Gloria's Bakery — Restaurant in Flagstaff

No manches! This is a hidden gem in Flagstaff! This place exceeded my expectations. As a Mexican-American is hard to find a place that serves authentic homemade Mexican food. So when I came in here my expectations were not high. Well, they did it! From the moment you arrive you know the place is going to be authentic because of where it is located. Anywhere there is money wires to Latin America, you’ll find great Mexican food nearby 😂 I went inside only to be greeted by smiling staff and the smell of freshly baked Mexican sweet bread. The menu is easy to read. Starting on the left side with breakfast options all the way to afternoon meals and, of course, Mexican snacks for that late afternoon craving. Now, let’s get down to the meal. I was convenient met at my table with my coffee, cream and sugar. In no more than 4 minutes my Chilaquiles plate was brought to my table…and oh boy! The first bite took me straight to my Grandma’s home in seconds! An explosion of flavor. As a matter of fact, I didn’t expect to have a side of arrachera (steak) with my meal! I combined my chilaquiles with a portion of over medium eggs and the arrachera, and yum! So good! To close up the deal I got me a concha de chocolate to combine with hot coffee…man, they did it! Great atmosphere. People of all types came in: construction workers, parents with kids, cleaning ladies, and some of our native-American friends. What a great spot to enjoy great food and meet great people. I give it a 5 of 5. By the way, the place It!...

This place updated and expanded in September 2023. The pictures are of the restaurant and menu as of 12/23/23. (Any pictures of a small bright yellow space with blackboard menus and an upright bakery cabinet are of the pre-renovation/expansion.)

Honestly, I miss the old cozy smaller hole-in-the-wall version where everyone had to squeeze by when it was (often) busy. It used to feel like a locals-only authentic Mexican place, but now it feels gentrified and it seemed like 2-3:1 of tourists:locals when we were there. I’m glad the business is doing well of course, but it feels like the locals lost a special hidden gem we had to ourselves away from the hoards of tourists. Their food used to be one of the absolute best in town and it’s still really good, but seems like it slipped a bit while also increasing in price. The menu is way bigger now which could be part of why, and also adds to how long it takes for everything now. They also now have servers doing table-side ordering and it seemed like (as of Dec. ‘23) they were still getting the hang of it, vs. the quick counter service they did before. I hope they settle back in, streamline the menu to a simpler list of their strong suits, maybe go back to counter service, and bring back some bright...

Our family of 5 from the east coast was driving through Flag and stopped here for dinner. This was one of the best meals we’ve had, full stop. The food was delicious — everything we ordered (molé, carne asada, quesadilla, chicken nuggets for the kids, ALLLLLL THE PASTRIES, the flan) was just so damn good. They happily accommodated my food allergy and even alerted me to a food that I would have otherwise not known was cooked using the allergen. And these are the nicest people. They were so incredibly kind to our children. We couldn’t stop talking about how much it legit felt like the food was cooked with love, as cheesy as that sounds. Even our 3 kids (who often bemoan being in a restaurant more than 10 minutes) said this was their favorite restaurant experience ever. So so so so so good in every way. We seriously woke up this morning trying to figure out a way to go back through Flagstaff to eat...