Castro Tarts

Order: Phở
Pretty average phở, nothing special. This is not the place to go to for phở, as other reviewers may have mentioned. The portions were small, and the meat felt low quality. I might come back for the tarts in the future and possibly change my opinion of this place.

Don’t get the phở, or any phở– it’s super bland. & if you’re looking for authentic places don’t come here. You have to serve your own water, lemons instead of lime. Lol.

Absolutely delicious.
As simple as making pizza can seem, you can go wrong with it unfortunately, and this place got it going on; it’s dee bomb!
The pizza is perfect in every single way and the prices are amazing!

Enjoyed the barbecue pork sandwich (spicy). The service was good. I would visit here again.

Cute little breakfast place. They serve lunch as well. Great prices and very friendly staff! Highly recommend.

Love this place, one of my favorite spots in the Castro. Ray is very attentive and I really enjoy their food. I appreciate the variety nice service. I came in today and he remembered what I had last time. In fact, he usually does. I had fried rice with two eggs on top and a turkey croissant. Liked it!

Seriously one of the best breakfast croissants I have ever had. First it was a good portion size with moist eggs, crispy bacon, and a flakey croissant. Man I’m getting hungry all over again. The owner/​server was really friendly, just a good happy vibe all around.

I’m giving this place three stars only because I haven’t tried any of the breakfast items which seems to be more of their specialty. Otherwise my rating would be lower. I had the beef phở and it was mediocre at best. The broth tasted like it must have from a starter or instant and they gave me the soup with everything already in it! I was disappointed not to have my plate of bean sprouts and basil! Both of which seemed lacking in the soup.

This place is overrated. I walked in and the lady didn’t give a shit. Sit down on the snail table then realized I have to order at the table. Then ordered beef phở with extra meat. It sucked balls.

I love phở, you can even say I’m even a phở fantic. When it comes to phở I like the classics, but this place has changed my mind. The phở might not be what you see in classic phở joints. It’s a modern version which I’m usually not a big fan of, but I love theres. It’s super flavorful, tasty and it’s even inexpensive.
It’s located in a nice stretch of Castro shops and sites to explore. So you can sitesee or even grocery shop then hit up the place for meal. All in all lovely little place

This place takes me back to simpler time in San Francisco before the Google buses, before a studio apt cost 4000 a month, and before every restaurant serving breakfast wasnt 20.00 before you got out the door. This is a great place to get a great breakfast for a great price. The pastries and muffins are awesome homemade quality and are very inexpensive. For lunch, the vietnamese sandwiches are good, inexpensive, and authentic.

What: Breakfast @ Castro Tarts
When: 9AM weekday
Where: A rundown joint in the Castro
Why: Had to wait to 10A.M. for Citibank to open — needed to kill an hour
Summary: IT WAS BAD
I don’t expect anyone, from anywhere to make a decision to or not to eat @ this joint based on online reviews. Its not the type of joint that anyone does any research before stepping in, due to its location and early morning serving hours. I note the many positive accolades they muster, which may mean my experience is the bad one out of many (I DOUBT it). Some the folks at the tables were «regulars», many Castro GUYs popping in for a croissant «to go» and some touristy looking folks that just wandered in, unwittingly.
TLDR:
2 of us. Visible menu from the window & garish signage seemed nice for both my friend & I … to see fried rice as a menu option for him, when I was hankering for an «American» breakfast. The Traditional mid-​west: toast, fried egg, hash-​browns sausage. It seemed like a match made in the heavens wit the rainbow accent.
Our first and only meal here, and now the last. It was bad. The fried rice was pre-​made which is not an UNCOMMON thing — its just not easy to cook this «to order». It is however UNCOMMON when made the prior month, frozen and then microwaved. NOT GOOD.
The «American» breakfast: the toast was delivered ‘dry’, (w/​o butter) not based on request — but on a «that’s how we do it» basis. Eggs were ok, properly and freshly cooked «over medium». Sausage, 2 flat thin round patties — dry and cooked in the prior month then heated up in the microwave. The sausage pictured in the menu are Link Sausage. The hash-​browns were 2 perfectly formed (read: frozen) pieces which seemed like they were fried a week ago then microwaved.
Taste buds were uniformly insulted.
Asked for Tabasco sauce. Mr. Cashier/​Waiter/​BusBoy/​guy in charge immediately said «over there» and pointed his tobacco stained finger to another table, to which I glared «did you just really say that» stare, and he quickly changed and delivered Tabasco smallish bottle.
«The Castro» is a rare place for me to visit. We picked this joint since we had to wait to a bank to open @ 10AM, The Castro Tart was very disappointing, not because I had any expectation of Andouille sausage, eggs from cage free chicken, hash-​browns made from new potatoes grown with music playing, and toast from artisan bread. It was disappointing because it was uniformly bad even by the worst greasy spoon expectation.
Then came the check of $ 26 for a medium sized plate of fried rice and a re-​constituted simple eggs-​sausage-​toast-​hash-​browns breakfast. Wow. The «house» fried rice carried a $ 1.50 uplift on $ 11.50 so $ 13.00, the sub-​standard basic breakfast was $ 11.00. Tax $ 2. My financial eating reality rarely includes even thinking about the check in detail, but the badness inspired me to think and regret ever stepping into this joint.

For some reason it took my forever to try this place. I went in yesterday and got a ginger chicken salad and WOW. Less than $ 10 and honestly so delicious. I don’t like heavily dressed/​cheese/​creamy dressing and this was incredible. Just go try it.
Also, really great customer service. The man and woman were super super friendly and I look forward to becoming a regular. Cannot wait to try the bahn mi sandwiches!

The lady that was working there (I assume the owner) was really friendly! My bf and I tried 3 different dishes: philly cheese steak, fried dumplings and the lemon spiced bahmi. The food was good (price-​quality wise a ⁸⁄₁₀) I wish they put a bit more meat in my bahmi but the flavor was good! The fried dumplings were fried on point! I didn’t like the sauce they brought with it– but luckely they have a wide variety of sauces (siracha, hoisin and soy) which you can bring to your table. I also liked the fact that they had lots of different organic teas to choose from! Overall a ⁴⁄₅ on Unilocal :) I agree with the other Unilocalers!

Breakfast time, the place is a good way to go.
Had the mushroom, ham, omelet creation. Price about 10 or 11 dollars. Coffee along with the omelet and found it all very good and tasty. The guy running the counter was pretty snappy with taking the order and handling the fair amount of clients. He was a very pleasant sort.
Looks like locals hang there in the morning, since there appeared to be an old man table. Guys telling tall tales, while enjoying coffee and breakfast.

Mom and pop places are the best. Everywhere I’ve gone, it’s always the family run places that offer you the best in service and quality at a price that is always reasonable. When you’re greeted by the owner behind the counter, he greets you with genuine enthusiasm, for you are his customer, his friend, and of course, the source of his livelihood: the café.
You can go to places where the charm and politeness and cordial formality is a product of training and rehearsal, but places like these carry the real human quality.
That being said, the food is good for the price you’re paying. It’s certainly no Michelin star restaurant, but all the small details that make a meal relaxing and properly enjoyable are here in warmth and plenty. If you’re ever in the mood for a quick Vietnamese lunch or just a tart or two to go, have at thee at Castro Tarts.

Order of the fresh shrimp spring rolls, which cost $ 6.50 if I remember correctly, during probably their busiest day of the year, during the LGBT Pride celebration. They were ok but it was mainly lettuce and shedder carrot with no cilantro, so they were a bit bland, requiring me to absolutely use the peanut sauce. I had originally wanted a banh mi, but they were out of the French rolls and I did not want the croissant as a substitute.
Because they were so busy, I waited about 15 minutes for the spring rolls. Not a big deal, as I could see they were so busy and the cashier (possibly the owner) looked pretty stressed out.
I would come back to try the banh mi and perhaps one of their pastries on a day that didn’t have the family running the place so worn out.

I love this little spot in the Castro. I usually bring a healthy lunch to work but On the days I don’t, I go here. The two things I’ve tried are the Rosemary chicken soup, and the Rosemary chicken salad. I will try something other than the Rosemary chicken but I love it too much to be disappointed but I’m sure I wouldn’t be. The soup is just delicious and just the right portion. Great on a cold day. The salad is is simple but in a good way. Dressing is very nice. I don’t like it when the dressing is overwhelming. I recommend it !!

Not sure how I’ve lived in the neighborhood, walked by so many times, and not tried Castro Tarts.
I think it was deceiving because i thought they just had a few baked goods. They actually don’t sell any tarts, but they do have delicious almond cookies and blueberry cream cheese croissant.
But what I didn’t know until recently is they have a great little vietnamese lunch menu! I had the lemongrass chicken Banh mi. Not a ton of chicken on the sandwich, but was a perfect light bite — it had decent amount of fresh veggies and I feel like I’m going to crave more of their sandwiches.
Owner is really friendly. I’ll be back to try their breakfast sandwiches, which look awesome, and for the quality, the price is right.

This review isn’t for Castro tarts who are friendly and make good food. It’s for John A’s review where he feels compelled to make sure people know the place is in the Castro and they have a 60% «gay clientele.» Im curious about his census taking and statistical expertise. He blocked me after I messaged him directly to inquire why any of that is relevant to the food or service.
«No one is saying you don’t belong there but what exactly about the Castro or „60% gay clientele“ requires that to be a feature in a review for a café? How is it relevant? And if you haven’t noticed, there are lots of children paraded around the Castro by gay and straight parents. What makes your kid more delicate? There’s more strollers being pushed around than ever. It’s like warning people who go to Chinatown that it’s 95% Chinese. Whoa. That’s for the tip buddy.»

Encore une fois, je met 3 étoiles juste pour la nourriture :-)
Faut dire que l’endroit né paye pas de mine. Ça se résume en un mot: saleté.^^
Tout partout ! De la vitrine où sont exposé les pâtisseries qui est dégoûtante, en passant par les murs qui sont tâchés de projection de sauces en tout genre, à la fenêtre qui semble né pas avoir été netoyé depuis l’ouverture du lieu… :-/​
C’est une constante que j’ai remarqué depuis que je voyage au US, ici comme à New York, l’hygièné né semble pas être une priorité… On a vu tout un tas de restaurant, de boutiques, de lieu touristiques aussi (!) qui né brillent pas par leur propreté… Est ce culturel? J’en ai l’impression.
Alors qu’en France, on juge souvent la qualité d’un restaurant en faisant d’abord un tour aux toilettes, le problème c’est qu’ici parfois, il n’y en a même pas ! Et oui, la legislation étant différente de la notre, il n’y a pas d’obligation à avoir des toilettes dans un lieu de restauration. Dingue non ?
Bref si j’ai un bon conseil à donner, et cela de manière générale dans ce pays, né vous fiez pas à la propreté du lieu! Nous n’avons pas vraiment pas été déçu par la nourriture ici, mais on né pourra jamais manger par terre ^^
De plus pas de WI-​FI, du coup pour moi, c’est nul. J’ai mes standard :-) lol
A signaler cependant, le patron asiatique extrêmement sympathique et enjoué! ça passé toujours mieux quand on est servi avec le sourire ! :-)