Yas Bakery

I love baklava, however I should have tried them first before buying lots of them for my family for Christmas because they were not good at all and they were expensive about $ 15 per pound. I’m not sure if the owner lady just didn’t like other people that is not her kind or just have a plain resting bitch face, the welcome vibe just wasn’t there. I like to try new things so this crossed off my list and will not return again.

I’m Persian and would love to support their business, but most of the time I feel unwelcome and uncomfortable at this store. I believe these people need to change their attitude. One of the young ladies who work there is extremely unfriendly. I see that she always makes customers uncomfortable. The prices are higher comparing to other Iranian grocery stores and extremely higher comparing to the any other grocery stores.
The thing I like about them is how they make bakeries. If you want a good bakery this is the right place to go but if you need anything else you will find them way more expensive than anywhere else.

I really liked this place. Very neat and clean. The cookies were fresh and yummy. Owners were very nice, and I enjoyed talking with them. You can also find fresh Iranian bread there, which was very similar to what you can get in Iran. I extremely recommend this, and would definitely go back there!

A hidden gem in Vienna, VA! This crowded little ethnic grocery/​bakery had all sorts of delicacies imported from the Mideast – a variety of pistachios, homemade baklava, canned goods, flatbreads, teas and dried herbs! I could not possibly take it all in with one visit because there were other customers sharing the narrow aisles. (A foodie paradise, I suspect!)
I am sure I’ll return. I love to experiment with new recipes using ingredients you can’t find in chain groceries. The baklava selection here was exceptional, sold by the pound. I agree with other Unilocalers that the price of some items like the imported nuts was high.
TIP: The hard part is finding a place if you want to park along this interesting 3-​block long commercial area. It’s hard to get one of the time-​limited, on-​street parking spots that unfortunately mandates a no-​lingering visit. If you can, park on the bakery property.

I love their pastry. So many kinds of baklava! I am also entranced by the spices and ingredients. Really good hummus. I probably shop here two times a month. It is always a stop if I have guests coming over.

Clean? Not perfect clean, but compared to other iranian stores, one of the cleanest
Price? Very high, actually astronomically high, specially the bread
Service? The Lady (guess the owner) did not offend us, but you feel it when you’re not welcome in a store!

This is such a great little shop that may get overlooked when visiting other stores nearby, but it’s definitely worth checking out! There’s a nice variety of Persian items and food, including meat and bread sections. The handful of dried goods I’ve bought from them so far have been very good, and knowing that the store is there makes me want to try making Persian cuisine. The two ladies I’ve encountered to check out have both been really helpful and nice, as well.
The part of the store that makes my heart flutter is the bakery/​sweets counter. I bought a few things on a whim my first visit, and then specifically came back later to buy sweets for a party at my home («bliss» is the only way I can describe my friends’ reactions to eating those sweets). The pastries and cakes are so delicate and delicious, and I could not believe how many I could buy for so little money. If I need petit four-​type desserts for any event in the future, I’m going to be buying them from here. Even if you don’t need to shop for Persian goods, do yourself a favor and buy some sweets from Yas Bakery!

Be careful when buying. I once asked for lamb and was given cheaper beef. One of the owners, the younger lady, would do anything to sell. Another time I wanted to buy a certain type of cheese that did not have a price per pound and the owner, again the younger lady, just gave the highest price from the top of her head. So becareful vet what you are buying and the price and quality.

This place is ghetto compared to what I experienced in Los Angeles. The store is tiny, yet clean and organized. The guy who bakes fresh bread is cool and the bread is decent, but pricey at $ 1.25 a pop. The place is generally 1.5−2x more expensive than stores in LA. They also pull off some BS during Noruz time where they jack up prices by 30−50% over what prices are already since they know they basically have a monopoly. Staff is ok… not very friendly or helpful.
Parking sucks.

The best Persian bakery/​store in DC area. Very clean, organized, and straightforward.
Everything is great here, from the friendly and nice staff to the selection of food, fresh bread, and amazing assortment of baked goods and pastries.
I highly recommend the raisin cookies, baghlava, and ghottab. Also their taftoon bread they bake there.

Prices are expensive. Very rude lady that seems to be the owner. She snapped at my friend and has major attitude for no apparent reason.

I started coming here recently, once I discovered that they carry coals and shisha, and I am quite impressed with their selection! I have not yet tried any of their pastries but I know one of these days I will cave! They have a wide variety of breads and meats as well and of course an amazing display of pastries, half of which I am sure I couldn’t pronounce ;)
Their customer service has been friendly both visits (I was helped by a middle-​aged woman the first time and she was very polite, and a younger woman the second visit, also polite and friendly). The parking is limited (they have a small lot in the back and maybe 4ish spaces in the front) so you have to be careful but there’s not a lot of parking on Church Street in general!
They have a diverse selection of shisha flavors and their prices are relatively moderate (I suppose the shisha is a little on the pricey side– $ 3.99 for the small size pictured but that is most likely since it’s an imported item). I will update this review once I try some of those pastries or other specialties!

Delicious, moist, and beautiful! I will admit that I was a bit nervous about the slight language barrier, but this Persian bakery delivered (literally and figuratively)! I had a 4 tiered, 20 lb vanilla cake with fresh crème mixed with chopped strawberries. I picked out the design I wanted from the book provided at the front of the bakery– I ultimately chose one of the designs on the first page ;] I scheduled my cake cutting for around 7:45 pm, and the cake was delivered at around 7:30… thus, the buttercream frosting appeared immaculately in shape (I feared that if I had it delivered to my venue earlier, it would melt especially since the venue did not have a fridge large enough to store the cake in all its glory).
Would not hesitate to place future cake orders with this bakery!

The must-​get dry pastry here is the nargili (coconut) cookie, chewy and just flavorful enough. The jam cookies have a similar texture with a bit more sweetness. Zaban and papyoni come a close second on my favorites, since I’m a fan of the flaky textures. Keshmeshi (raisin) cookies are almost too ordinary in comparison, but still nudge my sweet tooth just right. Not terribly enthused about the crumbly gerdoey (walnut), berenji (cardamom rice), and badami (almond) cookies, but I’ve been known to dunk them in my tea.

Have you ever had fresh almonds?
I’m not talking about almonds from a newly opened can of nuts. I’m talking about spring almonds, these are fresh green fuzzy almonds which are only available for a few weeks each year, before the outer skin turns hard and bitter as they ripen. They are eaten raw and whole and have a translucent inner kernel resembles a mild and refreshing jelly, with an almost lychee-​like texture, and a subtle hint of sweetness. You need to try them.
Yas has them here now along with other exotic foreign fruits and veggies. This includes grape leaves, a vast assortment of Iranian pistachios, nuts, cucumbers, pomegranates, and sabzi (green herbs), sweet lemons (limoo shirin), all of which are reasonably priced. They have a halal case of meats with some interesting finds like lamb hooves. The shelves are stocked with dried lemons, barberries, Greek sour cherry jams, as well as an assortment of candies.
The best part is they offer freshly baked breads, although you have to wait awhile to get it, and it’s best to come on weekends to pick them up.
I believe this place has everything middle eastern, I came here with a few American friends and as the token Persian, could not even identify half of the stuff here, which makes me a bad token Persian. I was intrigued by a little round green fruit that looked like a mini green apple, and the staff pointed out that it was an apricot and encouraged me to eat one. Despite, what just a few reviewers commented on (mentioning the staff discriminated against people who did not speak their language) I found the staff here to be friendly, and you might say that it was because I was Persian, but actually they were speaking farsi to my American friends and not to me. They had no idea I was actually the one covert Persian in the group (I may have overdone it with the blonde highlights) and they were plenty helpful to me.
A couple of things to skip out on here are the yogurts, kashk (whey), and some cheeses, I found them to be a few dollars more expensive than my local Iranian grocer in Rockville. Also the hummus, skip it like the other reviews have said. I’ll let you in on a secret. Persians can’t make hummus to save our lives. You may be thinking we’d be good at it cause we’re middle eastern and all, but it’s a total misconception, you’re not gonna walk into a persian kitchen and find us snacking on hummus usually. I honestly didn’t eat or try hummus until I met crunchy white people who assumed I ate it all the time. There are other are the other Middle Easterners (ie. Lebanese, Isrealis) that rock at making it though.

Excellent grocery/​bakery. We have been buying alot of our groceries from here for the past 15 years. The owners are amazingly great people and sweet. They give us free samples of their sweets from time to time. The quality of their products is high. Alot of the things they sell cannot be found elsewhere.
Expensive however

My first time at an Iranian bakery/​store.
It was a good experience. I was just slightly annoyed that I kept trying to get the lady’s attention, and she was too busy talking to the girl next to her. How do you not see me in your peripheral vision?
She told me about the prices of the different selections. I asked about some of the pre-​packaged boxes and they simply said «$ 11.99» so I got excited and thought they were super cheap and so I bought two boxes… only to find out she meant $ 11.99 per pound.
I was very excited on my way home, anxiously waiting to slip one of those yummy looking cookies into my mouth.
Only to find out they had no flavor whatsoever. Absolutely none. So upsetting. If I’m in the area, I might go back, and try a pastry.
I may look to find another Iranian bakery though.

I came here after a HH dinner with two friends at Alegria. I’m always interested in trying new bakeries, so I was very excited to check out Yas. Upon first entering, any foodie would be enticed by the huge display case filled with numerous sweets and treats, along with this isles and isles of ethnic groceries. If you’re interested in unique foods, Yas is like a playground.
So, why the 2 stars? The number one reason was the service. I have to say that I felt discriminated against when I was passed over by the two people behind the counter, so they could help the others in line that spoke their same language. Not cool. My money is just as good as theirs. The next reason is the quality of the desserts. I purchased a large assortment and frankly only liked one of the shortbread-​like cookie. The others were overwhelming sweet, and the (what I believe to be) awamat had a very strong oil taste to it; a sign of old fry oil. Totally disappointing…
My advice, if you like ethnic groceries, Yas is a decent one. That being said, you can probably find better service and pastries elsewhere, so don’t waste your time or money.

Great specialized Middle Eastern grocery store and bakery with many hard to find items and halal options.
Tucked away on a side street, Yas bakery features delicate Persian cookies, pastries, and breads, a butcher shop/​deli for halal meat, olives, fresh feta and soft Romy cheese, and a grocery shop for specialty Persian cuisine items. As one would expect, many canned/​frozen items abound on the shelves – such as sha3riya (little vermicelli «hairs» to toast and mix with basmati for popular pilafs), grape leaves, frozen falafel, premium mango juice. Surprisingly, the store also features beautiful produce like flavorful organic stone fruit, beautiful flat leaf Italian parsley (at 2/​$ 1 during the summer!!), Persian cucumbers and romaine lettuce at very reasonable prices. Tabbouleh usually takes three bunches of parsley and at $ 3.50 per bunch elsewhere, Yas provides a formidable savings on a family favorite. The selection of mkasharat (mixed nuts and crunchy bits), Jordan almonds, and tinned ma3moul make great gifts appreciated by and resonant with anyone from the region.
Other favorites include the delicious and intricately wrought cookies and the fresh baked pita.

I’ve come here a handful of times, usually after eating at Rose Kabob, to order their pastries. Prices are by the pound, $ 10/​lb. I know it sounds expensive but you actually get quite a lot. The baklava, IMO, isn’t the best, dry, if you ask me. I’ve asked the workers what they recommend and they haven’t failed me in their suggestions. Interestingly enough, they never suggest the baklava which is what a couple of the Unilocalers have raved about.
Skip the hummus. It doesn’t have that garlic-​lemon kick I’m looking for.