Burbidge's Bakery — Restaurant in Test Valley

I’m not usually one to leave a review but I’ve been going here every now and then for a treat for years now, since I was about 10 until today being 24! Today I went in and there was a customer being quite rude to the staff. Thought the least I could do is leave an honest review about how excellent they are here.

The food is always incredible. Pastry is amazing, bread is beautiful, and the sweet treats are absolutely massive. I’ve never had food I didn’t enjoy. Whatever you get from here, you’ll love it. My personal favourites are the doughnuts, bread, and the sausage and bacon pastry things (no idea what they’re called, but the person serving me always knows what I’m on about).

The staff have always been so lovely. Whatever their hiring practice is it clearly works. I have anxiety and struggle ordering food. They’ve always been so kind and patient, no matter how busy the shop is (and it does get busy, for good reason!). It doesn’t matter who is serving me, they’ve all absolutely fantastic.

The prices are decent too. They could probably get away with charging a lot more for the quality and size of what they sell, but obviously I’m glad they don’t so I can buy more!

If you want anything specific, you’re best going early as they do sell out quickly. But everything they do is amazing, so if you go later you’ll still end up with something nice.

The only thing they could possibly improve on is having prices a bit clearer. This would just help to be able to budget and make buying an easier experience for people like me who get anxious and like to plan these things out. But, as I say, the workers are so lovely that not having the prices clear really isn’t the end of the world at all. There is no barrier to just asking!

Overall, a true 5*. I’d recommend going here to everyone...

I visited Andover today on my travels 12/06/2015 and visited the Burbridges bakery, I was gobsmaked to hear the prices for a bacon roll minus butter!! yes folks no butter and I was not asked if I wanted any!! bad customer service so far! then I had a sausage bread roll again no butter! I had to ask for butter as there is nothing worse than a dried out old roll!!! which came to 6.70, ridiculous to say the least! then we had the dried out old roll who served me, Ooops sorry dried out old bag! apologies! who looked at me like I had 2 bloody heads! sorry only got one head as most of us have unless you are Alien!!! so far not good!! then came the cup of so called tea!! seriously I could pee stronger than this so called cup of which was just water a little milk and the tea bag which was teased to the water, I could hear the tea bag begging to go in the water!!! any way folks/viewers I was not impressed to say the least and even Dick Turpin did not rob people this much!! (dick Turpin was a robber in days gone by) but they do Exsist in a company called BURBRIDGES BAKERY IN ANDOVER!!!! to the owners sort your prices out and be fair to people and most can be robbed on motorway service stations ...... but we get a better deal for our money!!!!! even if we are being robbed!!!!! ok! I did get sausage in a roll and bacon in a roll!!! BUT for 9 pence more I could of got an egg,beans,tomatoes,hash brown!! and toast! I do not normally wright a review but felt I had to in this case as it was total broad daylight robbery.....I would not recommend this place unless you have a mortgage in place to pay for your items!! I did notice lots of locals just coming in for their daily loafs and maybe a few cakes, but that was all they were buying!! I wonder why???? could it...

I saw people queueing outside to get into Burbidge's and had to see for myself, what all the fuss was about.

The moment you walk through the doors you are immersed in that fresh baked smell. Breads, pastries, all the great baking smells that make you feel warm and homely.

The selection of food is great: giant sausages, bacon turnovers, baps, pies, sweet treats, and something missing from most shops these days, proper thick sliced sandwiches.

We had a bacon turnover, sausage bap, custard and jam finger doughnut, a croissant, and chicken salad sandwich.

If I'm honest, it was a bit hit and miss. The pastry on the turnover was incredible, soft and flaky, but the chicken sandwich was bland and pretty flavourless. The croissant was a little dry, and disappointing that almond croissants only get made on a Saturday, but the finger doughnut was light and creamy and delicious.

The massive positive is the friendly, family style welcome that you get.

I've found Andover to be the worst mannered, least friendly place I've lived, so this bakery was a breath of fresh air, although you do feel like you're getting rushed into making a decision by other customers who are clearly regulars and know what they want.

If I had to make one change, it would be for sandwiches to be made bespoke using the fresh bread of the day, to add that extra special sense of customer...