The Most Disappointing Grocery Bakery Items Of 2026 (So Far)

From sour cream donuts to red velvet cupcakes, we love a good home-baked treat. But let's be honest: We simply don't have the time we'd like to spend baking our favorite cakes, rolls, and pies from scratch. That's when grocery store bakeries can come in handy. They make it easy to walk in, grab whatever you want from the bakery section, and go home with a sweet or savory treat without even thinking about turning your oven on. Some of these baked goods can actually be quite delicious, despite not actually being homemade. But unfortunately, others are downright disappointing and leave a bad taste in our mouths.

We're taking a closer look at the most disappointing grocery bakery items of 2026 so far, drawing from taste tests and rankings Tasting Table has published thus far in the calendar year. These items have all been ranked quite low in these articles, lacking in the flavor or texture departments or otherwise just not tasting as good as other available grocery store bakery items out there. Don't worry, though — there are still some incredible grocery store bakery items from this year that deliver the deliciousness you crave.

Grabbing some donuts from the nearest grocery store bakery in the morning is a great way to get on your coworkers' good sides. But which grocery store donuts should you get if you want those coworkers to actually enjoy them? Well, probably not Kroger's Chocolate Iced Donuts. According to our writer who ranked grocery store donuts from worst to best, this unassuming donut is the least tasty of them all. Our taster said it was so yeasty that it feels exceptionally light, almost like a dinner roll. That's probably not what you're looking for in a donut, which you'd generally expect to be hefty.

Something that you'd expect from a donut, especially a chocolate-iced one? Plenty of sweetness, of course. But this donut appears to be missing that important quality as well. Even the icing on this donut has a bitter taste to it, instead of the sugariness you'd expect. Although it may be a pretty good deal at your local Kroger, this treat probably isn't worth seeking out.

Chocolate chip cookies could easily be considered the cornerstone of every grocery store bakery's offerings. After all, they're one of the most widely beloved baked treats out there. But that doesn't mean that every chocolate chip cookie you encounter is going to taste particularly good. If you're getting your cookies at Walmart, there's a good chance that you'll be disappointed by their quality and flavor. When our writer tried and ranked cookies from several grocery store bakeries, they found that Walmart Marketside's were the worst of them all.

Our writer actually tried out cookies from two different baked good lines from Walmart: Freshness Guaranteed and Marketside. They said the former tasted slightly better, although the pair still ended up at the very bottom of the list. They just didn't deliver the kind of flavor our taster was looking for. To make matters worse, this cookie was quite soft in a way that didn't exactly seem like it was freshly baked. Ultimately, it just tasted bland, without delivering the sensory pleasure that chocolate chip cookies are supposed to. While the Marketside cookie was particularly egregious, the Freshness Guaranteed variety doesn't seem like it's a very good dessert option either.

Cinnamon rolls aren't always exactly the easiest baked treats to make from scratch, which is why you might consider buying them at a grocery store instead of baking them yourself. However, you have to be careful about where you're buying your cinnamon rolls if you want to ensure they taste as good as they possibly can ... and it doesn't seem like Aldi is going to be your best bet. After ranking cinnamon rolls from grocery store bakeries, our writer determined that Aldi Bake Shop's rolls were the worst of them all.

The biggest problem with these cinnamon rolls is the fact that they taste artificial, according to our taster, which is exactly the opposite of what you want when you're craving a warm and indulgent baked good. This shouldn't come as too big of a surprise considering that Aldi, unlike many other grocery stores, doesn't actually have an in-house bakery. To make matters worse, the texture of the cinnamon rolls is apparently "ultra chewy," so you're not getting the soft, pillowy textural experience you might expect from this sweet treat. Sure, you can find some decent grocery store bakery cinnamon rolls out there in the wild, but perhaps not at Aldi.

As a frequent Trader Joe's shopper, I was granted the immense privilege of tasting and ranking cakes from Trader Joe's. Although I had high hopes for the chain's Strawberry Mini Sheet Cake, it ended up being my least favorite variety of the lineup. That's not to say that the cake is downright bad, but it definitely falls into the "disappointing" category. I mostly disliked how dry this cake was. The cake itself didn't have the moistness I was looking for, and that issue was only compounded by the fact that the icing tasted dried-out as well. It had a gritty texture that was not totally unpleasant but still wasn't necessarily desirable. The richness I crave in a cake was all but absent in this one.

Plus, when I'm craving a fruity dessert, I usually don't want one that's too sweet — rather, I prefer a more balanced flavor with a nice touch of tartness. Unfortunately, that's not what I tasted in this cake. But what can you expect from a grocery store that doesn't have a bakery on site?

Apple pies are another one of those baked desserts that can be tricky to make from scratch. After all, you have to mix and roll out the dough, arrange all the apples nicely, and bake the pie to perfection without letting the crust burn. Who has time for that? Certainly not the people who are looking for a grocery-store apple pie. While you don't have to make your apple pie from scratch to get a good one, you do have to know where to shop, and apparently, Publix isn't the place to go.

The chain grocer's Dutch apple pie might look good, but it's actually the most disappointing grocery store bakery apple pie. Our writer found dough in this pie that was actually raw (not just undercooked). You'd expect that Publix, a grocery store known for its bakery, wouldn't commit such an egregious pie mistake. The filling didn't taste particularly good either, with an acidic flavor that didn't deliver the right baking spice notes. You might actually be better off with a fast-food dessert pie.

If you like sweet and savory flavor combos, then you're probably a big fan of Hawaiian rolls. They can be used as the base for sliders or can even be employed in various ways for a tastier cookout. But you may want to go for the name-brand option over Walmart's Freshness Guaranteed Hawaiian Enriched Rolls, considering that they're the worst-ranked dinner roll in our ranking of grocery store bakery dinner rolls. This is largely due to their artificial-tasting flavor. Our writer said that they actually tasted like pineapple candy, with a sweetness that's way too overpowering for what's supposed to be a milder-tasting dinner roll.

Because of that intense sweetness, you can't really use these rolls for many things, since there's a good chance that they won't meld well with bold savory notes. That doesn't mean you can't use them in sweeter contexts, but that's not necessarily what most shoppers are looking for with Hawaiian rolls. The texture can also be an issue if you're looking for a bread that stays intact. Because these Hawaiian rolls are so soft, they can tear easily, making them difficult to spread thicker sauces on.

Walmart is back again with another poorly performing grocery store bakery item. This time, it's the Freshness Guaranteed Chocolate Bundt Cake, which doesn't even come close to the deliciousness of the homemade version of the dessert. Not only is the cake itself chocolate, but it also contains mini chocolate chips spread throughout, so you're getting extra richness in every bite. There's also a chocolate glaze on top for even more decadence. So, if you're picking out this cake specifically, you're probably someone who really, really likes chocolate.

In our taster's ranking of grocery store bakery Bundt cakes, they describe the flavor of this cake as "watered-down Hershey's Chocolate Syrup." Somehow, this cake, which delivers chocolate in three different formats, doesn't taste very chocolatey at all. How is that even possible? It's bound to disappoint anyone who would be attracted to this cake in the first place. The final nail in the coffin is the texture of the cake. It has a gummy, sticky quality, instead of offering the dense but springy texture that a good Bundt cake boasts.

Yes, you can find cake pops at many grocery store bakeries out there, and some of them are actually pretty good. They're the perfect pick-me-up on the days when you just need a little something sweet. After tasting grocery store cake pops, though, our writer wrote that Kroger's Bakery Fresh Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake Pop was the worst they tried. As soon as they took that first bite, something felt off. According to our writer, the cake is too sticky, with a strange texture that clings to your teeth. Apparently, that texture seems like a combo between cookie dough and cake ... but not in a good way.

Another issue? The flavor of the cake pop. It tastes not like an indulgent sweet treat but like a "cookie dough-flavored protein bar." That kind of flavor may not be bad if you're actually seeking out a protein bar, but it's definitely not a good thing when you're eating a cake pop. Although this flavor is one that sounds delicious, it's another grocery store bakery item that ultimately falls flat. But since Kroger sells other cake pop flavors that ranked higher on the list, you might not want to write off the whole grocery chain's bakery entirely.

French bread is perfect for eating simply with butter or piling high with your favorite ingredients to make a delicious Italian sub. And while we like buying bread from local bakeries when we get the chance, we understand that sometimes, you have to settle for what you can find at the grocery store. Out of all the grocery store bakery French breads that our taster tried, though, Walmart's Freshness Guaranteed French Bread is the one you should skip, according to our writer.

The flavor, per our writer, tasted plasticky, which should immediately raise red flags. Why on Earth should a loaf of bread taste like plastic? Another issue with this bread is its texture. A good French loaf should be sort of squishy on the inside with a nice, crusty exterior. That's not what you're getting here. Rather, this loaf feels more like basic white bread. Nobody wants to pay French bread prices for what ultimately performs like Wonder Bread.

If you like soft, squishy breads, then brioche might be one of your favorite loaves to seek out at your grocery store bakery. But which grocery store bakery brand offers the best brioche of them all? Apparently, not Target's Favorite Day. This brand's Sliced Brioche Loaf was ranked in the very last place in our ranking of grocery store brioches. According to our taster, this loaf of bread just didn't taste as fresh as it should. This lack of freshness shows up in just how dry the bread is — basically the exact opposite of what you would expect from brioche, even though our writer tasted this loaf well before its expiration date. Instead of tasting and feeling like actual brioche, our writer said this loaf seemed like just a generic type of sliced bread.

To make matters worse, it was also one of the more expensive loaves in the lineup. Sure, we don't always mind paying a premium if we know we're actually going to get a good product. But to fork over more money than you would at other grocery store bakeries just to get a product that seems significantly lower quality than others is a huge bummer.

It's true that Meijer's Fudge Iced Brownies look pretty good, thanks to the thick-looking layer of fudge topping the rich chocolate base. Unfortunately, though, they're one of the worst-ranked varieties on our list of grocery store brand brownies, and the fudge topping looks better than it actually tastes. Our writer wrote that they had a plasticky taste, which definitely isn't what you're looking for in any kind of grocery store baked good. They also said that they tasted similar to supermarket cake, which might not be totally bad but doesn't exactly indicate good quality.

Ultimately, if you're just looking for something generically sweet, then these may not be the worst brownies out there. However, they're not going to deliver the homemade flavor you're going for. They lack any real texture besides a boring, generic softness, and they don't have anything to offer a brownie enthusiast. Blessedly, there are better grocery store bakery brownies out there if you're willing to venture to another grocery store, and you can also make your own brownies from scratch if you're really trying to go the extra mile. But settling for Meijer's brownie offering is a recipe for disappointment.

We selected these specific disappointing grocery bakery items based on our rankings and reviews from the past year. In each of these respective rankings, the writers placed these baked goods at the bottom or near the bottom of their lists. 

The reasons they may have been placed in these slots vary, but the same holds true for each one: They're not the best grocery store baked good in their category, whether that comes down to flavor, texture, or some combination of the two.