b. patisserie milk tea tart: At the corner of Divisadero and California in Lower Pacific Heights (San Francisco) is popular bakery b. patisserie, led by a former pastry chef at fine-dining establishments like Gary Danko and Manresa. The sizable shop feels like a luxury in San Francisco, with only a handful of bakeries able to afford real estate to seat multiple families and smaller parties; the line out of the door, with about a 15 minute wait to the counter, signified they're doing just fine. For Chinese New Year, b.... (read more) 2.5/5.0
desserts pastry sf chinese milktea bpatisserie milk tea tart 2.5
Golden Gate Bakery Egg Cupcake: No surprise that lines at famed San Francisco bakery Golden Gate Bakery were long for Chinese New Year, but I still didn’t expect it to take 80 minutes to get egg tarts. At around 6pm, the owner started rationing; no single person could order more than 2, for fear she would run out. The eggtarts were as good as ever, but waiting this long necessitated making another purchase, this time for an egg “cupcake,” seemingly made just of egg, flour, sugar, and oil. It was very lightly sweetened, sof... (read more) 3.5/5.0
recommended sf goldengatebakery egg cupcake 3.5
Steap Lychee Love Tea: I’ve been searching for a quality bubble tea shop in Chinatown, San Francisco and tried this modern bubble tea spot on my most recent visit. Steap prides themselves on highly customizable fruit and herbal teas. The lychee love drink is a jasmine and green tea mix containing lychee jelly (I also ordered boba as an add-in). You could taste the ambition, as the tea was not as sugary as what you might find at a nearby chain, but it taste a bit diluted, and the boba was too soft. The search conti... (read more) 2.5/5.0
drinks bubbletea greentea jasmine chinatown sf boba steap lychee love tea 2.5
Holy Gelato Peach champagne sorbet : In the heart of the Inner Sunset District in SF is an ice cream shop called Holy Gelato, an eclectic mix of vintage toy shop and ice cream parlor. The peach champagne sorbet I ordered was surprisingly good, with a distinct but not overpowering champagne flavor and fresh, concentrated peach taste. The serving size is very generous such that their mini scoop would be a single anywhere else. Good value. 3.5/5.0
recommended sf icecream holygelato peach champagne sorbet 3.5
Tartine Manufactory Blood orange sorbet and cardamom soft serve: Tartine Manufactory closes its bakery section, including soft serve, for dinner service, but if you ask nicely, they will serve it (as I found out last night). This swirl of blood orange and cardamom was one of the best things I ate all year, with potently spiced cardamom and sharp citrus. The texture was smooth and consistent. Often, independent flavors in swirled soft serve compete and don’t quite work in harmony, but this unexpected combination was both balanced and even better with one a... (read more) 4.5/5.0
exceptional sf sanfrancisco icecream softserve bloodorange tartinemanufactory blood orange sorbet cardamom soft serve 4.5
Swensen’s Lychee ice cream: Swensen’s is a historic ice cream shop in San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighborhood. Opened in 1948, it now has locations around the world. I don’t find myself in this neighborhood very often, so the last time I was there, I finally got a chance to try it. They offer a bevy of flavors, mostly traditional favorites, but I got a scoop of lychee. Unfortunately, the ice cream had an overly icy, almost clumpy texture, and though it had sizable pieces of lychee throughout, the moisture content of ... (read more) 2.5/5.0
icecream sf sanfrancisco swensens lychee ice cream 2.5