Arizmendi Bakery (Lakeshore) — Restaurant in Oakland

The baked goods and pizza are great here but the staff are awful in almost every way. I’ve been here literally dozens of times and it’s always something new: the staff don’t know the prices of what they’re selling; the staff miscommunicate to each other between the register and kitchen; poor attitude in general due to being overly busy (which is honestly the only issue with the physical atmosphere—it’s too small for the volume of customers at almost any time of day); staff are rude and make up conflicting policies just to avoid doing their jobs.

Today I ordered my usual 1/2 vegan pizza + oat latte. They were out of vegan scones which I really like, so I didn’t get any of those. I asked the woman at the register to put the slices in foil since I didn’t want to waste a whole box for four slices. She told me to tell them when they called my order. That wasn’t typical but I didn’t worry about it and I still tipped my regular 25%. So, when they called my order, it was in a box and I asked for foil. He started to put it in foil until another employee told him not to touch my pizza due to contamination with dairy from his gloves. I didn’t mind doing it myself, but when I had one slice left to wrap, yet another employee tells me that I can’t do it there because of the risk of contaminating the counter with cashew cheese! Lol!

Two of these folks at the end of the line condescendingly told me to request tin foil at the register next time—which I had done, just like I do every time. I honestly had never seen any of these employees before (there seems to be a lot of turnover here) so maybe they are all new. But please stop taking out your frustrations on customers—regulars like me, or anyone else. We are just trying to support a local, cooperative business and you are acting like customers are trying to make your lives harder. Please get over yourselves and just be nice, it’s really...

This was a great find for us while staying in Oakland! We stopped back for a second visit during our trip since we were so happy with the food and baked goods we got on our first visit. It’s a collaborative bakery that’s a great spot to try out some amazing varieties of baked goods. Everything from baguettes, cookies, muffins, biscuits, bagels, focaccias, breakfast breads…a whole spread. You can’t go wrong! Everything we had was amazing. The scone I had was as good as any I’ve ever had, and the same goes for the hot pepper and cheese focaccia bread. We also enjoyed their cinnamon buns and blueberry muffins. The coffee is also very good and they make it in small batches to keep it fresh. My daughter enjoyed their iced coffee. They also had cold beverages, fresh fruit, and salads, but we didn’t try that. We weren’t there late enough to try their pizzas, but from what we were told by locals, it’s amazing. Based on our experience, it wouldn’t surprise me! To top it off, the workers were super friendly and helpful, and they really move the line through efficiently. There’s no table service, but there’s seating available, either at longer community style tables, seating along the window facing the street, or outside on the sidewalk. Just make sure to remember to pay for your street parking at the kiosks along the street. I didn’t notice parking was not free and came back to find a $75 parking ticket from the City of Oakland! That’s not a typo. I made the right decision the next day on our follow-up visit and paid $1.75 for 35 minutes of parking! Next time we’re in the area, we’ll be back (and we won’t miss third parking kiosk)! Hopefully to try...

I've lived in the bay area for quite some time now and I'm ashamed to say I've never been here. You will walk in and instantly be overwhelmed with sights and smells. It smells amazing, it smells like baked goods and coffee. The 2 best things in life. I went during the lunch rush hour and that's probably why I was so overwhelmed.

When you walk in, to the left, there's a wall full of amazing baked goods such as cookies, loaves of bread, focaccia bread, scones, muffins, brownies, and so much more. Any delicious carb you can think of, they have it here. They even have a bread schedule, on certain days they bake certain breads. There was sooooo much I wanted to try. For times sake I grabbed a cookie that had chocolate chips, coconut, oatmeal and some other amazing things. I also got a slice of the pizza of the day. They only offer one kind of pizza per day, by the slice or you can buy an entire pie. When I went they were serving an Indian pizza with Masala sauce and cilantro! Soooooooooo delicious.

It is sweet/savory heaven here. They offer a variety of teas and coffees as well. I can't wait to go back and try some of their other baked goods. I hear the granola is the best in town. Pricing isn't bad, service is good, and just a bit hectic and chaotic inside. That's just means...