The best bakeries in San Francisco, ranked: croissants, sourdough, and the old-school counters

The best bakeries in San Francisco start on Arguello Boulevard in the Inner Richmond, at Arsicault. The croissant there has been the city’s benchmark since Bon Appétit named Arsicault the best new bakery in America in 2016, and a decade and two new locations later, nobody has taken the title. Second is b. Patisserie in Lower Pacific Heights, home of the kouign-amann that converted half the city to the pastry. Third is Tartine on Guerrero, which still bakes the country loaf every other sourdough in town gets measured against.

This list sorts San Francisco’s bakeries by what you came for. There’s a top 10, then the laminated tier, the sourdough, the old-school counters (Italian, Chinese, and Mexican and Salvadoran panaderías), cakes, pies, and donuts, and a neighborhood map so you can plan a two-bakery morning without crossing the whole city.

Everything below was checked in October 2026. Bakeries in this city move and close more than you’d think. Mr. Holmes Bakehouse is gone, Mission Pie closed in 2019, Victoria Pastry left Vallejo Street for Filbert, and Bob’s Donuts moved up Polk. We don’t list hours or prices. Both change too fast, and the honest answer for most of these places is “until it sells out.”

How we ranked the best bakeries in San Francisco

Every bakery got the same two tests. First, the control: a plain butter croissant if it laminates dough, a basic loaf if it bakes bread, and the simplest thing on the counter if it does neither. A plain croissant has nowhere to hide. You can see the lamination when you tear it, you can hear the shatter, and a bad one tastes like a dinner roll that went to finishing school.

Then the signature: the thing people line up for. Kouign-amann at b. Patisserie, the morning bun at Tartine, kaya toast at Breadbelly, the St. Honoré cake at Dianda’s. A bakery ranks high when both tests land. It ranks very high when the signature is something you can’t get anywhere else in the city.

Three more things moved places up or down:

• Consistency. A great croissant on a Tuesday counts more than a perfect one on a lucky Saturday.
• Range. Bread and pastry both done well beats one done brilliantly and the other phoned in.
• The line math. A 45-minute wait has to be worth 45 minutes. Some are. Some aren’t.

What didn’t count: Instagram, celebrity visits, or how pretty the box is. Boudin doesn’t make the top 10, and that’s not a knock. It’s the city’s most famous bakery and a real piece of history (more on that in the sourdough section), but it’s a Fisherman’s Wharf institution with a museum attached, not where locals go on a Sunday.

The 10 best bakeries in San Francisco, ranked

1. Arsicault Bakery (Inner Richmond, Civic Center, Mission Rock)

The plain croissant is the reason. It’s darker than most, with a crackling shell and an interior that pulls apart in long, buttery sheets. The almond croissant is the one regulars quietly order second. Arsicault started at 397 Arguello and has since opened at 87 McAllister near Civic Center and, in March 2025, at Mission Rock by the ballpark. Why #1 beats #2: b. Patisserie wins the kouign-amann fight, but Arsicault wins the control test, and it wins it every single day across three shops. Insider: Arguello has the line, but McAllister and Mission Rock are usually shorter and bake the same croissant.

2. b. Patisserie (Lower Pacific Heights)

Belinda Leong opened this shop at 2821 California Street in 2013 and won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Baker in 2018. The kouign-amann is the order: caramelized sugar shell, layers soaked in butter, salty at the edges. The seasonal flavors are good, but the plain one is the best of them. The cakes in the case are also serious. Insider: b. now has a small kiosk at 350 Powell Street near Union Square, which is handy if you’re downtown.

3. Tartine Bakery (Mission)

Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson opened 600 Guerrero in 2002, and Robertson’s country loaf more or less defined modern American sourdough. The bread comes out in the afternoon. In the morning it’s pastry: the morning bun, the croissant, and the banana cream pie that has its own fan club. Why it’s not higher: the line is a tourist line now, and the pastry is great rather than best-in-city. Insider: Tartine Manufactory at 595 Alabama has more room and the same bread.

4. Parachute (Ferry Building)

The newest name in the top 10. It opened in the Ferry Building in September 2025 from the team behind Sorrel, with pastry chef Nasir Armar, and in 2026 it won the grand prize at the city’s Best Croissant competition. The croissant is excellent. The pain suisse with mushrooms and garlic béchamel is the thing nobody else makes. Why it’s #4 and not #2: it’s a year old. Check back next October.

5. Breadbelly (Inner Richmond)

Breadbelly sits on Clement Street between 15th and 16th Avenues and does Asian-American pastry without a gimmick in sight. Order the kaya toast: thick bread, pandan coconut jam, salted butter. It’s the most San Francisco thing on this list, a kopitiam breakfast reimagined a short walk from Golden Gate Park. A second café now runs at Pier 70 in Dogpatch.

6. Jane the Bakery (Lower Fillmore)

The best all-rounder. Jane at 1881 Geary bakes several dozen breads in house every day and also turns out laminated pastry that would rank on its own. In one r/SanFranciscoSecrets thread on the city’s best bread, a local put it second only to Tartine and singled out the olive loaf. Insider: Jane on Third, inside SFMOMA, opened in August 2025 if you want the pastry with a museum attached.

7. Neighbor Bakehouse (Dogpatch)

Greg Mindel opened Neighbor at 2343 3rd Street in 2015, and it has kept a low profile and a high batting average ever since. The twice-baked croissants and the ginger pull-apart are the orders, and the char siu croissant is the wild card. It’s a small counter in a neighborhood most visitors never reach, which is part of the appeal.

8. Loquat (Hayes Valley)

A Jewish and Levantine bakery at 198 Gough, in the old 20th Century Cafe space, from Tal Mor and Jodi Geren. Bon Appétit named it one of 2024’s most exciting bakeries. The salted chocolate babka is the order, and the bourekas are the thing to take to a friend’s house. It fills a gap: until Loquat, finding real babka in this city took work.

9. Dianda’s Italian American Pastry (Mission)

The old-school entry in the top 10, and it earns the spot. Elio and Enrica Dianda bought the Italian American Pastry Co. in 1962, and the shop has been at 2883 Mission Street since 1979. Three longtime employees have run it since 2003. Order the St. Honoré cake, the cream horns, or a box of Italian cookies by weight. Around the holidays, the panettone.

10. Devil’s Teeth Baking Company (Outer Sunset)

Hilary Passman opened Devil’s Teeth at 3876 Noriega in 2011, a few blocks from Ocean Beach. The special breakfast sandwich, on a buttermilk biscuit with lemon-garlic aioli, is the reason to go, and the cinnamon buns are the reason to go back. It’s the best post-surf breakfast in the city, and it’s not close.

Croissants and kouign-amann: the laminated tier

If you only care about butter and layers, here’s the short version. Arsicault for the croissant, b. Patisserie for the kouign-amann, Parachute for the creative stuff. Everything below is the next tier, and the next tier in this city is very good.

The kouign-amann question

Kouign-amann is a Breton pastry: croissant-style dough laminated with sugar as well as butter, so the outside caramelizes into a crackly shell. b. Patisserie made it famous here, and it’s still the one to beat. Arsicault’s version is nearly as good and easier to get. If you see one in a case at a bakery that isn’t known for it, try it. San Francisco bakers take this pastry personally.

The rest of the laminated tier

• Butter & Crumble (North Beach). The pistachio-cardamom croissant is the move. It’s the best laminated pastry in a neighborhood better known for cannoli.
• Le Carousel Patisserie (Union Square). New in late 2025, inside the Tilden Hotel. Classic croissant au beurre, done right, in the middle of downtown.
• Sol Bakery (NoPa). Its permanent shop on Hayes Street opened in early 2026. The New York Times named its guava tart one of the best desserts of 2025, and the croissant danish holds up next to it.
• Thorough Bread and Pastry (Duboce Triangle). On Church Street, with excellent almond croissants and sticky buns, and an old-school neighborhood feel.
• Le Marais Bakery (Castro and Lower Nob Hill). Reliable Parisian-style croissants and pain au chocolat. It’s not a pilgrimage, just a good bakery you’re glad is on your block.

One to skip: any “cruffin” list still sending people to Mr. Holmes Bakehouse on Larkin. It closed in 2021.

San Francisco sourdough, explained: the best bakeries for bread

Is San Francisco sourdough better than regular sourdough? It’s the question people search most, so here’s the plain answer: it’s a style, not magic.

The facts are these. In 1971, researchers Kline and Sugihara isolated the bacterium that gives San Francisco sourdough its tang, and they named it for the city. Today it’s called Fructilactobacillus sanfranciscensis. But that bacterium is the dominant one in sourdough starters around the world. A 2021 study of about 500 starters from four continents found that geography had little to do with what lives in them. So the old line that “real San Francisco sourdough can’t be made anywhere else” is a myth. What makes the bread here special is a long tradition, a lot of very good bakers, and a city that buys bread like it matters.

The history has a fact part and a folklore part. Fact: Isidore Boudin was baking in San Francisco from 1849, and Boudin is widely described as the city’s oldest continuously operating business. Folklore: the story that every Boudin loaf still uses the original 1849 mother dough, saved from the 1906 fire in a bucket. That’s Boudin’s own story, so read it as their story. Either way, the Wharf flagship at 160 Jefferson is worth one visit for the demonstration bakery, and then you’re free.

Where to buy the loaf

• Tartine (Mission). The country loaf. It comes out in the afternoon and can sell out, so don’t plan on a 5 p.m. pickup.
• Jane the Bakery (Lower Fillmore). The widest bread range in the city, and the best olive loaf.
• Thorough Bread (Duboce Triangle). A clean, classic country sourdough.
• Day Moon (Outer Sunset). Started as a stall at the Clement Street farmers market and now has a shop at 3928 Irving. The sourdough baguette is tangy and crackly and as good as any in the city.
• Rize Up Bakery (SoMa). Founder Z Anderson started baking in 2020 with a starter from Outerlands, and Rize Up is described as the city’s first Black-owned sourdough bakery. Its café at 1160 Howard opened in September 2026. Try the Original Boule first, then the ube.
• Acme Bread (Ferry Building). Steve Sullivan baked bread at Chez Panisse before founding Acme in 1983, and its baguettes and batards are the everyday standard across the Bay.

Acme is a Berkeley story first. The Ferry Building shop came later, with the 2004 renovation. Half the great bread on this list traces back through East Bay kitchens, which is why our In the 510 We Trust Oakland Pride T-Shirt belongs on any honest Bay Area bread run. Josey Baker Bread is the other big name. The Mill on Divisadero is closed for now, but the loaves still turn up at Bi-Rite and other grocers.

The old-school counters: Italian, Chinese, and panaderías

Page one of Google barely mentions these places, and they’re the bakeries locals are proudest of. Nobody here is chasing a croissant prize. These are family counters with white boxes, string, and a case that hasn’t changed much in decades.

Italian: North Beach and the Mission

• Dianda’s (Mission). See #9 above. The St. Honoré cake is the classic order for a birthday.
• Victoria Pastry Co. (North Beach). In North Beach since 1914. It spent almost a century at Stockton and Vallejo and now sits at 700 Filbert, across Washington Square. Order the princess cake or a cannoli.
• Stella Pastry & Café (North Beach). At 446 Columbus since 1942. The order is the sacripantina: rum-soaked sponge layered with zabaglione cream. You won’t find it many other places.
• Liguria Bakery (North Beach). Founded in 1911 at Stockton and Filbert and still run by the founding family. It makes focaccia and nothing else: pizza, green onion, or plain, wrapped in paper. When it sells out, they close. Get there early.

Chinese: Chinatown and the Richmond

• Eastern Bakery (Chinatown). At 720 Grant since 1924, the oldest bakery in Chinatown. Get the lotus-paste mooncakes in season and the coffee crunch cake year-round.
• Golden Gate Bakery (Chinatown). 1029 Grant, and the egg tarts are worth the hype: flaky crust and barely set custard. It also closes without warning, sometimes for weeks. If the gate’s down, walk to AA Bakery at 1068 Stockton for a good egg tart and don’t take it personally. Cash only.
• Wing Lee Bakery (Inner Richmond). At Clement and 6th. Get egg tarts, BBQ pork buns, and sesame balls. Our dim sum ranking covers the Richmond in detail. Cash only.
• Schubert’s Bakery (Inner Richmond). Not Chinese, but it’s a Clement Street old-timer, founded in 1911 on Fillmore and on Clement since 1948. The princess cake (green marzipan dome, cream, and raspberry) is having a moment again in 2026.

Panaderías: the Mission

• La Mexicana Bakery (24th and York). More than 50 years in, it’s the oldest panadería still open on the 24th Street corridor. Get conchas, cuernos, and bolillos. Cash only.
• La Victoria SF (3249 24th St). Opened in 2019 by former staff of the original La Victoria, which closed in 2018 after 67 years. Get the conchas and empanadas.
• Pan Lido Salvadoreño (3147 22nd St). Salvadoran pan dulce, quesadilla salvadoreña (the sweet cheese cake, not the tortilla kind), and tamales.

A panadería run pairs naturally with a burrito. Here’s our ranking of the best burritos in the Mission.

Cakes, pies, and donuts

For a birthday, a dinner party, or a long Sunday, here’s where to go.

Cakes

• b. Patisserie. The cases are full of serious French cakes. It’s the place for a cake that needs to impress.
• Dianda’s. The St. Honoré, or a classic rum cake. It’s an old-school birthday cake and still a great one.
• Schubert’s and Victoria Pastry. The two best princess cakes in the city. Settle it yourself.
• Hahdough (NoPa). Ha Do’s German bakery at 1221 Fell. Get the bee sting cake (honey-almond top, custard middle) and Berliners.

Pies

• Black Jet Baking Co. (Bernal Heights). At 833 Cortland since 2017. Get the seasonal fruit pies, the chicken pot pie, the devil’s food cake, and the homemade pop tarts. It’s the best neighborhood bakery in the southern half of the city.
• Tartine. The banana cream pie. Yes, at the bread place.
• Three Babes Bakeshop (Mission). At 2797 16th Street. Go for the apple.

Donuts

Bob’s Donuts moved in 2025, from 1621 Polk to a bigger shop at 1720 Polk, and the old storefront closed that November. The Ahn family has owned it since 1977. Get the glazed and the apple fritter. The giant-donut challenge is still a thing, and it’s still a bad idea after a full dinner.

The best bakeries in San Francisco by neighborhood

San Francisco is only 7 miles across, but Muni makes it feel bigger. Pick a neighborhood and walk it.

The Mission

Tartine on Guerrero, Dianda’s on Mission Street, then the 24th Street panaderías (La Mexicana, La Victoria SF) and Pan Lido on 22nd. Three Babes for pie. It’s the densest bakery walk in the city.

The Richmond and the Sunset: the two-bakery run

The best morning in the west side. Start at Arsicault on Arguello for the croissant, walk Clement for Breadbelly kaya toast and a Wing Lee egg tart, then drive or bus out to Devil’s Teeth on Noriega for a breakfast sandwich and the beach. Or swap Devil’s Teeth for Day Moon on Irving and take home a baguette.

North Beach and Chinatown

Liguria focaccia first (it sells out), then Victoria Pastry across Washington Square, Stella on Columbus, Butter & Crumble for something modern, then down Grant for Eastern Bakery and, if the gate’s up, Golden Gate. If you’re there at dinner instead, our best pizza in San Francisco ranking starts in North Beach.

Dogpatch

Neighbor Bakehouse on 3rd Street, and Breadbelly’s Pier 70 café nearby. Add Arsicault Mission Rock on the way and you have three great stops along the T line.

Near Union Square and the Ferry Building

The question people ask most. Near Union Square, try the b. Patisserie kiosk at 350 Powell or Le Carousel in the Tilden Hotel. It’s a 15-minute walk down Market to the Ferry Building, where Parachute and Acme are steps apart. That’s the best two-bakery combo downtown.

Go early: the sellout and line playbook

The single most useful thing to know about San Francisco bakeries is that the good ones sell out. Here’s how to work with that.

• Weekday mornings are a different city. The Arsicault line on a Tuesday is a fraction of Saturday’s.
• Use the second location. Arsicault McAllister and Mission Rock, Tartine Manufactory, and Breadbelly Pier 70 all take pressure off the famous counter.
• Bread is an afternoon thing at Tartine. Pastry in the morning, loaves later. Plan accordingly.
• Liguria closes when the focaccia’s gone. Late morning is a gamble.
• Bring cash for Golden Gate, Wing Lee, and La Mexicana.
• Order ahead for holidays. Jane, Dianda’s, and b. Patisserie all take holiday orders, and the panettone and Thanksgiving pies go fast.
• Check before you cross town. Golden Gate Bakery’s closures are famous, and every bakery here takes the odd day off. A quick look at its Instagram saves a wasted trip.

And bring a coffee plan. Most of these counters do coffee, but if you’re crossing the Bay, our best coffee in Oakland list pairs nicely with an Acme baguette from the Ferry Building.

Frequently asked questions about San Francisco bakeries

What is the best bakery in San Francisco?

Arsicault, for the croissant and for consistency across three locations. If you only care about kouign-amann, it’s b. Patisserie. If you want bread, it’s Tartine.

What dessert is San Francisco known for?

Sourdough bread is the famous one, but it isn’t dessert. For sweets, the honest local answers are the Chinatown egg tart, the North Beach cannoli and sacripantina, and, lately, the kouign-amann.

Is San Francisco sourdough better than regular sourdough?

It’s a style, with a pronounced tang and a thick, crackly crust. The bacterium named for the city lives in starters all over the world, so it isn’t unique to San Francisco. The bakers here are just very, very good at it.

What should I order at Parachute?

The croissant that won the 2026 Best Croissant competition, and the mushroom pain suisse with garlic béchamel. Add a canelé if they have them.

What are the best bakeries near Union Square?

The b. Patisserie kiosk at 350 Powell and Le Carousel Patisserie in the Tilden Hotel. Or walk 15 minutes to the Ferry Building for Parachute and Acme.

Are the best bakeries in San Francisco open on Mondays?

Some are and some aren’t, and schedules change. Check each bakery’s site or Instagram the day before.

If you only go to one

Go to Arsicault on Arguello, on a weekday, early. Get a plain croissant and an almond croissant, eat the plain one on the sidewalk, and save the almond for later. You won’t make it to later. Then walk ten minutes to Clement Street and keep going, because the Richmond is the best bakery neighborhood in San Francisco, and almost nobody’s list says so.

We’ll update this ranking as the city does. If your counter isn’t here and should be, tell us. The Buzz reads everything.