Panchitas Bakery
- Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: No
- Parking: Private Lot
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: No
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: No
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Good for: Breakfast, Lunch, Dessert
- Alcohol: None
47 reviews
Neighborhood: Banker's Hill
"Moving out here from the East Coast, I have been deprived of the joys of the Mexican breakfast. Jimmy Carter's Mexican Cafe used to be on…" read more »
51 Reviews for Panchitas Bakery
I know what your thinking...another 5 star rating for Panchitas. Your right, but this place deserves it. It seriously has a "little Mexico" feel to it. I mean just the other day the woman at the register didn't speak any English, forced me to bust out my elementary Spanish (added excitement!). It's super cheap and really good too, I live basically right next to it and the smell comes in my window...jealous? If you've never been I say you need to come find out what all the fuss is about. Panchita you won me over, spread the word and help out this cool local bakery!
Apparently taking 4 years of Spanish did not help me at all when finally visiting this luminary bake shop.
"What is 'pan dulce'?", I asked friendly woman working the register.
Grinning, she used both hands and made a gesture that immediately made me feel like an idiot.
-"It's everything"
I mistakened "Pan Dulce" for milk bread....for the correct translation, sweet bread.
Anywho, my girlfriend and i bought the 6 of the most popular pan dulces for a measly 4.30. We immediately devoured them after.
Only reason I'm not giving Panchitas 5 stars is because I wasn't blown away from all the yelp hype about this place. It's sweet bread, not the bread from The Last Supper.
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I used to live about 300 feet from Panchitas and I love the little tiny sugar cookies that look like giant risotto pieces. I don't know what they're called except that I can only translate my stomach's cry for them "mggrgrmgmrgr".
I'd easily throw down 5 stars for those cookies, the teleras, bolillos, hot chocolate and tres leches cake however the decidedly "unchocolaty" chocolate frostings are something I just can't get past. Added to that the occasional clear snubbing by the cashiers in favor of the people that have 80 things loaded on their tray against someone getting three things who was totally ready before the 80 item guy gets old sometimes but they're usually quick.
I also love the prices because flipping a couch cushion can usually be transformed into tastiness and lots of it. The hours are also great and slightly amusing, they should just stay open 24 hours since they're almost that way already.
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I read all of the reviews or this place and was like... "how good can this be?" F- ing real real good. I got some for people I work with and was pissed I did not keep all the Pan Dulce for myself. I was out like 2.50 and fed a truckload of people delicious or (muy deliciouso) pastries. I don't know if they are all considered Pan Dulce, but I considered all of them awesome. You get a giant aluminum tray and walk around just adding goodness to it. It is so good. Buy an extra one and give it to the bum outside the door.
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It really sucks living a few houses down from here. I can smell the bread and pastries and cookies and deliciousness at like 7 a.m. and it goes on until 10 p.m.
This is not fair. Everything here is soooo good, and sooooo cheap. Why. Why. Why.
Good pastries+cookies+ bolillos, great price, and way too close to my house! I think I'll have to sew an elastic waistband into my jeans!
Parking: Limited
Prices: inexpensive
Service: self serve; don't forget to grab a tray and tongs and start loading up!
Panchitas has dynamite pan that is worth its weight in gold.
Having grown up in Northern California, I have a fav place up there, (on Julian St. in San Jose) that my dad used to stop at for me and my brother and sister when he was feeling especially heroic AND us kids were exceptionally good. Panchitas is now that special treat place for my two kids.
You can smell the warm, sweet breads from the intersection at 25th. I love this place! My favorite pan dulce are the piggies. My son loves the donuts with jelly in the middle; the girl child always picks a piece of frosted cake.
awwww.. i love coming here in winter and picking up all the great pan dulce, cookies, etc, and having them with coffee on my patio overlooking Downtown.
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SO DELICIOUS! I went here pretty recently with 2 friends, we got a whole tray of treats and three cups of coffee for a mere $7 and some change. The fruit empanada things are amazing, I had the apple one but I bet they are all delicious. We got a creamy filled delicacy as well that was amazing. I don't think you can really go wrong here, it's like a big party in your mouth!!!
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I bought two trays worth of sweet, delicious carbs.
I almost ate them all on the way home.
This is madness...
THIS IS PAN DULCE!
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There's nothing I can say that hasn't been said. When my best girl lived next door we used to get fresh bollilos and make sammiches. The best sammiches ever. Cookies, donuts, fruit empanadas, cake, pan dulce.......Yes please. Yes yes yes.
Awesome, super-authentic Mexican bakery. We went crazy here. Everything is extremely good and very fresh. Will be going back often.
In case you're wondering what to do - just have to grab a large pizza-like tray and tongs and serve yourself and then go up to the counter. It's good!
Growing up in Golden Hills, this was a staple of my diet (i'm guessing that explains why I now have more ass than most). Dad didn't bother with krispy kremes or dunkin' doughnuts... we got Panchitas. Mainly because we we're broke and this was close, but damn tastey too! This place has given me many birthday cakes, bolios, and random goodies for many years... and still delivers conisitantly good (and cheap!!) treats. oh panchitas, i love you so.
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Pachita's Bakery is the BEST. You can get a quarter sheet cake for 19.99. The cake quality is really good as well.
Everything is fresh and made daily, to order if you ask.
The Dulce de Leche is awesome, donuts, cookies and sweet pastries A + And, cheapest prices I have seen too!!
Get there early for the best selection, this place opens EARLY!!
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Still on the search for my cheesecakey thingy from the Mexican bakery I made hubby drive to Panchitas. Unfortunately, we got there around 10am on a Saturday and a lot of stuff had sold out already. Well, what do you expect when the bakery opens at 5am!!?!?!?
Anyhoo, we still managed to buy about 7 items -- lil guy wanted a churro and a chocolate chip cookie. I bought 2 of those things the other reviewer mentioned which looks like a part of the female anatomy (I didn't like those, they tasted very meringue-y). The bread pudding looking thing with raisins which hubby picked out (see photo) was absolutely delicious. It looked like it would be super sweet but it wasn't sweet at all. Just pure yummy!! I also got a pastry thing with an egg/cheese filling. I liked the cheese filling but not the egg part. Also got a Mexican roll.
My total? A whopping 4 bucks! I could totally do this again!
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Bring 3 bucks and an appetite. Dig.
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Thanks to the Yelpers that reviews on this Bakery. I have found a new favorite. If your not familiar with the Mexican breads then you need to crawl out from underneath your rock and give this place a try. This by far is one of the best representations of authentic Mexican food. I brought my mom here the very next weekend after i tried it and she was impressed with the quality. Give it a try you won't be disappointed. Eat up.
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my heaven will have one of these panaderias in it! Growing up, every few days my dad would take me to this little bakery (Chaguitos) inPorterville (yes, its in California). The little old man who ran the counter would always give us a random estimate for a giant panfull of bread..."oh..deme tres dolares" he would say with a casual wave of the hand he would always give me an extra piece of pan dulce cause he liked my poppa..;what great memories... its wonderful that I can still get my fix of Pan Dulce now! Its also wonderful that I don't live closer or I would become a hefty girl right quick! :) This place is convenient, quick, and the Pan dulce is fresh, and delicious! oh and the ladies that run it, are awesome!
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like everyone else says:
yum
cheap!
the end
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Dios mio.
So much tasty goodness for so little money. I "splurged" and got the hot chocolate to enjoy with my churros, and everything on my tray plus the chocolate came to a grand total of $5.35. The hot chocolate was so worth it---I think I tasted a hint of cinnamon?---it was so good to dunk those churros in.
And the bread. Oh God the bread. Just their regular rolls of bread are the right combo of crusty outside + soft and fluffy inside. Que rico.
I still have a couple goodies left in my Panchitas shopping bag, and based on what I had this morning, I'm already looking forward to breakfast tomorrow.
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good bread
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LOVE IT!!!!!!!!! OH HOW I'VE MISSED MY PAN DULCE!
I was born in Mexico but raised in San Diego, and having grown up eating Pan Dulce every evening for 'merianda' with my grandmother in Tijuana, I would always miss it when we would not visit her. I have tried many a sweet bread from various establishments (even Mexican-owned) and never found something that truly took me back to those evenings at my 'Billa's' house dipping them in hot 'Chocolate Abuelita'. This is the real thing.
The prices are very fair...not expensive at all. I visited in the evening and was pleasantly surprised to see that they close until 10pm...great for a late night snack. Will definitely return...in fact, I'm craving it right now.
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The BEST! I love love love their fresh baked goods. There are these one cookies that look like small vagina's and they taste sooooooo good. Perfect. I might have to go today just because I'm thinking about it. If you like Mexican cookies and such go cuz it is great.
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Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Panchitas
I always remember as a kid indulging in Mexican pastries every Sunday morning. Had I kept up this tradition Id probably be about 600 lbs, nevertheless once in a while I need a fix. After turning to my trusty yelp friends I was directed to Panchitas, Ive come to the realization long ago, that I have to drive south of the 8 to get some decent Mex flavor.
After turning into this tiny parking lot and entering Panchitas I was seduced by the Aroma. The display is so packed with fresh, fragrant baked goods they can seem a little overwhelming. Its easy to overindulge here my but my favorite is the conchas (seashells). If you don't know a Concha from a Bolillo, Conchas are sweet egg bread, usually colored, white yellow or pink and have a "shell" design embossed in sugar atop a rounded bun. Conchas are chewy, and are great for tearing apart and dunking in coffee. Like most Panaderias its take out only. No tables in here. So load up and take these baby's home and get the grinds perking. Its hard to beat a mountain of oven-hot Mexican pan dulce and a pot of steaming coffee.
Service was fast and friendly, they even put up with "YELP Paparazzi" and let me sneek in the kitchen for a picture ha (see photos).
These treats are very inexpensive so its easy to overload on this stuff . I defiantly overloaded. Note to self: Mexican pastries have no preservatives and little salt, so they do not stay fresh long.
Thank the lawd this place is not within a 20 mile radius of me............................... ENJOY
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I don't even know what I bought, but it was so cheap and so good! Lots to choose from, everything baked fresh (you can see the bakers working on the pastries in the back) and even though it was past noon on a Saturday, there was still a lot of available breads and goodies.
All you need to do is pick up a large tray and tongs, then pick what you want! I saw people with their silver trays loaded.
I bought several items for $3.55.
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DUDE, 5 bollios for only $1!
C'mon how can you not love this place!
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A good, unpretencious panaderia. Baja vs mainland? Huh?
This is no different than any of the dozens I've patronized all over Mexico. They have the usual selection of pan dulce, at prices twice what they are in TJ but still cheaper than others here in San Diego. And the quality ain't bad at all. I can't believe I've driven by this place so often without stopping.
Nothing like a fresh-from-the-oven cochinito for breakfast. Beats the hell out of a glazed doughnut.
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So much to choose I can be 400 pounds if it was close to my house!
It's as good as Panaderia La Mejor in Tijuana. I never really ordered a cake by I seen the decorations a few words beautiful!
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I'm from S. Texas and we have our fair share of panaderias, some being absolutely badass and some just so-so.
Panchita's is good but then again, there are better places out there I'm sure. But don't get me started with a comparison between Tex-Mex and this Baja-Style stuff they have here....lol
Oh yeah, be careful in the parking lot, people get all ballsy getting in and out of spaces, I've seen many hit & runs here.
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dude.
creme-filled churros.
'nuff said.
I love this bakery! If you were never really into pastries, but would like to see what you were missing out on.. I would highly recommend Panchitas! Its a bakery experience like no other!
They give you an enormous tin tray and tongs to pick out what pastries you'd like to get. More often then I should, I end up putting way too many treats on my plate! Its too tempting not to! Although, I would suggest restraining yourself if your incapable of finishing all the pastries within a day or two. The pastries and bread are made fresh daily, so they tend to have a shorter shelf life (fewer preservatives)! The best part of this bakery, besides their "less than a dollar a piece" cheap prices, are their empanadas that come in a variety of flavors! As far as I know, all are really tasty!
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I was studying about two blocks away and I HAD to see what the hype was about on yelp. The second you walk in, you smell the delicious sugar and flour. I wasn't even hungry. I actually just finished eating a huge cupcake and a lemon bar (so oodles of sugar and fattyness) at a cafe and when I walked in, it was almost like I forgot that I had a full stomach. The boy and I filled up our tray with goodies. I made sure we didn't add too much and it was really really REALLY hard to resist. It was pretty much hit or miss since we had no idea what we were getting. However, for all the Chinese kids in SD who miss Chinese baked goods from SF and LA , there is this AMAZING bun filled with egg custard that has that perfect doughy pull to it. It's not too sweet and it is SO GOOD! It's also huge and super cheap. I don't know what it's called but it's on the right side, on the big wall, second middle shelf and it's shaped like a giant rectangular pocket and it has yellow custard oozing out. GET IT. I'm coming back just to buy a bunch of those.
Cookies were the crispy kind. Not really down with that. They also have different flavored churros, kind of cool but I think I prefer the regular ones. We bought a ton of shit including a huge doughnut, guava and pineapple pockets, some snail bun thing, rice pudding (prob the most expensive cuz it was 1.50) and it was $6. awesome for the poor college kid's stomach.
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This is how baking gets down. It's really too bad for every other bakery in the area that I found this place, cause now I'm off the market. That's right, Panchitas and I are going steady.
It's a constant battle not to overbuy because it's SO cheap and delicious, but you have to remember that you can only go through so many baked goods in a day and this stuff isn't going to keep because...it isn't full of preservatives so much as it's full of deliciousness.
I haven't tried everything but I've also not found anything that wasn't worth eating or worth the price. So venture safely into pretty much any corner of the bakery universe and don't look back.
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I'm generally over-enthused about Mexican fare, but I was disappointed (especially after all the other yelpers' rave reviews) by this bakery.
I'd say it's your average Mexican bakery; there was nothing wrong with it, but it was far from outstanding. The fruit empanada things (I tried guava, mango, and apricot) were filled with artificial-tasting jelly (no real fruit!) and the pumpkin one tasted like it was just filled with plain, canned pumpkin. The dough for them was dense and very eggy. A lot of the other things seemed like just variations of conchas (those round sweet breads with sugar patterns on top) or puff-pastry in different shapes.
The tres leches was delicious. I got something else from the fridge that was really good (I don't know the name) --it was two layers of light, not-too-sweet cake with whipped cream in the middle.
Also, it's nice that it's cheap, but then aren't all Mexican bakeries? I don't think this should be a huge selling point.
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panchita's is great. You can get enough food for 2 days with like 3 dollars. They have awesome breakfast biscuits, good macaroons and a whole crapload of stuff i want to try. I am glad i dont believe in new years resolutions but sad i live in a town considered the fittest in america when i think of this bakery.
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Luckily, I live less than a mile from this place which makes it so convenient for me or anyone looking to get some authentic mexican pastries. Try the pina empanadas! Delicious. Oh, and the prices are great too.
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This bakery is so worth the drive out of the way!! their bread is like no other. I love everything they have in that bakery. Their prices are reasonable. If you celebrate dia de reyes, you would love their rosca de reyes, it is the best one yet.......and I've tried a few in my times.
I highly reccomend this bakery. I was clued in on it by my niece, it's her boyfriends favorite bakery.
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Delicious Donuts; Inexpensive-- I paid 50 cents for a chocolate covered donut-- that I would have paid over a dollar for-- at Von's Bakery or another grocery store. Pays to Shop "Smart".
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Don't typically do "donuts"-- and try to stick to a healthier diet-- however-- today was in and out of the grocery store in that area-- and decided "what the heck"-- its time to have that "once in awhile" Donut "Fix"! Was a nice break in the routine -- since I've been on a massive personal campaign to get back in really good physical shape. After spending an hour walking the dogs at the park-- figured I was "OK" to do a Splurge-- and this "hit the spot"!
This place gets pretty crowded at times, have seen a line out the door on more than one occasion.
Why not make your money go twice as far! Right??? I'm no accountant-- but that just makes Common Sense!
This is an A Plus Bakery...
They also have Coffee and Hot Chocolate-- I'm going "off" caffeine-- so didn't try this. Didn't see that they offered tea.
The Atmosphere isn't much--- but "It is-- What it is"!
I don't mind shopping in places that are not decked to the 9's-- to shave off some of the added expense-- only makes sense!
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Obviously, this place is a gem. The bollilos aren't great, but buy 4 dozen macaroons and win friends and influence at your next potluck.
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I LOVE fresh bread. Love it! So when I tasted their bolillos I thought, "damn, that would make an awesome loaf". So I asked if they could make me a "bolillo grande" and indeed they did (for only $1)! LOVE IT! I order it the day before, they make it up for me and I pick it up the next day hot & yummy!! It reminds me of when I lived in Madrid & Paris and we had our local bakeries and picked up fresh, hot bread (and the crust didn't rip the roof of your mouth apart!)
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