREAT price and value. ALL of their flavors are delicious. A few weeks before the wedding, we paid our balance and the day of the wedding, they arrived at the beginning of the time frame they gave us to set up.
I would HIGHLY recommend this bakery to any bride-​to-​be. We simply had the best experience and I am incredibly happy that we chose them to make the cake of our wedding dreams.

There is no doubt in my mind why this place has been in business for 60 years. They were able to satisfy my request for «stunning» with regard to the wedding cake I purchased (and ate!) My wife suggested this place and they were amazing every step of the way. Thank you Carla! What an amazing cake! Also pick up a pineapple upside down pastry while you’re there.

I just this place so much! I called the place to see if they had any cupcakes left before they closed in 45mins. And Joyce was so helpful on the phone & patient with me while over hearing me calling my friend a «ding-​dong» Lmbo! Beautiful bakery… you can see the history & feel the family love & that’s what keeps me coming & going back! Thanks for the laughs & the free candle! See you in September for my own birthday

This bakery was recommended to me by a friend — all she could say was «their cakes are delicious». I have good friends b.c. she did not make me drive all the way to Lemon Grove just to let me down. The cakes were so unique and yummy. I am so happy I found this place — I went there to taste the cakes for possibly using them for my wedding cake. And after the 16 different flavors of amazingness — I couldn’t imagine going anywhere else. Carla helped me during my visit for the tasting and she was so sweet and accommodating.
I highly recommend 1 of their newer flavors. I want to say it’s called Pina Berry Colada. The truth is — I couldn’t hear anything once I started eating that slice, but berry and «colada» are involved. Heaven help me. And what? I can choose multiple flavors for the different tiers? Maybe this is a common thing in the world of wedding cakes — but choosing wedding cakes new to me & I am stoked this option exists at Grove Pastry Shop.
We are on a tight budget and they respected that instead of pulling a David’s Bridal and pretending I have a bucket of money somewhere I’m hiding and just waiting to spend on wedding stuff. (& for the record: IF I had this secret bucket of money: It’d more likely go toward the honeymoon.)
I’m looking forward to seeing the final product.
PS If you are reading this & you are going to be a guest at my wedding — save room for the cake! :)
Updating on ⁹⁄₁₇: Wedding cake was SO GOOD. Several guests took the time to compliment me on it — adding that they don’t usually eat the cake & they were so glad that they did. :)

25 years ago… this place was off the charts for pastries, cookies, sweets… Their «Butterhorn» was the best anywhere.
I have returned here randomly over the last 15 years as my Dad loves the MEMORY of the planets best Butterhorn (now just meh) hoping for a miracle. The place looks run down and not quite clean. The pastries are okay at best.
I find all the 4 and 5 star reviews interesting… given you get the same quality at Von’s/Albertsons?
Today’s return visit to get my Pops some pastries was sadly my final.
PS the reviews that state ownership is the same from decades ago = wrong

A friend recommended this shop for birthday cakes. They have great service, you might have to wait a while since they can get busy.
I ordered 3 cakes, a ¼ sheet of the white whipped cream cake,
2 round, marble and a chocolate cake.
The prices are a bit high considering I can get better cakes somewhere else for the same price.
I was expecting some extraordinary delicious cake and it came out to be cakes like the ones at Costco.
I give them credit for their design though

A pastry shop in Lemon Grove you ask?
It’s freaking good. We had the attack of the munchies one day and we decided to drop in and pick up a few slices of cake.
We couldn’t make up our minds so we opted for three different slices; red velvet, salted chocolate, and German chocolate cakes.
The first slice to go down was the red velvet, then the German chocolate and the last piece was the salted chocolate (the day after-​no we didn’t eat the cakes in succession).
I must admit, all the slices were moist. Good place to pick up your birthday cake too. Whenever I am in the area I stop by this place.

I am rating the cake tasting experience only.
Although I ultimately decided on another baker for my wedding cake, Grove Pastry Shop had the best tasting setup and experience! They take you to this tasting room in the back that is decorated with many different cakes, which is helpful for seeing the different tier sizes and options. They provided water and many many cake flavors for tasting! Karla was very knowledgeable and let us take our time. I remember the champagne mango being my favorite, as well as the salted caramel cake. There was quite a variety to choose from.
When they presented my written quote, it included a discount for mentioning the Bridal Bazaar (even though it was the day before the event), and free delivery since my venue is the Crowne Plaza. The quote for the cake was very reasonable too. I was very close to booking Grove but I just fell in love with a different flavor somewhere else. I do recommend this business and the tasting experience was so fun, and FREE! All couples should definitely check them out! If you see them at the wedding shows its worth it to stop and try their samples!