Balcazar Bakery

This place is just fine I don't get the bad reviews. The Columbian bread was great thinking of going to get some buñuelos and pan de Bono just now.

I was excited to find a "Colombian" bakery in Raleigh, but this place seriously disappointed. I should've heeded the other reviews. The place smells awful when you walk in. It has a really weird smell. The food does not look appetizing or fresh. I ordered pan de Bono and the guy went to the back and got them with dirty gloves that were full of dough and just nasty. When I walked over to the side where I could see to the back the baking sheets fu of cooked food are just laid out and exposed. It was gross. I would never come here again and certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I can't even imagine what their health score is.The pan de bono wasn't good either. I ordered 4. Took a bite and threw them out.

Balcazar Bakery has been in Raleigh for 10 years. They are owned and run by a family from Bogota, Colombia. Thankfully, they have some of the Colombian baked goods and snack foods I crave. Pan con queso, pan de bono, arepas, bunuelos, empanadas, morcilla, tamales and all sorts of pastries and cakes. These are foods that I can only find in Colombia or in US communities with enough Colombian immigrants to sustain such a business. I am very happily surprised to find this in Raleigh. I had just finished lunch at a nearby Salvadorian restaurant and thought I had saved room for dessert, but I had to make my purchase to go. I do not have a big sweet tooth so, I bought some pan de bono which is a chewy small donut shaped cheese bread. When it bakes it rises creating a hollow cavity. It's great with coffee. I should say, it is great with Colombian coffee or traditionally with hot chocolate. This pan de bono was very good even by itself. Planning ahead for a light dinner, I bought an arepa( a small white corn cake) and a piece of morcilla (blood sausage ). Even though I reheated these hours later, the arepa was still quite fresh. The morcilla was definitely a Colombian style morcilla. Yum ! Now I just have to get there early in the morning when things are coming out of the ovens. I got my fix.

Overpriced. Baked goods are not fresh. It doesn't look clean in there. Every time I go I swear they raise the prices.

I had a craving for a dessert, so I looked on the Yelp app to find a bakery that I had never been to for something different. I came across Balcazar Bakery. It is in this small hole in the wall shop that is crammed full of baked goods. I didn't know what I was going to get, I just wanted to try something new. I ordered the Mariposa. (Means butterfly in Spanish) What can I say other than I regret my decision to visit. The Mariposa was not fresh, I mean, I don't think it was made that day fresh. There might be some items to my liking there, but I wouldn't know as I have only been there once, and tried one item. So I might have to visit on another day just in case the day I went they were having an off day. But if you are going to get just one item, I would suggest to bring cash, and the manager complained and said there was a minimal charge of $5 if you want to use the credit card. That is a stupid rule in a cashless society where everybody uses plastic now a days. Oh well, just my two cents.

Let me just say I will never go to this bakery ever again!!! They sold me a piece of moldy cake from the refrigerated section...it was the blackberry roll cake. It looked good so I bought it. I just sat down to enjoy it and like I do with all food before I eat it...I smelled it. It smelled a little funny so I had my teenager smell it. He said it must just be the blackberry. So I decided to nibble the piece on my fork....thank God the cake fell over because the other side revealed 2-3 moldy spots. I immediately spit out the cake and of course gagged. I will never go here again...they must just leave the unpurchased cakes in the fridge for weeks!!! I am totally disgusted! If I could score lower they would get negative 10 stars!!!

I visited Balcazar Bakery on a Tuesday night. I was on a mission to find a last minute birthday cake for my significant other. Using Yelp's mobile app on my commute home from work, I searched for nearby bakeries and found the well-reviewed and conveniently located Balcazar Bakery. The bakery is located in the same shopping center as Burlington Coat Factory and is fairly easy to find. The location is small but quaint, and there are many special occasion cakes on display. I imagine they do a lot of custom cake orders based on the displays. I did find a section with refrigerated cakes, but only two were out on display. I asked the woman behind the counter what other cakes they had for same day (aka right now) pick up, and she said they had a greater selection in the back. Glad I asked! I ended up getting their mocha cake, over the tiramisu or the fruit flavored options they also had available. The woman behind the counter even offered to write "Happy birthday" on the cake for me. Score. When it came time to eat the cake, we weren't disappointed. Do be aware that this cake, and all of their cakes from my quick bird's eye view, are Latino inspired through and through. The mocha cake, for instance, had a hazelnut tasting gel with nuts included, and was much lighter than I expected for how chocolatey it looked/sounded. The quality of the cake and the overall deliciousness won me over though -- despite not being as chocolatey and maybe not quite as indulgent as I expected, I ended up with seconds. My fiancee went back for thirds. :)I also grabbed a slice of red velvet cake while I was there. Although they didn't offer the red velvet in a full cake for same day pick up, they had it available by the slice. The red velvet was actually made with strawberry cake and the same traditional cream cheese frosting I'm used to. Not what I expected when tasting the strawberry cake, but still delicious! If I had one piece of suggestion for this bakery, it would be to consider people's expectations in naming their cakes (but then again, this suggestion is probably a result of my more thorough knowledge of American vs. Latino desserts!) For all I know, red velvet may be traditionally made with strawberry rather than cocoa elsewhere in the world. :)I'll be back at some point!

OK, I felt I had to stop work and write a review seeing that there are only 2. Maybe it's a culture thing at this place.I started coming here for desserts back in 2007 and have not stopped coming. Their breads!! The Columbian bread there is DELICIOUS! They make their own tres leches cakes which are out of this world. If you like tiramisu, you MUST try a bite from theirs.This place is definitely a hole in the wall and may be a bit intimidating especially if you do not speak Spanish, but trust me it's a gem worth finding.If you have an office party or a gathering and you need to bring boxes of desserts, stop by and just randomly pick from their fresh baked goods and make yourself a box to go. I've done this several times now and the price is right too!

Terrible place. Bad service. I ordered a cake and it did not look like what I asked for. Terrible terrible service. Wish she would of told me she couldn't do it as the picture. Don't get cake from here. Terrible lugar Mal servicio. Pedí un pastel y no se parecía a lo que pedí. Terrible servicio terrible. Ojalá me hubiera dicho que no podía hacerlo como la imagen. No consigas pastel de aquí. a nadie en la fiesta de mi hijo le gustó. sabor terrible!

I would give this place 0 stars.We purchased a cake for my mother in law's birthday. Took it home right after purchasing. When we cut the cake my guests and I tried it and it was spoiled. Absolutely disappointed and embarrassed with my guests. We tried to get a refund and the owner was very disrespectful and unprofessional. He tried to tell us that we left the cake sitting in the car and it spoiled because of that... like I said we went straight home and the cake did not sit out to spoil. We eat tres leches cakes all the time and know that they must be refrigerated. The fact that their cake was spoiled makes me wonder how long they let their cakes sit in their refrigerators for.... probably weeks. The cake didn't even have a date that it was made printed on it. Would not recommend at all. Spoiled, dry tres leches. Not worth the $35 and the embarrassment I went through. Worse cake ever.