Sea Wolf Bakers — Restaurant in Seattle

Overall great bakery with nice, not too naughty treats. The breakdown... User Experience: I found SeaWolf's window display awkward. The baked goods did not have the prices. I have never seen that before. Usually all stores are upfront about their pricing unless they deal with high-ticket items. I am still confounded about how the price could be omitted from food. Perhaps $9.50 cinnamon rolls are considered high price items? Please explain. Yes there are prices on a menu in front of the counter but by the time you reach the counter it's too late to start parsing out what fits your budget. The result? Sticker shock. I took damage of $25. That's almost an hour and a half at work lifting heavy loads.

All my comments are things which I believe Seawolf is already aware. If I see something that should be changed I will contact Seawolf - and any other business - privately.

The Goods: The Cinnamon Roll: Too big and confusing. Poor execution. I don't get it, you try to use croissant dough for a cinnamon roll? Make a separate brioche dough so all the raisins and caramel don't fall/ooze out. Defeats the purpose of a cinnamon roll if there is no filling. The only way you would love this is you have never had a decent Kouign Amann or cinnamon roll and therefore do not care about a good caramel filling or flakiness. -laden with butter, -no flakiness -butter-soaked -dense

American comfort food gone wrong. You may be able to salvage the dough for muffins. Rating: 2/10 Croissant: I do not throw around superaltives to inflate feelings, so I will say the croissant was great. It was a bit different. The crumb was not the airiest but it seemed perfect. The right body density (a spider web croissant crumb looks cool but is impractical), thickness, right coloration, and sweetness. Just like I like my women. Winner. Reasonably priced. If there were a croissant to convince Americans to eat croissants, this would be it. Rating: 9/10

Update: 11/19/2023 - Seawolf changed their croissant, see below. The croissant are now less sweet and more airey. I actually prefer the old croissants.

White Sourdough 76.5% Hydration. Keeping a thick sourdough loaf with this level of hydration from being soggy and damp is impressive. Nice ears, although I cut off ears because they do nothing but cut me. Nice, open bread crumb structure still full enough no to drop the eggs sandwiched in between. Beautifully shaped and parallel scored loaves. Rating: 9/10 Bran Muffin: The bran muffin was not something you eat everyday for breakfast. I would consider it a slightly naughty bran muffin. It was a muffin that uses bran. The sweetness was similar to molasses. The inner crumb was slightly soaked with the unknown syrupy moistness. It was not too sweet at all unless you were expecting a traditional low-sugar content bran...

Sea Wolf is one of the best, if not the best bakery I’ve been to in the United States! This is not to be missed if visiting Seattle! There is a spiraling line out the door every day, which will take you about 10-15 mins to wait through. They use non-GMO local flour to make all their breads and pastries and it is so incredibly fresh and divinely flavorful. They really know the key to flavor pallets—there is a hint of sea salt that dusts their breads to enhance the profile. Their sweet croissant was my favorite, which had rich tahini, sweetness from strawberries, earthy sesame seeds and honey drizzle. It was the perfect harmony of sweet and savory on a toasted croissant.

Their seasonal focaccia was perfect chewy and had crumbled goat cheese with chilis, small sweet notes and pesto lightly spread throughout. It was a perfect texture of chewy and crispy.

My favorite combo was the date cake, which is a whole wheat loaf slice with nuts, seeds and dates. I dipped it in their spicy masala chai—which is also some of the best I’ve had! They use whole ground spices and it is so potent in flavor and aromatic. They also have chili and sea salt dusted in the foam to add a savory kick that brings out the masala flavors. It is a must try, especially dipping the date cake into it!

Also recommend the savory lye rolls, which are their series of topped pretzel buns and breads. Their croissants are also some of the flakiest I’ve ever had, almost like filo dough. You really can’t go wrong, order a few items!

Their staff is so friendly and will answer any questions you have. There is also ample outdoor seating and half a dozen tables inside.

I really loved coming here because it is a small business people can feel good about supporting. They source from local farms, use quality ingredients and pay their staff a livable wage. With the open kitchen concept you can also see each baker/staff member cracking eggs, hand cutting fresh strawberries, kneading dough, and prepping trays. They keep this to as authentic and minimally processed as possible and it really reflects in flavor and how you feel after eating. I truly love this bakery and wish there were more that adopted...

This rye sourdough bread class was both highly informative and wonderfully hands-on. A unique feature of the class is that you'll have the opportunity to taste freshly baked bread during the session, and then you'll also prepare your own loaf to take home and bake in your oven. While this might seem like an unusual sequence, it's cleverly designed to keep the class duration to a manageable 2.5 hours. The class was expertly led by Kit, co-owner of Sea Wild Bakery and Ox Bow Bakery. Kit is a veritable walking encyclopedia of bread making, and the sheer volume of knowledge he shared during the class was astounding! We began with some interesting background on the bakery and an overview of the bread-making process. We then observed a freshly baked loaf cooling on a rack, witnessing the end of one baking cycle. Next, we watched Kit prepare a new loaf, closing the bread pan and placing it into their massive oven – this is the step we would later replicate at home. Returning to our workstations, Kit delved deeper into the specifics of the ingredients we would be using. Then, it was time to get our hands dirty! We mixed the ingredients with our bare hands, a crucial part of the learning experience. The demonstrations, combined with the tactile experience of working with the dough, were the core of the class and incredibly valuable. Once our dough was ready, we carefully filled our own bread pans. By this time, the loaf Kit had started baking at the beginning of the class was ready, and we got to see it emerge fresh from the oven. The previously baked bread had also cooled sufficiently, allowing us to enjoy a delicious tasting. At the end of the class, we all received a sourdough starter to take home, empowering us to continue our bread-making adventures. And, of course, we each left with our prepared bread pan, ready to bake as our "homework." I feel I learned a tremendous amount about bread making and gained a much deeper appreciation for the intricacies of this craft. I highly recommend this class to any...