Cafe Bakery Restaurant — Restaurant in San Francisco

So first of all ordering is difficult...the menu is actually hard to find; the link on their web page is not available. I included a photos of the take out menu.

Ordering and pickup is easy... just finding parking is a bit hard though since Noriega is a busy street.

When you order to go, you get the soup, but no dessert or drink.

We ordered and I was able to taste most of the dishes:

Beef Tongue with Mushroom sauce: overall the tongue were thick cut and pretty tender. Good flavor. The mushroom sauce was more towards brown gravy with sliced mushrooms tossed in (I found a bay leaf and a slice mushroom) so, I actually think they might make the gravy from scratch.

Garlic Pork chops... I did not taste this dish, but note its breaded pork chops top with fried garlic

Chicken a la King: creamy, and al dente spaghetti. The cubed chicken was tender. The only thing I did not like was the large pieces of celery. The sauce was creamy, but I think a little more pepper would be needed, but that is me. I added it and it really popped the flavor.

Chicken Steak with Mushroom sauce: juicy dark meat. The chicken was really good, it tasked grilled, but I did not see any grill lines.

Fillet of Sole with Mushroom Sauce: OK on menu it shows it in English as "grilled" but the Chinese has it as pan fried. Pan fried is correct. The flour needed to be seasoned, but the it did not mask the taste of the fish. The fish flavor is very mild, so that is a good thing. They did serve the mushroom sauce on the side, which is a plus so the fish did not get mushy. Thumbs up for that.

Baked Pork Chop with White Sauce: this is yummy breaded pork chops on top of fried rice then covered with a creamy white sauce, topped with cheese then finished in the broiler/salamander. Its hard to mess up breaded pork chop... they did a good job with this dish.

Each of the takeout meals came with steamed kernel corn broccoli. It also came with some soup. The soup is a bit salty, it taste like a tomato based (read watery catchup) with...

Their cake is superb! I guess they make a subtle hint that they're a bakery first and a restaurant second (Cafe BAKERY & Restaurant). I was with a friend in the Sunset area when mom called and asked me to get a birthday cake for my grandpa. Before I could even ask for suggestions, my friend and his parents were telling me strawberry cake from Cafe Bakery. It's inexpensive and a good, simple cake. It's not the first time I've heard good things about their cakes so I figured, why not?

So I walk in and see a rotating display of maybe five cakes of all sorts of sizes, worried that I'll be stuck with these limited choices. In Cantonese, I asked the lady worker what flavors they had. She told me only chocolate or strawberry today. Then she started asking what cake I wanted. I told her 8 inch, strawberry, and to have it say "happy birthday, gonggong". She chuckled, corrected my Chinese grammar (it's "gonggong, happy birthday"), and told me it'll be ready in 30 minutes. YAY! That means I get a custom cake, woohoo! When I go back to my friend's place to kill time, they seemed surprised that I get a "fresh cake." Well, 30 minutes seems a bit quick for a cake to be fresh so who knows.

I come back to pick up the cake and it was only $17! Like, WHAT? And the best part is that when it was time to eat it, wow! It was delicious. It's so soft and fluffy. Not overly sweet. In between the sponge cakes is a layer of strawberry bits and cream. Such a simple thing to add and that's all you really need. My grandpa, sister and I all had a second slice because it was so good. Just thinking about it now has stirred a craving in me...

As for the food, it wasn't memorable. Quite literally... I don't remember what I ordered the one time I was here for dinner. I just remember there being veggies, soup, dinner rolls, and jello with every meal. Until next time I come back to try the food... or maybe I'll just be...

Had dinner here last night, and I was reminded of how much I like this place. I always love the buns they give you before your meal. They're usually so pillowy and fluffy with the perfect sweet glaze on top. Unfortunately, last night the buns were drier than normal, which kind of sucked. I hope it was just a fluke.

Here's a list of some of the things that I like getting:

Fried Chicken Wings - Seasoned well, juicy (greasy), and flavorful. I could order these as a meal even though it's just an appetizer. The portion sizes are very generous.

House Special Fried Rice - Fried rice with XO Sauce, chicken, and shrimp. I don't like how they put the frozen vegetable medley (peas, carrots, and corn) in the fried rice, but the other ingredients are solid. The chicken is tender, and the shrimp has a smooth, firm bite. They do a pretty good job with searing the rice to impart wok hei, and XO Sauce is always deliciously savory and sweet. Sometimes, it could use more XO Sauce, though.

Anything with Curry/Portuguese sauce - I think their curry is pretty flavorful. It has a good spice component, and you can taste the anise that gives it a Chinese flair. Curry Beef Brisket is the special on Fridays, and Chicken with Portuguese Sauce is on Sundays. The preparation and quality are definitely multiple steps above ABC.

Milk Tea - They provide bottomless milk tea with the specials, and it's a relatively good HK style milk tea. It could be richer and creamier, but the black tea flavor is smooth. There's an underlying malty character that's brightened and balanced with just a slight hint of floral flavors. It also comes unsweetened so you can add as much sugar as you want. It's not always consistent since they're pretty loose with pouring the evaporated milk, but it's way better than the milk tea from other places around here (Teaway, TPumps,...