Essen Bakery — Restaurant in Philadelphia

4.5 for the food, actually, for one reason.

First, this place is a rare little gem unlike any found in most US cities! Small but mighty. NY-style Jewish traditions with French patisserie exactitude! EVERYTHING I tried here was either next level great (black x white cookies $4 ea.), best-ever fantastic (the 'pop tart') or perfect and authentic ( like the brilliant abricotine; think: poached-apricot croissant).

EVERYTHING... EXCEPT. for. the. babka.

I tried the much-lauded babka (chocolate) twice. Both times it was rather dry (for a good babka) and lacked flavor. I was a bit taken aback. Everything else is so great but this babka wasn't even as good as Trader Joe's (which is decent enough), let alone the gooey, oozing ones you will find in Brooklyn or Montréal.

Nonetheless, I find great black & whites harder to come by than a good babka in my hometown Seattle and most other places. And, all the rest here is rather brilliant!

There is even a frequent customer discount club, as if one and one's tastebuds (and diet!) needed the coaxing, to boot.

Owner/Pâtissière Tova du Plessis has done a wonderful and remarkable thing in offering her talents to Philly through...

Update: I used to get bagele here fairly often and it had been a bit so I ordered one online. I'm surprised by how small the bagel was, I remember them having big bagels and putting a lot of schmear, so much so I couldn't eat it all in one sitting. The bagel I received today was half of their old bagels. It's the first time I've ever felt hungry after eating a full bagel, from anywhere. Still tasted good, still good scholar, good service, but the size was not worth $5. Maybe this was a one time fluke though

Great bagels and schmears! I walk past here a couple of times a week and have never stopped by, but just happened to notice their window open and decided to try it out. Their service was fairly quick, but if there is a line of people it might take a second for them to get to you (the woman behind me was noticeably very impatient). The person at the counter was very friendly and made it easy to order. We tried two different bagels and schmears, both were great and I'd highly recommend the veggie spread. Definitely a great place for...

Our friend bought us their chocolate babka years ago and it was our favorite ever since. We were so happy to be able to come to Philly and purchase from Essen ourselves. Unfortunately they were out of a lot of items at 1pm. We managed to get an everything bagel and a focaccia sandwich and the cinnamon hazelnut babka slice and an iced coffee. The coffee is alright. The cinnamon hazelnut babka is tasty but not as good as I had hoped. The bagel has a nice mixture of the everything toppings and seasoning. The onion focaccia sandwich was really salty. We were definitely disappointed with this day

We placed a preorder for the chocolate babka and a challah bread for pick up for Sunday. The challah bread reminds me of Chinese milk bread which is airy and light. The chocolate babka is amazing! It has a nice chocolate flavor and is not too sweet and it's so addicting. I really had to stop myself from eating half of the babka in one sitting. Overall, highly recommend the...