Byen Bakeri

My daughter wakes up on her 8^th birthday and decides she would really like a lemon cake. In December. I thought I would make a few calls and tell her I tried but failed– then low and behold I found Byen. The nice folks there found a little white cake and turned it into a 4-​layer lemon cream thing of beauty within hours. It was also delicious and very reasonably priced. The bakery itself is a lovely space and everything in the spotless display cases looks yummy. I plan to return for coffee and a kringle ASAP.

I drive by this bakery regularly and decided to check it out last week. Parking is easy if you park in the load/​unload spot for a few minutes. Stay longer and you may be asking for a ticket. It was 1 PM and the shop was busy but not crowded. It was attractive and well lighted. Staff was friendly and helpful.
The way I evaluate a bakery is by the quality of its bread. So I bought a loaf of the light wheat and a baguette. The desserts looked pretty sweet — lots of sugar on the top so I passed on them. I was dubious about the breads because they felt soft. But I took them anyways.
At home I cut several thick slices from the wheat loaf since it was too soft for thin slices. When toasted they quickly turned dark brown and would have burned if I did not catch them. As I suspected the bread was very soft, even though toasted. I would call it the Swedish version of Wonder bread. No texture or bite — nearly as soft as cotton candy.
The baguette was nearly as bad. Slightly chewier but unimpressive. Certainly more taste than the wheat loaf. But when you hold a baguette at the end and the other end droops down it is just an (bad) imitation. As a sandwich it was meh. Just something to hold a slice of turkey.
Byen does not measure up to any of my 3 local favorites — Macrina, Essential and Grateful Bread. The desserts may be great but I don’t care to eat a Danish for lunch. That’s too bad because Nickerson could use more good food shops.

Oh my goodness. This place is dangerously, wonderfully delicious. With so many delightful, tempting pastries, it’s often a challenge to choose! Be sure to get the Kringle if you’re new to Scandinavian pastries, but on Fridays, go early and get the Weekender. If you love maple and bacon, this is the next best thing (if not better) than heading down to Portland for a Voodoo bacon maple donut. Fair warning: it’s not light on calories! They do run out quickly, so I recommend stopping by in the morning. The bakery offers surprisingly ample seating in a small space, so I occasionally meet up with friends to enjoy a cappuccino and a pastry. The staff are truly wonderful, helpful, friendly, and genuinely enjoy their jobs (they must get pastry perks). Just keep in mind you will probably need to run a marathon to work off whatever you eat here, but it’s worth it.

Great pastries. Also, used to have great sandwiches. They seem to have started trying to save costs on the sandwiches though, because they have steadily gotten smaller, to where they are now almost a joke — A single thin slice of meat, and barely enough veggies to feed a hamster.

Interesting location but awesome bakery with unique items like a brioche with lingoberries, huge thin chocolate chip cookies and almond type pastry things. They actually have a lot but those 3 are the ones my friends and I opted for. Clean, cute, decently priced. They also have fresh baguettes and cakes. Nice little bakery.

So I like to give a place a few good weeks before I leave my reviews and I cannot be more excited to do so for Byen Bakeri. If you haven’t been to this bakery yet, I guarantee you are missing out.
Their pastries are SO GOOD. You’ll get the most amazing variety of flavors, textures, and sizes of sweet and savory delicious goodness. Now, not only is the food here good, but the hospitality of the owners brings this place up to par. There were a few times my order got messed up, and the owner was very quick to accommodate and make up for the mistakes. They definitely strive for excellence here!
I could leave a list of items to try, but I won’t because my advice is, TRY EVERYTHING, you’ll quickly find your own favorites.
Pros:
–You get more bang for the buck!
–They always keep things interesting.
–Free 2 hr street parking right outside the shop
–Friendly staff
–Great neighborhood
–Their pastries are obviously made with some good ol’ TLC
–GET THEIR LUNCHBOX DEAL (you’ll thank me later so, YOU’RE WELCOME.)
–Get there in the morning to get a freshly baked cheddar jalapeño roll! OMGGGG it is to die for.
–Awesome owners
–Strong coffee
Cons:
–They get busy fast and seem understaffed most of the time. If you’re on the go, don’t expect a speedy visit. Sometimes you’ll be lucky and get to have a quick visit, but still, each time you visit do so with a little wiggle room in your time.
–The layout of the bakery makes it feel very cluttered
–Old ladies WILL cut you in line! Stay on your toes!
–It’s hard to browse what you want especially when it’s crowded because you can’t keep your place in line AND look through your options bc you have you walk up and down the line to see your choices.
–Sometimes it seems EVERYTHING has some form of almond on the pastries… I think they really love almond. I don’t mind it, but after a while things all seems to taste or look really similar to this. BUT give them a chance, they’ve got surprised up their sleeves *wink*
–Def. not Gluten Free!

I love baked goods and this place was heaven when I walked in the door! They have everything from huge cookies to artisan sandwiches to espresso. We visited this bakery 3 times in two days and each time, we got something different and equally as delightful. Highly recommended!!!

I work in the food industry and don’t often take the recommendations of my customers when it comes to food (I’ve been burned many times before), but when the guy wearing a shirt that said «Swede» gleefully told me that Byen is amazing (and better than Larsen’s), I listened.
Oh. My. Word. Byen IS amazing. I love marzipan, and I LOVE European pastries, and it’s so hard to keep myself from getting one of everything. It helps to go with at least one buddy so you can share and try more. Maple Butterhorn, almond coffee cake… just to start. :)
Plus good coffee.
Heaven.
(But hey, Byen, if you’re reading this, can I make one small suggestion? You do such an AMAZING job with pastries and displaying them, and your espresso is great, but perhaps you’d consider investing in some good cups for your espresso that aren’t paper?)

Went for lunch and treats today. Sandwiches are huge and very yummy. Bought a few treats as well for dessert. Also very good. Quick, friendly service and a clean bathroom as well!

Byen Bakeri is my go-​to neighborhood bakery! I’ve gotten pastries, sandwiches, and even special occasion cakes and have been impressed with everything i’ve ordered. The cinnamon rolls and royal scones (i think that’s the name?) are my favorite.
There’s always a slightly different offering of treats, but they’re consistently made fresh with a appealing presentation.
On Friday’s you can get fresh bread for $ 5, and there’s an everyday lunch special for a sandwich box lunch.

What an amazing bakery! Unique in Seattle. Danish pastries are incomparable with anything else in Seattle. They bake the best rolls. I just go there to pick up the short rolls for $ 1 sometimes. It’s hard to choose from all the Danish and pastries. They have oversized cookies with m&m which kids love.

I think this place is pretty good, but not super outstanding. I’d rate this a high three. The pastries are very sweet and buttery… Like their croissant is a butter sponge. But they’re also very flakey which I like. The pastries with fruits are generally really good (mm Apple Danish) but I find the sweetness overbearing as I pass the halfway point. The coffee is pretty good. Not the best but not bad at all. The service has gotten better over time! Very impressed with that. And it’s cute and clean inside, a great place to do homework. Last year I had a turkey croissant sandwich and it was soooooooooo good but I can’t seem to find their soup +sammy lunch deal! I haven’t asked, but you should!
I don’t mind coming here. It’s close and convenient to my school, and the location is peaceful. There’s no parking lot so good luck (unless you choose to park at the ⁷⁄₁₁ next door) with street parking!

No parking and long lines at Café Besalu on 6÷13÷15, so me and the college friend decided to head over to Byen Bakeri instead.
It’s been awhile since I’ve visited and really like the improved seating arrangement indoors and the added outdoor sidewalk seating.
I had the cream cheese Danish ($ 3.85) onsite and I’d have to say it rivals my favorite from Sluy’s Bakery in Poulsbo. I bought an éclair ($ 4.60) to go for the kiddo. He said this is slightly better than his favorite from Bakery Nouveau.
I also purchased a large apple coffee cake ($ 6.95) which I brought earlier today to a family gathering. Wow — that was delicious!
One bonus of sticking around was the amazing aroma that filled the bakeshop when the freshly baked bread was brought out to cool. That should be a marketed air freshener!

Underwhelming experience, though to be fair this place seems more like a café, the sandwiches I saw being ordered looked delightful and there were a fair amount of customers in there,
I bought some lemon squares and a few donuts, I always get a danish, their danish was pretty close to spot on perfect, the crust was a bit overdone but cream cheese, frosting, texture of crust (that wasn’t over done) was fantastic.
The lemon bars were a mistake from the get go, the counter person weighted them out by ferrying them to the scale in piles of three, they toppled tossing their topping everywhere. The box they came in they were upside down and tossed in with no reguard, it was pretty sad, half of then were jelly balls by the time I got home. They also seem to have coconut, which isn’t a big deal for my but my fiancée has a very mild alergy. Its mild enough that we don’t really check for it, I don’t know if it was marked or not I certainly didn’t see a notice though. None of these things are big deals individually, the jelly balls were still lemony and her allergy isn’t a big deal but collectively made my visit a bummer.
I might give them another pass for a danish and a sandwich but I don’t think I’ll order to go or large order again.

Yum, Yum, Yum! I have an obsession with marzipan (almond paste) and they use it in several of their pastries. It’s a good thing that its a 10 minute walk from my office, because i need the exercise to give some vein attempt at working off the calories! Everything I have had here has been delicious. The Kringle is quite perfect and delicious. If you’re looking for a super delicious, sugar-​coma enducing, sinful treat: you’ve got to stop in on the weekend for «the weekender». It’s the love-​child of an apple fritter and a bacon maple bar. SO. GOOD.
Parking is easy, there’s always street parking. They also serve coffee, so you can enjoy your treats in house or take them to go!

I was so excited to find a wonderful Scandinavian bakery. The beloved Scandinavian Bakery in Ballard closed a few years back. And sadly so much of Seattle’s Scandinavian history is disappearing. Since moving back to the area I was on the hunt for a bakery that makes the Swedish cake — the Princess Cake. And I was also looking for the Swedish holiday treat — Saffron Buns.
So I called ahead and ordered some Saffron Buns. They were beautiful — but unfortunately they did not have much taste. A Saffron Bun should have a lovely taste of saffron and be slightly sweet. These did not taste much of anything. We also tried a slice of Princess Cake. I think the cake may have been a few days old as it was dry. It was only so so.
On the plus side — the other pastries we tried were utterly AMAZING. We had some there and took other home (they were even great the next day). We had a raspberry almond danish, a marionberry and cheese danish, a pecan roll and the hubby also had a cardamom pastry with custard that he loved.
We got coffees while we were there and my cappuccino was delicious. It is a beautiful bakery and everyone was very nice. So I was sad that my two favorite Swedish items were not great. But the other pastries were so delicious that this will be one of our new favorite bakeries!

Epic. This is everything!!! Tried the samples of Kringle and lemon cake. Bought a box of cookies and salted caramel custard filled boller.
Numerous to die for yummies in this place. Such a gem that most people just probably drive or walk right by without notice! No snobbery & lovely, patient employees here.
So happy to have found something so heavenly!!!

Clearly the dessert gods knew I needed a bakery within walking distance from my office because my boss took me to Byen Bakeri last week for the first time; and now I’m smitten. The warm doughy aroma mixed with the sweet of sugar and almond paste had my nose by both nostrils the moment we opened the door.
This «designer bakery» has a small seating area with tables and chairs, but what grabbed my eyes first was the display of breads and other Scandinavian goodies lining the wall above the pastry case and their beautiful offering of treats behind the glass. Traditional cookies and danishes, croissants, fruit tarts, coffee cake and little baked puffs with handmade cream spilling out of them are all here, including the coveted Kringle. Bonus: they have GF butterhorns and they are so good!
With a personality to match the blissful scent of fresh bread and visual artistry of edibles, the staff of Byen Bakeri are ready to greet you right.

Sunday I found myself in Fremont (technically northern lower Queen Anne maybe) on Nickerson midway between Tully’s and Byen Bakeri. Tully’s was the safe, albeit boring choice but I am so very glad that I decided to try Byen Bakeri. It was like an oasis, or walking into Heaven on earth — there is just nothing like the aromas from a good bakery.
It’s a simple yet elegant space where the focus is on a long display case of Scandinavian baked goods. The only challenge is deciding which one you will have. I chose a raspberry coffee cake, and it was a great decision — it went so nicely with a cup of English breakfast tea.
The service was warm and accommodating on a blustery January day. There is a selection of newspapers proving print media is not dead, and they do offer free Wi-​Fi. I am already conjuring up reasons to go back.

If you are looking for a last minute Scandinavian Christmas Kringle that is absolutely delicious, look no further. (if you are looking to fit into a pair of skinny jeans anytime soon, then keep walking. There is nothing for you to see here…)
Byen Bakeri is nestled between Queen Anne and Fremont on Nickerson, and is full of the smells, tastes and buttery perfection of a great European bakery. Despite the sophistication of their flakey pastry, you’ll find Byen to be a small, unassuming startup just teeming (literally overflowing on the day I was there) with great looking baked goods.
I started out this morning thinking I was heading to grab a Kringle elsewhere, but I got a tip that I should come here instead, and I’m glad I did. This place has the goods. The bakery is producing mountains of incredible looking items. When I arrived after lunch, there were just two enormous Kringles left, but no crowds (the Bakeri has only been open a month) and here were literally rows and counters full of the most delicious looking cookies and pastries. Should you arrive too late to score the Kringle: which is a hot holiday commodity is this Scandinavian-​friendly city –there is much more to chose from and no crazy crowds to contend with.
Other items that look perfect for the holiday glutton (and sign me up solidly in that category!) include Christmas decorated shortbread cookies, gorgeous buche de noel, Royal Cakes (think the best coffee cake ever), and Scandinavian treats like cardamom braids, stollen, cardamom raisin rolls, lefse, julekake, scandia rolls and princess torta.
From the counter, you can see back into the open kitchen where two pastry chefs were putting out what looked like enough pastry to feed a small European country. Byen Bakeri gets back to the very root of why Unilocal is so great in the first place — just getting off the ground, this fantastic bakery deserves a try.