sf pastries
holy nata
ariscault
b patisserie
butter and crumble
yasokuchi crunch cake
juniper (haven’t been yet but they won best croissant this year so might be worth checking out)

sobakatsu in sf (not worth waiting 15+ min in line for or going out of your way for tho imo)

san ho won and ernest in sf

berk/oak pastries
fournee
tarts de feybesse
forma bakery
starter bakery

blooms end if you can make out to petaluma on a fri/sat

patisserie by simone if you’re in the dublin/pleasanton/livermore area for some reason (might be my new fav croissant spot but i wouldn’t go out of my way for this s*** if you live far away.. literally in the middle of nowhere livermore)

junes pizza/rose pizzeria in oak/berk

kiraku izakaya in berk prolly my fav spot in the area

great china in berkeley but only for the double skin and peking duck and crab egg w steam buns and like cumin lamb.. the other s*** on the menu is prolly good too tho but this stuff is like what they are known for

snail bar and viridian in oak for like small plates and drinks

champa garden in oak for like laos/thai(?) food

these are all kinda like old spots tho

if you wanna try newer/trendier spots def go browse on eater sf and infatuation sf ig/website

it’s bunch of new spots that look good in the bay/east bay tbh i just can’t recommend any cause i haven’t tried yet

also @HXNS a real bay eater.. you should dm him for food recs on ig @washingmyhans (i don’t think he checks this site anymore)

Egg and cheese sandwich, rice and hot sauce, and chips

Whats ur recs for pat simone, b parisserie, ariscault, and sam ho won?

Might try to hit all the sf ones lol i get off work at like 2

simone
all of the croissants are good tbh savory or sweet

pistachio cream + almond + chocolate croissant my fave sweet

cheese potato + miso mushroom my fave savory

they also have a bigger menu on the weekend but i haven’t tried any of the weekend specials

i dunno if this worth the drive from sf tho.. there isn’t really anything else to do in livermore besides like the outlet mall

b pat
known for their kouign amanns

also the banana choco almond croissant.. but might be too much if you don’t have a sweet tooth

banana bread was pretty good

cookie was pretty good too iirc

this place has the biggest menu out of the three but ngl haven’t been enough times to have tried most of the menu but pretty sure you can’t go wrong w whatever u choose

both of the spots above also sells like small cakes and tarts that look great but i don’t really like cakes/tarts like that so i cant rec any

i do get a tart/cake from b pat every thanksgiving/xmas but both are seasonal/holiday items so not sure how it compares to the cakes they sell daily

ariscualt
better to go on a weekday if you don’t wanna wait in long line

they got a pretty small/basic menu

i would just get a plain, almond, and a chocolate croissant and maybe like a cookie (that’s pretty much their entire menu tbh)

sanhowon

if it’s just two ppl i would rec getting the set menu. if you’re with 4 or more just order a la carte.

all the apps are pretty good. i would just get like 1-3 depending on party size

egg soufflé, and blood sausage pancake prolly my faves

for the meats

double cut galbi and prime rib cap (portions kinda tiny tho ngl)

ppl also love the neck cut but i dunno i thought it was just aight. should try once tho.

also they’ll usually have like 1-2 off menu special items that are worth trying

the rest of the menu (soups/rice dishes) looks diff from when i went so i can’t rec anything

also if you order a soup they usually serve it at the end after you finished your meats so if you want the soup w your meat u gotta let em know u want them both out st the same time

all the desserts are pretty good too except for the acorn/dotori choux puff thing that s*** is ass

just get a soft serve and or bingsu

Pistachios

The aldis frozen calamari

J hit breadbelly
so good, got the
citrus lassi (labneh, preserved lemon, vanilla bean)
Kaya milk toast
Mt tam cheese basque cheesecake paired w crackers
Not ube tart (purple sweet potato n shaved salted egg yolk n toasted meringue)

Headed to ariscault

Update:
Got a choco almond
Went kinda late at like 2:45 lol
They only had that or ham n cheese

For me it was overwhelmingly sweet
Pastry was nice, j wish i got a plain croissant or plain choco instead
Never was a fan of almond
(Or ham n cheese croissants)

Update 2: my mom tried the breadbelly tart n cheesecake
Asian mom approved (tho not for the pricepoint lol)

Nothing

Did the set menu at san ho won 😌😌 the volcano egg lowkey was my fave… it was yhe best volcano egg ive probs ever had they had no need to put that much effort into it lol

Wish there was more banchan but the ones we got were nice
I liked everything besides the chicken salad they gave us (too horseradishy for me) but i think only the egg n tofu banchan really really wowed me and the misugaru soft serve… loved the mochi/black sesame powder/sour cherry/misugaru powder combo

The meats and clam doenjang jjigae we got were very tasty tho, the beef neck fillet in the set was v nice. Didnt like the gwanyang style bulgogi as much… i like samwoojungs more. Wish we got galbi 😭 but wasnt an option for the set menu

I also rly liked the vibes and service the ppl were really nice

Ty @proper for the rec i am glad i went

😳

yea that steamed egg w that like reduced seaweed sauce or whatever special

also love the employee uniforms/the stale blue jackets.. would wear that as normal cloth tbh.

if youre in berk/oak area for dinner while you out here def peep kiraku if you’re in the mood for japanese/izakaya

s*** is so goated

Nothing

Merienda

Hit neighbor bakehouse since i wanted to try the charsiu croissant
Got there as they were closing and the guy gave me 5 extra pastries 😭😭😭

Was gonna try to hit juniper yasukochi n jina bakes but now that i have obtained 7 pastries i will j go home 💀💀

Nothing

Skittles, snickers, takis

Been trying to up my cooking game, bought the heston blumethal at home cookbook and starting from there.

Green bean and radish salad

Omg look at antidotes treats

wow

galbi croissant + injeolmi croissant + orange chocolate one at jina bakes fire def stop by if u go to japantown (they usually sell out of the good stuff pretty early tho)

Nothing

Kiraku was delishy

Did not make it in time to go to any bakeries besides third culture (it was just ok, friend wanted to peep)

fire

yea third culture is f***ing ass

tbh mochi donuts high key overrated

reg donuts >>>

Ya we got the mango one and the glaze wasnt rly pleasant. Butter mochi itself felt like the standard recipe. The banana espresso waffle was better but its a p hefty dessert
Felt like eating an decent but not amazing dessert crepe

the other slightly annoying thing is they do is rebrand hojicha as roasted matcha 😭
Like i think they use matcha style tea leaves for it but its not a high grade and others doing it still j call it hojicha bc its still hojicha

And it tastes like other hojicha powders. In a blind taste test i wld think they just use the same stuff boba guys uses from hojicha co