California Bakery

Came here for a late night sweet and was thrilled to find this bakery tucked in between streets. While not the freshest of cakes, we tried their cheesecake and chocolate cake and each were okay. The large glazed crullers on the other hand… Wow. They were great! I highly recommend their donut selection.

This place is a bit of a diamond in the rough. Not a great part of town, admittedly, but once you taste the donuts you won’t care. This is a no-​nonsense no-​frills shop where you can get most donuts for $ 1, and they come in as some of the best donuts I’ve had in the Bay Area. Hard to beat that!

Very cheap, very huge, very delicious doughnuts. Try an apple fritter!

Can’t get any better than this. Best donut shop in the bay area.
The prices are sooo cheap and the service is excellent. The workers are always smiling, despite it always being super crowded since everyone keeps coming back! I’ve tried their donuts, cakes, cheesecakes, pastries, coffee — they are all delicious and made fresh every single day. I heard the owner gives donuts to the homeless at the end of the day — it never goes to waste and he is a VERY kind, genuine man. He works alongside his workers and they work so hard.
⁵⁄₅ on customer service, atmosphere, quality, quantity, and price.

We bought 3 piece of pastry tonight and we found a pile inside the box. This is the first time we see something like that. Very disappointing :(

My boss told me to grab some donuts for a meeting and I was Unilocaling and found this place. 2 dozen donuts are $ 21 here! Not a bad price. They have a very large selection of traditional donuts. I got to try the chocolate sprinkled one and the maple old fashioned – the maple old fashioned was pretty sweet, but what else can you expect from donuts?
Lady at the counter was nice and was patient while I was choosing my assortment. Only thing is that this bakery is in a very interesting neighborhood (TL/​civic center)… You’ll definitely run into some characters here. Lol!

You can’t really go wrong with donuts.
This place has good selection and their donuts are quite airy (just how I like em’).
My only complaint is that they are sometimes not consistent on their frosting and it gets too sweet. Other than that, pretty solid to-​go donut shop.
$ 5 CARD MIN

There’s nothing particularly charming or outstanding about the place, as it has kind of a nondescript commercial feel to it (and not the trendy industrial chic kind) but I’ll be darned if they don’t make a tasty donut.
They start at around a buck, which is plenty fair. They’re not doing anything crazy, so don’t go expecting a bourbon and berry glaze or anything. But do expect a good old fashioned old fashioned. Executed well on both texture and taste. And do expect a nice variety of standards – crème filled bismarcks, glazed, sprinkles, chocolate bars, apple fritters, jelly filled, and so on.
There are non-​donut items as well, and I wish I had the room to have tried them. The pastries looked spot on, but again, the very basics. Don’t know much about the bagel situation.
Ya, it’s in a rough part of town. But you know that by looking at the address. But when you find something you really want, you’ll travel any distance, to any destination to go after it, right?

Best (and largest) apple fritters I’ve ever had at very low prices. The staff is always very friendly and will begin to remember you the more frequently you drop in. Their house coffee is exceptionally good, and not what you would typically expect from a smaller bakery.

Pretty good donuts. I would say a little better than average. Big selection.
Lots available if you’re looking for several dozen for a business meeting.

Yea, so I was asked for change 4x on my way here, and one guy tried selling me sunscreen for half price, but is was worth it.
Great selection of baked goods. The everything bagel was no standout, but the donuts? Wow. Fantastic… a bit crispy-​crunchy on the outside and soft and mouth-​melting on the inside.
Be adventurous. Step off the main streets and find yourself something wonderful.

very rude and unfriendly workers, I was going to buy a coffee and donuts and they wouldnt let me use the restroom, and I really needed to go, they didnt care and just said too bad, no restroom for customers.
I would have glady made a purchase, but they still refused to let a customer use their restroom, a coffee shop this size should have a place for people to go to the rest room, I walked a few blocks down to another donut shop called Gateway Croissants and the nice lady let me use the restroom after I made a purchase.

California bakery is my go to donut /​bagel /​cheap coffee place, morning, noon, and night. The staff is super friendly and I can not say enough about the everything bagels. Eat up!

We were visiting from Southern California and wanted an excellent croissant. After reading the Unilocal reviews, we set off for the bakery. What no one mentions is that it is in an area surrounded by homeless and other scary characters.
The service was friendly and welcoming but the area isn’t. We quickly left with our chocolate and almond croissants in our bakery bag. They were tasty and flaky.

Apple Fritters and Chocolate Corissant are excellent. Really helpful and friendly cashier. Plus they open up pretty early.

Got the cheesecake, strawberry mousse, tiramisu, and red velvet cake slices. I’m not much of a dessert person, I was getting it for a friend. She loved the tiramisu. It’s about 3.95 per a slice but they’re big slices. There are a few tables with seats.
I noticed whole cakes, muffins, donuts, and other baked pieces.
The place is close to Bart and muni, between civic center and Powell.

In desperation, I stopped by the other day to get a couple of original glazed donuts and to see if they would sell me a couple of 8″ cake boxes for a cake I made for a surprise birthday party. They were so kind enough to let me buy it. They really saved the day ! I kept thanking them profusely.
I come here a little too often and I’m sure my fitbit isn’t happy about that! :(They consistently carry quite a variety of freshly made donuts. I’ve brought a dozen to work and had it on the second day and it still tasted soft and fresh. There’s also display of birthday cakes, fruit tarts, puff pastries, croissants, and pre-​cut fresh fruit.
Recommendations: Get a dozen fresh donuts!
Service — 5 stars
Donuts — 4 stars
Other pastries — 3 stars

California bakery deserves a 4 for their variety of cakes, donuts, bagels, pastries, coffee.
eats: french crueller (1.35)
–nice texture, not firm enough, tad mushy texturelly
glazed (1)
–almost prefect, melt in ur mouth
coffee: «superior» (1.25) brand, passed
drips:
–smiling, quick service
enough to push 3.5 to 4 stars.

In the highly competitive world of professional donut eating,
you are only as good as the donuts you practice with.
California Bakery has been a proud sponsor
of my donut team
and has provided us with dozens of
sugary laden delights
as we march into the Northern California Regional Finals.
With a lot of hard work
and a couple gallons of chocolate soy milk,
we have a chance to make the State Finals
this year!
If you’re still reading this review:
they really do have good donuts
and they accept credit cards.

So I had a donut here. What of it? You’re not the boss of me. OK, I had two. One even had chocolate frosting. Stop judging me. I have moments of weakness when I think the burden of the world is on my shoulders, when the world has chewed me up and spit me out, when I feel like a bag of baby carrots just won’t cut it. For the longest time, I had no idea this bakery even existed since it’s on the blind corner of McAllister as 7^th Street pours into the Tenderloin. If you are walking due north, there’s really no reason to turn around and go, «Look, they sell donuts. Get out of my way!» However, that’s what happened when I saw a group of skinny hipsters chomping on some glazed donut holes with alarming abandon.
They have the same standard selection of donuts you would see at any shop of its kind plus some cakes which hold absolutely no interest to me. It doesn’t have the freshly baked quality of a Colonial Donuts or Bob’s Donut & Pastry Shop, but it’s also not one of those scary places where you feel fate is dealing you a losing hand by forcing you into the middle of a crime scene while punishing you for assaulting yourself with needless extra calories. Granted it’s on the edge of the Tenderloin, but there is enough foot traffic to make you feel like you are surrounded by others suffering from similarly weak moments when only an old-​fashioned will do. And at a dollar a donut, could it be that bad? Probably but I told you to stop judging me.
DONUTS — 3 stars… it provides the deep-​fried fix you need when life turns you upside down
AMBIANCE — 2 stars…‘no frills’ would be an understatement, some seats and a donut display case (see photo)
SERVICE — 3 stars… they grab the right ones when I point timidly
TOTAL — 3 stars… you are what you eat, dammit