Tartine Bakery – 600 Guerrero Street, San Francisco (Mission District).
http://www.tartinebakery.com/
I had visitors in town and wanted to take them to Dolores Park in the Mission to relax on a Sunday afternoon. What better way to do this than to swing by Tartine Bakery to pick up some pastries? So I had read a lot about TB and have been around Dolores Park but never seemed to notice a bakery. Note that TB is unmarked – we actually walked past it and didn’t realise it was the bakery – until we saw the queue stretch outside!
Clockwise from top left: TB from the outside, the queue stretching outside, the menu, communal table inside
Clockwise from top left: Tartine memorabilia, display of lemon tarts and other goodies, the famous “Tartine Bread” cookbook, goodies on the counter
What we ate:
- Lemon cream tart ($6.25) – sweet pastry shell filled with rich lemon cream, topped with unsweetened cream.I love lemon tarts and so am usually very critical when it comes to tasting them. This one gets a huge tick in my book – the pastry was very light, the lemon cream really tangy and also light, the unsweetened cream a nice touch to balance out the strong lemon flavour.
- Tres leches cake ($6.25) – sweet coconut milk moistened chiffon, layered with cajeta and crema. This was REALLY good – I totally loved how light and fluffy the filling was and how each layer had a different taste and texture to it. A really sophisticated piece of cake
- Devil’s food cake ($6.25) – Valrhona dark-chocolate butter cake, layered with caramel and chocolate ganache. I’m not sure if it was because the other two were just so good, but I was slightly disappointed with this chocolate cake. While it was rich and tasty, it lacked the killer punch the other two had. It was just a piece of chocolate cake to me.
Clockwise from top left: lemon cream tart, devil’s food cake, tres leches cake, just out of the oven
…
the verdict: 8/10 – YUMMY cake – need I say more? do yourself a favour, grab it to go, go sit in Dolores Park and enjoy!
don’t forget to order: the tres leche cake – the different taste and texture of each layer is really impressive!
to try next time: the morning bun – it’s been recommended by a lot of food writers
