Roland’s Bakery

Rolands Bagels are back! Opening Day is today, 401 Gough, on the corner of Hayes. Woooooo Hoooo !

After walking past Rolands on multiple Saturdays and seeing the doors closed I had to come to Unilocal to see what was up.
I feared the worst and it is true. Rolands is closed :(
Rolands not only offered good, quick breakfast but they really added to the sense of community in our neighborhood.
What can I say?
I’m sad.

The only decent bagel in San Francisco and some asshole landlord locks Roland out? If I had the money, I’d pay to have the place reopened, then I’d pay to have the landlord beaten with a tire-​iron.
They also make great pastries!

I’m a small-​town gal living in this small-​town city, and that’s why I’m drawn to Roland’s. I’ve only been there twice, and not only are the bagels fresh, but the place itself is humble and down-​to-​earth.
I’m bored with many of the cafes in this city that offer up chintzy sophistication, and usually for a substantial price. Who’s really feeling chic at 7:30 on a Saturday morning anyway?
So, after my family’s kitchen, Roland’s is the next best place to dine. They open up super-​early, the owner is sincerely friendly, and the bagels speak for themselves.

Don’t let Roland’s location (that kinda dire stretch of Haight near the Metro PCS store) fool you — this place is quality. The pastries are fresh-​baked and top-​notch. I’ve counted at least 7 different kinds of muffins there (I heartily recommend the banana) and 10+ varieties of bagels. They even have bialies (is that the plural of bialy?)– a flatter bagel alternative which is a staple in the NYC-​area but seems pretty rare on the west coast.
The atmosphere is fine for a bagel/​coffeeshop — nothing to write home about, but a totally adequate place to spend 15 minutes fueling your morning. And the staff is super-​friendly, and the prices are low low low. Welcome to the hood, Roland — whoever you are!

I have a soft spot in my heart for bakeries. I have a particular soft spot for bakeries with proprietors who meet me at the curb when I’m feeding my meter and give me a sample.
En route to another establishment, I had the fine fortune of parking my car in front of Roland’s. They have fresh baked goods in the morning — which is wonderful. My friends had croissants, which they devoured.
I need to go back and try out more items sometime. This is the perfect place to bring your newspaper, have a baked good, and sip a coffee.
I sing the song of Roland.

After my burger run and with people leaving the neighborhood after their own respective meals from Haight & Fillmore area, I saw a parking spot in front of this bakery.
Not a big bakery, but they make their own pastries at the actual location. The bakery also serve breakfasts and have other specialty goods.
I had one of the freshly made pastries, which is the Sticky Bun with Glazed Pecan topping for $ 3.25. The freshly made pastry has a cinnamon interior with a crunchy and glazed top. I’m not much into sticky buns, but Roland’s makes a pretty good version. It kinda helps to have a bakery inside that makes all these baked goods from scratch. I also had a small cup of coffee with my treat for $ 1.50.
For the holidays, the bakery also make their own Pumpkin Pie for $ 15.00. I might consider it for the upcoming Christmas season.
By the way, if you come here, watch your steps upon your entrance and exiting. I nearly my made presence felt when I almost tripped.
My treat:

Roland’s makes me happy, happy, happy, happy.
Scrumptious food (PIZZA) and wonderful people. Amazing Americano (note: they do not serve any decaf espresso drinks). The whole shop has a wonderful bakery feel to it, and I can’t compare it to any other place I’ve eaten in the city. Yes, it’s better than Katz.
This place is a new favorite, although, I still think the best bagel in the city is from House of Bagels. To me, they are more «east coast» than Roland’s because Ro’s has a much softer, soft bread-​like texture. Visit Rolands for a peaceful spot with friendly staff.

We showed up here on a Sunday morning at prime brunch time because Kate’s Kitchen was too crowded. We were happy (and a little lucky) to find space for 6 people to sit. The staff was incredibly pleasant with our somewhat annoying ordering, staring at things, and need for lots of water after the half marathon, and I appreciated that. I had a morning bun and a Mediterranean omelet. The morning bun was actually pretty perfect, in my mind — not so buttery that it bordered on greasy, but wonderfully flaky and yet still a little moist. Well cinnamoned, too. Also a really nice size — big enough that you don’t feel cheated, but not so huge that you start telling yourself you should just eat half of it and save the rest.
In my book, an omelet can’t compare to a baked good, but the omelet was really nice as well, with good chunks of feta and a decent amount of olive, as well as spinach. The potatoes were pretty unnecessary (well, especially when you have a pastry for an appetizer for breakfast) and nothing special.
They had day old bagels, which were not bad and not stale. A kind of weird variety of flavors, but so far I’ve enjoyed them. If I remember correctly it was $ 4 for 6 bagels. Now they just need to increase the day old section to include pastries…

(2.5 stars)
Roland, I’ve got to hand it to you. You have usurped house of bagels as the best bagel in the bay area. If only this was a significant achievement. Roland’s bagels have a decent crumb, and get closer to the right chewiness of a proper bagel, but the crust is still not nearly crispy enough, and in the end the bagel is not dense enough. It’s just good enough to satisfy desperation cravings, which makes these far and away the best bagels in the bay area. In NYC they wouldn’t even pass for mediocre, though.
Let’s talk cream cheese: the cream cheese at Roland’s is much better than house of bagels’, but it’s not dense enough, and they don’t put nearly enough of it on the bagels. In a way, this makes sense: without the proper density to contrast the cream cheese, putting a proper amount would overwhelm the bagel.
Finally, Roland’s made the exact same customer service mistake that House of Bagels makes, which is to assume that I want my bagel toasted without asking. When I saw them heading toward the toaster, I told them I didn’t want it toasted. The girl at the counter seemed very surprised by this, and asked me if she’d heard me right. I don’t understand this: if a bagel is both good and fresh, it does not need to be toasted. When you automatically toast your bagels, you are telling me they suck.
I didn’t try anything but the bagels on my visit to Roland’s. When the bagel desperation next sets in, I’ll go back, and when I do I plan to also try something else. Maybe Roland’s other baked goods will earn them some more stars. And I guess if you include the cost of airfare in the price of a Brooklyn bagel, Roland’s bagels are a good value by comparison.

Look, I’m a Jewish girl who knows what a «real» East Coast bagel tastes like, and Roland’s WINS my award for Best Bagel in San Francisco. It has usurping House of Bagels, the previous winner. GO THERE! I’ve basically been getting a fresh bagel there every Saturday since they opened just a couple months ago.
Even if you tend to go for muffins, croissants, etc., I haven’t tried ‘em but everyone I’ve given them to thinks they’re absolutely terrific. The muffins are just flat-​out beautiful-​looking. The rest of the menu (salads, sandwiches, etc.) look great, but I usually go there for breakfast so haven’t tried that stuff yet.
Other great things about Roland’s Bakery:
— They’ve really improved the place week after week, and they’re clearly trying to create a wonderful place for their customers.
— Lovely outdoor seating on the sidewalk on nice days
— Rad customer service by nice people, as the other reviews said
Not so good:
— Kinda slow service if you order a sandwich or bagel pizza or whatever.
— Coffee could use some improvement
Enjoy Roland’s!

Edit: The place is now closed. I will mourn its loss forever.
Since my last review I’ve been to Roland’s multiple times, and I am compelled to up their rating to 5 stars. My reasons for this:
1) On my third visit I bought a morning bun. After I chose I said «I think next time I’m going to try a croissant because I’ve heard they’re delicious». What did the man do? He tossed one in my bag, free of charge. This was at 8:00am, so it wasn’t just a leftover that wasn’t going to sell. Amazing.
2) This morning I went in again and got a berry muffin (which, as with everything I’ve had from Roland’s, was mouthwatering). As I examined my wallet I realized the cash I thought was there indeed was not. I told him to hold off on the muffin. What did the man do? He said I could pay tomorrow. The man trusted fully in that I would come back the next day with money in my hand, or at the very least he was ok with losing $ 2.75. What he wasn’t willing to do was let me leave hungry.
BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE: Then like the genius I am I realized my cash was in my front pocket, and so I went to pay. The man rang me up, took another look at my muffin, and said «The muffins are smaller today, my measurements were a little off». Then he rang me up again to a revised $ 2.00.
The customer service AND the goodies are beyond fantastic. I’m a customer for life.

Roland’s is home to one of the most inventive turkey sandwiches I’ve ever had. The turkey is cooked with soy sauce and white wine, and then slapped between two halves of a bagel with mustard, caramelized onions and tomatoes. The end result is delicious. More props for scooping out the bagel.
At $ 9 it wasn’t cheap, but the side salad helps justify the cost.

People have been talking about the bagels. The bagels are good.
But look, it’s not about the bagels, in my view. It’s about the ridiculously good pastries heading straight out of the oven and into the case. I have never had a better cinnamon morning bun — it’s appropriately buttery and just the slightest bit doughy, without going anywhere near the sickly-​sweet end of the scale.
Also, the staff is incredibly sweet and accommodating. Extra points for bringing samples around to everybody at the tables who already had their breakfasts.
There is free Wi-​Fi (SSID: TheDeathOfFun) and outlets at every seat.

I’m sad to say that my hopes for a decent bagel in SF were surely dashed last weekend. They had only garlic bagels so I ordered a biali because I had asked for an onion bagel and they had only the onion biali’s. My friend looked into the case to see what else they had (nothing) and the sweet guy at the counter then explained to him what a biali is. My friend was born and raised in Brooklyn and took a bit of offense at this.
All the bagels/biali’s weren’t NY style at all. Not unless NY style is being burnt and/​or overly cooked. not light and airy. Hard like rocks and kind of doughy in the middle and cost a lot. Not a great first experience. I will have to go back to be sure, but I am reluctant.

I don’t have a lot to compare Roland’s Bakery with because my bagel palette has been shaped by Einstein’s, Noah’s and Sara Lee but these bagels are awesome. Crunchy, flavorful and doughy without being undercooked. Freshly made and tasty. I had the everything bagel with cream cheese and it lasted about 30 seconds.
You can watch Roland make the bagels while you wait and drool over the other goodies in the case. I was checking out their menu and it looks like I’ll be returning for a meal. Quaint and simple ambiance highlighted by friendly staff.
Welcome to the neighborhood, Roland’s Bakery!

The picture I posted of the bagels will be worth a thousand words. While Roland’s bagels aren’t like ones I’ve had in New York (they’re more bread like, less chewy), I’m giving them 5 stars for the high volume of garlic and onion toppings alone. My bag is FULL of garlic I’ve poured into my cream cheese making this one delicious crunchy flavorful bagel experience.
As a data point I’m a huge NY Ess-​a-​Bagel fan. Much like other things in life, if you come here without expectations of comparing the bagels but just to enjoy, I think you’ll be happy. (PS most NY bagels I’ve had have less toppings than these).
The pecan sticky buns are pure food porn and I’ll have a hard time resisting. There are a few tables and it’s a cute warm setting for some enjoyable noshing.

I’ve been waiting for Roland’s to open for the last few months, since I first saw them building out the inside. Now that the doors are open, I’ve been there several mornings to pick up one of his bagels.
I haven’t tried any of the other pastries yet, but I’ll keep going here on the bagels alone. They’re straight forward and traditional and have a great, crusty outside but are still soft on the inside.
For me, the biggest thing is that they are so nice and appreciative of the business. I’d always rather support someone who is able to recognize that I’m NOT buying from someone else in order to buy from them.
Roland says that starting soon, the variety of pastries, breads, etc. is going to increase. For me, that will just add one more reason to make time to go there.

A good bakery finally comes to the Lower Haight. During the soft opening, they didn’t have much to choose from (as you can tell from the picture): 1 butter croissant, 2 white chocolate croissants, 3 East Coast style artisan bagels, rolls, 2 bialys, and 4 loaves of bread. The items weren’t labeled and the prices weren’t displayed (other than a chalkboard w/​suggested donations but that didn’t list most of the items). They’re working out some electrical issues that are preventing them from offering the full array of scones, bread, pies, cannoli, muffins, turnovers, cream puffs, and artisan bagels. The sign said that the special was blueberry bagels and Danish but they must have run out? I didn’t see any.
I tried the croissant and a roll ($ 3). The butter croissant was a very good one, slightly crispy, delicate outside, many layers of buttery dough, but the ends seemed a bit too dry. The roll had a crusty, hard exterior while remaining dense and chewy on the inside.
They plan on offering breakfast and lunch items (I’m definitely interested in those). Custom cakes are available as well. The outside has an urban look (graffiti) and inside there are a few tables (and free wi-​fi).

Cute and promising bakery soon-​to-​be offering East Coast bagels, scones, and lots of other goodies for the Lower Haight area.
They’re having a bit of a soft opening right now, since they’re still in the works of getting the electricity up and running. Still, the selections they had today gave me hope for the place: petite croissants, rolls, and large, fresh loaves of bread. They will also be offering coffee once the whole store is set up.
I tried one of their white chocolate croissants today; tiny and pricey ($ 2), but it was well worth it for the sticky sweetness of the pastry.
They have a nice set-​up of seats for people to lounge around in the place in the future (and also outdoor seating). Free wireless available.
Will be coming back to check out the full selection later this week, but this place already looks pretty neat and happening. Hoping for a good future for this place as well!
(P.S. Lolia S. will have a more extensive review since she made more notes about the place than I did.)