{"id":465827,"date":"2026-09-16T17:52:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T17:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/465827\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T17:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T17:52:15","slug":"best-of-orange-county-2026-best-bakery-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/465827\/","title":{"rendered":"Best of Orange County 2026: Best bakery \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Each year, we ask Orange County Register readers to choose their favorite places to shop, dine, play and do business in OC.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the top picks for Best bakery:<\/p>\n<p>1. Scratch Bakery Caf\u00e9<\/p>\n<p>Laguna Hills, Newport Beach; 949-859-2253; 949-524-8200; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scratchbakerycafe.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">scratchbakerycafe.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Whether inventing delightful takes on favorites, turning bakery \u201cmistakes\u201d into surprising best sellers, or producing sweet and\/or savory gems, Scratch Bakery earns high grades.<\/p>\n<p>The name tells you what you need to know about preparation.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018We bake handmade breads fresh every day, the way bread has been made for centuries in Europe,\u201d the company says.<\/p>\n<p>On the sweet side, the bakery\u2019s Knock Knocks are a Scratch original.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt came from a take on a Ding Dong,\u201d says CEO and co-founder Ronnie Givargis. \u201cIt started as a joke and turned into a real favorite.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The pastry consists of moist cake filled with buttercream and dipped in chocolate, with seasonal flavors such as red velvet or bananas Foster.<\/p>\n<p>A recent creation, confetti cake, takes a page from the viral dot cake craze, Givargis recently announced, \u201cthe newest addition to our Knock Knock family. Confetti cake filled with buttercream, dipped in white chocolate, and covered in rainbow nonpareils.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For fans of the savory side, Manna Buns are another favorite. Described by Givargis as \u201can English muffin gone wrong,\u201d the buns are light, airy and corn meal crusted and an ideal companion to breakfast foods.<\/p>\n<p>Orders can be made online and lines begin queuing about 7 a.m. daily.<\/p>\n<p>Although its roots are in baking, Scratch has a strong following among dine-in patrons for breakfast and lunch.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe started as a bakery, but now a good portion of our sales is food,\u201d Givargis said.<\/p>\n<p>Also see: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ocregister.com\/2026\/09\/16\/best-of-orange-county-2026-see-all-the-winners\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Best of Orange County 2026: See all the winners<\/a><\/p>\n<p>2. Porto\u2019s Bakery and Caf\u00e9<\/p>\n<p>7640 Beach Blvd., Buena Park; 714-367-2030; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.portosbakery.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">portosbakery.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s all about the balance between the old favorites and finding new and exciting flavors that keeps Porto\u2019s Bakery and Cafe on both the cutting edge and steeped in Old World tradition.<\/p>\n<p>It is also about never resting on laurels.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t take it for granted,\u201d said Betty Porto, who came to the U.S\u00a0 with her family from Cuba and is the owner of the six eponymous bakery-restaurants. \u201cIt\u2019s a labor of love.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Porto, that means honoring Momma Rosa Porto\u2019s family favorites from personal and generations-old Spanish Galician recipes, such as her famous Papa Rellenas, potato balls, and guava strudel, as well as consistently changing and adding \u201cbeautiful seasonal items, like fruit mousses and torts.<\/p>\n<p>Porto\u2019s also delivers Bake at Home kits with recipes and instructions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat drives us is the customer and keeping them satisfied,\u201d Porto said. \u201cThey\u2019re the bosses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Besides its Buena Park location, Porto\u2019s has bakeries in Burbank, Downey, Glendale, Northridge and West Covina. A second Orange County bakery is currently under construction at Downtown Disney.<\/p>\n<p>3. Katella Bakery Deli Restaurant<\/p>\n<p>4470 Katella Ave., Los Alamitos; 562-594-8611; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.katellabakery.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">katellabakery.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For more than 50 years, Katella Bakery Deli Restaurant has been a treasure tucked away in Los Alamitos. Although known for pastrami-piled-high sandwiches, homemade latkes and other traditional deli favorites, Katella Bakery Deli Restaurant also gains high marks for the bakery side of the business, where the restaurant website proclaims the goods are \u201cbaked the same way, every day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With dozens of varieties of torts, cakes, cheesecakes, cookies, cupcakes, Danishes and pastries, Katella answers the call of just about any sweet tooth.<\/p>\n<p>The bakers are also known for offering up a wide array of muffins, bagels, breads and rolls.<\/p>\n<p>According to the restaurant, \u201cOur bakery remains rooted in tradition. Fresh rye bread, challah, cakes, and pastries are baked in-house daily, just as they always have been.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the restaurant retains deli authenticity with \u201crecipes that have been handed down through our family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Each year, we ask Orange County Register readers to choose their favorite places to shop, dine, play and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,415,22660,10276,183429,30708,139655,183435,53411,183431,183434,183428,57125,183433,183430,183432],"class_list":["post-465827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-bagels","tag-bakeries","tag-bakery","tag-breads","tag-cake","tag-cakes","tag-cheesecakes","tag-cookies","tag-cupcakes","tag-katella-bakery-deli-restaurant","tag-muffins","tag-pastry","tag-portos-bakery-and-cafe","tag-rolls","tag-scratch-bakery-cafe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}