Chris R.
Yelp
We decided to come here after reading an article about Backhaus in the SF Chronicle recently. Having grown up in Germany myself, and reading that the owner is German, had gotten us excited for some authentic German "Bauernbrot". So my wife and I made the trek from Fremont to San Mateo on a cold and rainy Saturday late morning and stood in line for a short five minutes (we also came to try their Mini Chocolate Sourdough loaf which was mentioned in the article, but had already sold out before we arrived).
Upon entering the shop, we were impressed with the loaves on display and ended up purchasing one Country Loaf, one Baguette, one Morning Bun, and one Everything Pretzel Épi. Total for everything was a little over $35. On the way home we stopped at Dittmer's German meat shop in Los Altos to buy some cold cuts to put on the bread.
I'm sad to report, though, that we were disappointed with the bread and pretzel -- while we were expecting "Bauernbrot", this was just sourdough disguised in Baurnbrot clothing. The dough was too "airy" and had too many large air pockets that any toppings just fell through the holes. To be fair, as sourdough goes, it had a good taste and the crust was perfectly caramelized and crispy. The pretzel, however, was very disappointing and we ended up tossing it out as it was too dry and didn't have that traditional German pretzel taste (if you've been to Germany and have had an authentic pretzel, then you know what I'm talking about).
The odds of us returning to Backhaus are very low, and I will continue making Bauernbrot myself at home.