Mara’s Italian Pastry

Are you kidding me!!! For a slice of $ 6.50 Oreo Cheesecake, I deserve a little bag. I asked the server to have the cheesecake to go. He kept asking me to eat it at the shop. Excuse you, I don’t want to eat it now. He refused to pick it to go. I told him I DO NOT not want to eat it now, please give me a bag. Finally I got a bag to go. How rude!!! The cheesecake is not worth the money. Taste stale. Disappointed.

Gave me frozen Frutti di Bosco! He kindly replaced it with an éclair but nothing seeems to be fresh here.

Pretty good, cannoli was nice. Refreshing, light. The chocolate puff pastry 3 pc was ok. Lots of biscotti variety. Liked the desserts better at Stella. $$

I passed by here a few times during my vacation and decided to give it a try. I was drawn by their impressive window display of decadent looking pastries that I could not resist the temptation anymore! Since there were so many goodies to choose from, I was overwhelmed by the selection so I asked the owner for his opinion. I ended up getting their famous cannoli and raspberry ring. The cannoli was a bit rich for my liking but the filling wasn’t too sweet. As for the raspberry ring, it was crispy with full of fruit flavour and sugar of course, which I really enjoyed nibbling at. Overall it was a lovely little Italian pastry shop in Little Italy of San Francisco.

Love this place; great assortment of pastries/​sweets for a affordable price. Cannoli is like &5, slice of cake, $ 6. I also LOVE their amaretto nut gelato, so good and light in almond flavor.
Everything is fresh, the girls are informative and great at describing the desserts.
Definitely a must for anyone passing by!

Glad they stay open late. This is a perfect way to end your night after dinner. Just coffee, pastries, and some night conversations.
They have a good variety of biscotti, cookies, and sweets from cannoli, cheesecake, cream puffs, tarts, etc.

Great little Italian pastry and dessert shop in Little Italy of San Francisco. There’s some seating inside as well as a table or two outside. Stroll right up to the counter and order a bit of everything! Cookies are by weight so you can mix and match to your hearts content.

I love this little slice of Italy. I love their baked goods and espressos.
I didn’t love nor did I feel any love today whilst strolling through little Italy on a beautiful Spring day when I decided a pastry, double espresso and glass of water would go down rather well.
I walk in, clearly stated my desire to enjoy at the vacant table in front of their shop a double espresso, pastry and glass of water. Whilst settling the bill for my order a women and child sat down in what had become for me a symbol of rest and relaxation to eat their ice cream purchased elsewhere.
Yes, I’m a spoiled little brat as I tucked my disappointment not managed at all well under my arm and marched out the door, leaving my purchases on the inside table where the temperature approximated the second concentric circle of Hades (will Unilocal!catch this word?).
Next time I return and I will return so good are the pastries, I’ll be sure to bring a hammer and nail with which I’ll affix to table a sign proclaiming, «paying customer to be seated momentarily» and offer to help whomever was behind the counter to extract their thumb from their bottom lest they contribute to dashing paying customers’ dreams of enjoying a double espresso, pastry and glass of water on a beautiful Spring day.

Food: Tried a cannoli with a chocolate dipped end. The cheese filling was creamy, rich, not overly sweet, and delicious. The pastry was perfect, not stale as some can be.
Ambiance: Cute little café with a few tables. Each table only seats a few people so not an ideal space for a large group. The displays of desserts were impressive, both facing the street and inside.
Service: This is why I docked a couple stars. No one greeted us or asked us if they could help us. There were a few men seated at a table talking and after a bit, one eventually got up and stood behind the counter, so we knew he was the employee. After asking a question about what was in one of the pastries, he seemed so annoyed and unhappy, I didn’t ask any more questions. I just picked something I recognized and we left.

I was looking for some lil dessert after dinner in North Beach and ended at this pastry attracted by the cannolis visible through the window shop. It was the right call, had a great creamy cannoli and a wonderful Lavazza espresso.

I must say, when I walked past the window of pastries I literally passed, stopped and turned around. Everything looked so delicious, specifically the chocolate dipped apple fritter. I went in, and ordered without even thinking cost… oh my, next time I am asking… $ 4.95 for one apple fritter! All I could think was that this better be the best fritter ever. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. It tasted like it was a day old, i.e. dry, dry, dry. There wasn’t a hint of cinnamon. It was probably one of the worst fritters I have had. I also have to say, the man in the store was definitely more interested in his newspaper than helping me. It was a little strange because it took time to get his attention.

Fantastic Italian Pastries in the North Beach area! This is what you need to do: Go to dinner at any number of amazing Italian Restaurants near by. Then after stuffing yourself, get up and walk it off by walking to Mara’s for dessert. They have incredible canolis and an amazing assortment of other Italian pastries. Several different kinds of biscotti, so they must be open in the morning for coffee dunking. After reading their reviews on Unilocal,they appear to be a staple of the neighborhood and have quite a history. See the pictures– amazing bakery!

The cakes are very good with creamy layers of deliciousness.
The cannoli was pretty good but I felt the biscotti was a little too hard, definitely requires a coffee dunk.

A small little bakery on a busy street. The cannoli’s here are amazing, as well as their macaroons, but the service, however, is terrible! The few times I’ve come in for some pastries, the workers always seem very agitated and unfriendly. Maybe it’s due to the number of customers in that tiny bakery? Either way, this place is more of a «buy what you want and leave». There are some tables and chairs, but with the small place, people are bumping into each other more than they are enjoying their awesome cannoli.

I came here on a whim since we were in the area and wanted to grab a cup of coffee and pastry before getting on with our day.
We stepped in because of the enticing view of pastries that they had in front of the window. They had very many pastries to choose from so it was really hard to decide on one. My friend decided to get a tomato /​pizza looking pastry and we also ordered 2 cappucinos.
Total was around $ 12 which is a bit pricey but to be expected for this area. The store owner warmed up the pastry for us so it was nice and warm. The cappucinos tasted great and had a nice coating of cocoa powder on top.
I’d probably come here again but just to get a pastry to go since the drinks are a bit overpriced.

I can’t imagine walking down this stretch of Columbus Avenue without seeing Mara’s picture window filled w pastries. Their neighboring businesses have come & gone, but Mara’s hasn’t moved or changed in decades. It is this contributing continuity that helps make up the strongest leg this neighborhood is still standing on.
Like all bakeries, Mara’s has its strengths & its weaknesses. Their biggest strength is their cannoli. And their weakness is the sometimes spotty service.
The cannoli is authentic, even according to pure Italian standards. Having cannoli w your coffee here is an authentic experience… from the first, ricotta filled bite, to the nondescript, card-​room like interior. This isn’t a heavily ornamented, high end space in pac heights. It’s an old school NB bakery. They expect the pastries to speak for themselves.
The honorable mention has to go to the raspberry ring. It has never been my thing personally, but they basically have a cult following. I have to say they are pretty fantastic when they’re right out of the oven, or heated up.
North Beach is still high on community & low on gentrification. As a result, there are the old shops that can be standoffish towards folks they don’t know. Good business? Certainly not. But, it’s a small bark with no bite. And it is not at all personal. Take it as the idiosyncrasy that it is.
I have to give a shout out to Vince, who didn’t mind chatting w me about a particular Italian cookie that used to be available at Victoria. Vince was genuinely interested & helpful. Props.
4 stars.

This café is fairly small, but what it lacks in space, it makes up for with high quality coffee and treats at decent prices. I haven’t tried many of their traditional Italian pastries but the Cannolis here are excellent, they are filled completely and are available in a variety of flavors for less than you’d pay at some of these other establishments. This café also offers a wide range of espresso drinks in single, double, or triple shots, so the sky is the limit here when it comes to how jittery you can get. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the pizza, they make some of the best tasting foccacia pizza in all of North Beach, good enough to make a trip to this neighborhood for a taste :)

Went there tonight. Couple people in line. Not super service BUT PASTRY IS SO GOOD!!!
Not very big pastry fan but this feels so European.
Really miss good taste of food.
Size is huge!
Taste is good!
Took away a whole box of different pastry.
Planned to have those for breakfast tomorrow morning… Nope nope nope already had one.
It is really huge.
Space inside is pretty small so I could suggest take away.
It was very very busy this evening.
I assume that customer service is not very good because they have to work Saturday night: P

The canoli are great here but even better the macarons!!! you gotta try the lemon, raspberry and the chocolate macarons. Seriously delicious. it really blew me away beacuse you don’t expect great macarons from a little Italian shop!
Not the friendliest service, just pay and leave basically. There’s few seats inside and out, so you can sit down and eat your treats.

«Leave the gun. Take the cannoli»
The Godfather
This place is really cool. The shop is not pretty, but the tons of pastries filling the window and counter really make it special.
The cannoli were great, as were all the pastries we tried. The service would have been better suited to NYC then San Francisco, and they seemed to cater more to the Italian locals then us touristy type.