Arsicault Bakery

I love baked goods.  Any regular reader of my blog certainly knows this.  And yet, in its 9 years of existence in San Francisco, getting constant accolades of having the best croissants in the city, I never had anything from Arsicault Bakery.

Until now.  Finally.  I still haven't been there myself, as I was treated to goodies by a co-worker who was visiting from Australia and I sent him there on a mission.  He came back victorious, with 3 items for me to try.  He also had the ham & cheese croissant whilst he was there picking up the sweets, which he declared the second best he'd ever had, after the one from Lune Croissant in Melbourne (which is definitely more famous for their croissants even than Arsicault).

But back to Arsicault.  Yadda yadda, best croissants in SF.  The year they opened, Bon Appétit named Arsicault its best new bakery in the US.  Their first location is in the Inner Richmond, not an area nearby nor one I frequent at all, and is known for always having lines.  Even now, 9 years after opening, they have daily lines.  They have a second location near Civic Center that opened in 2020, definitely more accessible to me, but also not an area I frequent much.  And thus, yes, I somehow never had Arsicault, a fact that causes anyone who knows me to say "Wait, how is that possible?!".  (Side note: as of March 2025, they just opened a third location, in Mission Bay, which does definitely increase my likelihood of finally going in person).

Anyway, Arsicault is very well known for the croissant.  The basic plain butter croissant has won all the awards.  Fans also say the almond croissant is the best they've had had, and they rave about the slightly more unique chocolate almond croissant.  Along the these goodies, they offer a few other daily pastries (chocolate croissant, the aforementioned ham & cheese croissant, several scones), along with cookies and quiche.  The Civic Center (McAllister) location actually has the considerably bigger menu (it is a bigger space, and has a full coffee bar too), offering even more pastries (including turnovers, galettes, additional flavors of kouign amann), breads (both savory loaves and more fun items like the less commonly found bostock), and even sandwiches.

I got to try three items, none of which were my very top tier of ones I want to try (which, if you are curious and/or want to bring them to me sometime, are the chocolate almond croissant and the kouign amann), but all were quite good, and I'll now make more of an effort to seek them out.

Apple Turnover. $7.

The first item my visitor got was a slight wildcard for me, the apple turnover.  Not an item I've ever heard mentioned from Arsicault, and interestingly, the most expensive baked good on the menu.  Yes, it was large but all their pastries are.  Offered only at the McAllister location.

The puff pastry itself was really quite good.  It was buttery, rich, flaky, well laminated.  Different from the croissant dough, less airy, and the butter level seemed higher, or at least, I tasted more richness.  I was genuinely surprised by how good it was, given how ordinary it looked.  **** pastry.

Apple Turnover: Cross Section.

Inside was the apple filling.  It wasn't stuffed particularly well, with a fairly large air pocket on one area, but tons of filling in the other sections.  There were some small cubes of apple, a bit softer of a style than I'd like, plus some goo, more akin to a thicker apple sauce than more generic donut filling goo.  Very lightly spiced.  It was ok overall, but I did wish for perhaps more cinnamon, and the apple pieces to be either bigger, or a bit more al dente.  Good, but not great filling.  High *** filling.

This was good at room temp (and honestly, the pastry so good it was hard to stop to wait to heat some up), but even better warmed up and paired with a salted caramel swirl gelato.  **** overall, surprise second favorite item.

Blackberry Bostock. $5.75.

I've probably only had about 10 or so bostock in my life.  They aren't particularly common on menus, and I'm not sure why.  People love french toast, people like twice-baked croissants, why not bostock?  They are kinda the marriage of the two.  Arsicault offers these in two flavors at the McAllister location, apricot or blackberry.  My guest selected blackberry.

It was a good item - thick slice of brioche, lightly crisp on the exterior, slight soak of sweet syrup, then a layer of blackberry jam covering the entire top, and a big round of frangipane topping it off.  Lightly dusted in powdered sugar to seal in the sweetness a bit more. It had some flaws though - it wasn't quite as moist as others I've had, I missed having some slivered almonds on top for extra crunch, and the base brioche did seem a bit overdone (too dark). The other elements were all done fine, and the amount of jam was just right.  Good, but not exceptional.  My least favorite of the items I tried, but still high ***+.  Best warm and with ice cream I suspect.

My favorite bostock to date though is still from Neighbor Bakehouse, where I found the cinnamon almond bostock to be truly exceptional.

Blackberry Almond Hazelnut Croissant. $6.75.

And lastly, a croissant!  The item I was most anticipating.  He selected another blackberry item, the blackberry almond hazelnut croissant.

This had a *lot* going on.  First, the excellent croissant itself.  Flaky.  Buttery.  Messy in all the right ways.  Clearly, top notch croissant.  No question.  **** (or higher?) croissant.

I also loved the lightly crispy frangipane on top, somehow more chewy and flavorful and more successful than on the bostock.

Blackberry Almond Hazelnut Croissant: Cross-Section.

Then, the filling.  There was (the same?) blackberry jam as on top of the bostock, plenty of it, making it really quite a fruity treat, and fairly sweet. Then frangipane (like on top of the bostock, but this was mostly inside, so it was softer, gooeier, and not crisped up).  I think both the almond and hazelnut components were in the frangipane?  The decadent fillings, the amount of them, and sweetness level, definitely made this eat more like a dessert than a morning appropriate pastry, or even afternoon tea treat.

Overall, this was a journey to eat, with every bite slightly different, and equally joyous.  It was a massive pastry, definitely best for splitting, particularly if you are getting a trio of items!  My favorite.  ****.