Big Sur Bakery
A bakery counter from 8am, lunch five days, and dinner on two nights only, all of it built around a wood oven.1
Why go
The oven is the whole argument. Philip Wojtowicz co-founded the place and cooked on it for years, and when he left in 2018 to open Poppy Hall in Pacific Grove he described the new room by what it would not have: It will be sort of like Big Sur Bakery, I felt like we were pioneers in California cuisine there, but without the wood oven.
2 He had eighteen years of it behind him by then. The format still runs the same way. Bakery from eight, lunch in the middle of the day, and dinner only on Friday and Saturday between five and seven, booked ahead.1 A kitchen that opens for two hours on two nights is one that has decided how much it can cook well.
Order this / avoid
- Order: whatever the oven is running that day, and something off the bakery counter on the way in.1
- Avoid: arriving hungry on a Tuesday, when the bakery is shut, or on any night that is not Friday or Saturday.1
What locals & experts say
- Philip Wojtowicz, co-founder, in 2018 on what the oven cost him:
I've had 18 years of cooking over wood fires at Big Sur Bakery and in LA and would be very happy if I never have to light another fire or smell like a campfire again.
2
Good to know
- Check the road before you drive down. The Timber Fire has burned more than 19,000 acres, and Highway 1 closed again at 1pm on 27 August 2026 between Andrew Molera State Park and Deetjen's Big Sur Inn. The bakery has posted nothing about it, so call ahead.3
- Dinner is reservations only, Friday and Saturday, 5 to 7pm. Lunch runs Wednesday to Sunday, noon to 2:30.1
Verdict
could-visit — Everything solid here is the format and a chef who left in 2018, so the rung sits low until it is clear who runs that oven now and what comes off it. Two hard facts hold it up anyway: dinner is two nights a week and takes reservations only, which is a kitchen choosing to cook small. It climbs when a critic writes up a plate.