Hard to get to, sparse hours, factory-style interior with limited outdoor seating. BUT, they make up for it with high quality pastries, beautiful presentation, and flavors that truly leap out at you. Diverse variety of offerings. You can't go wrong here! Their croissants are smaller than B Patisseries, Noe Valley Bakery, and Arsicault and denser than Arsicault, but with unique flavors. Dessert breads are delicious. I return for the savory tarts: crisp, flavorful, and perfectly portioned thicknesses and ratios of slices and ingredients.
Here's a rundown of other SF bakeries I've tried, ranked in order of preference based on a variety of factors (taste, variety of offerings, ambiance, location, hours, service, etc.).
B Patisserie
Lovely cafe ambiance and great service. Always popular but the line moves quickly and stays short, and they never run out - even near closing time, fresh batches come out every few minutes. Large selection but I would come for the croissants and kouign amanns. Their croissants taste more like giant, sponge-cake-consistency Madeleines than the traditional, flaky and crispy croissant, but are delicious in their own way and come in a wide seasonal range of flavors. Kouign amanns are flaky and crispy but quite pricey. Chocolate kouign amann is quite rich, so if you can't handle that opt for fruit flavors. Love that there are pitchers of fresh water and glasses to pair with your pastries, and often they have samples at the register. They also can package your pastries in a box even with a purchase of just two pastries, making this a great option for gifts! They also have small artistic cakes that look too impeccable to be eaten, granola, flaky crispy crunchy-type sweet snacks, and sandwiches.
Neighbor Bakehouse
[see full review above]
Noe Valley Bakery
Out of the way but surprisingly delicious! Favorites: carrot cupcake (extremely moist, thick cream cheese frosting with the right cake:frosting ratio, and not too sweet), cranberry scone (just tart enough, just moist enough for the perfect flavor combo), and almond croissant (gigantic, alternately crispy and gooey and speckled with almond pieces). Beautifully packaged in boxes / bags, and generous samples at the counter. However, they are absolutely overpriced - I could buy a sandwich for the same price as some of their pastries! And the workers look very unhappy and do not give off friendly vibes to each other, to themselves, and to you. However, I still begrudgingly stand by my endorsement of their excellent tasting pastries.
Arsicault
Small bakery specializing in croissants! The crispiest and flakiest croissants around, but even within their own store they seem to have two styles of croissants: 1) Puffy, flaky, crispy, many-layered croissants (classic and chocolate flavors) and 2) Sweet, special-flavor, denser and oily-er croissants (chocolate-almond, almond flavors). I prefer the first kind. Both are HUGE and are more expensive than either B Patisserie, Thorough, Neighbor, or Arizmendi's. Cons: not the easiest-to-get-to location, limited open hours, cramped interior with awkward and limited semi-upstairs seating. Most people take to go - they don't have boxes but do have big bags.
Arizmendi's
Despite the widespread love for Arizmendi's I am not a huge fan. They specialize in various breads and dense, dough-y pastries (scones, muffins) or desserts that taste better the richer they are (cake slices, cookies/brownies) which is great if you plan on buying these items. However, this tendency negatively impacts pastries that are traditionally supposed to be more light and delicate (their chocolate croissants are too dense and oily with chunks of solidified chocolate). As for their savory items: their foccacia looks better than it tastes - usually it is cold and more dough than topping - get the pizza instead. Pizza is reasonably priced and if you get a single slice they'll sometimes throw in an extra half-slice! It is very oily, though. They also have a mini fridge filled with grocery items: hummus is not that great and way too expensive (get Whole Foods instead!). They get kudos for their happy workers, staggering variety of savory and sweet offerings, and their thoughtful discount for bikers (woohoo!)
Thorough Bread and Pastry
Lovely outdoor back garden filled with plants & shade. Interior is more quiet, relaxed, and darker color tones than B Patisserie. Like B Patisserie, they always have a pitcher of fresh water and glasses to pair with your food. When I came here I had a delicious quiche and almond croissant! They have a good selection of various pastries / breads / baked goods at a very reasonable price and with convenient open hours.
Tartine Manufactory
Large warehouse version of Tartine Bakery, with less of a line and dinner as well. However, I'd say it is a bit overhyped and overpriced when there are so many equally delicious options in SF read more