Third Culture Bakery Berkeley — Restaurant in Berkeley

After seeing Third Culture pop up on my social feed for a week I asked myself what this hype was all about. Then my friend wanted to try this place and this was my sign to give Third Culture a shot.

Third Culture is located in West Berkeley in the middle of businesses where there's places to eat sprinkled in between. You really cannot miss it due to its bright pink curtains and of course signage that splays its name.

For this moment and time driving up I decided I was going to go big because I rarely was in West Berkeley anyways. I ordered an ube muffin, Thai tea muffin, and a matcha latte. . . Yes I did not order any donuts!! Yes I did regret it!

The muffins weren't as wonderful as I was hoping they would be, dense and the flavors stood out. As for the texture, it didn't sit well with me, at least for the outside. The matcha latte itself was more milk with a splash of matcha and I actually was forgotten. The person ended up putting my cup on top of a machine and the person who was making the lattes didn't see it and left. When someone else ordered a drink and they were served that's when I had to point out my order.

The barista apologized, made it quickly and gave it to me. It wasn't that great to see them not actually eyeing it to make sure it's being made properly. . . unless that was making it properly. Fortunately despite the disappointment with the muffins and latte I had a chance to take a bite of my friend's mochi donuts.

OMG!! Everything changed after that. It was worth it!!! I went back in and ordered more donuts, ube and passion fruit. The texture was dense and it was the perfect amount of chew.

Pandan (green with coconut flakes) - The sweetest of them all, great but too sweet Black Sesame - My favorite of all of them, light in black sesame flavor but it balanced well with the mocha Matcha - A little bit sweeter than the Black Sesame and I was over matcha by then. Matcha is matcha. Ube - Pretty sweet but not as sweet as Pandan. It felt as though I was eating a Filipino dessert. I say this is something you defniitely need to try once Passion Fruit - This took me by surprise. I had a feeling I wasn't going to like it because it was going to be tart, which it was, but this was such a great balance with the light sweetness of the mochi.

Since then I have went there one more time and tried Blueberry Lemon - Like the passion fruit and oh so delicious Chocolate - Ahhhhh no, weird combo of chocolate and mochi

Third Culture Bakery, despite having to try everything the mochi donuts are the real winners. Leave the drinks and the muffins behind, take the donuts.

TLDR; THE MOCHI DONUTS ARE...

This is the typical situation where faddishness is giving it more popularity than it actually earns. Berkeley is prone to this kind of problem, where popularity is more a question of Insta rankings than actual merit.

I stopped in twice in the past week. The first time, it was right after opening time and it was relatively empty. I was waited on by a person that later in the week I saw serving as a barista, she had an air of faint annoyance at having to actually interact and work with customers. On my second visit, today, she and her fellow barista were so engaged in their conversation for the entire 15 minutes that I was in the shop due to the long lines, that they were producing drinks at about half the speed that was possible.

The line stretched from the counter to the door, and based on my former experience in a similar job, it would have been half this length if the people making the drinks put customers ahead of socializing with each other and looking cool. They almost never made eye contact with a customer the entire time I was there unless someone asked a question when picking up the drink, and often that person had to repeat the question in order to get their attention. This is completely unacceptable when you’re paying 10 bucks for a coffee and a treat.

On the other hand, the young, slightly heavyset guy of color who waited on me at the register by the muffins was clearly committed to doing his job well. He tried to keep the line moving and his efforts to keep the service level high, was being thwarted by the chatty pair making the drinks, who ignored most of his questions the first time he asked them.

Food and drink were 4 out of 5: the classic mochi muffin precisely as advertised, crunchy outside and mochi within. Slightly overbaked this time compared to my first visit. Iced coffee latte was excellent coffee but over sweet.

Overall, the treats are unnecessarily too caloric, evidenced also by the clientele who range above the norm. The Asian food this place keeps trumpeting as its inspiration is much healthier than this extravaganza of sugar and high glycemic carbs in the mochi flour.

Making a habit of this place would definitely be detrimental to your health. If they want to garner a higher rating, they need to coach the self-impressed barista staff on putting the customers first, and they need to add more options that showcase the delicacy, subtlety, and elegance of Asian cuisine instead of taking American sugar cravings and overeating, and combining them with some Asian flavors.

Not recommended. In Berkeley, you have superior options for gluten-free, baked...

I rarely go out due to Covid now, but decided to make another special trip (over half hour drive) to this bakery just to pick up some goodies to share with my family. At exactly 9am I tried calling Third Culture to place my curbside pickup, but after calling 10 times without anyone picking up, I decided it's early enough that I can go pick it up in person. I was indeed early but not as early as a few others. Wait was short, and everyone was good about staying behind the marked lines to be 6ft apart.

Only 2 customers allowed at a time and each had their own "station" away from each other to order. They had the plastic glasses and all employees were wearing face mask. I thought they were very Covid friendly.

I mainly wanted to write this review because the staff here deserves 5 stars for customer service. The gentleman that helped me yesterday was patient, and attentive. I said off the bat I wanted to make "2 orders" for separate families. Despite my terrible instructions, he understood it and put things in boxes and bags perfectly. At the end my 3 box order, he said he would put two heart stickers on the one box (for the second family I was going to gift it to) so I know which orders were for who. Usually when I did curbside I had to break open the stickers to distribute the order for my family since I couldn't tell which box had which order. Then as he was ringing me up, I was looking at the donuts again and asked if he could put one more yuzu lemon into a bag for me and it was almost like he read my mind (that since I drove all this way and can't enjoy the ones I bought till 3:15pm with my family, I was going to have one on road for my drive back) and he asked "did you want me to warm that up for you"? I literally laughed and said "yes, please! It's like you read my mind that I want to eat it in the car!" haha This purchase and experience in the morning, made my day!

If you're reading this review and not the other I wrote, I highly recommend the following goodies: ORIGINAL mochi muffin (THE BEST), black sesame, ube and matcha are excellent as well. I personally love the yuzu lemon mochi donut, and the mango passionfruit and thai tea (strong thai tea teaste!) were very good as well! You really can't go wrong with anything here.

Mochi muffins are $3.95 each and mochi...