Panaderia Vanessa

Cada vez que vengo a esta panaderia, las señora alta delgada que esta en la caja, tiene su cara de fuchi. No saluda, no habla, no es nada amable ni sonrie. Si tanto le molesta su trabajo por que no se busca otro? Ya se que ha de estar ahí desde muy temprano pero nosotros no tenemos la culpa. Las muchachas de la Vanessa en la Saviers también están con su genio. Uno entiende que aveces tienen un día malo, pero ya he ido varias veces y es lo mismo. No se por que los dueños no les dicen nada. Les doy 3 estrellas por que el pan esta bueno.

Best Tres Leches cake ever! Everyone raved about it! Thank you!

The menudo and food (tacos) is tasteless, carnitas are real good, price of bread is more then te other places. Only carnitas is worth it.

Clean and fast service. Bread is always fresh and food is delicious. I believe prices are reasonable and ANYBODY in oxnard would tell you this is the best traditional Mexican bakery in Oxnard.

I am going to rave about this place like the big Mexican food lover I am, seriously. I’m really picky when it comes to authentic Mexican food so I don’t just say this about any other place. ONE OF THE BEST! Whether you are looking for some carnitas, menudo, or some tacos. The carnitas: tender, juicy, savory, none of that dry crap you usually get! Menudo: soft non gummy belly fixings plus toppings and yummy in my tummy home made tortillas. The tacos: perfect! I’m picky with my asada and this is the best asada I’ve tried up to date. It’s flavorful and has a green onion kick to it (because its cooked with green onions, I saw.) The salsa is also quite tasty not watered down and not too bland and not too spicy, just perfect! Also made with home made tortillas. :3 The pandulce is also really good, and I’m a big fan of their conchas! So whether your looking to buy sweet bread or food, this is the place to go if you’re looking for legit stuff, hands down!

Great service, friendly owner. We ordered a huge mother’s day cake. Language barrier, they made icing roses instead of strawberry roses, and they quickly resolved that issue. The cake is not overly sweet but it is more dense than (less spongy than) the Asian cakes. We normally go to a place in Santa Paula, but this time we tried this place out, the older Asians approve. They also have lots of breads, all pretty decent. I wasn’t really impressed with the burritos, cause I have my preferred places in the Nard, but it wasn’t bad. Highly recommend this place!

Oh, pan dulce, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways…
I’ve been coming to this panaderia for as long as I can remember. It was always a special treat to drive all the way from Ventura on weekend mornings with my mom and walk into the panaderia, the smell of fresh baked goodies wafting through the air as the tall wheel-​y metal racks full of right-​out-​of-​the-​oven still warm pan sat cooling off and waiting to be placed in the large glass display shelves.
My mom would hand me the tongs and hold the big round metal tray for me to place my selected treats on. We’d stock up on delicate custard and fruit-​filled Empanadas (turnover pastries) de crema (custard), manzana (apple), pina (pineapple), calabaza (pumpkin), and cookies, such as the cochinito (a spicy little pig-​shaped gingerbread) or the Reposteria de Polvo (rich, buttery shortbread dusted with powdered sugar). She and my dad always preferred the light and flaky crust of Monos (bows) or Orejas (meaning «ears“similar to Palmiers) lightly dusted with sugar and cinnamon to have the next morning with their café con leche and the Sunday LA times.
I’d select Galletas de Grajella (a hefty oatmeal cookie with lots of colored sprinkles) and the ever popular conchas (egg-​bread, dense, rich, yeasty, not too sweet, with its gracefully rounded-​tops shaped in the likeness of a «concha» or a shell) topped with sugar in vanilla (white), strawberry (pink), or chocolate (brown) colors for my siblings.
I always loved the Encocadas (made of two hemispherical halves of yellow cake sweetbread, filled in the center and held together by strawberry or raspberry jam. The outside is smeared with jam as well and then covered in coconut flakes), the Mantecados (a large piece of unsweetened bread toasted on the sides, then generously covered in a of spread creamy butter and topped with pure granulated sugar), and of course the Bolillos or Birotes as we called them, crusty tapered oval rolls based on the French baguette to be eaten plain, toasted on the comal (cast iron plate) with butter or turned into a bread substitute for a torta (Mexican sandwich).
We’d stock up for the week spending roughly $ 10 to 12 dollars. Each pieza (piece) generally only costing 33 cents to $ 1.25. We’d take our tray, piled high, up to the register and the cashier would ring us up and carefully package up our items in the white paper bags.
Pastry-​making became popular in Mexico with the arrival of the French during their brief attempt at occupation that ended with the battle of Cinco de Mayo in 1862. Modern-​day Pan dulce is very much a result of that influence. It is pastry-​making from native Mexican ingredients (corn, chocolate, pineapple, guava, pumpkin, etc.) and in a variety of doughs and textures. Mexican Pan Dulce is generally created in fanciful shapes bearing colorful names often relating to its shape.
There are an estimated 500 to 2000 varieties of pan dulce and while Panaderia Vanessa certainly does not carry all of them it does carry a wide assortment including donas (donuts), cuernitos (like French croissants but not flaky, more soft and sweet), bisquets (old fashioned biscuits), ojos de buey, elotitos, medias noches (springy sweet rolls), pasteles (cakes) for birthdays and other special occasions.
Speaking of special occasions, two of my ABSOLUTE favorite things to get at Panaderia Vanessa are Rosca de Reyes after the new year and pastel de las tres leches. Rosca de Reyes, or King’s cake is a baked sweet roll in the shape of a crown or ring. A small baby doll, representing the Christ child or baby Jesus, is baked right in the bread and it is eaten on January 6^th during the Feast of Epiphany, remembering the Wise Kings that went to adore the Baby Jesus.
In my opinion, the pastel de las tres leches, or cake of the three milks (a butter cake soaked in evaporated milk, condensed milk and whole milk), from Vanessa is the best tres leches I’ve ever had outside of Mexico. It is rich, airy and despite being completely soaked does not have a soggy consistency. My mom orders me a half sheet or full sheet every year for my birthday. They frost it with light, perfectly whipped buttercream white frosting and adorn it with pink frosting green-​leafed roses and «Feliz Cumpleanos» and my name in perfect pink frosting cursive.
I’ve tried pastel de las tres leches from various panaderias in the larger Bay Area and NOTHING compares. I love this panaderia’s version so much that I have been known to go home to So. Cal for the weekend and to bring a full sheet of it back up with me on flights (as my carry-​on, of course).
I may be biased because I grew up with these flavors. They are part of my palate. However, all biases aside, the pan from Vanessa is truly delicioso!