Boudin Bakery Cafe — Restaurant in San Francisco

My first time eating here was on February 2, 2014, on National Clam Chowder day, when Boudin was offering a special buy one get one free offer on clam chowder. My coworker and I decided to get in on this deal and got 2 clam chowders for about $7, which is a pretty good deal.

We took it to-go so they put 2 clam chowders in a paper bag and then tossed in 2 breads afterward.

The bread was surprisingly not terrible, but it wasn't that great either. When I eat bread, I compare it to ACME bread, because for me ACME bread is just top quality great bread. My office sometimes caters from Boudin ordering a lot of bread, and usually it ends up being tossed out because it's so hard and stale-like. It's like biting into a tough rock. It hurts your teeth chewing on it because it's so tough. That's not the kind of bread I prefer.

The bread bowl had this same consistency of being tough, but it wasn't as tough thanks to the chowder I poured in. The clam chowder is good, although it's nothing special. It doesn't have an "oomph" to it that makes it memorable. I could easily open a can of clam chowder and it'd be just as good.

But for $3.50 for a bowl, it's definitely worth it. I don't know if I'd pay the full price for one though, but that's just me.

I don't like how they "trick" you with the bag though. I know that it's 10 cents per bag, and so when our cashier asked if I'd like a bag, I said no thank you, but my coworker said sure.

After we paid, I said "you know it's 10 cents right?" Then he looked at the receipt and saw it was 10 cents...and frustratingly said, "I wish they would've told me.."

Failing to mention the bag is 10 cents isn't right to me. The point of this program is that 10 cents might push people away from using as many bags. If she mentioned the bag is 10 cents, my coworker wouldn't have gotten the bag, and thus saves a bag.

Overall, Boudin isn't a bad place. It's good, but it's...

Boudin Bakery is a SF classic famous for its clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. I remember visiting the location at the Wharf years ago as a tourist. This location is targeted at the downtown lunch crowd which has got me to stop by a couple of times. It is located in the Embarcadero Center 4, next to Osha Thai on the back side.

I generally use the online ordering tool off their website and pick up after about 20 minutes of ordering. What I like is that they have a clearly labelled section from where you can pick up on-line to-go orders so there is no confusion. One thing that I don’t like is that sometimes they provide a bag sometimes they don’t which makes taking everything back to office a pain.

I generally get the half sandwich and soup combo ($8.79). For the soup I stick to the clam chowder in sourdough bread bowl and have tried a bunch of their regular sandwiches over a period of time. Unfortunately you can’t get hot sandwiches as part of their combo which is a shame as I like to have my sandwiches toasted. The clam chowder and sourdough bread bowl are solid so no complaints about them. The sandwiches definitely need improvement. It is very evident that they are hurriedly put together and are actually very basic. I’ve faced situations where they have used sliced sourdough bread instead of baguette for sandwiches which shows lack of consistency and quality control.

Price-wise this is really cheap for the area where a soup and half sandwich combo will run you around $12. I mean in Ladle & Leaf next door or SF Soup Company, just a soup will run you around $7 so this is real cheap. I’m also shocked that they don’t add any SF healthcare mandate (I don’t see a separate line item in the receipt for online orders) unlike every other place in FiDi. Overall it’s a little rough around the edges but still a solid place to get a cheap...

We went to this place for lunch and we order both "The purist avocado and The pesto avocado toast". I also ordered "Toasted California club and California Veggie Sandwich". I don't have any complaint about food except my order was sitting on the counter for 15 minutes. I was standing there and the guy who was serving orders had no idea my orders are sitting there. He was confused between different orders however I observed they are using order management system. I don't know why he was so confused. After waiting and looking at my order sitting on the counter for 15 minutes, he called my number and gave me additional food item that was not ordered by me. I told him this is not order and he got offended. I am giving one star because of poor service. Other than that...