Old Heidelberg Bakery — Restaurant in Phoenix

UPDATE: 2/8/25 I noticed a couple of my pictures were removed ... by Google?? According to the bakery signage, hours are Tue - Sat, 8:30 am to 3 pm NOT 9:30 am - 4pm as Google shows them to be.

2/1/25: Short version - wow, what a treasure find. It's larger than it looks, and inside you will find friendly service, all manner of grocery items, pastries, breads, t-shirts, and so much more.

Long version - Old Heidelberg has been on my "I wanna go there!" list for so long but we never seem to be in the area when it's open. Well, this particular Saturday morning I decided to find a breakfast spot nearby so we could pop into the German bakery for dessert. :-)

First off, the parking lot is large. Granted, we were there fairly early so maybe it gets busier and more full, but we had no trouble finding a parking space. Second, be ready for a blast of lovely scents upon walking through the door. I had no idea the trove of goodies would be so profound. Who doesn't love the smell of fresh bread? Oh my. Their cases were full of a variety of pastries, they had a fairly sufficient selection of meats (sausages mostly). Unfortunately, my eyes were trained on the sweet stuff so I failed to get a pic of the meat case. Well, there was an older lady in front of the case, too, speaking German to the woman behind the counter. Honestly, I wanted to stay and listen but thought that would be rude. Does it count as eaves dropping if you don't understand a word being spoken? ;-)

The other section of the Old Heidelberg was packed full of grocery items. I saw jams, jellies, cookies, wafers, and so much more. Of course, most of it was in German, but that just added to the wonder of being in the store. In hindsight, we should have purchased some of the jam/jelly to go with the bread we bought. Aw well, next visit.

The bread! OMG, laugh all you want, but honestly, the white bread we purchased is so light and fluffy it practically floated into our hands. Alone, or toasted with butter, oh my, it is divine. We just bought it yesterday and between the two of us, it's halfway gone. We should have bought another loaf.

Despite full bellies from just having eaten breakfast elsewhere, there was no humanly way possible for us not to leave with just the white bread. So, we picked up the following: a small bag of three day-old pastries (two apple, one cherry); a bag of day-old almond roll; an almond horn; and finally some salty caramel wafers.

I don't care they were a day old, I was raised on leftovers, and the Old Heidelberg's day old items are still better than other bakeries' fresh items. If their day-old items are that good, imagine them fresh. Oh me, oh my.

Similar to the bread, the Danishes were light, airy, and so flaky, smothered in the fruit. The almond roll. Oh man, the smell alone makes my knees weak. One word: fan-damn-tastic! The almond horn? I was expecting it to be more akin to a shortbread cookie. That is, dry & crumbly. It was nowhere close. It was soft, doughy, with the added crunch from the slivered almonds on top.

If you have not visited the Old Heidelberg Bakery, well, ladies & gents, YOU ARE MISSING OUT. I urge you to pop in and give them a try. I know we will be back. Again, and again, and again. There are so many items we did not buy, we must return to try them all....

Friendly quick service and a really nice selection of properly baked tasty things. Their prices are not outrageous either. This is my new favorite Phoenix Bakery. They use paper bags to wrap your orders. So nothing gets sweaty or soggy and there is no plastic waste. Try them you will be pleased.

I can highly recommend the chocolate eclairs, bear claws, cheese danish, almond horns and pretzel croissants. Especially the pretzel croissants. My men LOVE them, so many sesame seeds.

They also have holiday imported yummies and other items. I cannot venture an opinion on any of that. I didn't explore everything offered. Just the behind glass fresh...

Employees were friendly, helpful and chatty but alas, I wasn’t a fan of the baked goods I bought.

Their pretzels don’t look or taste like German pretzels and I was so disappointed. Dry, flavorless and not salty at all. Strange shape and texture as well.

The bread is supposed to be like a pumpernickel but isn’t dark brown and has a plethora of rye seeds. Wasn’t a fan of how it tasted and I grew up eating German bread regularly. Was too dense and hearty.

Probably won’t try the bakery again but did enjoy meeting the employees and chatting with them about northeast food we...