Please let me give 6 stars? I mean, this is BREAD we're taking about…read more.. This St. Johns bakery is only open for walk in on Sundays. That means you might find a line... But you will always find AMAZING bread. Multiple varieties, all longingly crafted with amazing Northwest flours. I recommend everything...that is to say I have never been disappointed. The real bonus is their delivery program. We get a loaf every week sent to our neighborhood for pickup. So many great varieties! Spelt, polenta, buckwheat, rye, light wheat. Every week a fresh and delicious loaf. Starter Bread has raised the bar for bread in Portland, and that is saying a lot.

Recently when I eat at a place I really like, I try to ask the people who work there what places…read morethey like the most in Portland. Someone mentioned Starter Bread once, so I took the bus over one Sunday morning and gave it a try. They're not open to the public very often. Just Sundays from 10am-2pm. The majority of their sales, from what I understand, are through this subscription service. Check out their website (https://www.starterbread.com/). Idk though. Maybe they sell to restaurants too. Anyway, I got a loaf, brought it home, sliced it up and toasted it on a skillet. It was great. Soft. Good flavor. Some sourdough, some wheat, some nuttiness. All pretty subtle though; nothing overpowering at all. And in reading through their website, apparently they are really, really into using high quality ingredients and stuff, so that's cool. I didn't like the crust though. Crunchy is ok, but this crust was hard and tough to chew. As for the stuff I ordered to eat for brunch on Sunday, I wasn't very impressed. The two cookies felt kind stale to me and lacked for flavor. They also weren't warm. Warm cookies are the best. It's tough for a cookie to excel if it isn't warm. I also got this little sandwich on a baguette with gruyere, apple slices, and some jam. I have very mixed feelings about this sandwich. On the one hand, the gruyere was absolutely delicious. It's been on my mind ever since I ate it. Like, I want to go back for more. The apple slices were super thin and delicious. The jam gave it a nice little kick. But the baguette I really didn't like. I feel like given the bakery's excellent reputation I've gotta be wrong, but it just felt stale and difficult to chew. Still, the gruyere was good enough that I really liked the sandwich overall. The other sandwich (yes, I eat a lot) was on this thick, rectangular, foccacia sort of bread. It had thinly sliced potatoes on top, cheese, and a hint of sauteed onions. Maybe some garlic too. I liked it, but didn't love it. The bread was soft and chewy. But! My big complaint is that none of the food was served warm! For all of these items, being warm and fresh just goes such a long way. "Fresh" I get that the logistics are difficult. But "warm" I feel like is fair to expect. Throw it in the oven or under the broiler or something for a few minutes before serving. Instead, they had everything pre-made and sitting out there to be handed to the customer room-temperature. So as a place to stop by for a meal, it's fine I guess if you're in the area, but I wouldn't go out of my way for it. But I evaluate them more as a bakery to buy bread to bring home. And for that, they do a really good job.

Love this place. The bagels are great (on their own or as breakfast sandwiches), everyone who works…read morethere when I've been there is a treat, and the daylight is *fantastic* because it's in a house raised off the street. This also means the front patio and outdoor side tables aren't right on the street, all the better for hanging out.

Went to this Speilman's thinking they were the same as the Broadway location. I was wrong. They…read moredon't have as many bagel sandwich choices, or rotating selection of specialty coffee drinks. The flavor of the bagel was good, but we were absolutely disappointed with the size of the bagel. They were tiny and the whole was pretty much non-existent. I did however enjoy the green sauce. When we got our bag of bagels I was disappointed that the bottom of the bag was grimy with cream cheese and got all over my hand and the table. Is this place even in the same family as the other Spielman? The coffee cups were even different.

I've recently become obsessed with this place. A cute little corner bakery tucked away in NW…read morePortland. They're offering fresh baked sourdough goods of all kinds. I absolutely love their jalapeño sourdough loaf, and their breakfast hand pies are warm and delicious. They have a combo of sweet and savory pastries and they've recently started offering yummy sandwiches for lunch too.

Very happy to find this place. I'm a lover or sourdough done the right way, so we made the drive…read moreand I'm glad we did. Lots of variety but loved that they had treats other than just the loafs too. We tried the cinnamon raisin, regular loaf, cinnamon knots, and croissants. Everything has been fabulous, great textures, smell, taste. The croissants were a standout. My husband and I agreed they were our favorite croissants ever. Very friendly customer service as well. We will definitely be back regularly.

THE ART OF BAKING: Kim Boyce is a special person - the kind who magically reorganizes ingredients…read moreand flavors to make familiar food new again, but still comforting. For accolades, she's an award-winning Chef by the James Beard Foundation, a published author (see: Good to the Grain), a Founder/bustling business owner (wholesale 7d/w, retail Weds-Sun ongoing since 2011), and educator (WAITLIST for the Baking Classes). I accidentally fell into the spot when occupying Rose City Park neighborhood several years ago, and am gratuitously rewarded with the same celebration of delight - absolutely nothing has changed, aside from some new menu items (check out Three-Berry Pie orders and a Summer Seasonal menu including a top-selling Figgy Buckwheat Scone)... Meanwhile I'm just as excited to find their baked goods around town, as much as i was the broader selection here at the source. EXPERT PAIRING - Strawberry Scone w/ Case Study Cortado (next door). Not sweet-not unsweet bready scone encrusted with MELTED (NOT bruléed) white sugar, topped with a dollop of rich strawberry jam (another specialty, check the cookbook). PERFECT DONT CHANGE A THING. I'll be savoring that sweet memory for days. Another gem - (FOUND at Steven Smith, because they sell down early in the retail space) - a Black Lavender Almond Cake. Again, Boyce's signature textural grains sing, this time with a gentle aroma of almond, black sesame, and lavender. Not too floral, not too nutty, it's heavenly with a cup of tea.

For pastries, croissants, quiches, this is a 5 star bakery…read more Everything I've tried has been excellent. Their twice-baked almond croissants are the best in the country. The two seasonal quiches have perfect crusts. The hand pies are also notable, as are the scones. Alittle pricey, but well-worth it. Great staff. PS- Go next door to Case Study for a good coffee to compliment your pastries.

Finally a good chewy bagel in Portland! This is what texture the city was missing. We were also so…read morestoked to see an egg bagel on the menu! We did a pre-order, and picked up at 7:45am on pick up day. Super easy set up, and they sell out quick! The pop up set up is cute, and easy to navigate.

This is going to be short and sweet. Excellent bagels, and terrific espresso. Yes, yes, I HAVE had…read morebagels in NYC, NJ, CT, Boston, SF, and Chicago. Totally great. But this is PDX, precious... and these are quite good. Oh, and almost forgot Montreal.

Got the breakfast bagel w/beyond sausage & vegan cream cheese and it was really good. The woman was…read morevery kind and personable. The location is in a cubby full of other vendors with quite a bit of space for seating

I don't get to Puddletown nearly as much as I would like to - the downside to trying to…read moreoccasionally watch what I eat - but that just makes me treasure my visits here. The neighborhood is currently having a love affair with a different nearby bagel shop, and I'm unable to understand why. Puddletown has the texture, the choice of flavors, the perfect chewiness, the perfect resistance to being chewed, that make a great bagel. About 40 years ago, a good friend would occasionally FedEx me bagels from NYC after I moved to Portland. At the time, quality pizza and bagels were rare commodities here. Puddletown may not be open as many hours of the day as H&H was in another lifetime and time zone, but the Puddletown experience makes me just as happy.

Great jalapeño cream cheese, chewy and delicious garlic bagel, lots of parking, kind and quick…read moreservice, chill atmosphere with a few tables shared with a neighboring cafe. I think I r found my new go-to bagel spot!

The pizzas and bagels here are scrumptious! And the chocolate chip cookies. The food in general is…read moreso bomb. Service is strange, sometimes a bit more snooty that I am used to. But the 5 stars is for the food!

I called repeatedly before 1:30 to place my order ahead of their cutoff, exactly as instructed. No…read moreone answered. Not once. I arrived just before 1:30 (traffic made it close) and found a line. The second the clock hit 1:30, they turned away me and the two people ahead of me --- like they were shutting down a nuclear reactor, not a pizza kitchen, unwilling to spend one extra minute serving customers who were already standing there. I explained I'd been calling in advance to place my order and asked them to honor it. They admitted, flatly, that they'd been ignoring the phones because they were busy---then declined anyway, with a smugness reminiscent of a cold, large corporation that doesn't care about its customers. No attempt to empathize with the fact that I'd driven two hours for Celiac-friendly pizza I was looking forward to for days, and was in line before 1:30 and called beforehand but they didn't answer. will never come back here and will never buy their bread in the grocery store again (which tastes like sand anyway). terrible attitude towards service. I hope the owner sees this and knows they lost a high paying life long customer. even though I have Celiac disease and can only eat at a few restaurants, I would rather cook at home than give this place any of my money.