Fresh Baked Asian Bakery & Cafe

Just too many negative things to say… lets just say the food is decent but the RUDE and clueless guy at the counter is the reason I will never come back.
The staff also seemed super unprepared and unorganized… ordered a few things with minor request such as «no jalapenos» on one sandwich and «no pâté» on another sandwich and they took about 5 minutes to figure out how to punch that into the system after having the entire family come and hover at the register. Should be more prepared before opening… considering it wasn’t a hard request. And of course in the end the sandwiches were not how we requested. Perfect.

What a fool I was, what a dominated fool to think that you were the Earth and sky!
What a fool I was, what an addle-​pated fool, what a mutton-​headed dolt was I!
The air in my car needs Freon, I was sweating gallons, and I had a mad craving for che ba mau and crushed ice. You can’t screw that up, FB! thought I, as I the temperature topped ninety-​two degrees in the shade. But they did! The damn thing tasted like fish! How do you get fish into a cup of beans, sugar syrup, grass jelly, and sweet coconut cream? Was it the peanuts? The peanuts looked kind of burnt, like someone had tried to fry them badly. Did you fry them in the same oil you fried some fish in? Why would you fry the peanuts at all?
Nevermind that you’ve always insisted on packaging the stupid thing in a bubble tea cup with the coconut sauce punched through the top of the film so the whole thing spills out if it tips in transit. Go to United Oriental and see how they package their che cups, that is the way to do it.
We are so done, Fresh Baked. I want my keys back.

2.5 Can’t say I was happy when I got backs I work with my grilled pork Bánh mì sandwich. I enjoyed about half of it, and when I picked it up again for a bite, I noticed a hair. I pulled it out of the meat it was close too… I opened the sandwich to inspect and I found another grey hair… This automatically put me off and almost vomit in my trash bin. The sandwich was so delicious until I saw that hair. I still enjoyed my taro boba tea though. I’m not sure if I will give them another try. I’d like to for their pastries though and I love their boba too.

Very cute and delicious bakery. Their pastries are different than what you can get in Publix. I like that they are light and not as sweet. They are also quite unique. For example they have pastries with egg and ham, or meat inside. They also have one with sweet beans and another one with pineapple. Overall, they are all very tasty.

The interior is very nice and modern. There are a few tables to sit at. Love the décor and the display cases where the pastries are. You basically grab a lined tray and load up on what you want. Take it to the counter where they bag/​box it up for you and ring you up. Simple and easy concept.
Gripes: most of the display cases were empty/​near empty when we came in. This was around 4PM. If they are open until 7PM, shouldn’t these cases have at least a few items in each? Did not seem appealing with the offerings there. Display case items at the counter were not clearly marked. What am I looking at? I asked the guy about a couple of the items and he seemed bothered that I was asking what they were. Uh, sorry but there are no signs. There are also no prices for these items at the front.
Pastries are ok. They’re not great and will not make you say wow. We got a variety of the buns and two banh baos (steamed pork buns). The banh bao were ok, the dough was crumbly and didn’t hold very well. They use quail eggs instead of hard boiled eggs cut into slices. We also ordered iced Vietnamese coffees w/​grass jelly. These were ok, mine at least tasted strong. Service was lackluster and awkward though. Did not feel welcome or make me want to return.

Great cabinetry. Beautiful granite countertops. Modern, stainless steel kitchen. Five stars.
Bad food. One star. Average: three stars.
The Vietnamese Special sandwich had cha bong, which is a shredded pork. Not only does this ingredient not belong this type of sandwich, the cha bong used was extremely sweet. My sandwich was so sweet I felt like I was eating a pack of M&M’s.
You can tell a lot about the quality of an establishment by analyzing the quality of their bread. Unlike the extremely high quality bread Seasons uses, the bread here is more like the pack of 20 you can get at Costco for $ 4. It is light, dry, brittle, tasteless. It is the type of bread that tastes old and stale right out of the oven… fresh out of the bag.
The prices were uncharacteristically high, not only for the demographics, but also for the type of food and most definitely for the quality.

The real deal. However Asian countries are not really known for their pastries. But the stuff in here could have been any pastry shop I used to frequent in Japan or the egg custards in Hong Kong. Pretty good Vietnamese iced coffee though.

This place is amazing! The buns are fresh, cool atmosphere, all the workers are incredibly nice! If you go, you have to try the fresh fruit mango boba with a bacon bun.

Visited twice during my visit to Saint Pete, and enjoyed both my meals. I was recommended the Vietnamese coffee and it had a nice sweet, mocha flavoring and the pineapple and ham/​cheese buns were good. Overall I experienced friendly service, affordable prices that hasn’t disappointed yet.

So, so disappointed in this place. I normally buy buns at MD Oriental and Boba at Tasty Phở or Seasons Café and I will be sticking to those places after trying Fresh Baked Asian.
We walked in thinking about getting lunch. After looking around, My Husband said we should just go somewhere else. I was determined to try the place anyhow, so I ordered a Blueberry Boba Tea without the Boba and with cherry «popping juice balls». They told me after I ordered they were out of cherry. I settled for strawberry. We also ordered two buns to go for later.
The Boba was AWFUL. It was more like a badly made milkshake that tasted like milk with a hint (just a faint hint) of blueberry. Plus, it was thicker than what I am used to. Even the popping balls were bland and faintly resembled strawberry. This is the first time I have ever thrown away a Boba. Plus, it cost $ 6 with the popping juice balls added. I can buy one for cheaper that tastes way better anywhere else.
The buns when we got to them were also a huge disappointment. The bread was very good, but monotone and not by any means the best I have had. What really disappointed though was the filling (or lack there of). There was almost nothing in them. We ordered the bacon and the cheese. You hardly tasted any cheese at all on the cheese and the bacon had a few under-​cooked pieces of bacon crumbles inside and that was it.
I am by no means an expert when it comes to Asian cuisine, but I will be sticking with the places I mentioned above. I will say that they had some amazing looking sponge cake in the case. I may be tempted to come back and try that, but probably not. As of now, I will not be back for a long time if ever.

When this place opened I thought I would have more options than MD when it comes to baked goods. But when trying this place out, MD is better. The décor is a mix between the old style Asian bakery and Starbucks counter.
The buns are in a display case where you open the case grab a bun of your choosing with tongs and load up your tray buffet style. When you pay, the server would then individually wrap every single one which is weird because of the old Asian style concept and it’s incredibly time consuming. MD prepackages theirs but can shove the whole thing in a box if you ask them to.
Now I love butter buns, but the only place where I can get them is from Tampa, MD in Pinellas Park doesn’t make them. So when Fresh Baked was selling them, I thought I would be an instant fan.
DEAD WRONG!
The butter used inside the bun is salted butter, really, really salty butter. Not suited for baked goods. Toast would be ok, but not in a buter bun. And the butter croissant tasted more like bread than a croissant and no hint of a butter taste. At least the hot dog bun had a whole hot dog in it rather than half a dog cut up in 4 pieces, so that’s one good thing it has over MD.
I’m pretty sure they all use the same dough base for their buns, their buns have a more chewy texture, not sweet but sort of bland. I didn’t try their version of the egg tart because theirs are tiny and they didn’t have a uniform look.
They do take credit cards only if you buy $ 5.00 minimum. So either bring cash or prepare to buy more.
It was worth a look but I won’t be going back.

I stopped here for a Vietnamese coffee. The coffee was not fresh brewed. It was premade and then the server added milk. That wouldn’t have been a big deal but the coffee itself, although it tasted fine, was rather gritty. I could see coffee grounds floating around every time I took a drink. I didn’t try any of the baked goods however I did take a look around and it was slim pickings. It may have been the time of day as I was there at lunchtime, but there wasn’t a lot to choose from. Not super impressive. I probably won’t return.

Waited for the hottest and newest bakery in town to open, just to be disappointed.
Ordered a bacon and cheese bun that was cold, sticky, and overpriced. Combination banh mi was cold and had a weird texture to it. Took everything out of my sandwich and ended up eating the bread itself. Did not bother ordering drinks after seeing how overpriced the buns were, and quality of food alone.
Initially planned to order food to go after dining experience, but disappointment came too quickly.

The food and service were both incredible. The meatball banh mi was amazing, and the buns were great. The scallion and dried pork were our favorites.

I was pretty excited to find out this place was finally open, and I’m glad I checked it out. I was not wowed with the place, but the service was decent and everything I ordered tasted pretty good. It is serves a wide variety of asian baked goods, but focus more on Vietnamese eats.
I really like the fresh décor and upscale version of the asian bakery. It definitely reminded me of my time in California. The biggest downside was only about half the baked goods were available for purchase. I understand they are new and need to figure the supply and demand aspects. Though, if this is not fixed it would be hard to keep the business as a bakery. In addition, they are about 45 cents more expensive than most of their competitors which for me needs to represent a certain standard of service. But with those critiques in mind the pineapple and cream buns I ordered were tasty. I could tell they were made fresh. They were not too sweet or under baked.
I also ordered a pork bahn mi which was good and would order again. I felt the balance of veggies and meat was standard and the bread tied the sandwich flavors well.
This place was good overall, but could be much better. I think only time will tell its success in the Pinellas Park area.

My sister and I went here today around 5pm. They were out of a few of the baked items, and the ones that they did have weren’t really up for our taste buds. I would go back and try their baked goods, when they have more options in stock. We did order their special bahn mi and milk teas. I got a milk tea and my sister got the matcha milk tea, which was actually really good. I liked that the ratio of the drink to the boba were really good. Pretty much with every sip came a few of the boba. The bahn mi’s were $ 4.95 and the medium boba’s were $ 3.75, which wasn’t bad. In terms of pricing, I felt like what we ordered was on point and pretty fair. As for the food, it reminded me of a local version of Sweet Hut in the Atlanta area, but less developed. There is room for growth and developing their brand, if they choose to. I am a huge fan of Sweet Hut in Atlanta and I wish that we had one here, but alas, this is Florida.
With time, I think that the bakery will catch up and develop their brand into something more. They are still getting their bearings down, so I am willing to let them do that and go back for another sample. I really want to have a legit bakery here because we seem to lack it. Jersey has Mitsuwa, Atlanta has Sweet Hut. Why can’t I have something decent in the Asian food department? It’s not that much to ask for. Yes, they’re still new but they’ll grow into it.
The bahn mi wasn’t the best one that I’ve had, but then again, none of the ones locally really meet my standards. My favorite one, so far, was Bön Bön Sandwiches in Wicker Park in Chicago. Not only were they huge, they had the flavor to back it up. The one at Fresh Baked wasn’t bad, but like I said, it wasn’t the best out there.

Their egg tarts were pretty tasty and consisted of the flaky shells rather than the shortbread variety. Their buns were decent, but nothing to differentiate it from MD across the street. Sadly, I did not care for the boba drinks. They were pretty plain and the tapioca balls weren’t fresh (came at noon).
Very friendly people who work there. Will try the bahn mi’s next time as that was what other patrons were eating.
Their fresh pastries run out quickly, try to get there early.

I’m really bummed out about this new Vietnamese bakery.
After reading the reviews, seeing the photos, and watching business location progress over the last few months to finally opening day— I was so excited…
As soon as I entered, there were four employees behind the counter to rush me to make an order. Even though it was my first time visiting. There were cold, pale, sticky looking baked goods in the cubbies. None of them looked appetizing. Actually, their appearance kind of grossed me out.
Then, I went to the counter to order a bubble tea. Every flavor I tried to order from the menu were, «sold out.» There were only two tables with customers. One man was drinking a Vietnamese iced coffee and said to his wife/​girlfriend that it tasted bad. After continuing to investigate with the employee, it is all powder teas. It is concerning that there are no fresh teas made.
Guess I will just continue to drive all the way to Fowler to drink bubble teas made from real fruit juice and tea…
So, anyways, I will try to return after a few months to see if things have improved.
Just a note for those of you who do not ready my other reviews: I have visited multiple countries and eaten at Vietnamese, Chinese, Malaysian, Korean, and Japanese bakeries for most of my life. Definitely know what this stuff should look like, taste like, and what is quality.

Tried their coconut bread on their grand opening day, the bakery pastry reminded me of Taiwanese style bread, what we grew up with typical breakfast. This is very similar style and taste. But still room to improve !
The dough is a bit too wet, coconut is bit too sweet for Asian taste… also not much of verity to choose. I wish they make some healthy items like whole wheat nuts, Walnut and berries bread etc…
I am sure they are in learning curve of the clientele’s tastes. Overall I am just happy to see there is finally a bakery that’s serving Asian style breads ! Welcome to this community and good luck !!! JH

Fresh Baked isn’t too bad. They have a variety of bun/​rolls to choose from. The time I went there were no bags or containers to put them in and not sanitary to put them on trays without paper (they were out of paper).
Ordered a banh mi thit nuong which was fatty and lacking in veggies. Butter bun was fresh. Strawberry almond boba tea was good although the boba was pretty soft (not my preference).
Prices are good (see pictures of menu). The décor is nice and modern; however, space is limited (4 tables). Service was friendly. Overall, it was OK.