Sweetness Bakery & Cafe

Unreliable for Weddings! I regretfully used Sweetness for my Wedding. On my wedding day, after planning for months, sending emails, phone calls, down payment… our cup cakes were a NO SHOW. Sweetness’ response was, «…this has been happening a lot over the past few weeks… we are sorry… we are WILLING to refund your down payment» Gee, thanks… what about all the stress and the payment for emergency cake with 30 minutes to go before the wedding (from another bakery). Very unorganized, very unprofessional.
Walter Payton would not approve. Do not order catering service through them unless you are on a starvation diet and you want to stress your bride out on her wedding day.

Love this cute little place for breakfast. The servers are very friendly and nice. Chill place to be in the morning before work. I love their huge selection of freshly baked goods. They offer a lot of sweet and savory pastries. I went in to try the breakfast burrito.
Standard American pastries if you weren’t feeling like anything fancy and just want to chill.

Quiet neighborhood bakery. Décor is an eclectic early Goodwill look, but it works.
Coffee was excellent, even from an air thermos (I’m a bit of a coffee snob, being from Seattle).
A coffee cake-​type pastry was excellent. Good texture — crumbly enough, but still a little firm. Good cinnamon taste without being overpowering.
We also had a berry-​peach muffin that had big juicy pieces of fruit yet didn’t turn into a soggy mess.
The ambience is wonderful — it is like dining at a friend’s house. Definitely will repeat.

I live really close to this, and I love eating breakfast here! In high school on my way home, I would stop here to grab an after school snack, and take something to my mom at work. They have really good fresh backed goods, some are made with fresh seasonal local products, and awesome drinks.
I love this place, because it isn’t a chain, like Starbucks (which I also love). it’s just a local coffee shop where the owners know you and are friendly to everyone. You can take your computer and use the wifi they have. It’s just a great place to hang out.

As with my experience at Toast, I looked at the outside and didn’t think very much of it. A nice logo for a sign, but not much else to gaze at. When I walked in, it had a homey touch, the ordering counter (complete with pastries and full espresso bar) on the left, the seats on the other side.
I asked the woman at the counter what pastry a first-​timer should have. She highly recommended the Blueberry Cream Cheese turnover ($ 2.50), especially since it had just come from the oven. I took that with a small cup (12 oz.) of their house-​blend coffee ($ 1.50).
The turnover was fantastic. A flaky, soft crust. The blueberries and cream cheese were sweet, but masterfully controlled to prevent a sugar high. I’d definitely order it again. But with so many options to choose from, going back through the gauntlet of baked goods may take a while. If only I could live eternally…
The coffee, a medium-​dark roast, was relatively strong and very good. I love strong coffees (and I prefer it black, no cream and sugar for me). If anything, it assured my drive home didn’t include a possible food coma.
Yup, I’m a fan of this place. The other pastries also look amazing, and perhaps I’ll try some of those next time.

So I’ve been to Sweetness 4 times with the goal of getting a nice breakfast/​lunch item to go. Only one of those times was a cook available to make me a breakfast burrito. The other times, I was left to gorging on sweet pastries that shouldn’t be counted as a true meal.
The burrito was good, although my biggest complaint is that savory foods are almost never available if you show up during regular lunch hours (11:30-close). I would consider this to be more of a coffee shop/​bakery than a breakfast/​brunch spot as it’s categorized on Unilocal.
The pastries are delicious — although cost more than I’d spend for the atmosphere/​neighborhood. $ 2.50 for a muffin? I might as well go to Petite Provence or St. Honore.

Oh yes. Very nice.
The baked goods… excellent.
The decaf Americano… excellent.
The breakfast sandwich… excellent but I would have liked to get a side with it for $ 6.50, though I could tell the ingredients were good quality which could attest to the price.
Oh and the badass ladies that run the place…
Well, ya get the idea… Excellent.

Have eaten here on two occasions now and we just love the place. The baked goods are so delicious we have not had a bad item yet.
Our first visit was around St. Patties in 2010, they had whipped up an Irish breakfast for the occasion. It was a wonderful bruchy type meal. I love the self serve coffee, it is easier on the staff and I always have a warm cup of Joe.
I would give this fine establishment 5 stars had I not needed to use the restroom. While the name made even more sense I have to question the taste of such a display of Bears fandom. I would suggest a green and gold motif and Acme Bakery or All Starr Bakery and Café as much better alternatives.
Otherwise keep up the fine work ladies!

This adorable café is tucked away in a weird cement strip that is easy to miss, and you may be scolding your google maps for misleading you. but I promise you of its existence, worthy of locating.
My first experience led me to many more. I don’t usually have a sweet tooth in the morning. I pretty much want salty meat right away, usually with cheese and throw in some potatoes if you want to. Because of my hearty craving, I was hesitant to order a savory breakfast from a quirky bakery. However, my skepticism soon faded as my teeth sank into an enormous breakfast burrito, filled with all kinds of ingredients royalty would approve of.
I’m going to be the annoying reviewer on this one who doesn’t remember the names of the savory breakfasts I’ve ordered and enjoyed, nor the names of the sugary presents to my taste buds that the baked goods have delivered. I redeem my annoyingness with this: it doesn’t matter, because it’s ALL TASTY.
Also, remember to check in on Foursquare. there are perks of the free and delicious variety.

If Friends existed in Portland, this would be their Central Perk. It’s cute, quirky, and it has the perfect Friends couch to catch up on gossip and make fun of each other right by the window.
Everything here rocks. I was really starting to question my decision when Unilocalers led me to a tiny strip mall tucked away off of Powell, but I will never doubt again! I got the Valentine’s day brunch ($ 10) and A got the breakfast burrito. With all the comments, I also had to get a cinnamon sugar muffin to go.
A’s breakfast burrito looked deceviingly «small,» but filled him right up and the brunch today came with a cherry chocolate scone, and soft cooked eggs with ham and asparagus with home fries of sweet and russet potatoes and a baggy of heart shaped treats. I took the baggy home with me to gobble up later (it had a sugar cookie, brownie, and another chocolate cherry scone). Check out the pictures!
Later that night I dove into the treats & muffin. WOW! That muffin would be the death of me! I still can’t stop thinking about it. It really did taste like a cinnamon sugar old fashioned doughnut in muffin form. It was topped with a generous sprinkling of the stuff and glaze. So awesome!

I still like Sweetness, in most shapes and sizes, but I’m finding the longer I wait for breakfast proper, the harder it is for me to drum up the excitement I once held.
Sweetness isn’t alone in the «often long wait» and «lack of adequate seating» departments — it’s naturally difficult to find any brunch place in Portland without those woes — but the part that makes it sad for me at Sweetness is that by the time you’re done waiting (and sometimes even by the time you get there, period), there’s a likelihood that they’ve already run out of most things substantial.
So, for example, the brunch special advertised on the door from 9am to 1pm is gone by 11am. Plus all of the potatoes. And things like cups. So things get substituted, sometimes without clear explanation.
I imagine they understock so that they don’t waste anything, which is surely a wise business decision, but for a hungry girl getting grumpier by the minute, fiscal logic is low on my list of «Things About Which To Be Understanding Before Breakfast.»
The ladies are as always sweet as pie. And the pastries are great as ever. For the baked goods part, 4+ stars, no question. But for the breakfast part, I may need to recalculate.

Sweetness is a cute bakery — makes me feel like I’m in the huge kitchen/​dining room of someone’s grandmother.
Tried the doughnut, raspberry, and chocolate chip muffins. To be honest, my expectations were built up a bit by all the other reviewers of the doughnut muffin… I mean, it was good, but I wouldn’t say they were the best muffins ever. The display of pastries was also a lot smaller than I expected.
The coffee is great, but I’m not usually a coffee drinker — so you probably don’t want to take my word for it.
Snarky cards at the front are hilarious, I wanted to buy them all!

I regrettably report that Sweetness Bakery and Café is not the bakery for me. We were new, hungry and excited for brunch. We order biscuits and gravy and eggs. When the food arrived, everything looked really good. It was like smoke and mirrors. Unfortunately, what we received were cold biscuits and gravy and unappetizing eggs. I approached the counter and kindly asked if they could please heat up the biscuits and gravy. I explained that it wasn’t necessary for them to make me new ones, I just wanted them hot. By then, I was just hungry. The server returned with one cold biscuit and one lukewarm biscuit. I couldn’t choke down lukewarm biscuit. Maybe in dire circumstances, it would be a different matter. The gravy had meat in it. Isn’t serving cold and lukewarm gravy some sort of health code violation? I want to give this place another chance, but I already did when I asked the staff to heat my cold food up and they had failed.

I ordered a birthday cake from Sweetness Bakery and Café. The staff were incredibly helpful; when I emailed the photos of what I wanted the design to look like, the decorator was responsive and helped me plan the decoration based on the small size of the cake.
The cake itself was delicious: vanilla buttercream frosting, chocolate devil’s food cake: light, moist, and deeply chocolatey, especially with the chocolate mousse filling! It became more delicious on day 3, when the flavors had melded into one (chocolate, vanilla, and deep dark chocolate).
My one complaint is that the frosting was clearly made with shortening, (based on its consistency) and I prefer buttercream frosting made from butter (based on the taste). It was however, perfect in that it wasn’t super sweet, but clearly tasted of chocolatey-​goodness.
The price at $ 20 for a 6″ cake, including custom-​decorations, was fabulous, and they do take credit cards.
Though I didn’t sit down, Sweetness looks like a cute place; the staff are super friendly, and, judging from the other Unilocal reviews of other baked goods and breakfasts, I’ll be back for breakfast! :)

This is such a darling spot and the baked goods are sublime. Tucked just off of SE Foster road deep in the heart of the Foster-​Powell neighborhood, this gem should be on your MUST visit list.
My favorite pastries are the chocolate raspberry muffins that have the perfect amount of tartness and sweetness and melt in your mouth. They are NOT for sharing. Expect to consume one and want another almost immediately. The cake doughnut muffin is also one of my top favorites.
Plus, you can come here for a delicious breakfast as well. My hubby and I enjoyed biscuits and gravy and a great scramble here just a few months back. And their prices are ridiculously reasonable.

Knowing how busy Sweetness can get (from reading)… we got there @ 7:01AM ⁰⁷⁄₀₄! Needless to say there was no one else there! Yay!
I think they need better signage to let you know what’s available! That being said — we had one of their breakfast sandwiches and a pastry. Both were AMAZING! Definitely will be going back!

Sometimes you just can’t catch a break. I’d love this review to be all sweetness and light, but it wouldn’t be representative of my experience. And that territory is well covered by other Yeeps whose opinions I value and are regulars here.
However… while I would easily give them five stars for the bakery side of the business, I would rate the café and in store experience as a three. My first taste of Sweetness was one of their delicious chocolate brownies for dessert at the Slingshot Lounge. And I’m lucky enough to have an amazing friend who occasionally brings their pastries to work to share.
So I was über excited to finally visit the bakery myself. The first visit was around 1:00p on a Saturday. And although they are open until 3:00p, the pastry selection was pretty meager. We were the only people in the place and it didn’t appear that they were still serving food, although I could be wrong on that score. So we just picked up several items to go, including the cinnamon sugar donut muffin which is my favorite item on the menu.
I decided not to make the same mistake twice and my second visit was for breakfast with a group arriving around 10:00a on a Sunday. It was the opposite extreme with too many people waiting for breakfast. We were told up front that it would take about 25 minutes to receive our food once we ordered and we passed the time by drinking coffee and nibbling on coffeecake and muffins while we waited for our entrees.
One nice touch is that the entrées came with a small pastry, but it was served at the end of our meal. Especially if they know it will take awhile to serve your food, it would have been better to serve the pastries first. We ended up buying additional pastries to share before the meal, then finished with more at the end. OK, that was kind of awesome!
For me, the meal was only OK. The daily special was biscuits and gravy with scrambled eggs and a fruit salad. My boys each ordered the kid’s breakfast. The oddity on the plate was the scrambled eggs. They were just prepared in a way that I find difficult to describe, but if I did, it wouldn’t be positive.
But having eaten about ten different varieties of their pastries over the past month, I’m not going to let one unfortunate meal eclipse the rest of the amazing experience. I think I managed to visit them at the worst time (afternoon) and caught them on their worst day (Memorial Day weekend brunch) and they still get a four. Yes, the bakery is that amazing.

You had me at cinnamon sugar donut muffin. Strong coffee too? That’s just icing.
Seriously, where in the hell have I been living for the past several years that I have not stumbled upon one of the most delicious breakfasts in all of Southeast Portland until just last week? The Bud and I had a day off, so I asked him to find us a new breakfast spot in the ‘hood. A quick Unilocal search later, and we find ourselves at Sweetness.
Sweetness is your local stop for both savory and sweet baked goods. They also prepare regular breakfast items such as scrambles with a side of potatoes, fruit, and a small sample of something sweet and delicious to tempt you to get something fabulous to go (it works, by the way). The Bud is currently a big fan of their Benedict breakfast sandwich.
We have happily sampled the apple spice muffin with cream cheese frosting, the almond tarts — both the chocolate and the raspberry varieties, as well as the previously mentioned cinnamon sugar donut muffin. All are roll-​your-​eyes-​back-​in-​your-​head delicious.
Each time we have been in, we have chatted with the owner, Kay, who is kept busy baking, decorating cakes and cookies, and generally enjoying interacting with her regular clientele. She’s a true entrepreneur at work, and Sweetness is her contribution to the ‘hood.
The atmosphere is quaint and down home, with mismatched chairs, bench seats, a shabby chic coffee station, and an entire counter top full of baked goods that all look so scrumptious you will want one of everything. Check out Joshua C’s photos of the place. He captures the essence of Sweetness beautifully. Warning, though. You will want to drop whatever you are doing and go there!

Pastries and Breakfast sandwiches:
FIVE STARS
Not having the pastries labeled or prices of anything posted anywhere:
–1 Star
I had a Groupon to use and was in the uncomfortable position of trying to purchase $ 20 worth of pastries without knowing the prices or products while holding up the line. I know the menu changes constantly, but with a pen and paper they could avoid a lot of confusion. Great tasting food though!

Ways I usually would’ve discovered Sweetness but didn’t:
1. Unilocal — Though I’d never heard of it, apparently this little place is quite popular
2. The PDX Blogsphere –Portland Food & Drink
, Eat. Drink. Think.
, GoodStuffNW
, etc.
3. Word of mouth — While I’m sure there’s an app for this, I’m still into old school things like talking in-​person.
Different definitions of Serendipity:
1. an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.
2. 90 minutes of Kate Bekinsale (laughably unrealistic, but I didn’t seem to mind)
3. how I actually discovered Sweetness Bakery and Café — we happened to visit the shop next door, and there it was.
Reasons that Sweetness is sweet:
1. Delicious from scratch baked goods that actually standout in quality
2. Exceptionally friendly down to earth staff
3. $ 3 savory breakfast sandwiches.
4. Snarky Cards
5. C o f f e e — loved my cappuccino
6. Boston Crème Pie Muffins!
Why you should grab one if it’s available:
1. Thick layer of chocolate
2. Might be even better than its namesake
3. Just the right amount of cream
4. Moist
5. Fruit surprise in the bottom
Things to note:
1. Go early (they close by 3 or 4pm)
2. They serve brunch on the weekends :)
3. I hear the brownies are also worth a try
4. Pictures