Mendocino Bakery & Cafe

Really great food but really awful people working here. I was on vacation and happy before coming in this place. The lady taking orders was so rude and had such an attitude, i finally said «i’m sorry if IM WASTING your time», which is what it felt like when i asked 2 questions. Anyways food was great never coming back because of the service.

Got an espresso and cowboy cookie. The cowboy cookie was huge and only $ 2. I loved the texture of that oats which cut some of the sweetness of the chocolate chips. Wish there were more nuts in it though.
The espresso was bright and flavorful. However, being a former barista, I have to say that its a sin to serve espresso in a to-​go cup. I wish we were offered a traditional demitasse cup so that the wonderful crema of the espresso didn’t stick to the sides of the to-​go cup.
My girlfriend got just a plain coffee and I was saddened to see that it came out of a air pot instead of being freshly made, which is now the trend in coffee houses.
Service was fantastic and I wish my stomach had room for all of their wonderful quiches, pizzas by the slice, and other baked goods.

Very good food. Quality, quantity 4 of 5. Creativity 3 of 5. Taste, 4 of 5. Ordinary wine selection. Good atmosphere, with outdoor seating and good views of the ocean. Reasonably priced.

Still coming here for the brownies after 12 years!
Super tall, chewy but not gooey, and very nutty.

The berry danishes are delicious. I preferred the blackberry to the blueberry, but both are good. I also had the mac ‘n cheese recently, and that was good too, not great but good. I have to say I didn’t appreciate the cashier help when I visited recently. One cashier was nice, but totally distracted, the other was curt with us. I did visit towards the end of the day, maybe they were tired, but hey I am just the customer so what do I know?

Was looking forward to trying some good bakery items based on reading the other reviews here. Picked up a chocolate muffin with chocolate chips and a cowboy cookie — I thought they were both kind of tasteless. The muffin was moist, however. Would go back to try the coffee but probably not the pastries.

The Thanksgiving Coffee co is within this Bakery. Many great breakfast and lunch items here. Stay in and enjoy your coffee and baked item here.

Stopped in for breakfast. The egg and sausage pastry was very tasty. However, I was a bit disappointed with the rubbery outer pastry, particularly since the place is a BAKERY.
If you like coffee, don’t look any further. They make an excellent cup!

Stopped on drive down coast for a caffeine fix! The server was really nice and attentive even though we told him we were there for coffee and pastries only. We asked for a baguette and they brought us over sliced bread and did not charge us for it. The coffee was fantastic.

I can’t say that I was exactly bowled over by this place like so many people claim.
We arrived in the early afternoon and while it was fairly crowded service went fairly quickly. We arrived on June 8^th, Wednesday.
My boyfriend got an incredibly overpriced coffee and just said it was «Meh, coffee». We, like another reviewer, appreciated the compost-​able cups.
I can’t say we were impressed with much of what we got. I tasted a scrap of muffin which was dry. And also ordered some chicken empanadas to go. It was nice they gave us some little single servings of sour cream and salsa.
Upon later eating the empanadas (about an hour later) the crust was very dry and most of it flaked away brittle-​y as we cut into it. My boyfriend was not a fan at all but I am more bread and such forgiving. The flavor of the filling was wonderful but definitely needed the salsa and sour cream to amp it up, which also toned down the crispness of the flaky crust.
I guess I was expecting higher quality from what I read on Unilocal before we left. But well, it was good enough to do the trick. Just thought it was incredibly overpriced for what we got. Then again, I guess that’s just Mendocino.

I enjoy looking for specialty organic coffee beans to try when I’m traveling. This store is owned by Thanksgiving Coffee Co., which was founded in 1972 by a couple in Ft. Bragg. The company received the 2003 CA Governor’s Award for Environmental & Social Leadership in Business & 2004 Specialty Coffee Assn of Am Annual Sustainablility Award. I watched a PBS show where they indicate that Starbucks is the only «corporate» coffee co. where 16% of their coffees are fairtrade, far better than much larger companies (Folger’s, Maxwell House, etc.).
They only had about 4 – 5 packaged blends on their shelf, but I picked up a blend from Rwanda where 25 cents to $ 1 of the sale is donated to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International towards protection of the gorillas. Another blend ($ 10.95/ 12 oz) is from Nicaragua where a picture of one of the farmers of 80 farming families of Cooperativa Solidaridad is pictured on the package with his name. It’s organic, it’s fair trade, it’s good for the ecosystem.
There are pastries (muffins — sour cream berry, blueberry-​corn, low fat Morning Glory, choc. chip; Danish), bagels, bialys, cookies (macaroons, short bread, lemon bars, choc cake, cowboy, oatmeal-​raisin, peanut butter, ginger snap, gingerbread people), empanadas (chicken or veg), burritos, pasta (linguine/​pesto, chicken penne, spinach lasagna, mac n’ cheese), pizza, salads, burritos (country-​style breakfast, black bean or spicy chicken), soup, quiche (Lorraine, spinach/​pesto, artichoke), baguette sandwiches/​wrap and teas, hot choc, apple cider, Inca grain beverage and coffee (cappuccino, latte, mocha, mojo, Americano) served but we didn’t try any. Their cup selections include Ethiopia Sidama, Rwanda Musasa and Uganda Delicious Peace.
The place is very casual. Cash/​check only.
You can buy loose coffee beans and packaged Thanksgiving Coffee beans with a larger selection for the same price at the Harvest Market up the block, but the market doesn’t sell any of the beans from the Cooperativa Solidaridad. They have other blends such as Kona.

This was probably my favorite place to chow down in Mendocino. Easy going vibe, clean, well-​lit, with friendly people behind the counter meets great coffee (perfectly made cap & latte), yummy baked goods (as per two 6 years olds and 40 year old with an enormous sweet tooth), and (I was completely surprised by this…) super tasty pizza — I don’t know what more to say, really.

This review is based solely on a slice of pizza (no bakery items or coffee).
I went on a solo road trip up the coast and by the time I got back to Mendocino I was famished. I considered a Mendo Burger but wanted to leave plenty of room for dinner. There was the Mendocino Bakery & Café, so I thought I’d give it a try. Italian Sausage Pizza? I love Italian Sausage! Got it to go. It was good. The dough was not standard pizza dough and it lacked density and much flavor. The sausage was okay.
Service was great! The gal that helped me had a really great attitude.
I might go back to try the bakery but no more pizza.
Cash /​Checks only.

Great tasting coffee, yummy blueberry danishes made from scratch and filling breakfast burritos. In addition, they strive to make everything from organic ingredients and the coffee they serve is from a company that aims to be environmentally just.
FYI: cash or check only.

I’d read on Unilocal that this bakery was amazing but surprisingly wasn’t that impressed when we tried it.
We ordered one of the huge chocolate muffins which was pretty good though not moist enough and not particularly special.
Jeff had a cup of coffee and I had the Vanilla Latte frappé. My frappé was really good as it tasted more espresso-​y than the similar ones you might get at Starbucks or another coffee shop. The prices were alright but not super low. I did like that they were using compost-​able cups though!

Just edited to add, that I was less impressed with the danish on my recent visit, but I’m newly obsessed with the Morning Glory (carrot raisin) muffin.
I love Mendo Bakery Café.

Nice casual eatery for a quick bite to eat. Convenient location.
Great selection of SAVORIES ~ empanadas (chicken or veggie, comes with salsa + sour cream on the side ~ delicious!), lasagna, prepared salads, etc. + SWEETS ~ pastries, cookies (Cowboy cookie with oatmeal, chocolate chips + nuts ~ chewy + scrumptious), cakes, brownie, etc.
A good selection of organic coffees and espressos. Both in + outdoor seating.
Friendly + helpful staff.

I was not as impressed with the blackberry cheese danish as I should have been, or the service (which took forever, since they helped people in line behind me before me because they knew them). The blueberry cheese danish tasted ok though.

What a pooper I am — first 4 star review! I thought this little bakery was great but nothing out of this world. However, I could definitely be spoiled. Mom and I are both big time cooks/​bakers so perhaps that’s why our bar is higher. But we both expected a lot more from the danishes here than we got. After reading all the reviews — we couldn’t wait! Now granted… I got the raspberry danish and not the blackberry, but I don’t particularly like blackberries and I LOVE raspberries so I thought this would be even more spectacular (for me). Maybe we should have had them heat it for us — but [yes, while it was large and a pretty good deal for $ 2.25] it was just okay in my book.
Great little coffee shop overall though. We came at perhaps an odd time (2pm-​ish) and Mom went to fill her coffee cup self-​serve style from the 5 – 7 differing carafes littering the counter. She came back to the counter to complain that there was no decaf left and what was left was almost cold. The considerate girl at the counter refused to heat it up in the microwave for Mom (which was actually Mom’s suggestion) and insisted she make her a decaf Americano instead. That was incredibly high quality customer service there!
The entrance to the bakery is actually off the street a bit and just next to an outside deck where you could sit to eat your bakery goodies.

YUM YUM and YUM.
We ate here both mornings we were in town… our Inn had a pretty good continental-​ish breakfast spread but we never quite got up in time to make it.
So we’d shower and walk on down to the Mendo Bakery, get a latte and a big honkin’ artery-​clogging pastry and sit outside to people watch (all types of fun in Mendocino!!).
Blueberry cheese danish, YUM.
Cinnamon roll (slightly warmed), YUM.
Cinnamon twist, YUM.
I was tempted to try the blackberry cheese danish the 2^nd morning, but the blueberry were just so darn visually appealing, and the taste was no disappointment. Husband wanted a raspberry one morning but I couldn’t tear my heart away from the blueberry to give poor lil raspberry a try. Many times danishes just tease you with their visuals, but are too soggy or gooped up with too much cheese and not enough of the other flavor they are supposed to be paired with. Not so with Mendo Bakery’s danishes. Fat big blueberries paired with just the right amount of cheese made my morning.
This place also offers lunchie type items as well as sweets, we took a peek into their food display case and they had some tempting items. The huges tamales ever known to man, mac and cheese, some mixed salads, deep dish pizzas. Fast, friendly service, lots of seating inside and out, didn’t have to worry about parking, we loved this place.