The West End Bakery

Stopped for a quick bite before hiking. Waited for 10 mins before greeted - not even a hello- from the lady making coffee. Stuff was strewn everywhere on the counter and the pastries did not look very appetizing. After watching the two cooks, 1 texting intermittently while preparing food and one mixing avos with no gloves, we were greeted and told it would be atleast 20-30 minutes for a BLT. We left, if I were the owner I would be concerned.

A little confused that a place that calls itself a bakery has so few baked goods for sale! The croissants also tasted store bought, or at least a few days stale, if they were made in house. The scones were decent and the staff was friendly. Cute little place, but it's weird to call itself a bakery. As nice as it was, I probably won't return for the cafe or bakery, and wouldn't recommend it for your morning coffee. There are other places in Asheville that serve better coffee with breakfast food made in house. I'll have to come back for dinner to see if it's at least a decent restaurant! But so far I'm a little confused at all the glowing reviews, it's so-so to me.

Super delicious avocado toast. They do not skimp on the extras! It has a chill vibe inside and the staff is extremely friendly.

This is going to be a regular brunch spot for me.

What to say about this place? First, the good: the food is really good. Simple, but well prepared with fresh ingredients and presented in a very lovely way. The service folks when I ate there were very friendly. The place looks very good -- someone has a nice design eye for interiors, and the outdoor porch is a comfortable place to sit in good weather.

But...the place has gone through re-branding and reinvention a couple times now and seems sort of stuck halfway between the different versions of itself. Is it a bakery? A wine bar? A breakfast place? A bakery with wine? A wine bar with cookies and coffee? The different logos, the inaccurate website, the incorrect menus....all of them show relics of these different "West Ends of Christmas Past".

Some examples....TheWestEndAshville.com website is beautiful, but includes an menu that hasn't been updated, confusing hours, and a wine list that apparently doesn't exist anymore. Do they serve any of the beautiful flatbreads or wine pictured on the website? No, no they don't.

The phone number on yelp and tripadvisor is wrong, and there isn't a number even listed on the website. The food is good, but the service was pretty slow considering there were only three other patrons in the place when I was there...and I had ordered a sandwich.

The restaurant, in good coffee house style, offers internet service for guests, but the branding on the login page is from the bakery, and the wireless connection is terrible. When you search "West End Asheville" on Google, the website link in the search result connects to one place, but there's a "menu" link that goes to an entirely different, old website.

And they were out of two of their sandwich offerings and one toast offering as well as avocados and sausages....at just after noon.

Will the real "West End" please stand up?

The entire place feels like it is run by a talented chef with a good design eye who is cursed with a bad business sense and a vicious case of ADHD.

Allllll that said, I will definitely be going back to enjoy the friendly service and the fresh, good food. I am just not sure if I will be getting wine and flatbread or coffee and a breakfast sandwich. I just hope they manage to get all this straightened out, because I'd like the place to survive!

This place was great! We ordered the BLT, vegan breakfast sandwich, vegan chocolate chip cookie, & a smoothie. The food was all wonderful, top notch! They ran out of one of the ingredients for the smoothie, so they made a custom one for us, which was fantastic.

Sadly , I feel like this place is going under. I’ve went for 2 weekends in a row, both during business hours and both times has been closed. The second time I had to knock on door, as I was in a hurry on the way to work. They were out of most things, and seemed to be low on staff, as most people are, so it’s understandable. But ot would be nice to have a phone number on the site or update the google page.

Recommended by former residents of Ashville. Drove 8 miles to get this wonderful breakfast. Did not open till 9, website says 8. After standing in line on the sidewalk for 15 minutes - NO inside service! - the menu was very limited: biscuit w/sausage OR biscuit w/egg & cheese. Not both! We were REALLY disappointed after all the great reviews.

Visited this bakery on Friday 10/22/2021 with 5 others. I ordered a tropical smoothie and a pumpkin chocolate chip muffin. Others with me ordered breakfast sandwiches. The muffin was hard and had a burnt taste. It was horrible. I went to the lady that was taking orders and asked if I could have something else because the muffin was essentially not edible. She rudely told me that since I had already eaten a piece of it there was nothing she could do. I stated again that the muffin was burnt and hard and she was again very rude and dismissive. I thought this showed a lack of customer service on their part. The others ordered breakfast sandwiches in which it took at least 30 minutes to fulfilled. They also had to substitute for items they ran out of. I believe they only had one cook which explains the wait time. They didn’t have many customers to serve (which should have been a red flag). However the others did enjoy their breakfast sandwiches but we were all pretty sure we’d never come here again.

Five stars for the pumpkin chocolate chip muffin alone! Also had the egg and cheese on a biscuit - hearty servings and delicious. The ladies running the counter were friendly even while hustling to serve the Sunday morning crowd. Decor could use a facelift but it’s clear the focus is on quality food and coffee!

I went in this morning excited to get my iced coffee. Was incredibly displeased to receive my coffee in a red solo cup. I understand shortages all around, though I don’t think think this is an appropriate way for a well established cafe to service their customers.