Sweet Inspiration

Sweet Inspiration is always a great spot to gorge out on their impossibly huge slices of cake. Word of warning though, sharing a slice is a really good idea, otherwise you end up paying for more cake than you can eat!
This is a great little café for a coffee date or a «cool off» joint after walking around the city. I’ve been a customer at Sweet Inspirations for a few years now. It used to be a quiet place on weekends, but now it’s much busier these days probably due to word of mouth. Every dessert they serve here is beautiful and appetizing: chocolate mousse, strawberry tarts, carrot cake, tiramisu, gelato and many more! Price ranges anywhere from $ 2.50 — $ 8.50 per dish, which is pretty reasonable. The coffee is mediocre, but the hot chocolate is great. Service is okay, nothing exceptional.
Parking is pretty easy if you’re a patient driver, otherwise I suggest walking or muni. There are lots of other little cafes and stores to check out. And of course, going through the Castro is always an adventure in itself!

The cake there is decent. very expensive.
The workers there are so fowl… even for the Castro. The females dress in skimpy outfits, the 6inch wide apron is less revealing.
The male owner is a little too friendly towards his employees. I’m fairly certain he is dating one of them. More than half his age. No judgement… but they clearly don’t keep it professional if the customers can see it.
They have two outlets. This isn’t good for those needing a power source.
If you ever feel like an $ 8 slice of cake, it’s the place to go.
I live by and often get a snack on my way home… It seems like most if not all of them are sitting around or on their phones. Not a very warm greeting.

I love this place. I used to go here for the ASL EPIC Deaf events they were allowing and the space is great, am amazing amount of room, and the best part is they usually have at least one vegan dessert there, nice staff, very understanding.

Just returned from Paris, and all I can say is that the almond croissants here at Thorough Bread are spot on French style croissants!
I just wish they’d start making the canelés!

Hello,
I enjoyed my visit to this place. I am Deaf. I ordered a cappuccino. It was very good and very strong. I enjoyed it. I appreciate the staff allowing a group of ASL signers, deaf and hearing people, watch people tell stories and jokes in ASL.
To that barista who made my delicious drink, it is okay to tap a deaf person on the arm or shoulder to get his/​her attention. ;)

Cake does not get any better than this! Friend and I went to Sweet Inspiration for dessert on a weekday. We were greeted by owner Michael who was so very patient and let is oogle over every single cake in the case. I swear we took about 10 minutes just deciding which cakes we wanted to order. Luckily, no one was behind us and Michael was so very kind. Michael told us that we could order two small halves (which were actually quite large), in place of one regular slice ($ 6.50). Friend and I ended up choosing 4 small slices to make up 2 full slice orders. I must say that each choice was very good! Everything was decadent but true to the flavors and incredibly delicious. We ordered the flan, cuarto leches, lemon poppy seed and devil’s food cake. I think the first 3 were my favorites. We ended up taking almost half home since the portions were huge. Michael told us that they make all the cakes in house and they also make cakes for special occasions. If you love sweets or cakes, this is the place to indulge!

$.50 for a mere splash of non-​dairy milk in my coffee? (Because it costs more to soak soy beans/​almonds in water or extract the milk from a coconut than raise a whole cow?) No vegan desserts?
Not sweet; not inspirational.

Just came here for a coffee and to get some work done out of the house. So, unfortunately, I can’t review any of these delicious looking desserts. But my iced coffee was good. It’s a cute, open space with lots of tables to work at. I didn’t see a lot of outlets for laptops. but I didn’t look that aggressively either. On a nice day they’ll open the windows and it’s quite comfortable to sit, work, and look out onto Market.
Love that they have a couple of fish tanks in back! Say «hello» to these little guys if you come here.

I went here for a pancake breakfast as part of a benefit for the Shanti Project.
There were three types of pancakes — plain, blueberry and chocolate. I chose the blueberry.
When it was served, I asked if they had whipped cream rather than syrup. Wendy, a very nice worker, went to the trouble of going downstairs to bring a dish of whipped cream instead of the canned variety.
So I had very nice pancake with strawberries and whipped cream. The bacon was good — crisp and not greasy.
This place has pancakes only for benefits so I lucked out.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always been a cake kind of fellow, not so much pie. Everytime I come here, some cake is calling out to me, or maybe one of the cheesecakes, then I know I’m in trouble. Orange cake! Who knew! And the Princess cake, so fondanty and Classic, just great! And they do breakfast and it’s really good, and u should come here.

What a great spot! I enjoyed myself so much here. The space is huge, so you would be able to have really chill staff meetings or gatherings here as well.
The food and desserts were top notch! You can tell they were all homemade and everything was top quality. The hot mint tea was so relaxing and tasty!
The staff… wow! They are very attentive but not to the point of annoyance! I felt very comfortable here and look forward to returning!

I don’t always pick the best dessert but this time Ihit the jackpot.
Tiramisu and coconut macapuno ice cream. Hell of a combo. Nice and sweet, perfectly moistened cake and very creamy, slow melting ice cream.
Dessert? Yes please!

I like this place. They have delicious desserts, nice music, and a very friendly and welcoming staff!
I like their cookies, they also have a large selection of cakes.

I finally broke down and had a slice of their Bananas Foster cake. (My godmother Annie used to whomp up a pretty fine one herself.) it’d been so long since if had a piece that I’d completely forgotten about the perfect banana cake [texture] — moist and yummy, lighter and sweeter than banana [bread]. Until this slice deliciously reminded me of the perfect banana cake texture
Oh, and the Bananas Foster icing lived up to its name.

So much better than before!
I was reluctant to come back here after my last experience but my date made a couple of recommendations — DELICIOUS! Easily the best damn Princess Cake of my life. Super impressed.
Turns out they have a new baker and the couple who owns the place are delightful. Can’t wait to go back

Busy even on a Thursday night at this big café (closes at 11PM). My friend and I Unilocaled around for a nearby place for dessert after our dinner at Wasabi Bistro. It was so hard to decide, but we finally went with a scoop of the Mitchell’s Cookies & Cream & a huge slice of the tiramisu. He was thinking of getting the scoop separately so there would be more ice cream possibly, but the cashier was suggesting doing it side by side on the plate. Total damage was under $ 8.
Cakes seem to be their specialty as there were still lots of cakes available. The tiramisu was more wet than others I’ve had and a little lighter in flavor (didn’t taste the usual rum flavor), he loved it, and I thought it was solid but not in my top. We both loved the Mitchell’s cookies & cream ice cream. the chunks of the oreos, oh my goodness!
$ 7 minimum for cards. I would come back if in the area and craving some Mitchell’s or possibly to try another cake slice. One customer who saw us having a hard time deciding on what to get suggested the orange cake. You definitely get value with how huge the slices are for the price. There’s been a handful of reviews though that said the cake slices tend to be made more wet, but sometimes I think wetter cake is better than really dry cake. 3ish stars.

This has been by go to coffee/​dessert place for years.
Granted I can’t come here all the time since I live in Las Vegas, but I make it an effort to visit multiple times during my vacations in San Francisco.
This updated review is from my two weeks in San Francisco during January 2015.
In which I visited Sweet Inspiration five times.
During the five visits I had numerous employees serve me.
Every employee was nice, friendly and very accommodating.
Every order was served with a generous slice like it always has been since my first visit.
All desserts during my visits, which were either cake or cheesecake were great.
Speaking of service, I also want to comment on service to other customers.
During each of my visits I stayed at least two hours each working on my computer.
But I also made sure to notice how other customers were treated.
My time there I didn’t see any customer getting poor service.
One of my visits I even witnessed one of the employees giving special attention to a girl that was celebrating her birthday making her feel special.
For anyone that may be first timers…
This is a great place to just chill and work on stuff on your computer.
They’re open late which makes it really nice.
And they for the most part have different random movies playing on the big screen tv in the back.
The place also has free wifi which runs great.
The place is quiet which also makes it convenient for working on your laptop.
This place is always inviting and welcomes the customers when they walk up to the counter.
No bills over $ 20
Credit card charges have to be at least $ 7 (If I remember right)
I really don’t understand why this place doesn’t have higher ratings.
It’s really one of the best places in Castro.
I really hope the average rating and few slightly less than great reviews don’t scare off people. This is a nice place that deserves more business.

This is my favoriteeeeee place to study in the city. The staff is always nice and attentive. The coffee is good. They also have a good selection of loose leaf tea.
I had a slice of regular cheesecake before and it was really gooood. Really dense and made me feel like a fatas# afterwards, which is good!
I really appreciate that there is many places to sit. They have big tables to study on. The music whenever I have been in is always low which is awesome for studying. I hate studying at places like Starbucks, because they have the music too loud.
Thanks Sweet

The location of this place is really spectacular; and by that, I mean, close to me. But I’ve never been blown away. The people are certainly friendly enough, the space is fine, and the desserts are, well, hit-​or-​miss. Like Shane R. said, I «expected to be wow’ed» and just… wasn’t.
Four or five visits now, and the desserts are always good, never great.

They say sugar is one hell of a drug.
It is.
If you are an addict, avoid this place at all costs.
The cakes are moist, the cookies are chewy, and the ice cream is from Mitchell’s.
Did you read that? It’s a triple threat y’all. A TRIPLE THREAT.
Live music, plenty of seating, and a variety ofcaffeinated options to choose from. Coffee, tea, pick your secondary poison.
I ordered a slice of salted caramel with a pot of peppermint tea. Overload baby, overload. The frosting was not overly sweet, and there was not a single bit that wasn’t good. Hellooo addiction. The only saving grace was my tea. After selecting my flavor, the loose leaf pepperment tea was served hot in its very own pot. Thank you palate cleanser.
Great little shop with killer treats. Share your slices, trust me.