Astoria Pastry Shop — Restaurant in Detroit

After seeing many positive reviews and photos, I was SO excited to try Astoria. The shop is clean and tidy. The cases are full of beautiful treats... It was hard to choose and everything looked absolutely delicious! The first day we went, we chose Double Chocolate Cake, German Chocolate Cake, and Baklava. The German Chocolate cake was absolutely wonderful. It was moist and had the right amount of sweetness. The Baklava was crispy with a hint of cinnamon. The Double Chocolate Cake... A few bites in I noticed a strange flavor. At first it tasted like a weird flavor choice for chocolate cake... Herbal? The more I ate, esp toward the outside (the best part 😭) What was that taste?? Purfume? Cleaner?? My husband tried it as well, and near as we can figure, it had been exposed to a cleaner and the smell had permeated it. So disappointing. Half my cake wasted! 😩 We had gone off location to eat it, so we couldn't bring it to the store's attention at the time. Two days later, we decided to give it another go. The stuff that was good... was VERY good! Maybe it was a fluke. So next we decided to try the Oreo Cake, Caramel Cake, and Blueberry Bread Pudding. When we got to the store, this time, we noticed the smell... It was the taste of the Chocolate Cake! It must be a cleaner or something. When we explained to the server what happened, she was absolutely unmoved. No apology or anything. Okaaaay. But we went ahead with our ordering and explained that we wanted to try it before we left. So with cake and forks in hand, we tried it, it seemed OK, but with the strong scent in the air it was hard to tell for sure. We went off location again to a local coffee shop to enjoy our dessert and coffee. The Bread Pudding was good, the Carmel Cake was absolutely amazing (in my husband's words, "nothing special about it, but it perfect") and the Oreo Cake was... good. But guess what? It came from the same case as the Chocolate Cake... And had a hint of the cleaner smell. 🥺 It wasn't enough to not eat it, (that stuff is expensive!) but it was there in bites here and there. So... Between the cleaner taste and the service... The visit was disappointing. Will we go back? Maybe. Their stuff is good... But we probably won't...

On June 2/22 I called Astoria Bakery about 8:30 am and asked the young lady if they had a white chocolate tort cake that feeds 22 ppl, for my son’s birthday, she said yes. I drove 80 miles from Jackson, Mi. and when I got there they didn’t have the cake I ask for. The young lady that was waiting on me told me they didn’t have the cake and that they would put one together in a few minuets. She asked me for the money, I gave her my card for about $56. As soon as I gave her my money , she brought a different cake out after she told me that they would make me one while I waited. I feel like I was set me up. When I told her that’s not the cake I asked for this clean shaven head, slim rude Caucasian guy came out the back with an attitude from hell. He looked at me very nasty and said, “we don’t do that!” He evidently told the young lady to take my money first. I’m a 64 year old upstanding gentleman, I felt like he treated me like trash. And I have been coming to the place since the 80s. I bought the cake anyway but because I had no other plans for my son’s 25th Birthday cake. I was so disrespected, disappointed, and humiliated by the way he treated. I believe he did it because of my skin color, if you could’ve see the way he talked to me and had never seen me before,l. I was so hurt by how I got treated I’ve been having anxiety attacks and that was almost 3 weeks ago!.

To top it off I’d been spending my money there for over 3O years and telling my out of town guest that the place was a must stop, I still feel terrible, he was so ugly and evil person. You would think the first thing he would’ve done is asked me what was the problem instead lying and taking my money! Astoria Bakery can burn in hell as far as I’m concerned. I’m gonna post this on every social media...

I deducted one star because quite frankly, the Mexican wedding cookie was a bit dense and extremely underwhelming. And the canolli tasted like it had old almonds, there was very distinct nuttiness to the flavor that turned me off. However, the canolli itself was absolutely amazing. The cream was perfect and the roll was nice and soft. I would definitely order it without the sliced almonds on top. I also purchase 2 macarons, Pistachio and Raspberry. The Pistachio one was immaculate. The Raspberry one, however, I couldn't enjoy because I placed it in the fridge, and when I left it out to warm up and thaw out, it was just very hard and crispy - I ended up throwing it away. I also made the mistake of placing the Mexican cookie in the fridge as well, so I took it out to get to room temp, and the flavors of the nut with the consistency, it was not great, it felt like I was eating sand. I did not enjoy that cookie at all. I think they need to work on the recipe and try making them the normal, bite-sized cookies that are more traditional in terms of the recipe. The Mexican cookie, despite how much hope I had for it, was not pleasant. Moral of that story: DON'T LET YOUR DRUNK ASS PUT THE COOKIES IN THE FRIDGE. The only saving grace was the cheesecake, and the baklava which were worth the cost and the wait. I would recommend this place because there is a large variety. I would definitely go back and try different options. It was mildly affordable. For the cookies, and the cheesecake, my total was about $22. I would, however, research the parking options because it is located in downtown Detroit. I believe there was a parking across the street. We parked by the Greektown casino and...