Charlie’s Best Bread

I’m a little sad to write this review and perhaps that sadness is keeping this from being a 1 star review. I’ve been coming to this bakery since it was in Bird Rock. There have been a few ownership changes over the years but the quality has always remained pretty solid. Unfortunately, this has not been the case with the most recent change of ownership. Everything I’ve bought there under the new owners has been extremely hit or miss. Sometimes the bread is yummy and moist as it has always been but more often than not it is dry and tastes old. I’ve asked one of the employees how to tell which loaves are the freshest. She told me that the colored twist ties were meaningless and it was impossible to tell which loaves were the freshest. This makes no sense. The cookie and scone recipes, once delicious, have been changed into something dry and tasteless. The pumpkin muffins are the only thing that isn’t dry too bad the moistness comes from being undercooked. I’ve been disappointed too many times now to keep trying. The stellar customer service that was once the cherry on top of this once top of the line bakery has also gone downhill. Samples are no longer offered. The people working the register often seem as though you are bothering them with your order. I thought that placing an order ahead of time might help things but no such luck — my order was not ready on time; the cashier acted like it was my fault; and the products were mediocre. I’m sorry to say that after roughly 20 years, I am looking for a new bakery. I feel bad for the original owners who built such an institution only to have it run into the ground.

I have been coming here for about 8 years. There was a change of ownership a few years ago. To me, I was still happy with the bread as it had not changed much. The miserable short Mexican who left when then business changed hands was not missed at all. He was grumpy and looked at customers as an inconvenience. It was still worth it to go in for the bread. They were replaced by some nice looking young ladies who were very happy to do business. I was very impressed. (i buy all of my bread here) sourdough, honey white, and chive.) I go in here the other day and some little hispanic kid with a lisp, tells me he cannot slice my chive bread. Ok, thats fine. And seriously you are bread store and cannot slice bread? He tells me they don’t do that. I tell him you sell it like that and slice it when it isn’t sliced upon request. He arrogantly sighs, and helps the customer behind me. WTF, then i pay for my SLICED sourdough and because of the new chip credit card fiasco from October tells me with his lisp «your card doesn’t work, you should just pay cash» Obviously trying to embarrass me. I will not come here again. This kid should just go home and listen to some his Morrissey cds, because he is about to get slapped if i go in there again! I will go anywhere else!

Scones are delicious! But I wish them had a bit more selection of sourdough breads. Little gem in pacific beach!

I have been buying baguettes at Charlies for a number of years. Really on and off. The baguettes were usually way to soft and had no crunch to it. Last time a went I asked for a real crunchy baguette and the sales girl said «yes the sour dough baguette». And it was really crunchy and great.
She gave me a small card that stated buy 12 get one free. Today I went in to get another and the salesman said no this is only for loaves. So what the hell is a baguette? A bread stick? I don’t think so. A baguette is a loaf too! Well I did not get my stamp but the baguette is great and I hope Charley will realizes a baguette is a loaf of bread.

The most friendly service in San Diego! The bread is outstanding! This will be the only place I buy bread from now on.

I went here specifically for the cinnamon bun because I’m a connoisseur of cinnamon buns. They’re okay at best, however cheap in co. oarison to some other places. Don’t come with icing which is okay. The chick at the counter isn’t attentive and I’m black so while it does warm my heart she doesn’t discriminate her gazing heavily at her phone the whole time, even during transaction is just lazy.

So sad when employees sinply dont care !!!
I have been a client for 14 years and yesrerday I Bought several walnut scones which were rancid and rotten, so much so that we had to spit them out. I called the Store to let them know and i even offered to bring in the scones so They could figure out What went wrong and the girl was súper rude and non chalant; i felt so stupid for Wasting my time on that call…
Guess What? I am still going to drive there and drop the disgusting scones
Good night and Good luck with this attitudes

Convenient location on Garnet in a frequently visited plaza. The pumpkin bread is delicious! I wish there were a bit more of an assortment of cookies & muffins available… but maybe I just caught them running low. They also offer a military discount!

Just came here today with my mom after eating phở next door. I had never seen this place before and was automatically amazed. I’m a sucker for carbs and this was heaven! We bought a giant loaf of chocolate challah bread and I ate almost half of it through the day. The bread was top notch quality, I wish I tried more.
The only reason it’s not 5 stars is because the shelves were kind of bleak and the sign that said biscottis (yum) had cinnamon rolls over it and no biscottis were in sight.
I will definitely return though and try something new!

For once, a business that is truly APTLY NAMED.
The selection of bread loaves is fabulous. Plus, if you aren’t sure you want to buy one, you can have a sample slice. The squaw bread and pumpernickel are excellent, as is the Jewish rye. We bought all three, way more than we can use right away, but bread freezes quite nicely.
Wife and I have made a pact to visit this place every two weeks or so, and work our way through the inventory. It’s that good.
Charlie also carries breakfast pastries, all individually wrapped to preserve freshness. The scones are massive, as are the delicious-​looking cinnamon rolls and fruity muffins. I was stopped dead in my tracks when I spied a loaf labelled Chocolate Cherry. Down boy, next time for sure.
I noticed a semi-​derelict table and chair set outside the bakery, devoid of customers this morning. This place is not Starbucks, thankfully, just a great neighborhood bakery, emphasizing carry-​out. Expectations must kept be in line with this reality.
The location is a bit obscure, behind CVS on Garnet. It’s a great find, though, and you won’t be disappointed. You WILL leave with bread, that I can promise.

I never lived in Pacific Beach but when I was staying at a friend’s house often enough, I always found myself getting up just a little earlier than I needed to to take a walk over to this bakery.
To be honest I’ve never had anything (other than maybe one scone) here besides the cinnamon rolls, but if you love tasty, massive, and fresh cinnamon rolls — then you’ve GOT to try this place out. They individually wrap them so that you can take them home with you, or will warm them up right there on the spot. I really liked them because they weren’t overbearingly sweet, more like the perfect amount and none of that icing stuff on it. Highly recommend them!

Really nice store, and I support what they are doing. Their sourdough bread is just not very good, and that was what I picked up. It had little to no sourdough flavor.

This bakery is fantastic! My mom loves scones, so before she comes to town I stock up here. They are not over — dry like I’ve had many places. The sourdough is fantastic as is the jalapeño cheddar. I usually try to stop in during the fall when there’s bound to be something pumpkin around!

This place is about as tiny as their scones are huge. (And the scones are HUGE!)
I’ve only tried a handful of things here but I’d happily go back for more. They also are sometimes present at the PB tuesday evening market on Bayard, which is handy to know if you’re based more by the waterside.
But really the main point of this review is to let you know their chocolate cherry bread is like crack. The dark, naughty, illegal kind…
Bread good. Chocolate good. Cherries even better. Put it all together and toast with some Earth Balance or butter and really, it’s indecently sinful.

Went for scones /​breakfast goodies. Charlie may be serving up his best, but unfortunately for us his best is pretty weak.
Charlie wraps his scones in plastic and sets them on the shelf — straight up gas station/​crappy bakery style.
Charlie’s scones are dense, chewy and bland. The fruit or chocolate he throws in them is disappointingly the best part.
Charlie has tables outside, but nothing to eat with. No butter. My wife asked for some butter for her super bland scone and the person at the counter asked her to bring it inside so she could put the butter on. No plastic knives for my wife to do it herself.
There aren’t many options around and it seems like Charlie does okay with his bland scones wrapped in plastic. It appears Charlie is just clerk-​ing it, waiting to retire.

After discovering Bogart’s was closed I decided to give this place a try. It’s tucked away in a strip mall across from the Broken Yolk Café. The storefront is covered with tables and chairs to relax/​enjoy a coffee, baked bread or both. As soon as I entered the bakery I was greeted with a smile and offered a sampling of several breads. The sight of all the sweet treats combined with the smell of the breads made me want to buy everything (but I was strong).
The store is small but loaded with an assortment of breads, mini loaves, muffins, cinnamon rolls, cookies and scones. They have multiple flavors of cHallah, Sweet and Savory loaves, as well as the basics, such as French Baguettes, Single Serve Rolls and a varietal of Sliced Breads. What’s even better is they have «Bread of the Day» on Friday and Saturday. You get 30% off a specialty flavor/​product that you can sample before you buy. Today the Baker’s creation was the black and green olive loaf.
The breads are organic however I’m not sure about the coffee (didn’t ask if it was shade grown/​organic). I ended up buying a Cream Cheese Walnut Scone, a Cup of Coffee and a loaf of Squaw Bread. The scone was huge (lenough for 2 – 3 people to share), flavorful and moist (it didn’t choke me or fall apart like other scones I’ve tried). The coffee had a good flavor and the squaw bread (equally delish) didn’t even need butter, preserves or any other spread). I’m definitely coming back and recommend that you give this place a try.

This place is so cute! I rarely see bread shops around anymore. :)
I discovered this place when I was walking around looking for lunch. They have muffins, oversized cinnamon rolls, cookies, various organic wheat bread. Most of the store is a baking arena, you can see a huge kneading table and bags of flour near the back of the store, so legit. :D
I like their cinnamon raisin and walnut roll. It was wayyy too big and cost me $ 3.50 which is not too shabby. I’m excited to come back and try other stuff like the pumpkin muffins. :D

BREAD is the buzz here.
Unveiled in the midst of a busy plaza in PB, you will find Charlie’s Best Bread. This bakery is independently owned and the quality of the bread is definitely one of a kind– quality. As a bakery you will find all sorts of loafs from hand crafted pumpernickel to giant cookies, and fresh scones. My family and friends love their Hallah bread here. The texture, the taste and the weight of the bread is made to perfection.
Zipping to the atmosphere, its one of kind. It’s independently owned, and you can see everything is pretty authentic from their open bakery to the small layout of the store. There are outdoor tables and benches for the morning coffee and scone session.
Zoning in on the rest, the service here is nice and you can sample some of the fresh bread. Parking is everywhere, the plaza is pretty spacious.
LAST BUZZ not Least, if you’re into farmer’s market fresh quality bread, make your way over to Charlie’s; though I have yet to meet Charlie, his bread gives me a nice first impression on who he is.

This place has great value considering the large portions you get for your money.
I stopped in to grab a snack while I was walking trying to kill some time (about 10:30 AM on a Tuesday). I can’t speak for the actual bread products they sell but I did pick up a scone.
The scones are huge and there are a few different kinds. The options were: chocolate chip, raspberry and walnut. I was stuck between chocolate chip & raspberry but ultimately decided on raspberry based upon the cashier’s recommendation. It wasn’t an easy choice but I went for it. They also had some cookies that looked pretty delicious as well but I needed to keep things under control so I had to draw the line at one item.
The scone was huge! For $ 2.50, you are getting quite a bit so you are definitely getting your money’s worth. I’m a huge fan of raspberry but I found the raspberry flavor to be a little on the weaker side overall. It was present and not overpowering, but I would have liked it to be a little stronger. The scone wasn’t quite as sweet as I would have hoped but overall it was still fairly tasty. It was, however, a little on the drier side. It softened up a little towards the middle but still seemed a little dry overall. Considering that most scones seem to be a little on the drier side, I’m not sure if this is the norm for this place or if was just the particular one I got. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that I was disappointed considering I enjoyed it but I would have liked it to be a little more moist. It kind of made me feel like perhaps I should have tried their chocolate chip one or maybe even one of the cookies or cinnamon rolls.
There is also a few small metal tables & chairs outside the front of the bakery which makes for some fairly decent comfortable sitting if you aren’t on the run.
Overall the value of this place is still great. The scones are decent, especially considering the price you pay and the size of them. I’ll have to return to try the chocolate chip and/​or walnut one and perhaps one of their cookies to make an ultimate determination. It also probably wouldn’t hurt to give their breads a shot either. This place isn’t bad for a little bakery tucked away in PB.
I was stuck between 3 – 4 stars. Overall I was pleased, but if I’m going to splurge on a bunch of unhealthy calories (sugars, saturated fats, etc.) I really need to be blown away and I wasn’t. Like I said, I’ll probably return at a later date to try some of their other goodies and see whether or not that changes. It’s definitely good enough to say that if I lived in the area I could see myself being a little bit more of a regular though.

If you are looking for a good bakery, this place definitely deserves a look. I stopped in after lunch to see if they had scones, and holy geez did they have scones. They had freshly baked ginormous ones! (
) They all looked great, but the one that caught my eye was the walnut scone. They provide plenty of free tasters of most of their baked breads, but the one I really wanted to take home with me was the Jewish Rye for $ 5 and some change (
).
The walnut scone was fantastic. It was not only large, but it was loaded with crunchy almonds and cost only $ 2.50 (
). I am sorry, but move over Starbucks scones because this place has your number. The scones was flavorful, slightly dense, and moist. (
) Every bit had walnuts, and it was best served warmed. The rye bread was what I expected with its slightly sour flavor, hearty dense texture, and fragrant and tasty caraway seeds. I ate some lightly toasted with butter, and with a turkey and avocado sandwich, and in both cases, the bread excelled.
The people who run and own the bakery are very hospitable and very proud of what they offer the public. You can also find them at several farmer’s markets around town, including Hillcrest, Seaside Farmer’s Market, La Jolla, and business such as Whole Foods and Jimbo’s and more.
Hooray for large scones!