Some people say that they eat to live, but in my home it is the other way around. Being on a budget, as most American families are to one degree or another, we all make priorities as to how we will spend our money. Brand new cars and yearly expensive vacations are never going to be in our wheelhouse, so we prioritize eating well.
Eating well to us means that we cook and bake from scratch as much as possible, we splurge on slightly more expensive food, we buy the snacks we like, and we eat out occasionally. This latter splurge is a point of pride for us. Why eat out when you can make it better at home.
Since we are in the habit of comparing food, we thought it would be fun if we rated our food when we ate out just like we see on YouTube videos and streaming television. As this was a family activity we all helped with picture duties.
Breakfast in the Seattle Suburbs
We recently made a trip to Seattle Children’s Hospital for my son’s annual super-clinic visit. My son is autistic and has a form of Muscular Dystrophy. While there are many things that he struggles with, fortunately eating is not one of them. Our daughter is supportive and usually comes with us. They both love food!
Since we were in Seattle we decided to try something different for breakfast. My wife searched the internet for something interesting that the kids might like on our way to do some school shopping and she found an Asian chain bakery that we had never heard of called 85°C Bakery Cafe.
We checked out there website which said in part that this chain, which now has over 1000 locations worldwide, was started because the founder couldn’t believe how expensive it was going to some cafe’s around the world, so he decided to create a cafe that offered quality baked goods and drinks at a modest price.
Their about page says “85°C Bakery Cafe is not an ordinary cafe. Each cup of coffee is individually brewed with Guatemalan coffee beans for a smooth, rich taste. All of our drinks are handcrafted and made to order. Each store features an in-shop bakery with over 50 varieties of pastries baked fresh hourly. Our gourmet cakes are uniquely crafted by our award-winning master chefs…” It sounded like it was worth a try to us, how could you say no to cake.
The Breakfast Experience
When we walked in and we were taken in by displays full of pastries made fresh that day. We walked around ogling everything. We looked like complete tourists who were so totally out of place, But we didn’t care we just wanted good food.
We filled a tray full of goodies and we got in the queue. On top of the pastries we ordered some drinks. It was too warm to be drinking hot coffee, but the iced teas sounded good. We ordered a caramel milk tea, a peach green tea, and a lemon mango green tea. All of these drinks were super sweet, and the green teas had large pieces of the chosen fruit in the cup. Needless to say they didn’t last long. My son literally drank his caramel milk tea in under 3 minutes.
To go along with our drinks my wife had a blueberry muffin, my daughter the croissant crunch, my son the cheese dog pastry, and I had the bacon & cheese pastry. We all agreed that our breakfast was tasty and above all else light and fluffy.
We didn’t really have time to think about rating and comparing breakfast, but there weren’t any complaints. I don’t know if this was the healthiest way to start the day, but it made for a nice treat. We had a cooler ready to go and took the rest of our treats home to enjoy and talk about.
Rating Our Pastries and Cakes
We brought home 6 other pastries and cakes that we would take the time to discuss and give a rating. They were, in the order we tried them:
- Red Bean Bread
- Matcha Red Bean Roll
- Egg Tart
- Garlic Cheese Bread
- Strawberry Cream Cake
- Black Forest Cake
Just a brief note on our family ratings system. We each rated our bites on a scale of 1 to 5. No half ratings were given individually, but average ratings/scores would include fractions. (Ratings: # out of 5 = #/5)
Red Bean Bread
Mom – Not a fan of Red Bean Paste. – 2/5
Dad, Son, & Daughter – The rest of us really liked the sweet bean and fluffy bread combo, and each gave it 4/5.
Average Score: 3.5/5
Match Red Bean Roll
Mom Recused herself. She knew it just wasn’t her thing.
Daughter – Said it kind of tasted soapy. 1/5
Dad – I liked the sponge of the roll itself. I would have liked it a little sweeter. Didn’t taste soapiness but it was a little different. 3/5
Son – Wasn’t a big fan of the texture, and could taste a little soapiness too. 2/5
Average Score: 2/5
Egg Tart
Son – Really liked the tart crust, the custard not as much. 3/5
Daughter – She liked the crust as well. 4/5
Dad – Enjoyed it, but it felt a little boring. It needed something else. 3/5
Mom – It needed some fruit. 3/5
Average Score: 3.25/5
Garlic Cheese Bread
Mom – Delicious! 5/5
Son – Slightly sweet and Savory. 5/5
Dad – Light and fluffy and cheesy. Just needed a little more garlic. 4/5
Daughter – Bread was light, buttery, sweet, and salty. 5/5
Average Score: 4.75/5
Strawberry Cream Cake
Mom – She loved the strawberry flavor with the custard in the cake. 4/5
Dad – It wasn’t the cake I was looking forward to, but it was much better than I expected. 5/5
Son – Really liked the cake, but thought it could be decorated better. 4/5
Daughter – Delicious! 5/5
Average Score – 4.5/5
Black Forest Cake
Mom – Not Chocolatey enough. 3/5
Son – Perfect balance of sweet and tart. 5/5
Daughter – Good, but not enough chocolate. 4/5
Dad – this the one I was eager to try. Disappointing. I expected more flavor. The cake looked beautiful in the case, but I didn’t taste enough chocolate or cherry. 2/5
Average Score: 3.5/5
Conclusion
First I’d like to note that, as promised, and given the age of inflation that we live in, the prices were not bad. I’d also note that we did not try everything that they offer. There were way too many options, so we could only judge what we tried. If we had to crown a winner in our tasting the average score shows that we all really liked the Garlic Cheese Bread. I think we could have eaten that all day. The strawberry cream cake was a close second.
Overall, there was a theme that ran through the cakes and pastries that we tried, everything was light and fluffy and, other than the teas we drank, nothing seemed to explode with flavor or sweetness. Most of what we tried was more balanced and subtle.
So our family verdict on this Cafe Bakery is that the teas were really good and all of us found something we really liked, and the prices were average for the times. I wouldn’t say there was anything that blew our minds though, so it’s not a food destination, but if we lived near an 85°C Bakery Cafe we would probably take breaks here monthly.