Pavel’s Backerei

5 stars for the food
2 stars for the management.
My reviews has progressively changed because I run into more disappointments than I do positive experiences.
Today, I just walked all the way here and found this sign on the door.
It is a bummer.
I try to call ahead to make sure they are open and to make sure if they still have croissants because if I’m not there at 7:00am-7:01.30seconds, they could be sold out.
I’ve arrived here at 11:30am once and they were out of all there croissants chocolate and regular and 40% of everything else.
And now walking there today and seeing this…
This is a solid business with a solid product but they keep it so minimal that you can’t prepare or plan for anything. You have to be there before they open to be guaranteed anything. I can’t call because there business voicemail box is full so there’s no way to prepare. You just have to show up and hope they are there and hope they still have food available. They make a small amount of there product so its first come first serve. It is all from scratch so uninteresting paying for the product and using it efficiently. But they manually write down people’s orders on a note pad even if it is just 1 item. If this seems to be a recurring problem on not having enough product, they could input this information of what sells and start racking a trend to make more of a particular item. But this puts tremendous stress on the consumer.

I love this place. Pacific Grove is one of my favorite places to visit and my husband and I just found Pavel’s during our last trip there. Oh my goodness, I wish we had been there sooner! The pastries are delicious and inexpensive and the coffee is AMAZING! They only have one kind but it is dark and smooth. They get their coffee from Coffeol Coffee Roasters out of Watsonville and it is pretty much my favorite coffee. While we were there we tried the lemon cake, numerous breakfast pastries and the caprese sandwich and all were amazing. Please try this place. Quick breakfast for my husband and I for under 10 bucks and even if line is long, they are well staffed and can get you in and out of there quickly. We never waited longer than 10 minutes from parking to receiving our food. Great place! Will return for sure.

One of the Golden Tickets of living in Pacific Grove is the glory of getting all the best goodies here at Pavel’s. Inventive, delicious and original items such as their breakfast brotchen which is like the most fluffy bagel stuffed with herbed breakfast potatoes and covered with gooey cheese and a poached egg. Fantastic! All I want in heaven is this breakfast and my husband. I have tried and loved literally ever item they offer. Those that stand out are their brownies which I bought myself as a birthday cake one year, their cupcake, and of course their chocolate croissants which have ruined all other croissants for me for life.

Possibly the best danish I have ever had. And I have had a lot. The dough has more texture and is not as sweet as many danish. A find

Pavel’s is delicious! I love their chocolate croissants, but everything is great! Don’t forget cash, they don’t accept credit cards. If you forget cash, go across the street to Grove Market and buy a pack of gum and get cash back. ;)

I love this place. Everything tastes so good. But what always baffled me is their unexplained defiance of market laws; they have immense demand but never sufficient supply. They run out of their most delicious stuff very quickly and they don’t make any more. It’s like they refuse to make more. I don’t know why! That’s why I gave them only 4 stars and not 5. Because 3 out of 5 times I go there I won’t find a lot left.

The cinnamon roll is bigger than my head, haven’t tried it yet but it sure looks yummy. I also got the butter croissant, buttery and tasty! A little pricey but good stuff

Food was okay. Service was lacking, we saw the great reviews on Unilocal so we wanted to check it out on our way to the aquarium. We stopped about 8:45am on a Tuseday. Obviously a local hang out. We were disappointed, since we are there as tourist we were made to feel less than welcome. Good food. But I wouldn’t stop here again.

I love all their breads and pastries with the exception of the donuts and bombolini as they are way too sweet for my taste. Also have the most delicious chocolate dipped macaroons later in the morning/​early afternoon. My favorite is the cheddar sourdough loaf.

BEST PASTERIES!!! I’ve tried almost everything at Pavel’s and nothing has let me down. From the giant donut to the salami pizza. Everything was amazing. I wish the place was bigger and had more seating. I also wish they were open longer in the day. Overall, amazing place and amazing food.

Happened stance created this opportunity to indulge in the buttery, flakey chocolate croissant mit chocolate ganache center and mint tea steeped in Japanese teapot. I ordered another pastry for the plane ride tomorrow.
The flow of customers flowed throughout the hour I spent there talking to the pastries. Delight for the eyes and tummy!

They have the best pastries we’ve ever tasted. Starting at 7:00am until sold out. The coffee is very good too. You have to try the cream cheese danish, but everything you try is spectacular.

Wow. These are amazing pastries. A friend and I were walking around Pacific Grove while waiting for the museum to open (most shops open at 10 or 11am) and came across Pavel’s. We shrugged, got a pastry each to kill some time and ward off potential hangriness, and snagged one of the few tables. I went with the berry cheese danish, and my friend got the chocolate croissant. Both were gigantic and quite reasonably priced at $ 4 each. Although they don’t warm up their pastries before serving them, both pastries turned out to be amazing. The dough is buttery, crisp on the outside, tender and flaky on the inside; my danish was just the right level of sweetness, and my friend found the chocolate croissant to be even more chocolatey than expected. The only down side to eating in was that we kept overhearing regulars come in and gush about their favorites, and *everything* sounded awesome. On our way out, we overheard that chocolate chip cookies had just come out of the oven, but we summoned up the self control to walk away. It was hard.
I deeply regret not trying the cinnamon rolls, which really are almost as big as your head. But I was full (we ended up skipping lunch, in fact, because we were still full of pastry). I’ve never been in Pacific Grove before, but am already thinking that my next trip to Monterey will necessitate a stop at Pavel’s. It’s probably just as well I don’t live closer by. I’d be here way too often.
Also, at 10am, they were already selling out of many items, so go early!

Thanks to Maureen G.‘s February review I bookmarked Pavel’s. We first stopped in Thursday after a late brunch at First Awakenings, so unsurprisingly they were mostly sold out. There were a few croissants and assorted other pastries, sandwiches and baked goods. Alan and I agreed he would come back the next morning, since he’s the early riser in the family.
The next day I awoke to a chocolate croissant the size of Rhode Island. Truly, it was the biggest one I’ve ever seen. Alan’s croissant was almost as large. We cut them in half, saving the second half for another day. Others might not object to its size, but I prefer my pastries on the small side. That’s my only complaint, and it was easily resolved by dividing it. The texture was perfection, flaky, buttery and the chocolate was bittersweet rather than semisweet. The latter would have made it much too sweet. Saturday he went out again and returned w/​a loaf of bread fresh from the oven, some small seeded rolls, another croissant and a blueberry danish for me. The danish was delicious, not too sweet, the blueberries abundant. The bread is sliced and in the freezer and we had the rolls tonight w/​dinner. They were very tasty, finer in texture than I had expected and just the right size. We will definitely return to Pavel’s now that we have been introduced to its magnificence.

I was with friends in Pacific Grove and we had one of our breakfasts here. The pastry selection is extensive and all choices according to a local we spoke to are delicious. The pastries are also of a significant size. One day i got the chocolate croissant (excellent) and the next time the mixed berry danish. I missed out on the peach danish. I had some of my friend’s bear claw-​you cannot go wrong here. They serve coffee but no cappuccino-​the seating is limited. The staff is very pleasant-​i would recommend and return.

I drool a bit everytime I think about Pavel’s. We made it for a pastry our 2^nd morning in town. It was raining so we ate at a bar height table facing out to the street. Great people watching perch to see folks scrambling to get out of the rain and into the cheery little shop!
I chose the berry danish… it was legendary… way more flakey and buttery than any pastry I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying. I’d say more like a croissant, which is a very good thing.
I think this little shop portrays the PG way of life… quintessential Pacific Grove. Do stop in for a treat.

OVERALL: Pavel’s is one of the best bakeries in town! They pastries, food, and breads are all delicious! They have good service and serve coffee as well.
PROS: Excellent tasting food, bread, and pastries! They have a pretty wide selection. If you’re not a pastry fan, they often has mini sandwiches and pizzas! Also, they are conveniently located half a block up from the main street in Pacific Grove.
CONS: They are often very busy. Due to their popularity, they often sell out of stuff by noon. They have no parking so you have to find street parking which can be difficult.
NOTES: They make everything the morning of so that it’s fresh! That also means that they don’t want a huge surplus, which is why they sell out by around noon.

I had this place bookmarked on Unilocal months before I moved to Monterey, while I was scoping out the area’s best eats. Finally, I visited this bakery on a Saturday morning. Fortunately, it was raining, so I did not have to wait in a long line.
5 stars just for the chocolate croissant and bear claw!
I can’t even clearly describe how delicious and fresh these pastries were! Each of them were bigger than my hand! The chocolate croissant’s chocolate filling is rich and smooth, but not too sweet. The texture was moist and perfectly baked. I’ve had my countless share of pastries in chain coffee shops, so I think I have some sense of what is good and bad quality pastries.
For those who have given this bakery a poor review, 1) please call to confirm their business hours and 2) expect a lack of offerings by any good quality bakery by the afternoon.
Its good I don’t have a car here, or I’d be coming here weekly!
Cash only and closed on Sundays!

My family has been going to the Backerei for 20 years! Our favorite place in PG.
The pastries and breads are AMAZING– the quantities are huge, so affordable, and most importantly of the highest quality (which hasn’t gone down in 20 years– what other places can you say that about?
Our favorites of all time are: the berry-​cream cheese pastry, chocolate croissant, and peanut butter cookies– but I can genuinely say you can’t go wrong with ANYTHING here.
I’ve been coming to Pavel’s Backerei for as long as I can remember, and will continue to come every time I’m in the Monterey Bay! Try this place!!!

Be sure to come early if you come on a Saturday or make your way in during the week to pick up all your desserts and treats. I’ve come twice this month around 10:00 a.m. on Saturday and everything was pretty much cleaned out.
My co-​worker has brought in a couple boxes of assorted Pavel’s pastries and donuts on several occasions. We cut everything up so we could sample all the beloved pastries and treats. The chocolate croissants and almond croissants are done very well with no shortage of flavor. But the piece de resistance is the berry cream cheese Danish. It’s expertly crafted with the perfect blend of flavors and textures. The nice young man that took my order said they were his favorite too. Another unmissable treat is the almond croissant. Soft, flakey, buttery and rich.
On my last 2 trips I missed the swarm on the cream cheese danishes and the chocolate croissants but was able to get some cinnamon rolls, almond croissants, giant glazed donuts and a couple of vanilla bombolinis. The glazed donut, while huge, was kind of a disappointment. It was really dry and lacked that sweetness and suppleness that I look forward to when I bite into my donuts. I’m going to hold out for the danishes and croissants and pop in before work (and try to beat the rush) sometime this week or next.
Pavel’s accepts cash or check only, so come prepared. Enjoy wonderful handcrafted desserts, sandwiches, bagels, bread and many more diet derailing delicacies at Pavel’s in downtown Pacific Grove.