Mariposa Baking Company

Gluten free folks unite! This is probably my very favorite gf bakery. A lot of sweet and savory options - and a market of items to go.

After reading all the great reviews, I had high hopes. Unfortunately, not all of the baked items we chose were texturally good even though flavor wise was on point. First, the positive. The convenient parking lot is a huge plus for this area. When we arrived at 11:15am on a Wednesday, there were a few spots left. Another positive is the variety of items. What an array of gluten free treats to choose from! We loved how delicious the cupcakes and brownies are. So moist and not overly sweet. Now onto the negative, while the flavors were good, the texture of the croissant, cinnamon roll, bagel, and muffin were extremely dry! The croissant dough had a buttery flavor, but unfortunately not lamented and flakey. It was more like a biscuit dough. The cinnamon roll was dry and crumbly, not chewy and gooey. The bagel was like dry bread dough shaped into a bagel. The muffin faired better than the rest, but it was still too dry and crumbly. Would I go back if I were in the Bay Area again? Probably not. It was an out of the way drive for less than ideal gluten free baked goods that were pretty expensive.

Store is well organized and fully stocked Nice decor for the seasonMenu is easy to read Nice variety of items to choose from Lots of GF items My friend paid $9 for a loaf of GF bread Parking is easy to come by Customer service is friendly Apple Pay and credit cards accepted

Amazing looking and smelling food. I stopped by for a friend and picked up a vegan pop tart. She said it tasted amazing. The only downside was the parking. Parking was horrible, had to circle around a couple times. When I did find a spot, I was yelled at by an employee of a different business because he claimed the spot was for his shop (it wasn't).

These are best tasting graham crackers. They are nutty, crunchy, dense and mildly sweet! Yummy!

Such a cute storefront and bakery. My dad is diabetic so I was looking for a good sugar free alternative to a birthday cake, called around he and found Mariposa's low sugar chocolate pie! It is quite small and cost $24.50 after tip but we were able to fit writing on it. However, so happy to have found a gluten free, vegan friendly, and low sugar friendly option in the East Bay for future celebrations!The staff is super nice and the locals were very lively and sweet! Definitely a great shop with grate energy.

I really wanted to like Mariposa and support an Oakland business. I've been getting gluten free goods from Mariposa for my daughter who has celiac disease. I've gotten several things for her and every time she says it's not that great. The problem I have is it's really expensive and the portions are very small. We recently went to Trader Joe's and I couldn't believe the gluten free selection they had. I'm not trying to promote Trader Joe's but my daughter said their baked goods and raviolis were more flavorful. Bigger portions for halfthe cost. So I will start shopping there now.

Been here twice now and love to pop by when in Oakland! I'm not gf myself but my friend is and she adores this place + a penguino is a MUST whenever I come. I will say their pricing on some items are a bit high though. My friend didn't buy too much and spent $75. They have very basic hot coffee and free self service water which I appreciate greatly! Parking is a bit tricky but can usually find a street spot nearby.

Completely disorganized. They finally acknowledged me after four different people came in and the line started forming.I ordered a simple spinach croissant thing, which was in the display case but rather than just give it to me they made me wait while they served other people. After about four other people have gone through the line as I just stood there. I just asked for a refund because apparently my time is not valuable to them. I won't be back. Don't ever go there if you're in a rush. They don't care.

I moved here from vermont and expected Mariposa to be like West Meadow Farm Bakery in burlington, an incredible gluten free bakery with a huge variety. Well, Mariposa had a huge variety but my expectations were too high based on previous excellent gf pastries I've had. WHAT I GOT & HOW WAS IT?I got two hand pies: apple berry and cherry. I also got a cinnamon roll, a soft pretzel, a brown sugar cinnamon poptart dupe, challah, and pain au chocolate. The bread they use here is not like pastry bread despite it being used for that purpose. It is heavy, bready, kind of crumbly, and easily identifiable as gluten free. When I'm getting gluten free Pastries at $6+ a pop, I'm spending a premium to purchase something I couldn't make myself. A fluffy croissant. A decadent hand pie. This was not that; not worth the money. Perhaps if it had been a few dollars cheaper? Let's talk individual items:Challah: The challah was similar to real challah, but woefully underbaked and as a result, sort of dense and chewy at the bottom. Their problem is twofold: the tapioca starch or potato starch in their flour blend is too much, and also they clearly overmixed then underbaked it. $10 for a small loaf and it was so sad. Edible, yes, but not that enjoyable. Cinnamon roll: The cinnamon roll was the best item, 8/10. It was certainly flavorful. Good amount of cinnamon and frosting, but again the bread is just not the type to use in a pastry. Handpies: The handpies are just fine. They are not structurally sound. Handpies are also supposed to be made out of pie dough, but Mariposa opted to make it out of the same dense bready dough that everything else is made of. The cherry hand pie was weirdly chewy. They had enough filling though, which was good. Pop tart: The pop tart had no filling, just a whisper of what was once brown sugar now melted into that same bready dough. Pretzel: The soft pretzel was nicely salted but again the dough was an issue. I felt the texture was most like the gluten version-- not as light but definitely close to a real soft pretzel. Chocolate croissant aka pain au chocolate: The pain au chocolate was generously filled just like the real ones but the bread was not even close to croissant bread. That was so sad because when I looked at its inside it certainly had the APPEARANCE of a croissant. Like the appearance was flaky with the fluffy look, but the texture was not flaky-- instead very dense. Pastries were helped by warming in the oven/microwave on a low setting, but not much. DO THEY KEEP?Another big issue I had with Mariposa is that their baked goods don't keep well. I stored them in a cool dry place in airtight containers overnight and less than 24 hr later they were already stale. WORTH IT?It wasn't worth the money; in this area you can get better GF pastries from Life is Sweet. These items didn't taste BAD, they tasted just fine and the fruit pies had ample filling. It's fun to try and see. But they weren't good enough to justify spending that much again. I could've made every one of these pastries at home and made them taste more like the real thing, rather than this heavy mess of dough, and I'm not even that good of a baker. Schar sells better croissants at Safeway for $10. And wholly gluten free makes better pie crust for like $3.50. I mean they even sell that SAME crust for a markup there. I don't think I'd be so bummed by this experience if things had just been a bit cheaper. It was at least $6.50 for even the smallest items. LAYOUTThe shop is very small and not laid out smartly at all. It would be cozy if there was just one customer I think, but Mariposa is evidently popular so there were about 8 people inside when we were. It's extremely difficult to get around and look at things when there's more than two people in there.