Starter Bakery — Restaurant in Berkeley

Love the breads here, but the service at the front gate wasn't good. Decided to visit this place after visiting Oakland location several times.

We had to wait outside of the entrance for a bit, which wasn't too bad. When the door opened and the women who works there came out, she didn't seem to bother to ask any questions but just told us to go to the app and slide to right for pick up, and shut the door. I didn't order through the app and didn't know they had one. I guess she must have assumed it was through a delivery app?.. Anyway, I asked a lady behind me what to do if my order was through the web. She stated to let her know, which we tried but got abruptly cut off.

During the wait at the outside, we also saw her(the worker) bag the breads in a rough way. The sounds of bread hitting the table were quite loud so I could hear them outside of the closed door. As a family who loves breads/baking, we don't want our breads hitting the table while being handled.

A few minutes later, the worker opened the door again, and I told her my order was through the app, and she was, "Oh, then you could've told me!" ... My husband pointed out that we were trying to, but she abruptly cut us off, which then she finally apologized.

The thing that made me feel more bad about the service is... after the worker noticed that we were the ones who made a huge order; her demeanor changed and was more welcoming. Although her customer service changed in one snap, I was still worried after witnessing how she was bagging other orders. Fortunately, my breads were placed in the paper bag softly, which was good.

The sad part is that they missed some of our orders, and we realized after we got home. When we were there to pick up, there was no notice of missing items. I wonder if the worker double-checked for the order (mind you, my order was placed 1wk before the pick up). From my past visits to the Starter bakery in Oakland, they seemed to check the order better, even if the order was placed a day before(less then24hrs). My orders were always packed nicely. If anything missing, they notified me right at the pick up and even processed the refund beforehand, or asked if anything I wanted to get substitude instead.

After this whole thing happened, will I ever go back to this bakery? Maybe, as there are some pastries I can not get from the Oakland location, and I think their breads are worth of 1+hrs driving. Compare to the Oakland location? I'd prefer Oakland location more. Can't believe the main location's customer service is far below than its branch location.

I do hope the front gate person is more kind and has more...

Hidden gem for Too Good To Go! (4/5 Green Stars) A couple of years ago, I wrote a review of the Starter Bakery café on College Ave, near Rockridge Bart. Since then, I’ve had the good fortune to try various Starter goodies – sometimes at other cafes of stores that they supply but also at the main bakery on Gilman. The secret that I’m not sure I want to share is that you can get bags of goodies from this Gilman bakery through Too Good to Go – the very useful app that reduces food waste. You’ll get a bag of mixed items that are close to expiration for a third of the normal price. I’ve picked up two bags now and I have to say that every item that I’ve had, whether it’s sliced bread, a quiche, cookies or little cakes, they are pretty much all delicious. The flavors are often subtle but usually sophisticated, and they are always baked to perfection.

If you do pick up a bag from the bakery, make sure to support Starter Bakery by dropping by the Rockridge store too! If you are closer to Gilman, you can place an order online and then pick it up at the bakery (just give them a call when you arrive at the door).

Last time, I wasn’t sure how to score the Starter Bakery for social and environmental impact as they were just getting started. Now, I think I’ll rate the bakery 4 out of 5 Green Stars for social and environmental impact. I increased the rating because the bakery is taking part in the Too Good to Go program to reduce food waste. As you probably know, around a third of our food is wasted, and this is a big deal since food systems are a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, water use, land use and eutrophication. Starter bakery doesn’t provide much information on things like ingredient sourcing but most items are vegetarian and when meat is included (in a couple of quiches) its bacon, which has significantly lower footprints than beef. Would be great to see Starter show us their skills with vegan pastry, but for now you can pick up bread if you’re strictly vegan and want to try out their stuff. Packaging is minimal – paper bags...

While Starter Bakery might be fine as a walk-in customer, you can't count on them for any pre-order, especially before Thanksgiving. I placed a $92 order on November 8, and on Wednesday the day before Thanksgiving they had buried and forgotten it. After recovering it they could only fulfill half of it. And finally, if you think you might be getting fresh Parker rolls for the day, no, its just a pack probably previously frozen. I am assuming frozen because otherwise they must not have been fresh as they felt somewhat hard. I then cancelled the whole order and bought an alternative elsewhere. They did promptly refund the $92 later...