Bakey — Restaurant in Brookline

We were truly excited when Bakey opened in the heart of Boston, right by Boston Common. It immediately stood out from every other place around, offering authentic, freshly baked goods that are incredibly hard to find in our area. We loved visiting, watching the pastries being prepared on-site, always fresh and incredibly delicious.

We brought all our guests there, and recommended the place to everyone we knew. We even made special trips downtown just to go to Bakey. That’s how much we loved it. Even at work, whenever we needed to order refreshments, we asked to order from Bakey.

When new locations opened in Newton and Brookline, we were thrilled, though slightly concerned that expansion might come at the cost of quality. Unfortunately, that concern turned out to be valid. The newer branches offer noticeably lower quality. Sometimes the babka doesn’t taste fresh, and the flavor combinations simply don’t compare to what made the original location so special.

Still, despite the decline, we kept going back to the new locations. I’ve never written a negative review before. But today, I felt I had to speak up.

We placed a special order for the cheesecake for Brookline branch, a limited item offered only for a few days around a particular holiday. We ordered it ahead of time, paid a premium price, and were hoping for something special. Sadly, the reality fell far short.

The cake was tiny,barely filling the large box it came in, which only made the disappointment worse. It cost $20, but looked and tasted like something you’d find at an average supermarket. Nothing about it felt unique or “Bakey-quality.” It was generic, uninspired, and honestly felt like a quick afterthought.

We were genuinely disappointed. The portion was small, the presentation was misleading, and the taste didn’t come close to what we’d expect from a place that once impressed us so much.

In the meantime, several new high-quality bakeries have opened in the area, and Bakey is no longer the only standout option. If things don’t improve, we’ll likely start buying our pastries elsewhere.

We truly hope the magic of the original Bakey can return across...

This is a tough one to rate because my fiancé and I got 4 pastries and they were a mixed bag of good and bad so I’ll rank it in order by each item. CHOCOLATE BABKA: OUTSTANDING, STUNNING, PERFECTION!! We got the chocolate babka and it was delicious, it was one of the best babkas I’ve ever had. It was chewy, chocolatey crunchy/ flakey. Pure perfection. 5 out of 5 ⭐️ ALMOND BABKA: It was pretty good, I enjoyed it but nothing could compare to the chocolate babka that we just had. It reminded me of an almond croissant but more chewy like a babka should be. 4 out of 5 ⭐️ CHEESE BOUREKAS: underwhelming and bland. I couldn’t taste much. It had little to no filling inside. It missed that iconic sweet/ salty flavour profile and didn’t have its signature cheese profile either. 1 out of 5 ⭐️

GOAT CHEESE AND ROSEMARY BOUREKAS: better, the creaminess and richness of the goat cheese with the rosemary was an excellent combination. It again, didn’t taste like much and the flavourful bites were far and few. Again, reiterating that it needed more even filling and less of the “bread” part of it. The ratio was off. 2 out of 5 ⭐️

The chocolate babka was without a doubt the saviour in this and would recommend the babka to everyone. It was...

As another user stated, do not order the bagel sandwiches here. The bagels are stale and come pre-wrapped with saran wrap like a cafeteria-style lunch, and it cost $10 for a bagel with some salmon, cream cheese, and lettuce. No tomato, no red onion at least. The sandwich tastes very plain, although with a generous amount of cream cheese and a decent amount of salmon. I would have at least liked some red onion. It had no flavor. The seating is clean minus crumbs on the tables, but they're not very spacious. The restroom had urine piling up in the toilet bowl and it smelled bad, as the automatic flush was broken. I ordered the customer favorite chocolate babka and it was soggy, like it was soaked in a sugary syrup, and I could not finish it. However, it did have a nice buttery flavor, but not nice enough for me to want to finish the slice. The employees were not very helpful, spoke very minimally, and did not greet customers with a smile on their face. In fact, I felt like they were bothered by me asking questions on recommendations and taking a few seconds more than usual as it is my first time coming here. So, I do not know why the service is regarded so highly. Probably will not...