Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe

Sorry for not posting this sooner!
We’ve returned to loving Heidelberg for some time now. Consistently everything bagels all morning, well made salmon and breakfast sandwiches, pastries are always fantastic.
We bring family here when in town and all swear it is the best.

I saw all the reviews and was excited to try this place. I got german chocolate cake and a chocolate éclair. The german chocolate cake was quite below average. It has a few days old taste to it and the frosting was not like other german chocolate cakes. I ended up throwing it away. The éclair was good, but not the best. Don’t understand the hype as the food does not taste fresh, and if you think about it as big as it is and as STOCKED as they are on their pastries how fresh could they be? I probably won’t return here again. On a side note, I wanted to try the sandwitches but I wasn’t offered a menu and could not find one, there was nothing about them on the board of the store.

I just had a wedding cake tasting here. Our appointment was scheduled for noon. After they were scrambling for about 10 minutes, we got our seats and tasted the cakes we thought we had ordered. There were a number of surprises. First, they only do pound cake for wedding cakes. This left the cake EXTREMELY dense, which we did not expect at all. It also left me with a stomach ache after the first bite. The second surprise was that the Orange cake I ordered was actually a yellow cake with orange jam. It didn’t taste good at all. The website lists cakes to choose from: almond, yellow, orange, etc. Their form showed that I ordered orange cake with only buttercream and no filling. When I pointed this out to Yetem, she got defensive and said it was a «flavoring» and not a jam — yet it was clearly a jam-​like filling between a yellow cake. The almond cake tasted just like a yellow cake (no big surprise there, as pound cake already has it’s own overwhelming taste).
Bottom line: if you want a great wedding cake, go directly across the street to Randolphs. The only reason we didn’t go with them is that they were already booked the day of our wedding.

I needed a birthday cake for a surprise party I was having for my wife on ¹⁄₂₈. This was going to be an upscale event on the top of the Hay Adams Hotel overlooking the White House with guests flying in from all over the country. I wanted a great looking and tasting cake – and most importantly, something that my wife would really enjoy. She had mentioned Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe in the past but neither of us had been there. I went there a few weeks prior to the event and sampled the many cake types they had in the case – all of which were delicious. They had several unique cakes including their own signature Heidelberg Torte cake (European style almond sponge cake with chocolate chips baked in, raspberry jam filling, chocolate buttercream icing, covered with chocolate shavings) and a Sacher Torte cake (Dense European style chocolate cake with almonds, apricot jam and marzipan filling, covered with dark chocolate truffel) which is their interpretation of an Austrian Sacher Torte cake. I asked if they could make a custom cake that was a combination of their Heidelberg cake and the Sacher Torte cake and they happily obliged. The cake I ordered was a multi-​layer yellow cake with raspberry jam filling covered with a chocolate ganche and Sacher Torte chocolate medallions set into a light chocolate buttercream. Sound delicious? Believe me, it was. I also emailed them three 4×4 photos that I wanted on top of the cake – made to look like old Polaroids in edible icing. Suffice to say, the results were incredible. The cake was out of this world – better than our wedding cake – and our guests could not stop commenting on how good it was. Seriously… this was the best cake I’ve ever eaten. I see that the bakery has gotten a few less than perfect reviews and when I read them it’s usually because someone didn’t like the wait. Folks… I would have waited a year for a cake this good. Yes… the place can get busy but it is absolutely worth it. Be patient! I would give them 10 stars if I could. Their cake made our event even more memorable.

I have eaten several of their cakes and they are absolutely DELICIOUS!

this place has been around for a while. I can only talk about the pastries and cakes but i have never tried the bread or food. I HONESTLY DONT UNDERSTAND THE HYPE ABOUT THIS PLACE. It gets super packed especially saturday mornings and you expect it to be delicious, but it’s just not. the carrot cake was super dense and I did not like the frosting. the cupcakes are also the same. There are a few pastries that are okay, i think i like the coffee cake one. Its one of those places you should go, but its not as good as they say it is…

I had never been to a German bakery and boy was I not disappointed.
Greeted in the front by a girl with a table set up with sweet delights to sample.
You have to get a number to get serviced but the wait was not long thankfully because I was starving.
Ordered croissant with egg, cheese and bacon with a chocolate glazed donut. Everything was so good.
They have an assortment of goodies which include cupcakes, cookies, cakes, cheese spreads, and so much more!

Excellent German bakery. All the bake goods are great. The breads and cold cuts are excellent. It is a lovely addition to the neighborhood. It has been a neighborhood institutions

This place is incredible. I ordered the raspberry truffle cake with a custom picture design and it was delicious. They are always friendly when ordering and picking up.

I wanted to like this place, because the old-​time bakery feel put me at ease, but nobody paid attention and after three questions were ignored by staff, mostly teens who were working in the evening just before Halloween, I decided to go elsewhere.

Since I am a sweets snub, I could not help trying this store. As you can see many of their photos posted on Unilocal,the showcases are stacked with lots of pastries. We bought a cupcake, a few pastries (turnover, pretzel-​looking pie etc) and some sliced cakes. They were decent. Not bad, well… maybe a little beyond average. Since they are not pricey (especially compared to the ones in DC area), you should try this location if you have a sweet tooth.

Imagine my non-​surprise when I waited until the day before a birthday to look for a cake and realized that ready-​made cakes weren’t readily available at other bakeries! Womp womp.
It’s well worth the drive from DC. It’s a lovely store with all sorts of fresh pastries, cookies, bagels, etc. They had a wide assortment of ready made cakes and customized it for me as well. I ended up going with the red velvet, and it was delicious!
It is very busy on the weekends and parking is tight, but overall I’m super pleased.

Crazy good! This place is an experience in culture, wrapped in unusual quality. We purchased several diverse products and we revert pleased with the results.

We ordered two cakes for my son’s birthday party from here this past week (red velvet and the raspberry cake). We had a picture of my son and his dog printed on the cake and it looked great!
The cakes were sweet without being overly so. They looked fantastic and were a good size. We ordered a 6 inch and a 9 inch, using the 6 inch as a smash cake. We ended up cutting the 6 inch cake in half and it was still a ton of cake for 25 people.
We have to order two more cakes for this week and we will definitely be ordering them from Heidelberg! We hope to try their pastries and other items soon.

Huge variety of baked goods, reasonable prices, quality customer care. There was a steady stream of customers, but no one seemed to wait long to be served (the number system seems stupid and outdated — as soon as you pull one as you walk in the door they call your number before you can look at anything– we didn’t even bother pulling one).Apparently on most Saturdays they will cook bratwurst outside — we tried one and it was absolutely delicious.
One of the best parts: they have lots of free samples of baked goods and complimentary coffee!

This was a disappointing experience after the many good reviews I read before coming here yesterday. The pastries behind the glass looked old — the apple strudel was bland. Staff was not warm or friendly, no smiles. They clearly have a long way to go on staff training or just need to hire people with basic interpersonal relations skills. When I pointed out the pastry I wanted, the employee behind the counter replied with, «I’m not working now.» No smile or apology, no offer to connect me with someone who was working or could help me.
Overall, this bakery didn’t feel like anything distinctively European or even German — just a bunch of cookies and breads you could get at any higher-​end grocery store. Probably won’t be back.

While I generally prefer less sweet desserts in the style of Asian desserts (with the exception of the occasional donut), I have purchased Heidelberg cakes and pastries for others who quite enjoyed them!
The store hours are odd — I recall that they close pretty early even though Unilocal says they close at 6:30 on weekdays. I ordered a birthday carrot cake from Heidelberg and, due to snow, the bakery closed early on the day of the scheduled pickup — my boyfriend’s birthday. Because of the store hours, I wasn’t able to pick up the cake for a few days. The cake did turn out well and the staff was very accommodating, so kudos for the great service.

A co-​worker brought in their pastries today and I am now a fan of the Heidelberg. The specific pastries I tried were the raspberry glazed knot and the pretzel shaped braided chocolate/​glaze, I also tried their oatmeal raisin cookie. Pastries were flaky, not overly sweet and nice and buttery. Very good. The cookie was soft, borderline gooey, some oats sprinkled throughout — also very good. If I lived anywhere near the Heidelberg, I’d surely be the size of a house right now. I definitely recommend this place to anyone!

I would love to give this place more stars, but they have to work out some kinks.
First of all, they are not really organized. Their number system is great in theory, but it just doesn’t work. Customers grab a number when they arrive and are immediately called up before they even had a chance to look around. So some of them just ignore the call and take another number later when they are ready to order. I guess that is the reason why some of the people working here don’t even bother with calling numbers anymore.
Another thing that annoyed me were the sour faces of a few employees.
If you hate your job, go and look for a new one!
And finally there are not enough details about the deli sandwiches available.
I wanted to order the veggie and cheese sandwich and initially thought it was a built-​yourself-​system, but then one of those sour faced employees dug out a menu from somewhere and it turned out that the sandwich was supposed to come with a ton of yummy ingredients — so I left it as is and just selected my bread.
Having said all that, the owners are great.
They treat all customers very courteously and reserve an extra smile for all Germans coming to the store of which there were plenty during my visit. Of the 10 other customers I noticed around me, at least 6 were ordering in German which led to an extra couple of minutes of chatting with them. I actually talked to one gentleman who was originally from Munich and he told me that he has been coming to the store for over 20 years. I totally see why cause this place is heaven for everyone loving bread, pastries and the like as well as European sausages. If I would live in the area, I would totally become a regular customer as well.
During this visit, I only ordered that previously mentioned veggie and cheese sandwich on sourdough rye bread and it was delicious. It came with Swiss cheese and cream cheese as well as a bunch of veggies including sprouts, olives, lettuce, tomato. Definitely recommended.
I also got a latte which I found rather weak though, but to be fair I always have that issue with the coffee here. My 2 dining companions had a lemon pastry and a chocolate donut and both loved their pastries.

Just took the kids here to buy hamentaschen. These are really hard to find fresh baked in Northern Virginia, the only ace I was able to find them was Wegmans and those were shipped from the HQ in NY.
The staff here is super friendly. We bought 6 hamentaschen (they are huge, as they should be for 2 dollars a piece) and a challah for dinner tonight. You have to stop in now to seethe specialty items they have for Easter and St. Patrick’s Day. Irish soda bread and whiskey cake! They serve wurst, deli meats and items like curry chicken salad for lunch. We will be back.

This is one of the best places on earth! You can get donuts, cookies, cakes, cupcakes, mousse, tarts, and even savory fresh bagel sandwiches. This place has so many options you’ll have to go back many times to try everything you eye.

My favorite place for pastries! This German pastry shoppe is a staple in the Arlington area. I have ordered the meats, cheeses, lattes, cakes, cookies, oversized german pretzels, and plenty more! The pastries are not overly sweet and are so beautifully decorated.
At it’s peak times, it gets quite busy so they have a ticket system. Usually I just try to go in the non-​peak hours to avoid the wait.
The parking lot is not big but I’ve never had any issues finding space. If you do, Heidelberg is located close to a residential area that doesn’t require permits to park so customers could temporarily park in the residential area.
Be aware! They are closed on Mondays.

About a 1 – 1.5: I was so excited to try out Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe as it’s considered a local German bakery in Arlington. They have been around since ’75 and offer deli meats, pre-​made salads, cookies, and pastries. The hubsters and I came here to grab some dessert after lunch, and knowing that they close early on Sundays, we came here when there was still a solid 15 minutes. The bakery itself looked a little old school, and I was surprised at how many people were in there, picking up pre-​ordered cakes and carry-​outs of salads and deli meat. I waited patiently for one of the older employees with the glasses to finish up her conversation with a customer, shaving about 10 minutes. When she was finally ready to ‘assist’ me, I asked if she could make any recommendations and/​or give me a brief description of what was behind the casing (as only a sporadic few had labels/​signs, but the rest was where you had just to take a chance and guess); she was not at all helpful and was actually quite RUDE! T_​_​_​T As for the cookies, she also was dishonest in terms of saying that you can only purchase by the lb, and the lb was the minimum! I ended up just getting one ‘turnover-​type of a pastry that was filled with thick raspberry jam — the pastry dough itself was quite delicious and I was pleasantly surprised; the little sugar rocks on top was also a nice little crunchy added bonus. I was really sad as I would have loved to go back and try out their other pastries and salads from their deli section, but this particular employee that helped us out today was just unnecessarily mean, and I am not sure if I will ever be in a rush to give them another try! :(
+good raspberry ‘turnover’ dessert
+unfriendly employee T_​_​_​T Why?!

There is a large variety of desserts all around, so a definite walk around in this place is required before making your selection choice. Cases of cookies, pastries, cake slices, pies, cakes, breads, and more galore at Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe.
I tried the cake slices, which was okay, but the Sacher Torte had a very faint taste of funky refrigerator. Also was not made in a traditional Hotel Sacher style and the chocolate ganache layer was awfully thick. Definitely a far cry from the original Sacher Torte and not something I would revisit. The other items I tried were much fresher tasting. There’s a lot of selection here so I would come again to give it another go.