Great Harvest Orlando Bakery & Café — Restaurant in Orlando

Brad and Rachel Cottle are a husband and wife team focused on finding healthy options to delicious foods. They only opened their location 4 months ago in the downtown Orlando area and they're already supporting our Orlando community by donating loaves of bread to local food banks and coalitions. Right now, they're donating a loaf for every 2 loaves you buy.

The bread they bake is fresh and they only use honey to sweeten their bread. The Cinnamon Burst is my absolute favorite and I have plenty of new ideas of what to make with it. Not only do they have fresh bread for you, they also make dishes and desserts for you to enjoy on location or on the go (more so of the latter now because gathering is illegal at the moment). One of their popular sandwiches is their Breakfast Sandwich, which can be customized by your preference in meat, bread, cheese, etc. They'll all have an egg in the middle, which is nicely sliced and displayed. It's not only photogenic, but it's also delicious with a blend of flavors. I only ate half the sandwich and saved the other half for the next day and the bread didn't get soggy at all.

Aside from bread and sandwiches, they also have items in the store to buy. This includes fresh and organic items like preservatives, peanut butter and honey. There are seasonings for soups and other dishes you'd like to make at home. Not to mention all the freshly in-house baked dog treats they sell and offer your 4 legged friends. I know I'll be back...

We usually love this place but we had a super gross experience there today. I’m mostly writing this review so management is aware they need to retrain their staff on health and safety standards.

Our food got dropped to another table, and we watched the couple it got delivered to touch and poke through the sandwiches. When they got the attention of the staff to let them know there had been a mistake, the staff picked up the food and brought STRAIGHT over to us.

When we went up to the front to say something, there was no one available to help us as they had quite a line. We didn’t want to cause a scene, so we just threw the food away and left.

I worked in the restaurant industry for over 10 years. I know for a fact if food even gets set at the wrong table you cannot reserve it. And this didn’t just get set down in the wrong place, we literally watched them finger through our food.

Management, please talk...

Finally, an awesome bakery right near downtown Orlando that has tons of gluten-free options! Great Harvest is a really nice bakery/cafe where you can get fresh-baked breads, pastries, muffins, sandwiches, coffee, and more! So much to choose from and everything looks amazing - for instance, their iced lavender honey latte and Reuben sandwich were top-notch! I would go back many times for those specific things. They always rotate their baked goods so you could come every day of the week and always try something new. They have a good selection of food options on their menu - this would be the perfect spot for a quick lunch! And yes, I do mean quick! Our sandwiches only took a minute or two…very fast and a much better (and healthier) option than fast food! The service was great and there really was nothing to complain about. We will definitely be returning very soon. Check out Great Harvest...