Rolling-Out — Restaurant in San Francisco

There are only a few bakeries where originality, creativity, and good food come together. Rolling-Out Cafe is one of these few. After my 1st visit several years ago when my friend told me about it, I've gone back many times.

My most favorites are the egg tarts and the quiche. Their quiche is the best I've tasted so far. The mini egg tarts have just the right sweetness; and are perfect for enjoying alone or for sharing. Sometimes if I go late during the date, I might be able to find one or two left if I'm lucky. I'm so glad there are more flavors now--original, cream cheese, sweet potato, chocolate, & bacon. And they are all delicious.

Other food are also good, like the sausage roll, croissants, star-shaped donut (kids would love this), etc. The rosemary mac and cheese is definitely recommended too. It's made to order, and when it's baked, the aroma fills the whole cafe.

During my recent visits, I was happy to find that they have a holiday special--a more sophisticated version of the traditional sweet potato pie. It's made with rum, and can be made as smaller individual pies if ordered in advance. I brought them to a party, and whoever tried it just loved it.

Thank you for making such good food available for...

My daughter and I love trying new bakeries, and when we arrived here it dawned on us we had been here before, rushing to get a quick snack before a high school tour. The space is kinda disheveled from rearranging the place for Covid, but had hints that in better times it is more of a true cafe/coffee shop space.

Don't let the asthetics prevent you from trying Bruno's pastries. He confirmed what I read in other reviews that he is a one man show, baking, serving, barista...

Quality is very high, and he does a great job w/ the fusion between Asian and Euro pastries. We bought three boxes worth, one of almost every pastry he had to offer...black sesame, lychee, strawberry, chocoalate croissants. The Euro side and savory was Irish sausage roll, pepperoni roll, and sausage frittata. And then we tried unexpected items like a pastry that had sticky rice in the pastry w/ fruit. You wouldn't think it works but it totally does!

Most of all, it's great to support businesses like this. Hard working, earnest, zero pretension (the signs are handwritten, so cute) and talented people (or in this case, person). Definitely coming back...

We visited after seeing the recent online news article that featured Rolling Out. It’s definitely true that this little cafe has some inventive bakes! But, we found the ambiance to be really lacking. It didn’t feel like the space had been designed with any intention at all as a space to hang out. Nothing matched, and everything was pretty run down. The pastries were pretty ok - I loved the combination of the lychee and apple together in a croissant - it was kind of like an apple turnover that wasn’t too sweet, which I liked a lot. But while it was buttery, it wasn’t very crispy like some croissants. The black sesame croissant I really struggled with - it didn’t have much flavor at all, and the texture of the sesame filling was kind of pasty.

I think it’s probably better to visit in the early morning before the really popular stuff sells out. While it may be an interesting stop if you’re in the neighborhood, I wouldn’t go out of my way...