Good Taste offers a menu for eating well in the Bay Area. This week, we’re here to give some savory pastry recommendations. Subscribe to our newsletters, including Good Taste, for more weekend-exclusive food & drink news delivered to your inbox.
As a passionate pastry hunter, I couldn’t help but notice that most of the standouts I’ve tried this year happen to be more savory than sweet. When I spent seven weeks straight trying to score a preorder box of mixed pastries from Butter & Crumble (271 Francisco Street, SF), for example, the surprising highlight was a scallion pancake croissant, a rotating special that owner Sophie Smith calls a fan favorite. That one plays hard to get unless a serious side quest is planned, but most everything else recommended here is going to be more easily procured. All eliminate the need to choose between a portable takeout meal like a burrito or sandwich or an elaborate treat—they are both at the same damn time.
Jina Bakes x Daeho’s kalbijjim croissant
A small Korean-American bakery inside Japan Center, Jina Bakes (1581 Webster St. #150, SF) has been baking BBQ beef and torched mozzarella-filled croissants for several years, and they’re much easier to get now, whether just by walking in or pre-ordering. The meat comes from neighboring restaurant Daeho (1620 Post Street, SF), which is quite expensive, but this is an affordable taste of their headlining dish. These freeze well, and taste better when heated.
Juniper’s Cubano croissant
Juniper (1401 Polk Street, SF) has been open since 2023, but I didn’t try it until this year, which is unlike me when I hear about a place with an imaginative pastry program. Like these other spots, it was the savory Cubano sandwich-style croissant stuffed with mojo pork, ham, Gruyère cheese, a pickle, and French mustard that stole the show. It was the most memorable part of my order, which included the signature choux and other very sweet items.
KC Paris Desserts’ steak and cheese croissant
Khadidiatou Camara owned multiple bakeries in Paris before she followed her college-bound son to San Francisco and opened KC Paris Desserts (1365 Fillmore Street, SF) in March. Her range of sweet and savory offerings, all made by her alone, is staggering. Ask to have her minced steak and cheese croissant sandwich warmed before leaving the bakery, and notice how quickly it’s inhaled.
Parachute Bakery’s Everything Kouign Amann
Everything is Everything these days, and most of it does not need to come crusted with sesame seeds and garlic. An exception to forever be made is for the Everything Kouign Amann at the Ferry Building’s new Parachute Bakery (1 Ferry Building #5, SF). Stuffed with smooth scallion cream cheese, it’s like a bagel bomb, but better for the meeting of garlic with crunchy sugar. These picks are alphabetical, but this is really number one. Parachute also has a shakshuka-filled and croissant-laminated pastry that is also worth noting.
SŌHN’s galbi patty melt
There’s often a line out the door at SŌHN (2535 Third Street, SF), a Korean-American café that opened in Dogpatch in August. Don’t be intimidated if that’s the case, just get in the shorter or non-existent to-go line. Savoring the galbi (aka kalbi)-style patty melt with kimchi slaw and cheese on a shattery croissant outside in the sunshine is one of my favorite lunch memories of the year. She’s petite, but satiating.
Tamara Palmer offers the complimentary Food Book Club and California Eating newsletters.
