Great Harvest Bakery Cafe — Restaurant in Arvada

This was not good. And way too expensive to be as bad as it was. My husband and I were excited to stop in after going grocery shopping next door a few days ago. We picked up a few things, so we had a variety: a lemon bar, a banana pudding rice crispy treat, a piece of key lime cake, a loaf of blueberry bread and a medium piece of key lime pie fudge. We paid close to $50. The only thing we haven’t thrown out is the fudge—and that’s because we haven’t tried it yet. Lemon bar: there was barely any lemon curd filling. And what was there had a chewy texture and it was neither sweet nor tart. Mostly, it was flavorless. Which did no favors to the fact that the rest of it tasted like uncooked flour—as in, I think they topped the bars with flour, not powered sugar. We threw it out after one bite. The rice krispy treat was dry and lacked any natural banana flavor, relying on too much banana extract for an unpleasant flavor. The blueberry bread turned out to be completely lacking in distribution of actual blueberries. And the bread itself tasted off. But it had promise..sort of. We just tried the key lime pie and while the frosting was “fine,” the cake had a really weird texture with a very prominent flour flavor. Something about it gave me the impression of play doh. Similar to the lemon bar, we threw it out after a...

Broomfield, as you may or may not know, has a little farmers market where, theoretically, people go to buy vegetables. I mean, it's a farmers market, right? You'd think it'd be all about the kale and those weird purple carrots that look like they were grown on Mars. But here's the thing: we're not fooling anybody. We're all there for the cinnamon rolls.

Yes, cinnamon rolls. The kind that make you forget you ever considered eating a salad. They have this booth, see, at the market, and it's like a tractor beam for anyone with a functioning nose. Turns out, these guys have a home. A physical building. Like, with walls and a roof. I know, shocking.

So, we bravely ventured into this bakery, and let me tell you, the air itself was edible. It smelled like warm, sugary, yeasty… well, heaven. You walk in, and it's like your olfactory system just threw a party and invited all your favorite smells. We grabbed a cinnamon roll, something else that was so delicious I can't even remember what it was called (because I blacked out with joy), and some coffee. And then? Nirvana. Total, unadulterated, carb-induced bliss.

Look, I'm not saying you have to go here. But if you don't, you're basically saying you hate happiness. And warm, gooey, cinnamon-y goodness. And frankly, I'm not sure we can be friends....

We decided to try Great Harvest out for their Mother's Day Brunch Buffet. We'd never been here before when when we got there it was not what we expected. It was very small inside, difficult to get around with the stroller, everyone kind of cramped together. A few 2 people tables outside, though there was no sun coverage by the time we left. There was a patio (Also packed) for the coffee shop next door, which was thankfully the shop was closed or I'm not sure where everyone would have sat. It was more of a cafeteria set up than buffet, and we had little trays (I'm guessing 5×6in)to get our food on. They were so small my husband and I had 2 each. The crostini bites were ok. I felt the bread was stale, attributing it to sitting out, though even when I got another that was just set out it was still dry and stiff. The mini croissants were fluffy and buttery. The tea cakes could have used a little more flavor. Scones were tasty. Overall, I felt like the venue was not set up for a large crowd, did Not feel like it was worth the 90$ spent (35$/adult, $20/baby), and I was regretting not just going to the House of Waffle. I do appreciate the effort put forth by the staff, who was friendly and...