Yalaha Bakery

Authentic German bakery. They bake their bread from the local spring water, which they say makes everything special. It has a beautiful Bavarian atmosphere with authentic German murals on the building. They have entertainment on Saturday afternoons 11 – 2, a weird time… I could picture big crowds there, sloshing beer outside, if it had different hours.
I had the Germain Bologna which had a hint of pistachio, which was different and good. Pick a desert… everything looks good.

The little town of Yalaha is so cute but this German bakery steals the show! The building itself is authentic and incredibly beautiful. Looking at the front you would think you are actually standing in Munich. The deli offerings are great, as are the bakery. My favorite of all time are the German pretzels. We were there late in the day, and they didn’t taste overly fresh; hence the 4 stars. They had an okay flavor. Perhaps a morning visit would mean that they wouldn’t have the older taste. Their German beer is fresh and delicious. The beer garden makes me think of Munich as well; complete with an outdoor bar and entertainment area. We weren’t able to catch the live entertainment, but if it is indicative of the offerings we did see, I would say that I’m missing out. Can’t wait to come back!

Fun place. We spent nearly two hours outside. It took a while to get the food. Only one woman was cooking the sausages. She should have a helper to move things along. There was lovely live music. Afterwards we got sweets at the bakery and coffee and went to a fruit stand next door.

What fun with blueberry picking next door and outside entertainment. Wonderful bakery too. Well worth the drive up from Orlando.
We came on high lunch and waited and waited and waited. The girls behind the counter were on it but you’re typical demographic customers were really giving them a hard time and that stymied things up. I don’t know, it took them longer than thirty minutes to get through four confused parties with overly complicated orders. Uncomfortable too, given they were grouchy. …but the staff was wonderful about it and patient. I’ll leave it at that.
Fair pricing, especially from the bakery. Better get a number though, my girl was the only one there and they made her pluck one. lol
We’ll return someday.

The Eclairs at Yalaha are simply amazing not only in taste but in size as well. They have a lot of sweet temptations but from what I noticed, the Eclairs are definitely very popular with the locals. If you ever need to find a wide selection of homemade breads from all over the world, this is the place to go! I purchased a Pretzel Cheese Loaf and when served hot, it truly is something unique and a crowd pleaser. My suggestion is to get there early because as the day wears on, so does the selection. Everything is made fresh on a daily basis and it’s almost always busy. You can also order online and have it shipped or you can pick it up.

We decided to drive around and somehow we ended up in Lake County. After reading many reviews, we thought Yalaha Bakery would be a good choice for some great German food.
We went in on a busy Sunday afternoon, thus, we were in the middle of a hectic lunch rush. We did waited quite some time for our orders to be taken. But once they took our orders, the food was served promptly.
I ordered the special: Curry Bratwurst on a pretzel bread. I love everything about this meal. The sauce was sweet, the bratwurst was slightly spicy and the bun was a little salty. It all worked perfectly. I loved the bread so much, I even bought more to take home.
Most of the seating is located outside. If you are visiting on a weekend, you will get a treat of enjoying live music. Plus, there’s a bakery with many sugary confections.

Bratwurst plate was good. Loved the bakery! They had my favorite hazelnut cookies. Not as great as my Omi’s, but pretty good. Wait on Saturday was crazy so get there early. Next time will try the outside garden area, but it was cash only.

My husband and I tried this place while driving through the area for work today. He got the Reuben sandwich on a pretzel bun which was AMAZING, and I got the chicken salad on whole grain bread, which was just okay. I loved the bread, but I like my chicken salad a little more sweet. For dessert we shared the bee sting and the chocolate croissant. Both were yummy, I’ll definitely get another chocolate croissant if we come back. All in all, it was a great little gem!

Love, love love this place. It’s a bakery, a restaurant, a pub, a beer garden! So many ways to enjoy it here! They bake good, old fashioned German bread, they have sweets, brats, a deli, and on a nice day, it’s fantastic to sit outside in the beer garden, sipping an ice cold German beer and listening to a German band!

Just wanted to post my review. This place was ok but by no means great. A loaf of bread is huge. great if you have a family of 12. But the ducks in our lake enjoyed it. The crust was nice and crusty on day one, but day two it was mushy. We ordered a brat and a quiche for lunch… it was meh and to make it even less desirable the wait for meh was a really long time. They should have a sign up that says slow service. I don’t mind waiting if it’s going to knock my socks off. The staff was zombie like, they don’t look at you, they barely answer questions, no warm welcome etc. We took a long ride to come here and will not be going back.

Bakery items were amazing! Staff was friendly! Only thing lacking was the coffee, but it’s a bakery not a coffee house! Worth the drive

We went there to spend the afternoon listening to music, eating brats and drinking beer. The atmosphere of the place is great and the group playing (Patchouli) was great. The food was excellent — we had both a red and a white brat plate which included the bread, German potato salad and sauerkraut. All were very tasty. Prices were fine. But the service was really lacking. They could improve it so much and make much more money by simple efficiency. We stood in line for around 30 minutes to get a brat and beer when there were only a handful of people in line. The problem is that they have only one person working who was very nice, but very slow serving. Also the beer line and the food line were the same which meant I could not go up and get another beer without waiting 30 minutes so I did not bother. If they simply put a bit more staff working on the food line and a separate beer line they could improve their revenues and customer satisfaction tremendously. We finished with some German pastries which were very good. Overall I am a fan and would recommend it, but the owners really need to look at some basic and easy improvements.

Ever take a bite of a delicious pie or dessert and think to yourself — this is heaven.
My daughters and I love this place — by far our favorite bakery.
Andrea always has to get 2 to 3 different desserts — each time something little different because she can never make up her mind.
Alexandra — pretty easy to place, she wants something with chocolate and peanut butter and this place always has what she is looking for.
Myself — I’ll skip the desserts. I love the breads — especially the pretzel rolls. I usually get 6 of these when I’m there.
We sit outside when we go so the girls can enjoy their desserts. Andrea goes back and forth between all of hers, always reminding me and telling me how awesome they taste and she doesn’t wanna share lol
As for Alexandra, she quickly finishes her dessert all happy and satisfied, except for one problem. She wants one of my pretzel rolls. I’m a good dad, I give in every time and tell her she can have one.
For myself, as I sit there and watch them eat, I also enjoy one of the pretzel rolls. I don’t need anything with them, they taste so fresh and amazing, I can devour it with ease.
As we head home in the car– both girls decide they want to share a pretzel roll. Funny thing is, this is so common, it happens EVERYTIME this way. So boom! Three pretzel rolls gone before I get home.
That is why I have to order 6 — just to make sure we have 3 so we can have burgers on pretzel rolls later lol
Thank you for all for doing such a wonderful job!

Great lunch spot. Beautiful German bakery with small deli. Sandwiches are handmade to your specifications. Bakery appeared to be a big part of the business. Beautiful breads and sweets! Large outdoor seating also accommodates live entertainment on weekends

So happy to have finally gone to this place this past weekend! It is such a pretty building full of such amazing painted adornment. I can’t believe it is where it is because there really isn’t much around.
It is a German bakery and Deli! A bakery and deli doesn’t sound like much but when you get to the front steps of this place you will be wowed!
We ordered a chocolate croissant, a loaf of cranberry walnut bread, and a Black Forest cake. The two latter items were to go. We had coffee and the chocolate croissant outside on the patio right next to the music artist. He played some great tunes and it made me instantly happy.
This place is also very dog friendly and our dog Mocha Coconut was definitely not alone enjoying the country like German atmosphere.
I can’t say I will be back here because it is in the middle of no where. We visited on our way to Mt. Dora and also found Leesburg and Tavares after we left. Check out this place if you have a chance. They have another location as well!
So happy they are at the Ybor City Farmer’s Market on Saturdays! I will for sure visit them there!

Went here with greater expectations than I should have. While visiting my grandparents for a week they took me here and while I was impressed with the selection of desserts I was not impressed with the quality. I am a pastry chef graduated from Johnson and Wales University so I do know what I’m eating and a lot about quality/​flavor. I love desserts to say the least so I got a number of things to sample, here is what I thought…
Fruit tart with fresh fruit on top filled with pastry cream: very good, one of the better things I ordered. Fruit on top was good and pastry cream was mildly sweet but nice and smooth
Turnovers: I got Apple, blueberry and cherry: these were very good. A bit lacking on filling but the pastry was perfect and perfectly baked.
German apple pie was also very good
Key lime tart: I work at a key lime pie shop in Maryland ‘Lotus Kitchen’ and we are famous for our pie. People come from all over in the summer just for our pie, so naturally I must taste key lime wherever I go. This tart tasted like it had been in the case for quite some time, no real key lime flavor.
Lemon mango bar: I feel that this too tasted like it had been in the case for quite some time if it was fresh it probably would have been much better. I was expecting a burst of tart lemon and sweet mango but only got a mild lemon flavor.
Cookies: orange ginger, rosemary lavender and lime coconut. All of these were pretty good some of the flavors were unbalanced and hard to taste.
All in all I would go back maybe try some different things or stick with the things I liked.
One thing that I did not try was their fresh bread. That looked good and I will probably try it if I go again.

A great German bakery with a small deli. Great selection of breads, cakes, pies, and other sweet deserts – without any disappointment!!!
Small lunch menu includes German favorites like bratwurst, curry wurst, schnitzel, potato salad, sauerkraut, hard rolls, and soups. Outdoor seating area is usually filed with live music on Saturday mornings.

I’m always looking for a good bakery, so I stopped here on my way North. It was a Saturday, nearly lunch time, but I was after good, fresh bakery goods and ordered 3 different items. For me, it was quite a disappointment. – it turned out none of them were freshly made.
The strudel was the biggest disappointment. It must have been sitting in the display case for several days, as it was soggy all the way thru. It was so bad, I didn’t even finish eating it, and for me, that’s very unusual.
The pretzels were not much better. They were hard and stale and the salt on them had largely oozed into the dough, the way it does when they’be been sitting around for a while. Not even close to being a good thing to eat. I threw two of them away.
I also had a plain croissant and it wasn’t so bad. It was soft enough that one might guess it actually had been made recently – but that would be if you didn’t know what a croissant should be like. They are, of course, supposed to be crispy on the surface and soft inside with a buttery taste. This one was soft both inside and out with no hint of butter flavor. So I couldn’t grade it very high either.
All in all, an unsatisfactory experience.

Located south of the Villages, on County Road 48, just off 27, it has it’s own parking lot that seemed ample for the customers there. Went on a Wednesday morning and got there around 10:30am. The place is split into a baker and a deli area to the right. The bakery is full of stuff we know we shouldn’t be eating, at least not in high quantity (had to rationalize being there a little). I basically went down the counter and said «one of these, and one of those, and a few of those…». Of the streusels, we liked the cherry the best, followed by the apple, then the rhubarb, then the peach. The peach seemed a little inconsistent over the 3 we bought, may have to go back and give it another try. We also purchased the apple strudels, which were great. the prices are up there a little but you get something that can be broken up in to at least two if not cut into quarters, particularly on the streusels. But there was so much we didn’t try, we’ll be back soon.
The breads are back behind the counter. We’re suckers for the Vollkornbrot bread. Interestingly, we went by a Whole Foods a day later, found something that was similar and it cost about twice as much as what Yalaha Bakery charged. Well worth going back.
Since it was so early, we did not try the deli. However, there was a small line at 10:45 in the morning which was a good sign.
Going back: definitely.

I guess my idea of a bakery is just a little out of whack with what is offered here. So although I had my heart set on a good cheese coffee cake or a variety of donuts, not of the Dunkin kind more bakery like in the old neighborhoods of Chicago. I was pleasantly surprised at the offering here. Have to save or earn a little more as the prices for slices are a little more I will be back to try lunch sometime

Love this place! I went on a Monday afternoon after my friend recommended the place and I fell in love! The selection of bread is unreal and the pastries and deserts will make your mouth water!
My sandwich was one of the best I’ve ever eaten. Ruben :) The potato salad was very delicious and the setting of the place is gorgeous. We sat inside because it was raining but I am in love with the fact they have a very nice outside seating option.
The only complaint I would have is one of the pastry girls was not very friendly. However even with a bad attitude it wasnt enough to drop my rating I love this place!
I also got a bee sting (A+++++), brownie (B), Peanut butter cup (A+)

I really liked Yalaha’s Lake Ivanhoe location (which I heard has now been sold to another baker and operating under a different name), so I had always been curious to check out the original bakery in Yalaha.
There wasn’t any entertainment on the day we visited, but aside from that, I was disappointed with the lack of ambiance and seating inside the bakery. I would stop by for a couple of loafs if I were in the area again, but it would not be my sole destination again.

Let me start off my saying, if you plan to go on a Saturday, GO EARLY! Although the food and traditional Gabsokerman pastries are AWESOME, they must definitely need to invest in more staff. The wait time for food (no matter what you order) is usually about 45 min sometimes more, and that’s AFTER you’ve waited in line quite some time to order it.
Now with that being said, the food is phenomenal. My husband’s family is German so we come quite often. The bratwurst are always on point and their bread pudding soup is to die for!!! And the deserts… Totally worth the hour long wait.
I give the food 5 starts, but the service drops it to a 3.

We traveled from Orlando, almost an hour to get what we thought to be the best bakery in Orlando. What a dissapointment! The pastries were stale and not as good as we expected.
So sad to see such an establishment go down like that!!!

Amazing selection of non dairy or gluten free goodies. The gluten free coconut macaroon with the sliced nut (that I can’t recall at the moment) was to died for! Gluten free be ordered and picked up :)

This place is worth the 40 minute drive from south Clermont.
We come by on Saturdays and it’s always PACKED. There are always dozens up people waiting their turn to choose their baked delights in the bakery. The eagerness of the customers speaks volumes about the quality of their desserts. I am often pushed away from the display by eager seniors who are clamoring for a better look at the baked goods. This place could sure benefit from a digital display that rotates photos of the items with descriptions, and maybe some tasers for crowd control!
The staff is friendly and knowledgeable and they are happy to describe in elaborate detail any item in the case. Because it is all baked fresh on-​site, the taste cannot be beat. My wife likes to bring some home, but I contend that a car ride and a couple hours in our home fridge detracts from the fresh-​baked taste you enjoy by eating the confections in the bakery.
They often have live music and even have a deli counter where you can enjoy a sandwich on artisan breads. I’ve not tried an actual meal yet, as my sweet tooth takes over the moment I drive up.

Can’t believe it took me so long to come out and try the famed Yalaha bakery, and now that I’ve come I can’t imagine life without it! Located in a beautiful country setting next to an organic blueberry farm, Yalaha bakery provides what’s missing from big city life: homemade food in a relaxing carefree environment. Plenty of room for the whole family, live music on the weekends, would give it 6 stars if I could and can’t wait to come back!

You know, the Yalaha Bakery has fantastic pastries. In fact, if this review were only based on the products (pastries, bread, food), it would be 5 stars.
However, the customer service is severely lacking, which led me to deduct 2 stars. Maya is super sweet, but everyone else I’ve dealt with has acted like I shouldn’t even walk in. I only buy pastries and really don’t ask many questions, but every time I’ve been in, about 3 times in the last month, I’m treated as an inconvenience. Fix the attitudes and it would definitely be 5 stars!

Very disappointed today. It had been a long time since our last visit, but it’s gone way down hill since. The pastries and cakes are nothing like they used to be. The display case of single pieces backed by freezer stock are a disgrace compared to what they used to be. Hope someone can bring it back at some point. The passion is missing, this quality can be found at Publix.
Follow-​up to owners reply~
Heinz — I’d like to first offer you a kudos for what you’ve done in relation to the building in updating and maintenance.
My opinion has nothing to do with the showcase being non-​operational. When I said the passion was missing I mean in the actual pastries. When compared to what they had been when you first took over, I can not say that the same care and attention to detail exists today. The Yalaha tradition of old world style European pastries and breads is what’s missing today. They’re not horrible, they’ve just become ordinary. Please find someone with the passion to make things that are exceptional, like they where. Every business goes through cycles, it’s a given, but you’ve got something very special there. I truly wish you the best.

If you’re willing to enjoy a nice drive/​ride out into the heart of Lake County, then Yalaha Bakery is a must-​see place. The food is authentic German, and quite delicious. The staff is friendly and willing to answer any questions you may have about the baked goods or the menu. Overall, a fantastic place to eat.

I went there last week for the first time. I hope it won’t be the last! It was marvelous! I had a delectable Linzer Cookie and various other pastries! I wish it was closer to me, but as nothing is inexpensive there (although they do have discounted day-​old-​type items), it is probably a good thing that it’s not on my way home from work! I am already looking forward to my next trip! As the weather was nice, we sat outside in a pretty, tree-​filled patio area to enjoy the goodies.

Yalaha Bakery is a lovely gem of a (German) bakery in Lake County, about 20 minutes from Mt. Dora. It’s a bit of a trek from Orlando, but if you’re in the mood for driving through the lovely hilly country of Central FL, I highly recommend a visit that includes Lakeridge Winery and downtown Mt. Dora.
Anyways, this bakery is probably my favorite in Central Florida due to its yummy, unique baked goods, delicious breads, and cute location that practically asks you to take a seat outside and stay a while. They have a list of events that often include local music acts performing on the stage there, and I’m sure there are also festivals that take place. I’ve been when it’s busy on weekends, but I have never had any issue with feeling like it’s overcrowded.
The real good stuff are the pastries. If you’re looking for a strong German representation, this is your place. One of my favorites is the poppy seed pastry square (I can’t remember the name) that is so unique, dense, and a mix of bitter and sweet. I can’t get enough of it, though it does fill me up quickly. The Bee Sting is another great choice, lighter in taste and texture, as are the shortbread cookies, danishes, walnut squares, German chocolate cake… the list goes on.
Also notable are the breads. I recently picked up a loaf of the Frankenleib (80% rye) from the day-​old section and it was still good and moist. You can buy loaves or get a sandwich that is made on their bread. Good choices abound that are reasonably priced, though sometimes the wait for a sandwich can get a little confusing if it’s really busy.
Overall I recommend this gem in Florida’s lovely hill country. You can make a day of it visiting the corn maze in Zellwood and perhaps the farm next door to the bakery once the Florida fall begins. Maybe in October or November. :)

If you are watching your weight, or trying to cut back on carbs, Yalaha Bakery is not the best place to come.
I remember visiting this German bakery as a kid, and have forever since craved it’s decadent and fresh creations. I happened to be in Leesburg for work, and was incredibly pleased to find the bakery from my youth along the road to Orlando. Just as I had remembered, it beckoned with a jovial air of children laughing, as music wafted from the courtyard. Inside, the best kind of tough decision awaited, as I tried to narrow down my choices among the ample options. Huge, crusty loaves of bread line the shelves, while rows of jewel-​colored pastries tantalize from the display case. Rhubarb tart? Lemon rosemary cookies? Coconut almond macaroon? Homemade Banana bread? Cheese-​covered pretzels? With so many delicious items, they don’t make it easy on you.
The bee sting has been etched in my memory for years, and I was enthused to learn they were still selling it years later, with an ethereal layer of cream atop a thin cake, topped off with caramelized almonds, it is unique and completely unforgettable. I studied abroad in Munich a couple of years ago, and I must say they pay homage to the delicacies of Bavaria quite well.
The service is fantastic, and they lovingly box each item quickly and with great care. I also appreciated that they offered to slice the loaf of Sourdough bread for me, since my own attempts to do so would have ended with clumsy and jagged cuts.
This is a unique spot the whole family would enjoy. Definitely worth a detour when you’re nearby. The only tiny niggle in an otherwise flawless bakery is the coffee, which really left a bit to be desired. Otherwise though, it is absolute perfection, and the baked goods are sure to hook you.
And remember…
Sometimes you just have to start a meal with dessert, and that’s okay.