Great quality pastries! Super friendly service. Many…read morechoices to choose from as well.

Hi I really love Yolanda's pavlovas, conchas, cakes, and home made desserts but don't take my word…read morefor it. She has being in the business for a long time and this is what two people from Roanoke write. "Yolanda has won nearly every dessert-making contest she's entered (I've been the judge of a few of them and no one comes close). She won "best in show" a few months back at Center in the Square's "Affair In The Square" by showing up with a whole tent-full of cakes and an incredible assortment of baked items. You can regularly choose from foot-high cakes with three inches of icing with the likes of chocolate Cognac cake, chocolate rum cake, cajetapecan (a cake with pecans all over it), treslches and flan. I'm just certain that for the right price, she'll make about anything you would like to enjoy. If I were in her proximity for a mere few days, I'd weigh 600 pounds". Larry Bly Roanoke.com But there is good news for El Palenque lovers, especially those who don't know what they'll do without Yolanda Galvan's decadent handmade cakes. She will continue to sell her prize-winning desserts on a special order basis under the name Galvan Cakes. The family also plans to offer catering services for special events like weddings and banquets. Lindsey Nair Adios, Palenque Roanoke.com Also Yolanda won the Roanoker best dessert in town few times. I did not know that she open the bakery after they closed the family restaurant "EL PALENQUE" I guess I miss this articles myself, but now that I found her I'm passing the good news. Aunty Dora Roanoke

Delicious ice cream and cookies. I had a flight of 4 small scoops of ice cream and a cookie. I…read morehad Maple Pecan, blue Vanilla, Pumpkin Pie & ??? (lol I forgot the 4th one) with a snicker doodle cookie. Every one of the ice creams were so flavorful and delicious. The cookie was great! Nice and chewy. The inside is a bit dirty, the bench cushions look like it has seen some kids with ice cream drippings. It wasn't unsanitary however. Service was great. The girl behind the counter was very nice and pleasant to speak with. I highly recommend giving Rookies a try.

I first reviewed Rookie's (Handcrafted Ice Cream Sandwiches) when it opened at the Patrick Henry…read moreHistoric building in Downtown Roanoke; just across the street from the Social Security building and the Roanoke Public Library - Downtown Branch. I did so after having visited it several times, having had their ice-cream and homemade cookies, and having talked to and interviewed their store employees as well as their truck driver who brings their ice-cream and cookie dough from Lynchburg, Virginia. Now that Rookie's has relocated from their Downtown Roanoke store to Cave Springs, at 3549 Electric Rd, Suite D, I have decided to visit their new location, and write an update review. I urge all the readers to this review to also go back and read my first review and accompanied photographs to learn more about the history of the company. For Rookie's is more than just an Ice Cream Parlor. It's a place where desserts and friends meet to create something memorable. Their employees are encouraged to establish conversations with their customers and answer questions about their company and their products. And their comfortable ambiance and seating area contribute to the enjoyment and extraordinary sweet dining experience while people socialize with family and friends, and share quality time with them. The new location is more family-friendly and has more parking than their previous location. The residents of Cave Springs have welcomed Rookie's with open arms and have become steady customers in a relatively short period of time. I was impressed to find out that it is located in thr same Shopping Center as Cafe Asia 2 Restaurant, one of my favorites Asian Restaurants. Rookie's continues to offer different flavors of cookies, homemade ice cream, and signature ice cream sandwiches, in a clean and simple interior design relaxing environment, and with excellent customer service from their warm, knowledgeable, and friendly staff. Today I visited the new location with a friend and both of us interacted with the servers and had ice-cream sandwiches. Mine was Mint Chocolate Chip cookies with Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. The combination of the two made the perfect sweet snack or dessert. During the time we were there chatting and enjoying our ice-cream sandwich, we saw many other customers come in and do the same. It seems that Rookie's made a great strategic move for a win win situation between the company and its customers. A quote from the owner of the community I feel best describes it best: "We believe that community is built on a foundation of celebrating something good and we believe our handcrafted ice cream sandwiches. Ice cream, cookies & milk will bring you together! We're all about the memories made and the nostalgia we hope you feel whenever you tuck in to a treat with friends and family." All of Rookie's ice cream is handcrafted in Lynchburg, and they offer vegan and gluten-free options. Rookie's hopes to continue expanding to other locations, with some customers even asking for a location in North Carolina. I highly recommend this business and its products, and consider it one of the City of Roanoke's gem.

Coconut Cake is like Heaven!…read more Wow, first time getting anything from this shop and very impressed. Ordered a 9" round 3 layer coconut cake for my wife's birthday, her favorite! I am not a food critic, so I will describe it as best I can. Beautiful appearance - fluffy white cake. Icing is just the right amount of sweet without being heavy like some icing. Feels almost light but has substance. Texture is smooth and pleasant. The cake itself is a off-white cake that has a combination of lightness with some density to it, but again not heavy. I'm and older guy and this is the best cocunut cake I have ever eaten. Just the right balance of flavor, texture and deliciousness, but not the overpowering sweet like many children's desserts and candies have. Thank you for a great product and timely, pleasant service! Love the appearance of your shop, and I do plan to return and try other products.

The downtown, brick-walled space has charm, and the baked goods appeared to have quality. My…read moreexperience left something to be desired. Arriving several hours before closing, I found only a couple of loaves on sale, and a long line to get with them. I managed to snag the last one that wasn't plain white bread, and thought I'd add a slice of pizza as it looked appealing. While the ingredients were there, the little toaster oven they used barely warmed it up at all. I ate it there, but I'd suspect it would have been much better if I'd gotten it to go and cooked it properly myself. They don't open all that early on weekdays and I've struggled to make it in, and on the weekend, they struggled to meet expectations. Perhaps on a different day, they could do a better job of getting the right baked goods into my hands.

Truly amazing food, everything seems made from scratch. Staff gets to know you and is very…read morefriendly. My two personal favorites are the chocolate croissant and the garlic rosemary sourdough. I could eat here every day and not get tired! Manager Brett also manages that place insanely well. Clean, organized, and efficient. Kudos to the team!

I have been to many bakeries in my lifetime, many wonderful ones located in cities like San Juan,…read moreMadrid, Rome, Paris, Brussels, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Miami, and Washington, DC, among others. I have truly enjoyed dining in each and every one of them. But Bread Craft, located in the Star City of Roanoke, is in a class of its own. After being ranked 4th among Yelp's Top 50 Most Prolific Elites of 2025, a distinction recognizing my consistent community engagement and high-quality contributions, I decided that this year, as an All-Star Yelp Elite, I not only wanted to be the first to discover new restaurants, businesses, and establishments, and bring them to the attention of the public, but also to go back and write follow-up reviews on those places that impressed me the most during 2025, and Bread Craft Bakery, located in Downtown Roanoke, is the perfect example of one of them. Bread Craft is a premier, artisan European-style bakery established in 2006 by owner Alex Eliades, who besides having a passion for baking, has over 25 years of baking experience, and leads the bakery focusing on traditional slow-fermentation techniques. The bakery is known for its high-quality, scratch-made sourdough, pastries, and Croissants. It evolved from a wholesale operation into a popular 6,000 square foot café on Church Avenue, also supplying local restaurants. The bakery specializes in Franch and German-style baking, utilizing sourdough as a natural leavener. It servers breakfast and lunch items, including sandwiches, salads, and some creative breakfast egg entrées. They are open Wednesdays through Sundays from 8:00AM - 2:00PM and are well known for running out of items before the end of the day. For this review I visited the Bakery / Café for breakfast on two consecutive Wednesdays. The first Wednesday I arrived too late to be able to have their Chorizo & Eggs Cocotte from their Breakfast menu. Breakfast is only served until noon, and I found out about this on that day. So instead I had a Cheese Danish and a house-made Mocha Coffee. Both items were delicious. On the second Wednesday I arrived much earlier for breakfast. Luckily, right before a whole rush of customers arriving to place Take-out orders. As soon as I walked inside I immediately felt comfortable with its clean and contemporary architectural design and decor, and an exposed red brick wall that gave it a warm ambiance. One can see that the owner spent a substantial amount in renovating the place when they moved here, and that they took good care of it, because it looked as if it had just opened for the very first time yesterday. While I was looking over all the baked items they had, I received a friendly greeting and warm welcome from a lady behind the counter who seemed to be the manager and took my order. To start I ordered a Chorizo Quiche which happened to be the Quiche of the day, and a house-made Mocha Coffee. Then since I was planning to turn this into a Brunch, for my main entrée I ordered their Chorizo Cocotte from the Breakfast menu. And for dessert I had a Chocolate Hazelnut Croissant that was simply irresistible. Everything tasted amazingly delicious, especially since I love Chorizo. The Quiche had an amazing crust with the eggs inside cooked with the perfect amount of chorizo. The Chorizo Cocotte was served in an elongated bowl with two poached eggs over Spanish sausage, accompanied by three slices of freshly made Baguette. And if all this wasn't enough, the Chocolate Hazelnut Croissant was the perfect ending dessert to this fabulous put together Brunch. Oh and the coffee was the best of the best. I invite you to view my photographs accompanying this review to get a better sense of the place and the quality of their food. What an outstanding dining experience I just had at Bread Craft. Wonderful ambiance, amazing food, and extraordinary customer service. I highly recommend this Bakery/Café whenever you're in the area. I'm absolutely certain it will become one of your favorites bakery.

The staff is great! The bread and sandwhich are great! I love the pb cookies! I love them at the…read morefarmers market

I've bought from her several times and each time the breads were very fresh and delicious! I've…read moretried the Cinnamon Rolls, Sourdough and French bread and loved them all. You can tell she makes them with love.

What a delight to sit for a delicious meal with a delicious dessert or not! You will leave full and…read morehappy. My favorite is their quiche!! They have sandwiches and salads, too. Fabulous desserts and lots of bread to purchase. Everything is fresh.

First time at this location. The downtown location closed and they consolidated…read more As their name implies they do a lot with bread. So lot of options with bakery items during my weekend visit. They have a strong brunch menu and also a fun coffee menu. Ordering is at the counter and was extremely friendly and helpful. The dining atmosphere is casual and comfortable. The area was clean. They also have outdoor dining. My party of three all ordered different items from chocolate chip packed, oh my that cake is huge! Scrambled eggs, quiche and I had an omelette. I was not in love with my omelette unfortunately. It lacked flavor. My pancake latte was amazing! 3.5, rounding up. I will be back.

Was able to order a cake for my dad's birthday in advance on the website that was super quick and…read moreeasy to use. It might be my favorite cake I've ever had! The perfect density and the ganache is so rich and flavorful.

Went with my daughter, who I was visting! Walked a bit to get some pastries and immediately was…read moretargeted with slurs and racist remarks. Don't know if it was my hat or shirt that set them off. Regardless, horrible people working at this miserable establishment!

Brand new bakery, female owned business in Forest. Saw it on a FB post and knew we had to stop by…read more We ordered a little of everyday, the chocolate donut dense like a brown with a homemade chocolate glaze, both were excellent. We picked two cupcakes, Oatmeal Cream Pie and a Pumpkin Latte both were moist, a good size and the icing was smooth and not overly sweet. You can tell she uses premium ingredients. A cheap icing is sometimes gritty this was not and I appreciate the cupcakes being served chilled. The Stuff French Toast was both unique and satisfying. The blueberry mix was really well done again not overly sweet but really tasty. It looked more like a sandwich than French toast, and that is how I ate it, very convenient this way. The bread was crispy but sweet and held the filling well. The cream cheese filling was delicious, probably the best I ever had, and I definitely want to try more favors. The shop itself was very quaint, cute and welcoming. The owner was friendly and chatted with us while we sampled everything. It's nice to see good local people opening businesses.

I ordered a wedding cake with Blue Flowers and Sunflowers. I paid $345 and the cake was priced for…read more$286.50. when I picked up the cakes today, they were not decorated at all. Also, the gluten free cakes were suppose to be sugar free but the box says it's made with 1/2 sugar and the other monk fruit for the frosting. I have tried contacting her about this but I have received no response. I am horrified with this bakery and I have to use these cakes for a wedding party tomorrow.