Benjamin Wang

A variety of pastries and goods offered by East Bay Bakery on display.

With steaming ovens, piping bags full of frosting and rows of baking trays filled with freshly-made dough, bakeries hold a variety of staples to the American breakfast. But which bakery in the Tri-Valley is the best?

To keep my review of these bakeries as fair as possible, I used a Trader Joe’s plain croissant as a baseline. For each bakery, I tried one plain croissant as a means of comparison and two of their specialty items.
Let’s establish our reference point with the Trader Joe’s plain croissant. It costed $6.00 to buy four croissants that came in a small plastic bag. The croissants were disappointing, to say the least– stale, dry and practically tasteless. Ultimately, it was not something I would eat willingly, but considering the cheap price, I gave it a 5/10.

Andersen Bakery
Found in the Marketplace Plaza is the recently opened Andersen Bakery. The minimalistically themed interior contained neatly organized trays of baked goods which sat behind transparent sliding doors. Their menu offered an assortment of pastries, croissants, and cookies, providing options for whether you craved something sweet, savory, crispy, or moist.
I picked three of their baked goods: a plain croissant for $3.25, a strawberry pastry for $3.95 and a jalapeño cheddar Polish bun for $5.25.
Unfortunately, the croissant was nothing special – it was flaky and buttery but not warm or incredibly fresh, making it clear that it’d been sitting out for a while. With no striking flavor, no clear egginess or vanilla taste, it was a very middle-of-the-road croissant, without anything that particularly stood out to me. That, along with the relatively high price compared to the Trader Joe’s croissant, led me to rate it a 6.5/10.
Meanwhile, known for its traditional style of European Danish pastries, the bakery offered one of the best strawberry pastries that I have ever had. The combination of the strawberry and mango jam with the airy pastry was nearly perfect. As for the Polish bun, it was far too spicy to be enjoyable and is not something that I would recommend at all.
85ºC Bakery Cafe
Just off Highway 580, 15 minutes away from Andersen Bakery, was 85°C Bakery Cafe, an Asian bakery chain that boasted Asian-style baked goods ranging from egg tarts to Japanese bread.
Starting with the plain croissant priced at a much more reasonable $2.25, 85°C also had nothing outstanding. The taste was very similar to the Andersen croissant, but the texture was slightly less buttery and drier. Overall, it was another average croissant, but I would rate it a higher 7.5/10 for the more affordable price.
Next was their bacon and cheese bread, one of 85°C’s top picks. The bread had a slight cornbread taste which threw me off, but the cheese and bacon toppings were quite tasty. It had the right amount of saltiness from the bacon balanced by the mildness of the bread. For the price of $2.75, 85°C has the edge over Andersen in both quality and price thus far.
The final product from 85°C I reviewed was the spicy sausage, which was very similar to the Polish sausage from Andersen, except for the jalapeños. The heat was much more manageable, but the sausage still had some kick. Considering 85°C’s spicy sausage was a full $2.70 cheaper than Andersen’s Polish sausage, it was a much better and more affordable option.

East Bay Bakery
My final destination was Danville’s East Bay Bakery, which completely blew the other two bakeries out of the water. The first item I ordered was the $5.00 butter croissant. Despite the large size of the croissant, the inside was much lighter and airier. Combined with the fresh and buttery taste, East Bay’s croissant earned a comfortable 9/10.
Along with the croissant I ordered a strawberry pastry for $6.00, similar to the one that I got in Andersen. The distinct, fresh taste was what set East Bay’s pastries apart from 85°C Bakery and Andersen’s Bakery. The pastry was warm, and the fruit jam was sweet, which earned an 8/10.