Le Marais Bakery

TL;DR: Avoid this place until they fix their service and the business as a whole.

Full story: Saturday we decided to check out this place, since we had been missing Samovar (which preceded Le Marais). We showed up, were directed to an empty table, and sat down. It was a sunny day, and we were in the sun, so asked for water. Many minutes went by, and still no sign of water. The server finally came over to take our order; my wife ordered a 'board' with 5 items, and I asked for a bowl; a tea and a kouin amann. And water, of course.

Then I'm informed that they were out of pistachios, one of the ingredients in my bowl. And they didn't have the bergamot black tea either. Well, OK, replace the pistachios with hazelnuts and the tea with an almond milk latte.

We got the board and the bowl. Despite the size of the bowl, it was pretty empty. And we finally got the water. We finished our dishes. Sat around a little. No sign of the latte or the pastry. Eventually, we gave up and asked for the check. They had these two items on the bill, of course, which I kindly asked to be removed.

Overall, a very bad experience in terms of service. And not having basic ingredients like pistachios or a tea? That's plain bad business.

Suggestion to the management: you have cameras installed. Take a look at them and see for yourself how customers are served at this establishment.

Finally here!
We went to MISSION/CASTRO cafe. 498 Sanchez on 18th street Bay Area.
There is a lot of street parking around the store.

We went there around 9am. They have some tables inside and outside.

We ordered at counter.
We ordered Bacon Gruyère Croissant Egg Toast and cappuccinos and croissant.
Everything so delicious and fresh!

Definitely I go back there when I visit SF.

I came here this Wednesday and ordered a latte and a 5-item bistro board. While some of the food items are decent here, the unsanitary conditions, poor service, and bad coffee contributed to a disappointing overall experience. I would honestly rate this place a 2.5/5, although I had to round to 3/5 here.

The latte was poorly made and did not taste good at all. I do not recommend the coffee here.

For the bistro board, I got a croissant, tomato salad, smoked salmon, yogurt, and fruit. When I asked the staff at the counter what's in the tomato salad, she just said tomato and vinaigrette, but that was not true at all because there were also cheese slices in it. If she didn't know the answer, she should've been truthful and not lied. After trying my bistro board, I'd say the highlights were the croissant and smoked salmon. The croissant was pretty good and flaky, although it's definitely not as good as an Arsicault croissant. The smoked salmon was also good, but I had to remove all the capers from it. Had the menu mentioned there were capers, I would've asked for no capers. I recommend the restaurant to update its bistro board menu to be more descriptive because it's currently inaccurate.

The worst things here were the unsanitary conditions and poor service. No one cleaned the table we got seated at. When a staff member came over to give me my latte, she saw how dirty the table was with random food crumbs and dirty used tableware from the prior patrons. Instead of cleaning the table, she carelessly placed my latte on top of some dirty food crumbs. If this was how dirty the tables are, I can't imagine how unsanitary the kitchen may be. My friend and I were so put off by how dirty this place felt that we don't think we'll come back again.

One of the best croissants in SF. IMHO, only second to Arsicault's. I do love Tartine, Craftsman, Bernal Bakery, etc but the butter density and execution here is superior. The dough is more like flat sheets of butter interspersed with flour instead of bread-ish dough. This is how it should be! You'll get butter residue on your fingers. This is how it should be.

The almost croissant and choc chip cookies are also delicious.

Im liking it. The windows are big and wonderful and aside from the cashier going on her phone for 20 seconds before looking up to tend to me it was good. Im sure it was important. Raspberry tart and kouign amann baton were good sweets to start the day. Wish reviews werent only in whole stars

How is it possible that I haven't reviewed Le Marais recently? What a phenomenal place! Their croissants and pain au chocolat are amazing but a revelation for me was the financier. The food is epic, especially the croque. We have ordered a variety of croque sandwiches multiple times for parties, for potlucks, for picnics in the chilly San Francisco wind. They are always appreciated. We cut them into 6 pieces to make them into finger food. Wonderful place, we are so lucky to have them in our neighborhood.

This bakery is huge with indoor and outdoor seating. The vibe is very old school so you enjoy the big lights and laid back atmosphere.

The coffees are delicious and my order took no time at all to come out. The pastry selection is excellent! There are so many beautiful creations that it is hard to choose. The simple chocolate chip cookie was amazing! Perfect coffee-cookie combo!

Seeing how this cafe was filled with lots of people occupying the tables made me think that this brunch place will be very good, but it did not live up to my expectations.

I did take into consideration that food will take longer to come out due to having lots of people seated, but I think that it's unreasonable for having to wait almost an hour for the dish, French Onion Burger, to come out. For the taste, the fries were average, the burger patty was on the dry side, and there was no taste of French Onion flavor anywhere. It just tasted like your standard hamburger.

The dish, Forestière, was better than the French Onion Burger, but it just tastes okay.

Overall, the food was mediocre. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't outstandingly delicious either. I have had better brunch foods at other restaurants before than this restaurant, but maybe I will try their other dishes next time to see if they're better.

Always wanted to stop by this place as It is very visible on the corner in between the mission and castro.

Tried the pain aux raisin (raisin croissant) and was pleasantly surprised that it was not too sweet and very soft with a great not too hard crust. And since you have to order a latte with a croissant I did just that to dip in little pieces of my bread.

I miss Europe and this feels very European. I like that you pay in the beginning though and then find open seating. It started getting busy around 9 am. I stopped in around 8:30 with 1 person in front of me in line.

Would absolutely be back and recommend this spot. The latte was also medium strength but smooth and had lots of foam!

The cutest staple of our Castro/Mission intersection, always delivers quality food pastries and drinks

Great food, service, and vibes. I came by for mid-afternoon snack while apartment touring and this place singlehandedly made me want to live nearby!

I asked the cashier for a recommendation and they pointed me towards the Croques Madame. While I'm usually not a fan of runny egg yolks, this sandwich was the exception. The egg was perfectly balanced with the gruyere and ham, 10/10. After this, I went inside again to also get a sparkling water and plain croissant. Also on point. I didn't know I could enjoy a plain croissant so much. Wow.

Regarding the service, also great. They made sure to bring me a glass of ice since they noticed I elected a sparkling water flavor that was only available at room temperature. While their was no seating available inside at first, I was able to slip into a table for the second half of my meal. There is a nice ambiance and quality seating (when you find space!).

Would recommend and will be back!