Golden Gate Bakery
Location: 1029 Grant Ave, San Francisco, CA 94133
Golden Gate Bakery is a MUST-GO place when you visit Chinatown and want to buy some souvenirs from there. Everyone lives in San Francisco must have heard of Golden Gate Bakery, even though those who live out of San Francisco would come to this place just for the pastries. But, you have to get ready for a long wait there, and your favorite pastries will be sold out anytime.
Does this sound exciting to you? Golden Gate Bakery sells 100% Chinese pastries, such as tarts, custards, breads, mochi-like banana rolls, sponge cakes, and steamed buns etc. They are $1.75 each or $21 a dozen. When it is during Mid-Autumn Festival and Dragon Boat Festival, they sell moon cakes and Zongzi (also known as sticky rice dumplings) too. A lot of Chinese immigrants in the bay area like buying pastries from there, since their pastries have the closest taste to the original ones in Hong Kong or China. People like me buy pastries from there at least three times a month, even though I live 1 hour away from San Francisco. This is the way how the Chinese usually do when they miss their home country.