Iranian Bakeries & sweets

Fresh bread is the one thing on this list you cannot judge from a photograph. For a lot of us it is also the first thing that makes a new city feel liveable: a sheet of sangak still warm on the way home, a box of pastries for Friday night. This page has no sub-categories, and the businesses on it carry none either, so nothing sorts out for you which places bake their own bread, which only sell sweets, and which do both. The answer is one phone call away, and you have to be the one who asks.

What the Verified badge does and does not say

Verified says one thing only: a real person stands behind this profile and manages it themselves. YabInfy does not check anyone's certificates, licences, experience or competence, and the badge is not for sale. Baking and confectionery are Meisterpflicht trades in Germany, and the business itself is entered in the register of skilled trades (Handwerksrolle) kept by the regional chamber of skilled crafts (Handwerkskammer), so if you want that confirmed for a particular shop, ask that chamber.

The breads, and what actually separates them

Sangak is baked on a bed of hot stones, and those stones are what leave the little craters across the underside. Now and then one of them travels home inside the bread, so give the sheet a shake before you cut it.

Barbari is the thick one, long and oval, scored down its length and usually finished with sesame or nigella seeds. It is the bread that belongs beside cheese and tea in the morning, and it turns tough within hours. Taftoon is thinner, rounder and softer, built for wrapping around a mouthful. Lavash is the thinnest of the four, folds flat, and is the one that survives a freezer best.

Here is the thing almost every newcomer gets wrong once. A Persian bakery in Germany does not keep the oven going all day the way the one at the end of the street did back home. Most bake in batches at set hours, some do sangak only on certain days, and when a batch is gone it is gone. A counter that was stacked at eleven can be bare by mid-afternoon. So either call and ask what time the bread comes out, or go early.

Bread is at its best on the day. If you buy more than you will eat, bag it in portions and freeze it while it is still soft, not the next morning when the decision has already been made for you. A few minutes in a hot oven brings most of it back.

Ordering for an occasion

This is where phoning ahead matters more than dropping in. For an ordinary mehmooni, a mixed box can often be ordered a few days out. For a large arranged tray, or for something that has to be baked fresh on the day, longer. And for Nowruz week or the night of Yalda, much longer: in those few days the whole city wants the same few things and the shop still has one kitchen. Get the actual number from the shop, because it depends on the size of that kitchen and on the season, and the answer in an ordinary week is not the answer in March.

A khastegari or a bale-boroon usually calls for an arranged tray rather than a box, and the two are not the same order. A tray takes time to lay out, and sometimes the tray or the dish itself is a loan. Settle before you order whether it comes back, when it comes back, whether the arranging is priced separately, and the exact hour of collection. For a large order, ask whether a deposit is expected and how they want to be paid, since some small shops still take cash only.

Sweets are sold by weight, and not all of them travel

Sweets here are usually priced by the kilo rather than by the piece: you ask for half a kilo of a mix, not for six of that one. Which means a small box full of the nut-heavy things costs more than it looks like it should. That is not a trick, it is just worth knowing before you point at the tray.

Some of it takes a journey well and some of it does not:

• Gaz keeps nicely in a tin or a firm box, but goes soft and sticky in heat, so do not leave it on a car dashboard in the sun.
• Sohan lasts, which is what makes it a good thing to carry as a gift, but it is brittle: unprotected, it arrives as shards in the bottom of the box.
• Baklava is good for a few days somewhere cool and dry. The fridge is not its friend and changes the texture.
• Nan-e nokhodchi is the most fragile of the lot and crumbles in transit. If you are taking it to another city, say so when you order, because it gets packed differently.
• Cream pastries do not travel at all: same day, short trip, straight into the fridge.

What to ask, on the phone or at the counter

• Baking times: what hour the bread comes out today, and which breads are made on which days.
• Notice for an order: how far ahead for a box, how far ahead for a tray, and how much further ahead around Nowruz and Yalda.
• Tray or box: whether they do an arranged tray or only a box, whether the dish is a loan, and whether the arranging is charged separately.
• Nuts and allergens: which sweets contain pistachio, almond, walnut, sesame or egg, and whether nuts are handled in the same kitchen. A seller of loose goods should be able to tell you, but get the answer from the shop itself, and if the allergy is a serious one do not settle for "I do not think so".
• Payment and collection: card or cash only, whether a deposit is needed, and when and where you pick the order up.
• YabInfy checks none of this, so ask for it yourself, and ask to see the document where it matters.

Choosing from this list

Taste is personal, and a review that only says the sweets were good tells you very little. In the reviews, look for what can genuinely be judged: whether the order was ready at the hour promised, whether the tray matched what was agreed, and whether the bread really was fresh at the time they said. One review saying a Yalda order ran two hours late is worth more to you than ten warm general ones.

Place decides a great deal here, because fresh bread does not travel and neither do cream pastries. Start from the city list at the bottom of this page, and if nothing sits near you, ask whether they prepare larger orders for another city and how collection would work.

Nobody behind the counter finds out that you looked: YabInfy neither keeps nor shows who opened a profile or who got in touch. The one public thing is the review you write, under the name you pick for it. Each shop keeps its number behind "Show contact details".

If you run a bakery or a sweet shop yourself, add your business. The FAQ explains what this site does and does not do.