My girl is obsessed with this place. The goods they sell here is fresh and tasty! The service is…read morekind and the inside is very small, but does not effect the vibes.

Long time family favorite here. We have been coming here for treats for a long time and la…read moreEsmeralda bakery has remained consistently awesome for the entire time. They are always super kind here and the treats are always delicious! The prices are truly great and there will never be another place with this much quality and consistency. Amazing. They always keep their display cases clean and organized as well as fresh. Always a top spot and always kindness in the visit. The staff always makes sure to accommodate when they can especially letting us wait for the pastries that are coming out fresh. Great time always!

Met my friend for lunch as I saw the menu recently and was intrigued, esp. for the Queen Vol au…read moreVent lunch entrée. I haven't been to a CIA restaurant since I went to the one in Napa many years ago. We arrived around noon and were seated immediately as not many people were dining there except for a party of about 8 people in one table and 2 people in a bar top table in the other room by the pastries. A couple of people came in to buy pastries to go. Kiana was our student server and explained the concept. They're only open from February til April for that particular semester and in August for another semester with students operating both front and back of house in the kitchen. The proceeds from the restaurant sales goes towards the Students' Graduating Fund to help with the costs of schooling. The students can experience serving customers and cooking. The chef has a Basque background so his menu is French-Spanish inspired according to Kiana. My friend and I thought this was a great cause! We perused the menu but I zeroed into the Queen Vol Au Vent because it reminded me of the Chicken A La King in Pastry Shells dish I used to make when we used to have big family Christmas parties. I wanted to see their version. I asked Kiana what the pastry shells were filled with since the menu says it's filled with the "Chef's choice Velouté" and she said chicken and mushrooms in a cream sauce. Perfect! My friend got the Egg Croissant & Petit Salade with a side of Bacon & Home Fries. While they were preparing our dishes, I walked up to the pastry case to see what they had to offer. They had cookies, Raisin Bread rolls, Conchas, Manchego & Sausage Scone, Alfajor Dulce de Leche, a Passion Chocolate dessert, fruit tarts, Napoleon, Baguettes and some bagged items: Palmiers, Chocolate coated Nuts and Toffee. I asked one of the chefs how much the bag of Toffee cost and she said $3.80 so I said I'll buy a bag. My friend was curious to see what they had so she also picked up a bag of Toffee. My friend also ordered a cup of brewed coffee. Our dishes came and I noticed how huge my friend's Egg Croissant looked! It was nicely laminated and the egg filling looked nice and creamy. The bacon was thickly sliced and my friend said there was a slight sweetness, perhaps maple? She gave me a piece and it was pretty tasty, meaty and wasn't greasy, nor salty. My Queen Vol Au Vent wasn't quite as big as I thought it would be but the chicken filling was ample. The Petit Salade on the side were just dry greens and wasn't a very big portion either. It could've used more dressing as it was lacking moisture. Perhaps some sliced Heirloom Cherry tomatoes would've been nice to accompany the dry pastry shell Vol Au Vent dish and add a pop of color too. When we were paying our bill, Kiana said the bagged Toffees were on the House since they just opened so we were pleasantly surprised and thankful! Another server asked my friend if she'd like more coffee or if she'd like it in a to-go cup so she took that option. I noticed the students were clearing out the pastries and bread so I asked Kiana what they did with the excess, unsold pastries? She said they take inventory, donate or throw them away except for the bread which is frozen and sold the next day. We told her we hoped it was given away since they're perfectly fine and for a good cause. There was an instructor's birthday today so the students and staff sang "Happy Birthday" by the kitchen. That was nice. We paid our bills and before leaving I used the co-ed restroom which was very clean and spacious. We sat outside so they could buss our tables and we continued talking outside. Can't wait to come back again before the semester ends!

*NOTE* The CIA Cafe is only open from February to April…read more What a lovely breakfast experience! We arrived 25 mins after they opened, and another party had just gotten seated. Although it is small, it's well-designed and well-laid out. The staff is really sweet and patient if it's your first time visiting. The breakfast croissant sandwich is the perfect amount of food, not to mention a well-balanced meal. The lamination is just proper- a buttery, flaky crunch. If you plan on getting goodies from the bakery, they can take your dine-in check and adjust the price to add those items. The variety can be a bit overwhelming but trust your gut. There's nothing terrible, since the quality of the ingredients and technique were on point. My favorite was the white chocolate pretzel cookie, so I'd like to return and try the other flavors. I love that a portion of your bill also funds the scholarship program, which makes you feel good about the entire experience.

The pan dulce is delicious! The worker is nice and the prices were good! I took some to work and my…read morestaff enjoyed.

Stopped on the way out from a visit to SA. Really really enjoyed the goodies I got. Great price…read moretoo! Will be returning. Go if you can!!!!

I have been going to Fiesta for years! I've tried other bakeries for pan dulce , but always go…read moreback to Fiesta! Great taste, selection, and price. Thank you Fiesta for serving us all these years!

Overall the experience was alright - I just came in for a couple of different pan dulces. I liked…read morethat everything was behind a case so you don't have to worry about customers touching the pastries. The location is small and designed to just pick up and go. I had a couple of conchas, marranitos, and some hojarascas (wedding cookies). They were reasonably priced and tasted okay, a little stale. I wish I would have liked it more, I wouldn't go out of my way to drive to it again.

Best sweet bread in San Antonio!!!! Service is very kind and respectful! A warm an delicious…read moreenvironment.

Small store front and easy to miss but there are parking spaces in the front…read more Good selection of pastries but sadly I'm not familiar with all the pastry names to articulate of them. There's a cake case too which I was excited to see tres leches cake too! We tried concha, pink cake, and some pecan shortbread cookies. The concha is super good, better than HEB's lol it's soft and the dusting of sugar on top makes it extra sweet and has more of a crunch. The pink cake is better than most I've tried - it's SO tall and has a soft and moist crumb, the icing is sweet but thin so not overpowering. Two pan dulce and two shortbread cookies was $4.45.

Update: so sad they changed the concha recipe, it was perfect now it's subpar. Some of the cookies…read moreare still good but my favorite concha's are no longer made here. Update again: I came again and their recipe is back to normal. Delicious concha's.

The bed was I paid for pastry. I did not get. The good is the pastry was huge all of them! Sadly,…read moreanother bad is there was no flavor and no scent when you went into the store. I really wanted to try the pastry that I did not get, it was a concoction of it, looked like strawberries and cream cheese in a bear claw. I did try a I think it was a crescent. Roll with cheese, but there was just a little lot of cream cheese in there, no flavoring in it at all. I probably won't be back.

My first experience with Cake Thieves was about ten years ago - Mila Coffee sold their donuts and I…read moreremember craving that fruity pebbles donut for ages. They matched perfectly with Mila's Coffee. Much to my surprise, Cake Thieves had a brick and mortar bakery over on the east side of the city! I dropped by to check it out and I was very pleased to see a robust vegan menu. Vegan bakeries are few and far in between, and as someone who is NOT vegan, but appreciates the vegan culinary arts, I was very excited to see a full pastry case. I ordered the cortado, butterfly pea flower latte, a jalapeño cheese kolache, and a creme brûlée donut. The cortado was more of a cappuccino in terms of size/volume but I still enjoyed it. The butterfly pea flower latte had vanilla in it, and the oat milk yielded a delightfully creamy drink that I would absolutely make the drive for again. The kolache was good. The croissant dough was buttery and flakey (amazing what vegan butter can do nowadays!), but the sausage was missing that decisive "snap" texture when you bite into it. Oh well, it was still a very good breakfast treat. I took the donut home and had it a few hours later. I loved how crispy/crunchy the bruleed/caramelized top was! The donut itself was fluffy and the filling was nice and sweet. The staff? Amazing. Shout out to Eli (spelling?) for making the entire experience just truly magnificent.

We are a small local business that pays for advertisement, got hired on for a service of theirs…read moreafter a big box company gave them the run around and provided no customer service and "worse experience ever". We show up resolve and repair their issue with no background to the problem. They denied paying and have ignored every attempt at paying their service bill although their issues are resolved. Small local business just trying to survive and provide for their family gets shafted by another local business that started from small too.. So not advise promoting to contributing to a business that doesn't even care about their local community.

Best Pink Cake I've ever had! Prices were great and everything else that I had was delicious. I…read morehighly recommend giving them a try.

They had a selection of bakery goods. The prices were ok. We would try again. The young worker was…read morevery apologetic for not being visible. We told her she was fine as they had a sign to ring the bell. We hadn't because we hadn't determined what we wanted.