Old German Bakery — Restaurant in Hoboken

I was really interested in their highly reputed bread loaves; particularly the pumpernickel. So, even though I don't live in Hoboken, it became a destination bakery for me. I had read that you can't just go in and buy a loaf or two, but had to pre-order them. So, the first thing I did was call ahead to see if they had any loaves available. The gentleman who greeted me was taken aback by my request, as if I should have known better than to even ask. OK, no problem, I'll just order them, since that's how it's done. So, I went to their website, selected the following day at 3:30 PM (first available), and placed my order. Since I was going out of my way to get there, I wanted to get two loaves, and ordered the pumpernickel and crusty bread. The $9.50 price per was steep, but for artisanal, baked-to-order bread, I was game.

I missed a call from the bakery the next morning, but no message was left and I figured it was just to tell me the order was complete, so I didn't return the call. Around 3:30 that afternoon I went to pick up the order. I found it odd that the entrance to the store was blocked by a cart that looked and felt oddly like a lemonade stand. I couldn't even see inside the bakery windows because it appeared there were no lights on. Oh well, another idiosyncrasy, I thought. No biggie. Once the woman from the bakery came outside (20 degree temps, BTW) and took my name to pick up the order, she ducked back into the darkened doorway, and I waited. And waited. She took several minutes or more before returning, which seemed odd since their entire business model is based on pre-ordering. OK, no problem. But then she told me that there had been an error with my order, and the pumpernickel loaf wasn't available, only the crusty bread. Well, that sucked. But still, OK, this stuff happens. How though? When your entire business model is processing simple item orders for the limited inventory you make? And why did they wait until I'd arrived for pick-up to tell me, when they obviously knew that morning when they'd called and not left a message? She said I could come back tomorrow for the pumpernickel, assuming it would be as simple as that for me. I told her I wasn't available to return to Hoboken again so soon, so she said she would refund me. OK, that's reasonable, I suppose. At least she would take care of that and I wouldn't have to deal with it. Except, I did have to deal with it when no refund was put through. Terrific. Again, this stuff happens, but man, it's not good for first time customers to have this all be their first experience.

At last, the bread: it's good. Quite good, in fact. But $10 good? Not especially. It has a nice flavor and interior texture, but the crust really is CRUSTY. Make sure you have a good bread knife to slice it, and be careful biting into the end pieces if your teeth aren't rock solid.

It's unfortunate, because I really wanted to love this place, become a regular customer, and support a local business. Perhaps if they'd gotten me the pumpernickel loaf instead of the crusty bread, and I'd found it divine, I would've overlooked the service failures and atmosphere quirks. Or maybe if the proprietor had simply followed up on the refund it would express that I was valued as a new cusomer, I could have accepted the price for bread that's a close comp to the most expensive Whole Foods bread, which is still cheaper and a helluva lot more abundant...

This is my first review ever but I feel it’s important to share my experience with this bakery.

I LOVE the cakes from this place and have been a loyal customer for over two years since I moved to Hoboken. The last couple of months, they have been completely sold out every time I stopped by so today I called beforehand to see if they have any left. I was asked what kind of cakes I would like and then was told they will be out in ten minutes. I told them “That’s great! I’ll be there for them in ten minutes” then proceeded to get ready to go and get them. Once I got to the shop, the lady asked me what I wanted. So I told her I spoke on the phone with the guy and he said the following cakes will be available, I am here to purchase them. Instead of calmly asking me to wait to ask him what I was talking about. She raised her voice at me and asked “Did you place an order?” (Multiple times) to which I responded calmly “I told him I will be here in ten minutes and he said ok”. She got so upset and went into defensive mode. I’m still confused as to why she had to treat a customer like that. They were sold out, I didn’t know because he said it will be ready in ten minutes. This was the first horrible experience I’ve had with this shop, I’ve loved their cakes and pastries but I’m not comfortable supporting a business that feel they can treat a customer the way they did so I will have to take my business somewhere else.

I’m a customer, I went out of my way to call ahead to make sure you have the cakes before I headed over. If you needed me to place an order then you should have mentioned it on the phone. It was a ten minutes window, I don’t understand why I got the horrible treatment that I did from this shop. Yelling at me like I was begging to buy their cakes. Your cakes are pricey and I had no problem paying for them. It’s the service and attitude I cannot stand and will...

I went on a baked-goods-buying rampage yesterday. It started at Carlo's Bakery. I had never bought anything there and wanted to see if it lived up to the hype. I didn't expect it to, and it doesn't. However, on my way to buy coffee, I passed this little gem and couldn't help but buy something (more pastries!). I would like to pass out flyers to all of those poor benighted fools standing in line at Carlo's, telling them they are at the wrong bakery. The Old German Bakery was amazing, much better than anything you'll get at Carlo's. At the Old German Bakery, you won't have to stand in line for two hours and your pastry will actually be fresh and made out of good quality ingredients....all for a better price tag. It is a win, win, win, win. Even better, this bakery is German-owned, and I suspect the pastries may actually be authentically German. I don't know enough about the subject matter to say for certain, but the product is convincing. Don't worry. You can still take your picture in front of Carlo's. I won't tell anyone you didn't buy...