Danish Pastry House — Restaurant in Watertown

Very disappointed with the overall flavor, quality and freshness. I ordered one of their signature cakes - passion fruit cake, thinking this would be a good reflection of their work and whether I would continue my patronage.

While the appearance of the cake looked nice, this was a case of style over substance to quote Paul Hollywood. The cake was just overwhelmingly sweet with no fruit flavors at all. I was expecting some tanginess, complexity and lightness from the cake, but it was heavy and very one-note. There was also no fruit inside or outside as a garnish. They could have done so much with passionfruit, but alas it was just flavor it with sugar. I could have gotten a cake from the grocery store for half the price with similar flavors and better texture honestly. I bought the cake for somebody’s birthday and nobody liked it, so I’m stuck with it now.

For additional context, I picked up the cake at the Watertown location and it was basically a hole in the wall and nothing like the pictures - no tables for customers to sit, relax and enjoy pastries, just really a storefront for picking up orders. There were pastries on display, but not many and not impressive, with the quality questionable.

My conversation with the clerk yielded more concerns than answers. She noted that cakes weren’t made fresh everyday; they’re made over the course of days as they need to be cooled and decorated. As someone who is a big fan of the Great British Bake Off, I was not impressed cause cakes can and should be done as fresh as possible. So instead of opting to pick up some pastries on display for my family, I decided to take the cake and not take any chances.

Needless to say, I will not be returning, and consider my $40...

One would think an establishment with the word "Pastry" in its title would live up to its name. I was visiting my daughter at Tufts yesterday morning and thought this would be a perfect Saturday treat before we started on our day's events. The two pastries I bought were not quite up to par, but far better than the coffee. While everything looked beautiful, I doubt it all was fresh that day. The apple bear claw was the best of the four things I spent $15 on, but sadly it didn't have the delight of melting in one's mouth and eliciting a moan of ecstasy as great, hand prepared pastry does. The tempered chocolate on the waffle "treat" was good, but the two waffle pieces enclosing some kind of cream with the consistency of marshmallow fluff, only not sweet, were not crisp as they should have been at first bite. I imagine these had been refrigerated overnight, so had absorbed moisture from the cream. The true reason for a two star rating was the dreadful coffee! I should have chosen brewed. I ordered a Latte and a Mocha. Neither had the taste of any espresso at all. The mocha was really a hot chocolate, but NOT the made-from-scratch kind using only boiled milk and shaved dark chocolate. I thought the latte would at least taste like coffee, but no, it did not. On a perfect spring-like winter's day, my foray into DPH was a disappointment to be sure. The staff was very polite, though not engaging. I sincerely hope the local clientele has better luck with...

Excellent pastries, so yummy. However: a real Danish bakery would normally have non-sweet items as well, particularly "rundstykker". Many bakeries also have a little cooler with cheese, jam, butter, so that you can buy everything you need for breakfast there (without making your breakfast all pastry). It would be nice if the Danish Pastry House could offer rundstykker at a minimum. not a single thing in the store is vegan or even just dairy free (update: apparently the rye bread is vegan). I would buy a lot more if I could bring it home and share it with my family members that don't eat dairy and/or eggs.

Google asked me to update my review, so why not: it would be nice if they played Danish music (even English language music by Danish artists, of which there is plenty) instead of Spanish language music. I get that the employees just put on whatever they want to listen to, but Danish music would add to the authenticity of the place.

Update: the Spanish music still bothers me. Also, most of the photos here are for the Medford location. The watertown location's storefront is only a counter, a couch and 2 bar chairs. So while you can eat your pastries here, it's not really intended for dine-in. I wish they could buy the adjacent lot and expand to be a larger cafe with outdoor seating right out to the bike path; that would be a...