I first visited Byen Bakeri during the infamous "snowpocalypse" of Seattle in February 2019. Surprisingly, it was one of the few places still open during that time, and even more surprisingly, still pretty busy. I soon discovered why, and have since been come back to Byen many times to explore more of their menu. TL;DR, they're probably my second favorite bakery in Seattle thus far.
== Food ==
I've mainly gotten the pastries here, and I've yet to find one I haven't liked. My favorite items, thus far, have been the Cream Cheese Danish, the Princess Cake, and the Almond Croissant. The Cream Cheese Danish and Princess Cake are probably what you'd more likely expect from a Scandinavian bakery like Byen, and they're probably the best I've had of the Scandinavian bakeries I've been to so far in Seattle (which include Larsen's and Nielsen's). The Almond Croissant, while it is of more French origins, is also very well-done here, being plenty buttery, with a lot of almond flan within it. It's maybe my second favorite almond croissant so far in the city, behind Bakery Nouveau's.
I've also had the Kringle, the Boller, and the easy-to-miss Weekender (which, apparently, you can only get early on a Friday). The Kringle is also another Scandinavian pastry staple, and despite looking like a simple large piece of bread, it's very soft, sugary, and has a bit of flan in the middle, too. It's probably on the cusp of being among my top favorite things to get here at Byen (probably 4th favorite). The Boller (which I'd best describe as being almost like a Boston Cream donut with 80% custard inside) and the Weekender (which is like a cinnamon roll with maple frosting and a ton of bacon on top) were also really nice, but maybe a little too much for me to have too often; they tasted amazing for my first few bites into them, but I got tired of the heft they carried very soon after. Still, great to try at least once! (but maybe share them with others, which is advice I'll echo again further down for other reasons)
Overall, the pastries here are good enough for me to try and find some time to visit Byen every few weeks or so.
Rating - 5/5
== Value for Price ==
Something to note with Byen is that almost everything here is pretty much super-sized. The cookies are as big as your head, and the diameter of the Danishes are probably 3/4 the width of an average-sized person's torso. Accordingly, the price of the pastries you get at Byen scale with the size, so you'll wind up paying around $6 per pastry (circa early 2019). Compared to most Seattle bakeries (which often charge $4.50 for similar pastries), that's quite a lot. However, since the pastries here are often 1.5x to 2x the size of those elsewhere, it's actually not too bad of a deal. Plus, given that these are some of my favorite pastries in town, there's plenty of value for the price you pay.
The main drawback I can see here is that, while you do get quite a good value out of what you pay taste-wise, you can't really opt for smaller portions in order to pay less. The only way you can really mitigate this is to plan sharing your orders with someone else. Given the portion sizes you'll be getting, this would seem to be the reasonable thing to do, anyway, unless you're super hungry and want a lot of food for yourself.
Rating - 4.5/5
== Service ==
The service at Byen is decent. The folks behind the counter will give you pretty helpful advice, if you ask for it (like if you're new, and want suggestions on what to try). I guess the main drawbacks I've encountered was that it's not too easy to tell what the price of anything is until you try and buy it, and it's not even clear what some of the items on display are until you ask about it (labels seem to be non-existent). Furthermore, the line can get a little confusing to navigate, as after you take your order, the person serving you can sometimes just head to a cashier machine that you won't notice until well after. Overall, it can be a little chaotic to do your ordering, but I haven't encountered anything too bad with the service during my time here.
Rating - 4/5
== Overall ==
So far, Byen has been one of my favorite bakeries in Seattle. I definitely think it deserves more attention that what it's currently getting (right now, it just seems popular among those living near it, and is not as well-known as places like Bakery Nouveau or even Larsen's). I would recommend checking this place out, especially if you're a fan of Scandinavian pastries.
Rating - 4.5/5 read more