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    Starter Bakery

    4.3 (200 reviews)
    ModerateBakeries
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    Selina L.

    This is my favorite East Bay bakery! I love how efficient pickup is. There is no walk-in, so you have to order online and then call a number when you arrive at the door. The Kouign Amann is really good here, we always buy a lot of items from them. Highly recommend!

    john j.

    An amazing local bakery with incredible treats for family and friends. The staff is super friendly and attentive and you can see their love for baking in every baked good they make. We have a box of goodies to be shared with friends for tonight's festivities. A special thanks to Ali for taking such great care of our family and friends by helping to select Starter Bakery's greatest hits! Be sure to order ahead for a streamlined pickup.

    Sesame Pain Au Levain
    Winston L.

    My wife and I stumbled upon this bakery while wandering around Berkeley on a Friday afternoon. We found it on Yelp and it took us a while to figure out where it actually was. It's a tiny storefront in between Ripple and Tesla with 3 parking spots that you can park at for a short duration. Our initial excitement turned to confusion when we tried to open the door. It was locked and the front room that we could look into had no lights on and no visible employees. Ok, so here's the deal. This location primarily serves as a wholesaler, but services the public by delivering on Fridays or through pickup orders. Pickup orders work by placing and order online and setting a pickup time between 8 AM and 3:40 PM on Fridays. When you arrive at your appointment time, someone preps your order, unlocks the door, hands you your goodies, and then disappears back into what I imagine is a baked good fairyland. Almost everything we have had here has been top notch - various flavors of kouign amann and croissants, chocolate babka, and the sesame pain au levain. The pan de muerto was ok as is, but when we sliced and toasted it, it was pretty good - kind of like orange flavored brioche. Planning a pickup or delivery around Friday treats at a bakery is a bit cumbersome, but I think it is well worth it. They also rotate their menu with seasonal items to keep things interesting. I overheard the employee saying the Oakland location is more friendly to the public (cafe style), so that could be a better option for folks.

    Clearly, Mollie Stone's offers their viennoiserie!
    Jana C.

    Just bit into their kanelbullar-- the cardamom was generous and perfect to go along with organic earl grey. Another robust roll is their chocolate babka--- very nice balance there too. Perennial face: croissant au buerre

    Center of Chocolate Kouign Amann seemed a bit doughy today
    Katie Y.

    I'm a super fan of Starter Bakery and tell everyone about their kouign amanns But I was super annoyed today to buy a fruit scone at the farmers market, and it had 0 fruit in it. See photo, $4 for plain sweet flour. Also they are so slow and inefficient at Temescal. 3 ppl in the booth to help 1 person at a time. I don't know why they don't have 2 payment people like Midwife and the Baker

    Blue tent for Starter Bakery in Berkeley.
    Jason F.

    The East Bay is home to some of the finest homegrown bakeries in the entire region, and Starter Bakery may feature some of the finest of said finest. Founded in 2010 by pastry chef Brian Wood, Starter Bakery has been a labor of love of Wood and his hard working staff thanks to the creation of some of the sweetest and savoriest pastries and breads, and selling them wholesale to some of the area's best restaurants and markets. Over the past dozen years or so, you could also find them on the weekend, at your local farmer's market in the East Bay with their signature blue and white logo surrounded by stars, where their loyal customers know they are going to order their reliable locally made baked goods. I was first introduced to Starter Bakery at a workplace event, in which their croissants and quiches were served, and upon first bite I was in buttery heaven and I knew I had to make it my mission to find the Starter Bakery tent whenever I got the chance to. And with their new bakery location that finally opened a couple of months ago along College Avenue in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland, anyone who loves Starter Bakery's baked goods well enough now has the chance to. But for those who live close to Starter Bakery's Gilman Street headquarters in Berkeley can sometimes get lucky, especially around the holidays, as they offer the chance for ordering online and picking up one of their signature pies, even on Thanksgiving Day! Luckily for me, a recent visit to their Gilman Street location was only due the fact that they were having some issues at their new College Avenue location. I previously made the decision to join their email list in order to be made aware of any deals on new treats they were selling, and one day I open my inbox and Starter Bakery sent an email to their signups telling to come join them at their Berkeley wholesale location as they are selling their signature pastries while supplies last. With this rare chance to order their pastries so close to my home, I was down to make a quick drive to Gilman Street. Starter Bakery resides in a huge warehouse that also now houses both Ripple Foods and a Tesla Service Center, and was the previous home to Pyramid Ale House. Now with plenty of parking for both employees and customers alike, on this rare occasion, anyone can saddle up to their entrance along Eighth Street to see what baked goods they still had for sale in an impromptu open air market. Although they had a wide range of products still for sale including everything from Olive Oil Sourdough Bread to Pecan Topped Sticky Buns. I opted to order four items including their Twice Baked Almond Croissant, Twice Baked Ham & Cheese Croissant, Cardamom Pistachio Twist, and their Chocolate Babka Brioche. My total bill was $21.50 before gratuity was added in, which was rather reasonable considering how much food I received upon my visit. I went home and I made sure to savor each treat in due time, and of course as I savored over every pastry that I ordered. Everything was so delicious, even when I was able to save some of my treats to enjoy over time, as I ate a bite of each pastry, I kept thinking to myself "god this is so good!" Among the highlights were their Pistachio Twist and their Chocolate Babka Brioche, as they were not only tasty thanks to the amount of butter added in every bite, but I also considered how thoughtfully prepared everything was, so biting into every pastry was a simple joy. Both savory croissants were so luscious that they could have been full meals unto themselves. If I am lucky enough to find their signature Kouign Amanns upon a future visit, then you better believe I am ordering those, in addition to their savory quiches, made individually with meat and vegetables, and the aforementioned pies during the holiday season. If I am at a Farmer's Market and I am lucky enough to see their blue logo on their tent from afar, then I am making a beeline for them, as I consider Starter Bakery the gold standard of quality made baked goods in the Bay Area.

    Challah at ur girl!

    Just picked up a Too Good To Go surprise bag of KA's, chocolate babka, a chocolate croissant, and the sweet friendly worker threw in a full size bread as well.

    Cardamom pistachio twist, chocolate kouign amann, caramel poached pear kouign amann
    Peg S.

    You know when you try something for the first time and your eyes go as big as saucers and your taste buds are super happy and excited? That's what happened to me when I had their cardamom pistachio twist. I thought it was impossible for them to top their kouign anann, but they did. The cardamom pistachio twist is like a glorified baklava and akin to eating candy: a sticky sweet cardamom infused crispy flaky pastry with subtle yet aromatic flavors topped with pistachios - divine!

    Alisa K.

    Ordered from TooGoodToGo and was pleasantly surprised! Their location is only where they make the goods and isn't a shop where they sell directly to customers. I believe they sell at grocery stores and farmers markets mainly. They have a few options they sell every week but a lot of weekly specials. The location is located in an industrial factory building right next to Tesla and the pickup was really quick. Received about a dozen pieces of baked goods with a great variety! Of course, gotta go home and toast each one up a bit and they taste like they just came out the oven! Tried the: 1. Pretzel Croissant ($4.50) 2. Twice Baked Chocolate Hazelnut Croissant ($4.50) 3. Bacon and onion croissant 4. Spinach and Feta Croissant Etc!!

    Assorted   Twice Baked Almond Croissant Baguette Kouign Amann: nutella and strawberry vanilla custard

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    1 month ago

    Amazing pastries and the bakery always smell like "fresh-dough". Always a favorite to go to if you like fresh baked goods

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    4 months ago

    Great quiche, best I've had and I'm not a big quiche person. We go there everytime we are in Berkeley.

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    Ask the Community - Starter Bakery

    Is all the stuff made with sourdough?

    Thanks for the question. Nearly all of our hearth breads, our pan loaves (bagged sliced breads) use sourdough. Additionally, all of our yeasted baked goods utilize preferement, whether sourdough or from yeast. We hope to see you at our College Ave.… Read more

    Where is the enterance to the bakery?

    The Tesla building is L shaped; the entrance to the bakery is inside the corner of the "L". But they do not take walk-ins, so plan on ordering online 2-5 days in advance!

    I called them today and they said they're not open to public? How's that?

    They are opening a retail store in Gilman in Berk, I was informed today by staff at Grand Lake Farmers Market.

    Don’t See Your Question? Ask Away!

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    Third Culture Bakery - Berkeley

    (1.2k reviews)

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    the mochi donuts are soooo good! i'm still thinking about them a couple days later. i wish i got…read moremore to have for the rest of the week! although i didn't try every flavor, the guava one really takes it out of the park! love it! the texture is just so soft even when refrigerated. it's very different from the mochi donuts that everyone is used to but it's so much better. the banana bread pudding was also so amazing! we got it heated up and it was just so divine. it was not overly sweet which dissolved my worries. definitely will come back to try the other mochi donut flavors! the strawberry lychee matcha was also really good! never been to a place that offers a mix like that. the yuzu sparkler and the passionfruit sparkler were also very refreshing !

    always a fan of the bright pink walls, it's like a bright star among the drab, dark colored brick…read morebuildings around; I usually get one of their mochi donuts, it's more dense than MoDo which is actually my go-to for mochi donuts. this spot is a close second. however, I'm here to talk about the new savory mochi muffin they brought out about a month ago. it was their ham and cheese mochi muffin and I must say, it was not as good as I expected compared to their other mochi donuts. I think it might've been a bit undercooked... I don't think I would try another one unfortunately. I think I would also stick with the sweet bakery items moving forward. I also ordered a lychee strawberry matcha milk tea (with the oat milk option) and I was pretty happy with that purchase. Overall, I wouldn't dock them more than a star for the underwhelming pastry because most of the others are excellent. It might just be that savory isn't their thing...

    Acme Bread Company - Inside the bakery

    Acme Bread Company

    (810 reviews)

    $$

    West Berkeley

    nothing hits better than fresh bread and getting it right from the source! acme works 24 hours to…read moredeliver fresh bread everyday and i just got to give them props for the dedication and hard work. the bread and pastries here are just so good. the hell wet levain is amazing! i love all the sesame seeds on the loaf and with butter = chef's kiss. their pizzas are amazing too and i plan to come back to try their other ones. i finally got to try their cheddar biscuits and it was amazing! not heavy at all and full of flavor. i sometimes get quite overwhelmed with the options since i want to try everything! love acme!

    Visit date: 4/19/2026…read more We came about an hour before closing on a Sunday, so unfortunately many of the items I wanted to try based on other people's recommendations were already sold out. We ended up getting three things: * The cheese twist was soooo good! The cheese was flavorful and the pastry itself was perfectly done. * The apple pastry was interesting. Unlike many places where the pastry is either bland or overly sweet, Acme's pastry had a slight saltiness to it, which I actually think is genius. I almost always prefer a hint of savory flavor to balance out the sweetness from the filling or topping. My only issue with this one was that the apple topping was not sweet at all and leaned more tart, so paired with the salty pastry, it was not quite the flavor combination I was hoping for. * The mini raspberry pastry had the same issue for me. The raspberry topping was just a bit too tart and sour for my taste. Even though not everything was a hit for me, I would definitely come back and give this bakery another chance, especially since we arrived so late and missed out on many of their most popular items.

    Bake Sum - Inside of Chocolate Chunk with Maldon Salt Cookie ($3.50) - very good!

    Bake Sum

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    $$

    Grand Lake, Lower Hills

    I've tried going to bake sum on like three different occasions, but always gave up because I…read morecouldn't find parking lol well we finally made it in a few weeks ago and it def lived up to the hype! I loveeee flaky savory pastries so the okonomiyaki danish and the croissubi were right up my alley. My fave was hands down the okonomiyaki danish. The flavors blended together sooo well and the puff pastry on the outside complemented it so well. I reheated it in the air fryer when I got home, and it was perfection. The croissubi was also good but I think I just don't like the flavor of seaweed and spam together that much lol I get that that's exactly what a spam musubi is, so that's a me issue. Maybe it would have been better if there was more spam. Then we also got a jasmine and honeydew milk bun because I also love cream filled pastries. Surprisingly, I actually liked the honeydew more than the jasmine, even though I'm normally more into tea flavors and don't particularly enjoy the flavor of honeydew. But this one was fragrant and not too overpowering or artificial tasting. Overall rlly nice. I also love that the shop sells art from local creators and small batch goods! I was able to pick up some hey doh silky soy sauce, which was really nice and better than I expected!

    Question: Amazing! What went well?…read more Answer: Everything! The mochi, the cookies , and other pastries are sooo good. Check them out for your self. My favorites include: Black sesame, matcha , and ube cookie/desserts.

    Starter Bakery - bakeries - Updated May 2026

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