Esther’s German Bakery

Man everything in this complex is going under. Daiso and Esther’s? Though Esther’s presence exists in the older shop on the Los Altos side of San Antonio so i guess for them it’s not a total loss. I still preferred this locale better and the alternative in a subset of products at Dittmer’s. their pretzel bread is still highly addictive but alas ill have to go to the other two venues

This location has closed:
FYI: Their pretzel knots are phenomenally good, if you steam them for 5 minutes.

This review is for the pastries only. It smelled delicious, like ham, but sadly we only ordered pastries to go.
Nut Corner — 4 stars — tasty but not too sweet, a good complement with a cup of coffee.
Chocolate Crescent — 4 stars — moist and heartier than it looks. It had some sort of sweet filling. It would have been better heated up, so get it fresh or throw it in the toaster oven for a bit.
Pretzel — 1 star — super dry, but I guess that was our fault for ordering it at 6pm.

This place seems to have a real authentic selection of German pastries. When I visited though, it seemed barren and abandoned. I hope this place gets more business.
I tried some samples, and I bought a nutty raspberry bar thing that was incredibly delicious. It has almonds, a little caramel, a little raspberry, and a crust on the bottom. It wasn’t too sweet, and there weren’t too many preservatives or anything. All the ingredients seemed pretty wholesome.
There’s more to try, so I’ll be back.

Quaint bakery tucked around the corner in the San Antonio shopping complex, close to Trader Joe’s. It’s got the old bakery charm with all the décor.
We had the crunchy Nussecke Nut Corner, the creamy custard filled Bienenstich (Beesting Cake) with Caramelized Almonds on top and a slice of the famous Poppy Cake Mohn Striezl. I just loved the Bienenstich, its a must try !!!

Esther’s is probably more known for its cheese sticks and pretzels. The cheese sticks are savory.
Esther’s has two locations right next to each other, one on San Antonio and one inside the San Antonio shopping complex right next to TJ’s and Daiso. We spoke with the owner and she said that she had wanted to open inside the complex but there was no store for lease at the time. Thus, she opened her first location right next to Fermentation Frenzy/​More Flavor. When this location became available, she jumped on it even though logistically it did not make sense.
This location is smaller than the San Antonio one. However, because of better parking and traffic from the San Antonio center shoppers, this location does attract a unique group of visitors who otherwise would not frequent Esther’s.

These guys go to the Crocker Galleria Farmers Market in SF on Thursdays, and the pretzles are the most delicious I have ever had, I’m hooked like on them like crack. When Thursday comes around I find myself practically running down there the get some pretzles. I always think I’ll have them over the next couple days, but they are gone with in a couple hours. Someday I’ll try their breads as well…
I can’t wait to go to the restaurant and try out sandwiches!

For a place to go and study, Esther’s German Bakery may occupy the worst location on Earth. It’s sandwiched between «American Male Salon» and a Thai restaurant. And it’s in a blocky, ugly, strip mall. I suppose it could be made worse if it were deep underground or behind a scrapyard or something.
Getting past the total misfortune of location, this place is a serious find for the committed café studiers among us. Why? Okay:
First, it’s like Disneyland inside; imagine a fairy godmother walking into an ordinary café, taking out her wand, and working herself into a frenzy, enchanting the shit out of everything. Consequently, it’s got some seriously adorable Bavarian cliches going on. Imagine Hansel and Gretel but without the witch and breadcrumbs (and moral). There are bright red tablecloths and warm wooden floors and delicious wafting aromas and decorative pretzels and shitznels hanging in the windows. I might be making this up, but I think the employees wear blue plaid aprons, too. I kept waiting for the talking animals to appear.
One more thing: «German coffee.» They must have made this up for stupid gullible Americans like me, but it’s a huge win: they take ordinary coffee and slam a whole bunch of vanilla ice cream in it. It’s so obvious I can’t believe no one else does it.
Great place to study because it was empty, you’re surrounded by delicious and fattening pastries, drinking «german coffee,» and waxing nostalgic on your youth. Minus one star for it’s atrocious and completely unforgivable location which I would never seek out unless I needed Thai food or a male salon.

Unilocaling their booth at the Crocker Galleria Farmers’ Market:
Cheap on the prices, surly on the attitude (the guy staffing their booth at the Crocker Galleria does not like the state of the nation and is not shy about sharing it), tasty on the wheat and oat bread as well as the chocolate nut dessert bar.
We might not share political beliefs, but we do share an appreciation for good tasting, reasonably priced baked goods.

I had mohn strudel once before, someone had brought some to the office, and it haunted me. I had to have it again, and was afraid I’d never find it. Mohn strudel is a pastry/​strudel, filled with a generous amount of moist poppy seed filling, lot of people describe it looking like cavier. I thought it was like a slightly sweet, and moist jam, but loaded with poppy seeds. It had a flaky exterior, like a good pie crust.
While searching for poppy seed strudel on Unilocal,I discovered a review on the farmer’s market in Crocker Galleria, describing a strudel made with poppy seeds and cherries. So, I went to the farmer’s market, and was ecstatic to find Esther’s German Bakery. I bought a mohnkirsch strudel (poppy/​cherry strudel), and a slice of the mohn strizel (poppy coffee cake) both had the moist generous amounts of poppy seed filling, and I was thoroughly, happy, and content. My haunted search is over! Esther’s German Bakery, thank you for being at Crocker Galleria on Thursdays, and thank you for your delicious, german pastries!

I come to Esther’s several times a week these days — both locations. I used to resist it for a long time, thinking, how good could bread possibly be? Bread is boring!
Not at Esther’s. I feel so satisfied with their delicious, chewy pretzel rolls with just plain butter, washed down with an expertly-​made café au lait. It feels like a perfect breakfast — not too heavy, not too light.
So which location should you go to? Here’s a hint– the Esther’s on California Avenue opens later than the one on San Antonio. If you show up later than, say, 9:30, you’ll get a larger selection on Cal Ave. Go to the San Antonio location for the freshest selection earlier in the morning.

Ah, home away from home. Esther comes as close to what the German bakery goods are as nobody else in the Bay Area. Is it like the best Apfelstrudel/​Bretzel I ever had? No, but it is close. This is the place I come when I run between Daiso and TJs, an oasis to rest, relax and sometimes chat German with whoever is in the store. My kids love to pick their cookies here and this is the place where I can get bread (I mean real bread) at any time of the week and it’s fresh, crunchy and absolutely tasty.
Best treat: Bienenstich, almost as good as when I grew up.

I’ve got this place on my mind ever since I found it while searching for bakery within proximity to friend’s place during the visit. But we always end up having other food plans, so it seemed impossible to pay a visit. :(
So, finally on the day of my departure, I decided to risk missing my flight for some to-​go German pastries: D My friend timed me, because I had max 5 minutes to pick-​pay-​leave. Harsh situation, eh? good thing I’ve done my menu study before hand!!! :P
Everything was nicely displayed, but harder to choose when you see the delicious pastries/​bread in person, everything looked yummy! I grabbed a box of pastries and their specialty bread.
PASTRIES —
Bienenstich Beesting Cake (caramelized Almonds on top, vanilla custard in the middle between a non-​sweetened yeast cake): good to try once, wasn’t impressive
Mohn Striezl (Poppy Coffee Cake): the poppy seed fillings really looked like caviar: P REALLY MOIST and TASTY!!! MUST try!
Nuss Striezl (Hazelnut Coffee Cake): one of my favorites, really unique nutty flavor, reminded me of a particular Chinese mooncake flavor actually. Great with tea!
Mohn-​Kirschstrudel (Poppy-​Cherry Strudel): you get the benefit of sweet «caviar» and juicy cherry, quite irresistible. :)
Mandelhornchen (Almond Horseshoe): I love marzipan and anything almond, but this was too sweet for my taste. Perhaps it pairs well with a cup of joe?
BREAD —
Sonnenblume (Sunflower Bread) — it looks soooo beautiful, festive and presentable :) it’d make a perfect holiday/​party gift or a centerpiece or a just-​because surprise or much more!!! haven’t tried it yet, but it’s got so much wonderful varieties of nuts on top, they make me happy and it smelled really yummy!
definitely a bakery that would delight your palate ;)

Mohn-​Kirschstrudel Poppy-​Cherry Strudel
German for eddy or whirpool, strudel was popularized during the Habsburg empire and has now spread in notoriety from Austria to Brazil. Notice that I did not say Mountain View at Esther’s Bakery. I was pleasantly impressed with the strudels I had in Austria and am glad they understand the importance of perfecting the dough and filling. The Mohn-​Kirschstrudel Poppy-​Cherry Strudel fails to deliver in both aspects, which is unfortunate when one considers those are essentially the only two components!
There’s a reason why the store is completely empty and they try to peddle all their baked goods at local farmer markets. Completely befuddled why this place has a 4.
How to improve this strudel: Intensify the kircsh flavor, prepare it so there are more than 3 cherries total in 1 piece, slice larger pieces for that price, and make the dough flakier. Does this help?
Achieving the optimal texture and flakiness of the dough is not contingent on the butter content like with puff pastry, but that you develop the gluten in the dough and then roll and hand stretch it so that it is paper thin. The dough should be supple, elastic, and so thin you can read through it. So NO this has nothing to do with butter and everything to do with how the dough is prepared and worked. Last I checked most of your butter should be used for initially buttering the surface before placing the filling and outside of the strudel once it’s rolled to get a golden crust.
Then improve customer service. Frowns and cold blank stares really just don’t sell.
Corporate ambiance
The owner has recently just taken it upon herself to demonstrate that she is unreceptive to CONSTRUCTIVE criticism and her own short comings, which simply elates me! Any pastry chef should know that Kirschwasser is a cherry liquor that unlike inauthentic «cherry brandies» is not sweet, which is one of it’s most distinctive qualities. Her response suggest that she is unaware of this fact, and leads me to sadly question if the products are really flavored with Kirsh vs. an alternate inauthentic cherry brandy. Champagne and sparkling wine are not the same… everyone knows that. Second, her definition of «European» style strudel is unbeknowst to everyone but her, because strudel is not traditionally a yeast dough. Also someone should learn what a redundant modifer is…

Cookies, apple strudel, and bread.
Combine that with crazy parking, Daiso, 24, Trader Joe’s and Walmart.
Crazy. Can we say Parking Wars?
The service is friendly, décor is welcoming, and the treats are appetizing, dare I say flaky. Sugar cookie scored points with me.
Easter is upon us… or at least that’s what the bunnies told me. Pure. Chocolate. 3 Inches. Was he for sale? Who knows.
Not sure about wi-​fi, but since it’s mountain view, I would think it were free. I am hoping to head to the original location for comparison very soon.

I’m half German.. .so let’s begin the review:
a * p * p * l * e
s * t * r * u * d * e * l
End review.

While waiting for rite aid to take an hour to process my prescription, I wonder along the area and read «Today’ s special 2 for 1.» I go in and a couple of customers are stocking up on their breads. Nice assortment of breads and baked goods – it’s missing the bakery smell. I walk out with a granola bar and loaf of russian rye. The granola was my filler until dinner. It was shiny in appearance, but to the untrained eye not overly sweet – a plus. One edge was dipped in chocolate. The bar was mildly crunchy with oats, raisins, seeds and nuts. I like how it’s not cotton candy sweet yet fairly light.
The russian bread label says it’s vegan.
«Ingredients: organic wheat flour, wheat flour, organic whole wheat flour, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, organic cracked rye, oatbran, rye middlings, rye flour, golden flax seeds, roasted malt flour, pumpkin seeds, natural rye sourdough, fresh yeast, caramel and sea salt.”(Yes, I’m eating this while typing) Uh.. . why are there 3 different wheat flours being used? 0_​o Amazing how bread can be made with no milk or eggs. Nice and chewy texture. Slight hint of coffee taste mixed in with tiny bitterness. It’s rye.
Kind of makes no sense to have another branch be on the other side of El Camino Real. At least give it another name or something.

«Big like how they do it in Texas!»
That’s how it was explained to me by the guy who sold me the strudel in the San Francsico Farmer’s Market in the Galleria.
I love the pastry and the person that helped me was excited and knowledgable about this the bakery and their goods. that’s when you know the place is legit.
I can’t say anything more my mouth is full.

Yummy German baked good with the vanilla pudding filling. Hmmm… so good. See picture.
Dropped by this place which is so randomly located in between Krung Thai and Daiso in the San Antonio shopping mall where Walmart is. Formerly where the Star Rockets burger joint and Taco del Mar couldn’t make happen for them.
Surprisingly comfy bakery/​café where you are greeted by delectable looking German baked goods, pretzels, and breads. Couldn’t decide so the nice guy behind the counter told me the most popular item was this oval shaped bread thing filled will vanilla pudding — the Vanilla Tasche (aka the «Vanilla Bomb») Now how could I resist that?
The Vanilla Tasche had a perfect combo of a lighly crunchy sweetish bread on the top and bottom and inside was this luscious vanilla pudding. The thing was huge and definitely filled me up but I couldn’t stop myself from scarfing down the whole thing.
Useful German baked goods link from their website:
Bottom line: The Vanilla Tasche pastry with the vanilla pudding would even make Bill «pudding king’ Cosby proud. Worth a visit after your shopping at Trader Joe’s, Daiso, or Walmart.

Carbs, carbs, and more carbs! Mmmmmm…
I passed by this place after going to lunch and saw lots of different pretzels, pretzels with sunflower seeds, poppy seeds and sesame seeds. I talked to the owner Esther, she showed me the traditional pretzel with sea salt and explained that one part of the pretzel was crunchy and one part was soft and chewy. My eyes were definitely bigger than my stomach and I wanted to buy more baked goods but it was hard to buy after a heavy lunch. I bought a traditional pretzel to save for later… yeah right! I tore into it after I left the store. Texture was wonderfully crunchy and chewy.
I’m not a pastry person but the pastries looked really good. What I really want is the Knusperstangen Crunch Sticks that had poppy seeds, cheese and onion. I need to go in there before lunch so I can pick up more goodies instead of the lone pretzel!