The 411 on Ones Café & Bakery #
Address: 3483 Castro Valley Blvd
Castro Valley, CA
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ones.cafe.and.bakery
The Vibe: Family-owned Ones Café & Bakery serves up intricately made pastries with a variety of sweet and savory fillings, especially Asian flavors. It is the second business in a row that’s made amazing baked goods from the same small storefront, right on Castro Valley’s main drag.
The first was Pampas Café, which specializes in empanadas and is now located right by Trader Joe's. Both are great! I’m sure there’s been a stream of businesses in that tiny location trying to make things work, and I’m glad both Ones and Pampas Café have successfully used it as a launching point.
Launching point? That’s right, Ones just expanded to Alameda! I’ve not visited the new shop, but I enjoyed its last coffee shop tenants, Coffee Cultures, and the space is a fun one. I’m hoping Ones pulls off the feat of making both unique locations work.
That right there, with its exquisite lamination, is the signature, stuffed, half-moon croissant made by Ones. It’s brought them a level of Instagram fame, but their attention to detail is evident in every one of their baked goods. Most of the offerings are variations on croissant doughs and shapes, like the half-moon. They include standard plain, almond-, and chocolate-filled croissants. But Ones also makes bowtie, half-moon, wheel, croffin, croffles, onigiri, and even sandwich bun forms of the pastry, keeping things lively for lovers of lamination!
The lemongrass chicken sandwich roll
Coffee and tea are also available, as are special orders. The Castro Valley shop, which is the one I’m reviewing here, does not have indoor seating, but does have a few tables scattered in front and to the side of the store.
If your heart is set on a particular pastry, go early—they frequently sell out!
My Take on Ones Café & Bakery #
The Food: Whoever leads the pastry program at Ones knows their stuff. The lamination is so beautifully layered and colored that taking that first bite is a bit of a challenge—you don’t want to shatter the perfection with your teeth. The pistachio bowtie croissant is filled with sweet cheese, quite a lot of it in the tie’s knot.
I would have liked pistachio cream or just nuts inside it as well, but the overall pastry was so good, I’m not really complaining. Do know that a little goes a long way.
Which is also the case for that savory chicken-lemongrass croissant roll pictured above. Take a peak inside:
It's very full! And can be warmed up, which I'd recommend. The lemongrass, warmed or not, has some heat to it. Its punch combined well with the rest of the curry-like sauce inside, the tender chicken, and the pickle. But it was a lot to take in! I’m not sure I’d choose it again, unlike…
…the signature half-moon. Ones makes the half-moon in strawberry and ube flavors. It is stuffed full of cream with a texture somewhere between pastry cream and whipped.
The filling won’t melt as fast as whipped cream, luckily, yet it felt just as fluffy on my tongue. As with the items I’ve already reviewed, there was plenty of delicious strawberry flavor.
The Drinks: I’ve had the black sesame latte twice now, and…
…I think it would be better served with a stronger sesame flavor. But I’ve had that opinion of a few different black sesame drinks and desserts lately, so maybe black sesame is just more subtle than its toasted cousin. The infoweb tells me it should be more pungent, but that’s not been my experience. Regardless, I’ll opt for a standard cappuccino or americano next time I’m at one of their shops, to see how well their basic barista skills fare.
Would I Go Back? Sure will, but only when I’m craving their particular forms of croissant. It doesn’t take much for me to crave them, admittedly.
Reviewed multiple times 2025–2026.
