Gayana’s Bakery Cafe

We ordered a cake for baby shower and it was amazing. You can bring any picture you want and Gayana will make a cake off of the picture. The prices are very reasonable. Our guests really liked the cake.

Gayana noticeably improved over the years. True, the feel and services is not what you would expect at a posh city location but the sweets are great. I personally love the cranberry and the cheese pastries. The prices are also very very affordable. Can’t talk about their cakes — never ordered one.

Live about a block away and decided to buy a birthday cake from them one day. Everyone got food poisoning from it. Will never go back there again. On top of the horrible cake, the people that work there are rude and make you feel very un-​welcomed.

i love sugar. i made myself prediabetic. seriously.
if this bakery were near me, i would be a full blown diabetic by now.
this place is as good as Tartine in SF, puts Crumbs/Magnolia/Billy’s to shame, outdoes any boring old cake. if you had served it on Bernadaud china and someone told you «its from Jean Georges», you would just nod your head in appreciation while your eyes were closed.
i’m not Georgian, but they could not have been nicer to me from the get go. a customer suggested a warm apple pie/​tart with a sour cream cheese like taste so we went with that. AMAZING. the manager told my partner to buy this cranberry like rugulach. terrific. there was a line of people getting things to go for parties and literally taking bags of pastries out so this is clearly THE place to go on a consistent basis for regulars in-​the-​know.
i’m so glad this isn’t next to me.

I had a lot of questions on my first visit to Gayana’s, asking what this and that was, where everyone was from, how much things cost, etc. Too many questions at first that I thought the Russian-​speaking Georgians who owned and operated the place didn’t take too kindly of me. After a while my good-​natured curiosity was enjoyed though, maybe because it was nice for them to have a stranger, or maybe the place just quieted down and they didn’t have other customers to serve.
I actually had a bit of a wait at first, as the strongest English-​speaker of the group was busy tending to one of these other customers when I walked in and started asking questions. It was nice to browse through their cases and counter though at the many fresh-​prepared goods on offer. When I asked if there were any specialties of the house and was shown the «special teas» they had, I could only chuckle.
After quite a bit of deliberation I ended up with a few things to accompany my early afternoon coffee ($ 1). I had never seen khachapuri ($ 2.50) like the one this bakery has, sliced in squares on a large cookie sheet and warmed up briefly in the microwave. I noticed that it was set for 20 seconds, but next time I might ask for 25.
The pastries are numerous but I selected the two below. These items are all weighed for pricing, and came out to $ 3 for the pair. The heavier prune/​apricot/​walnut pastry must have been the bulk of that, as the powdered sugar cheese pinwheel was light as air. Both were delicious, but I was happy that I saved the sweet prune-​filled one for last as it was much different and had very strong tasted as compared to the subtly salty cheese items. Everything I ate here was delicious though, and next time I will have to prepare a box of goodies to bring back home.
As I grabbed another coffee and relaxed in my window seat to watch Kensington go by, the owner showed off some art to some customers and the stern-​faced men at the only other occupied table continued to join me in watching the action on busy Ditmas Avenue.