Ever since 85C Bakery opened a branch in San Diego, we’ve been there nearly every weekend.
I honestly didn’t think we would visit as much as we have. After all, we were barely visiting the LA and Irvine locations when we were in the area. But we find ourselves in that area a lot on the weekends, and I can never resist the urge to drive by to see if there is a line. If there is no line, we go in!
The bakery has continued to remain very popular, and the best-selling items, the brioche loaf and the marble taro, have yet to be on the shelves during any of my visits. However, they do produce them as fast as possible, giving priority to those in line. And if there’s not any coming out anytime soon, you can place an order when you pay at the register.
Here are some of the breads we’ve gotten over our last few visits.
Taiwanese Suncake
This is a popular Taiwanese pastry. The inside is filled with maltose (a condensed malt sugar), and the outside is a soft and flaky.
Brioche, suncake, boroh danish, cheese toast
The cheese toast is a newer item. It’s definitely something that tastes better after being reheated.
We always get extra of the brioche since we place an order. The one bonus of the crazy demand for these breads is that they are still super hot when they give them to you and the outside sugary layer is still crunchy, which is something I never experienced previously at the other stores since the breads had already had time to cool. It’s only a small window of time when that outside is crunchy, so Mr. K and I will dig into one the minute it’s handed to us. Does anything beat steaming hot fresh bread?
The downside of the super high demand though, other than the wait, is that they don’t bake us as pretty, since they are in such a rush. They always looks so misshapen.
Premium milk, Marble taro, Mango bread
Giant brioche
This is like a giant Taiwanese pineapple bun, with its butter sugar top.
Suncake, cheese toast, potato and cheese pastry
This trio was a gift from CC. Until now, I’ve never tried the potato pastry. I loved it! Normally, I don’t like the savory items here because they still use the sweet bread base and I don’t like that sweet and salty combination. But this dough base didn’t taste sweet and I really enjoyed the mashed potato filling. We’ll be on the lookout for this one next time.
You can read about my initial visit here.
Tip: If you really want the brioche or any other bread they are making that day and don’t see it, you can order it at the register.
85C Bakery and Cafe
5575 Balboa Ave, San Diego, CA 92111
https://www.facebook.com/85CBakeryCafe.BalboaMesa
i’ve never seen the brioche during all the times i’ve gone. i feel sorry for those workers that come out and get ambushed, especially for their taro swirl breads. i’m not into them anyways, so i don’t buy them. glad you liked the potato turnover. i haven’t tried the cheese myself but it probably tastes better fresh.
I really love the brioche. But yeah, it’s never on the shelves. we usually order it and then wait for it, though you can come back later too. but since they are constantly making it, it’s usually about a 20 minutes or less wait once you order
Still haven’t been to this place, but you and Mary have made it seem so enticing! GAH! I just need to get my butt over there right when they open. 🙂
you should def check it out. it’s not as good as the ones in taiwan, but it’s hard to find bakeries here coming out with steaming hot bread every five minutes!
They have coffee jelly as an add-in for cold drinks! I had a hazelnut frappe with coffee jelly, and it was exactly like the ones I got in Japan and Singapore! I was sooo happy!
nice! I usually get the sea salt coffee or the milk tea with tapioca. I haven’t tried the coffee jelly yet
I tried the cheese toast cold at first and found it to be really odd tasting when still cold. Heating it up makes it a lot better but I still found it to be a little sweet for my liking. I still haven’t tried the Brioche and everyone tells me to. I’ll have to get it the next time I stop in.
get the brioche!!! haha. Yeah, the cheese toast I’m not the biggest fan of. It looks so cool though