Bakeshop — Restaurant in Falls Church

In my opinion and experience Bakeshop is making and serving deluxe, high quality, expertly crafted baked goods using fresh, top caliber ingredients. Don’t be fooled by the bouncy visual ambiance these are up market products. The color scheme and display of goods is busy, a Where’s Waldo puzzle shopping feeling.

I just discovered this spot and was here twice in the previous week. Nutella croissant I had on my first visit on Monday was excellent as was the plain butter croissant on my second visit on Saturday, February 12, 2022. The plain croissant had classic, crusty, flaky, crumble exterior and the interior was puffy having distinctive buttery aroma and flavor. With respect to the Nutella croissant Bakeshop is generous (generous but balanced - not cloying) with the Nutella filling. Coffee I had was medium body and modestly robust. I also brought home a slice of banana nut loaf and carrot loaf to taste. In my taste opinion the banana nut loaf is sensational; thickly cut slice, dense and moist - a flavor jamboree. Al dente black walnut pieces in the recipe, I am guessing, were soaked. Portion of nuts in the slice was generous and balanced. Also, my taste sensitivity detected a note of clove. I may be wrong but I could be right. The carrot loaf is very good but the banana nut loaf is a run-away. WoW! On my second visit, Saturday, I chose a small chocolate cupcake with raspberry cream icing to take home. Again, an elevated flavor experience.

Price point is reasonable for up market confections that are expertly crafted recipes using top quality ingredients in my opinion. As I mentioned, my first visit was early Monday morning last week. I was the only customer during the 5 to 10 minutes in the shop looking over the inventory deciding what to try. I was surprised by the indifferent attitude of the person who semi waited on me. It wasn’t full blown sullen aloofness that is common in the service sector of NoVa, again, in my opinion and experience. By contrast, on my early morning Saturday visit there was a steady stream of customers and several people working the cash register side of the counter who were welcoming and engaged, making it a point to greet customers entering and thanking them for coming when they left. I noticed that the Saturday morning Bakeshop staff recognized many of their regulars by sight and some by name. It was a bit chilly Saturday morning but the air temperature was reasonable enough to enjoy coffee and croissant in the small alfresco area in front of the Bakeshop where I further observed that about 50% of the clientele came by foot from surrounding neighborhoods which makes sense because parking is miserable even by NoVa standards. Vehicle ingress and egress is no picnic either. It is wise to be hospitable to customers in the hospitality business when your overhead is clearly a destination location. Not just on high customer traffic Saturdays. And especially so...

We had breakfast next door at the biscuit co and decided to pop in to this place to bring some sweets home for later.

We were the only ones in the store, and asked for a few baked goods. After grabbing 2 of our 4 items, the worker turned around and began a long conversation with her coworker about cupcakes that were on a big roll out tray, what they needed to do with them, etc. It got to be so awkwardly long, I looked at my wife and mouthed “could you finish our order first…?”

Her male coworker noticed the awkwardness and he stepped up to start ringing us up, which made the girl flustered and turned around to try to help him. They were then both kind of grabbing stuff and trying to fill the order (still of 4 items). She had several different bags and asked if wanted one big bag and I said sure. When we got home, we were missing the only cookie we ordered (paid for it, the guy charged us but she didn’t grab it).

Other than that, the cupcake we tried was so dry that even a grocery store cupcake would be an upgrade. The peanut butter/nutella pie was okay. The Macaron looked like a macaron but didn’t taste like one.

Overall, surprised at the rating, maybe the coffee is good? The experience was weird, and the baked goods were mediocre. I wouldn’t come back with all the quality bakery options within a 10 min radius...

We had Bakeshop desserts as our last minute wedding option and they were perfect! We originally had a cake vendor for our wedding, but with COVID we needed to pare down the guest list and our baker couldn't accommodate the smaller size. So I called Bakeshop 2 weeks before our date and they were able bake a cake for us no problem. Every staff member I spoke with was so kind and patient with questions I had about logistics, the ordering process, and pickup. We first bought a few samples of cake to try and see what our favorite flavor would be. We went with a devil's food cake with the Vietnamese coffee frosting inside and a vanilla buttercream on the outside. It was the perfect simple cake and our guests loved the flavor combination! We also had their browned butter chocolate chip cookies because it's our favorite treat from their shop. You can't go wrong with cookies! Thank you Bakeshop for making the process so easy and stress-free in a time where many things needed to be readjusted for COVID. I first became a Bakeshop fan in 2013 when their only location was Arlington, and their cookies won me over then. It's so nice to see them grow yet the consistency in their desserts show they have a wonderful staff who loves what they do. Hoping for only the best...