Sweet Maple

My 5 stars don’t come easy, & I must say I had my hopes high for this spot — it did not disappoint! Anything this good you know will have a long wait so we were prepared by showing right at opening time, no wait at all. Of course we ordered the millionaire’s bacon, yum. There were four of us which allowed for a variety of items to be sampled, just the way I like my meal experiences. We ordered the deep fried French toast (dipped in pancake batter & fried) topped w/​fresh berries; the Manier’s French toast, one order w/​fired banana& candied walnuts so sinful, also added side of chicken mango sausages; & the Morning Tacos, so deliciously fresh and tasty. We paired our meals with coffee drinks; the Coconut Cream Latte, and the Dirty (spiked) Chai Latte. Let’s just say we’re still dreaming & talking about our meal! Sweet Maple is a must! Get there at opening time for no wait. I must mention that service was also top-​notch.

I love across the street from this place and it had become the «easy» place to go when meeting up with someone for breakfast.
I have never had anything here that is worth remembering and after paying too much for it, was even less memorable.
I would NEVER wait in line for this place!
I always chuckle to myself when I see hordes people waiting outside of this place. Like its an SF culinary pilgrimage…
Get some taste buds people!

i’ve been to kitchen story before and loved their brunch so i was pretty excited to try their sister restaurant. came here on a saturday morning around 10 am and only had to wait about 30 minutes. it was a beautiful sunny day and so we were able to snag a table out doors.
servers were really nice and quick with service. i would say that the waitress who served us might have had a cold because she seemed pretty out of it and kept sniffling. she misheard my order and when my food came and i tried to tell her, she got a bit defensive and said that i was the one who didn’t say the order right. i had ordered their swedish pancakes and i wanted to make a full meal by adding eggs and their millionaire bacon. my bf ordered their big hip with eggs and bacon as well. when our food came, everything was right except my order came without eggs. i tried to explain that when i ordered my food i requested for the full meal. the waitress swears i did not say it but even my bf heard me say it.
anyways. it was a quick fix but in instances like that, it’s not that hard to just apologize about the error. y’all don’t have to put the blame on the customer. i know what i want to eat and i would NOT order wrong. dinging y’all some stars cuz it really threw me off and just ruined the dining experience a little bit.
besides that. i love you sweet maple!

I am definitely a carnivore, but bacon just isn’t my thing. I mean, I’ll eat it if it’s there. However, I find bacon too salty and not meaty enough. Plus, I don’t usually like meat to taste sweet. Many others may consider the Millionaire’s Bacon an indulgent treat, but to me, it combines two things I am not particularly fond of at an eyebrow-​raising $ 7.50 for two thick slices. If you disagree with me (and you probably do), then you can enjoy this bacon at Sweet Maple, Kitchen Story, and Blackwood, since the creators made the brilliant decision to offer it at their various restaurants.
The rest of the menu offers the usual brunch dishes — Benedict, French toast, pancakes, etc. This is definitely one of the many brunch establishments with premium prices and long wait times. Rain was pouring outside, so we hoped that meant there would not be a long line for brunch. Mr. Joy & I were quoted a 20 minute wait. We were considering dining elsewhere while huddling under the awning for about 10 minutes when they told us our table was ready. How lucky for us. We entered what looked like a typical diner, but more modern & elevated, with an accent brick wall and decorated with pieces that seem to belong at a tea ceremony.
$ 10 The Big Hip — Deep Fried French Toast w/​Vermont maple syrup & butter
+$ 8 for 2 Eggs & Millionaire’s Bacon:
Unlike me, Mr. Joy is a bacon lover, so of course he had to try this decadent cut of pork. I tried a bite of the Millionaire’s Bacon — thick-​cut, baked w/​brown sugar, cayenne, red and black pepper. I found it too sweet, which was no surprise. Not only is it baked in brown sugar, but it had a coating of powdered sugar over it and some of the maple syrup on the French toast bled onto it. Since it is a thick cut of bacon, it doesn’t come out crispy. It was more like candied pork belly, seasoned with pepper, with a bit of tough texture. I would have liked it more if were crunchy and if the sweetness was toned down. Mr. Joy said it satisfied his curiosity to try it, but wouldn’t order it again.
Deep-​fried French toast was just as intriguing to try. It was thin and crunchy, albeit oddly shaped and not really resembling French toast. It was coated with powdered sugar, strawberries, blueberries, and an orange slice. The tart fruit was necessary to cut through the heavy sweetness and richness of the plate.
For aesthetic purposes, the plate was garnished with 2 fried noodle-​looking sticks.
The Big Hip was pretty good, but still … $ 18 for French toast, eggs, bacon & fruit? That’s steep.
$ 19.50 Oscar Benedict — Dungeness crab, asparagus, capers, lemon, cucumber wasabi hollandaise, w/​potato medley:
Staying true to my form, I ordered eggs Benedict. I was glad to see chunks of crab under poached eggs as opposed to crab shredded into oblivion. I cut into excellently poached eggs with very runny yolk. The potato medley included roasted sweet potatoes and purple potatoes. I appreciated that the plate included a couple of orange slices, since it costs $ 3 to substitute potatoes for mixed fruits. For a crab Benedict, chunks of crab and poached eggs with runny yolk is enough to satisfy me.
The meal satisfied our need to eat brunch — sort of the most important meal of the day. The dishes were very nicely plated and aesthetically pleasing. Plus, service was great. I’m just more inclined to poach eggs at home than pay about $ 20 for eggs Benedict, though. Overall, I give it a ⁷⁄₁₀.

WHY: Super awesome breakfast joint, great service and incredible food. My father came to visit for the weekend and bacon is his favorite food in the world.
WAIT: The wait is longer (25 – 40 mins) if you arrive past 10:00am on a weekend, however it’s relatively short (10 – 15 mins) if you arrive around 9:00am.
MUST TRY: Millionaires bacon — because zomg it’s good. They cover two thick cut pieces of bacon with syrup (?) and pepper flakes resulting in the best thing ever for bacon lovers.
PARKING: Fairly difficult, plan to search for 5 mins or so. or just take Lyft.

Wow. Probably the one of the best breakfasts I have had in the Bay. The wait is super long though, especially on a Sunday morning, and like many popular places nowadays, they accept no reservations.
I always somehow end up sitting at the bar since it’s usually me plus one, which is great if a game is on since they have TVs. Staff is super attentive and friendly.
My favorites:
— Millionaires bacon, sweet and salty with that brown sugar. To die for. It was featured on the Discovery channel for good reason.
— Big Hip French toast, battered and deep fried goodness. Mm.
— Marnier French toast. Soft texture, beautiful presentation, amazing taste.
As you can see, I am all about the sweets. Happy eating!

This place was bustling and based on the number of reviews it’s clearly a popular place. A wait for me and one other was roughly 35 minutes at 11am.
I had the swedish pancakes and ordered a side of 2 eggs over easy and a homemade sausage as well. I have a soft spot for breakfast and normally love almost all breakfast foods but I still found the pancakes to be a little too tough and not fluffy enough. The eggs were cooked to order but extremely greasy and the whites were tough. The sausage was also really small and almost all the flavor was masked by the amount of oil or grease that burst out when I cut into it.
I get that many American brunch/​breakfast places tend to be a bit heavy and greasy but the eggs and sausage here were exceptionally so. The pancakes were decent but nothing amazing. I really wanted to like Sweet Maple since I love breakfast foods but I was honestly a bit disappointed.

My mom and I had the pleasure of popping in for brunch during a short trip to San Francisco. Sweet Maple was a wonderful surprise. The food is absolutely delicious and the service is wonderful.
Upon arrival we saw a sign instructing us to sign-​in on a sheet at the podium. A friendly host returned to the podium to greet us a few minutes later. In total, we waited approximately five minutes. The restaurant was slammed during the busy Thursday brunch service. I would estimate that the dining room was about 95% full.
I ordered the Big Hip with a side of eggs (scrambled) and millionaire bacon. I would say that both are MUST TRY dishes. My mom ordered Swedish with a side of eggs (scrambled) and millionaire bacon. Both dishes were superb! I was so impressed with super fresh ingredients and bold flavors. All the dishes were plated in a way that was visually appealing.
I would recommend Sweet Maple for brunch 1,000 times over. Thanks for the great meal and awesome service! Well done!

Easily one of the best breakfast spots in the city. Loved everything we ordered. We also felt like every other dish other tables were delicious.
The service is also very good. We had to wait for 20 minutes on a Sunday, and neighborhood parking is difficult.
Just know that every dish is rich and fatty — a whole lotta calories packed in every dish!
…also, go prepared to «see» and «be seen» — Sweet Maple’s location — Japantown/​Lower Pac Heights, is filled with the beautiful people and a whole lotta eye candy.

Had high expectations coming here but I might have set it a little too high and got disappointed. There was no wait on Tuesday at 12pm so those in the area working can come here during lunch.
Came here for my birthday brunch. Everything looked and sounded great and it was super hard to choose. I wanted something savory as I would be eating a lot of sweets today. I asked the waitress for recommendations and best sellers. In the end, I chose the Frisco Scramble $ 16. The wait for food wasn’t a long one. When it arrived, the scramble didn’t look appealing but hey, looks could be deceiving right. Took a bite into the potatoes; not bad, standard and salted. Forked my scrambled and I wasn’t exactly blown away. I don’t know what I expected either. It was cooked perfectly but the flavors were just ok. The sausage wasn’t anything special either… Just a little disappointed… I also tried my friend’s Millionaire’s Bacon. It was sweet and a little soft to the bite. Nothing I would die for but good experience. My friend thought her omelette was lacking in flavor and had to add salt.
Boring stuff: Service was quite nice. Cleanliness was just ok.
Summary: Everything looks and sounds delicious but not enough flavor in the food IMO. Maybe I chose the wrong thing… Wish I tried the french toast…

Looking for breakfast is always harder than it sounds. I wanted something delicious and fresh but not pretentious, comfortable and affordable but not a greasy spoon, and also didn’t want to wait in line for 1 hr. Sweet Maple seemed to be the best according to Unilocal and boy am I glad I listened! We arrived around 9:30am on Sunday and put our names in to wait about 30 min. The line churned pretty quickly, and people kept arriving in droves. When we left it was around the block!
Tons of egg options and eggs Bennie options. We both ordered the Bay something omelet — fresh crab, tomato, onion, cheese, and avocado. It came with a thick cut slice of fresh sourdough bread served with homemade raspberry jam, and a medley of crispy sweet potatoes and rosemary new potatoes. Honestly one of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had. You could taste the freshness of the crab in every bite, and the quality of everything on the plate. The coffee left a lot to be desired, but I’d say the wait was worth every minute.

This is definitely the go-​to breakfast spot in San Francisco (if you’re not in a hurry). There is always a line no matter what time you go. Though sometimes when I go around 2 — 3pm on weekdays, there’s surprisingly no queue.
But when I want to skip the line, I just order a delivery. The delivery time is always under 40 minutes so the food is still warm and it still tastes delicious.
The food is great. The must-​have menus are the blackstone benedict (it comes with their famous millionaire bacon) and the hip-​breaker (deep fried french toast). The sweet potato pancakes are great, it comes with a small bowl of fresh fruits — definitely underrated.
All in all, the food is amazing and the flavours are very distinctive and everything was tasty. I don’t think I’ve ever had anything here that I did not like.
The service is great, the staff was very nice and welcoming. They provided us with everything we requested — even gave us free extra whipping cream for our hot chocolate.

Food is great but be warned– even coming on a Monday in the daytime means a long wait for a table.
Of course you get the go-​Tos like the deep fried French toast or the bulgogi scramble or the poached eggs but whatever you order, use the sriracha ketchup on it. Yes even the sweet items. Lol.
It is a true revelation in taste sensation and greatly enhances the dining experience!

Bottom line, this place is awesome. For the longest time, I had wanted to come by for a nice breakfast after finding out about their famous Millionaire’s Bacon. This morning I came by before they opened with one of my best friends. His birthday was yesterday and I wanted to treat him to breakfast here.
We arrived about five minutes before opening. Already, there were a few people waiting outside for them to open. Once they did, we were promptly brought to our table and given menus. Both of us ordered the same thing: Marnier french toast with JD syrup and a side order of Millionaire’s Bacon. I ordered coffee too and it came quickly. Our food arrived approx. 10 – 15 minutes later. I gotta say, this was straight-​up one of the most amazing, delicious breakfasts I’ve ever had. The french toast was light and the JD syrup had bits of bacon in it. Per their menu, it’s infused with Jack Daniel’s Whiskey (hence why it’s called «JD» syrup) and has coffee grounds in it too. The french toast also came with strawberries, blueberries and an orange wedge.
Now, onto the Millionaire’s Bacon…
I don’t think I’ve ever eaten anything so explosively flavorful and just all-​around tasty. It’s hard to put the taste down in words. Best way to describe it is like this: imagine eating something that is the perfect blend of salty, spicy and sweet. I loved every single bite and I wish I had ordered another serving. And this isn’t your half-@$$ed bacon that you would find at a buffet somewhere. This bacon is thick and coated with several kinds of pepper and brown sugar. You’d have to be crazy to come here and not try the bacon at least once.
The hostess and the servers were all nice and my coffee and our waters were refilled several times without us having to flag anyone down. Get there early, like we did, because it gets packed fast. Can’t say I’m surprised. Also, if you arrive early, you’ll be in and out within an hour. My friend and I were seated at 8 and were gone around 8:50.
Overall, I loved every second of it. I’ll be back again.
5 stars all the way

Yum this place was good! I came here for a solo weekday breakfast before attending a conference. They opened around 8am, and I arrived around 8:30am. It was pretty quiet and I sat at the bar, but when I left around 10/10:30, it was pretty busy!
It took a few minutes for the host to come out and greet me, but then he got me seated promptly and a server took my drink order quickly. For breakfast, I ordered coffee ($ 3.50), iced tea ($ 4.50), and two eggs over easy with millionaire’s bacon ($ 16). The eggs came with a potato medley and toast. Before coming here, several people had told me to order the millionaire’s bacon, and it wasn’t my most favorite thing EVER, but it was pretty unique and good. Their menu describes it as «thick, free range bacon, baked with brown sugar, cayenne, red and black pepper” — and that’s pretty accurate. It’s definitely worth a try!
The server was very friendly and kept my drinks full. They also let me squat a bit longer than was polite because I didn’t want to get to my conference too early, which I appreciated! I imagine this place gets quite busy on the weekends, though, so I highly suggest an early weekday breakfast here. Two thumbs up!

Sweet Maple was one of our random finds when we were in San Francisco! We took a Muni bus there, which was perfect. The stop wasn’t too far and the restaurant looked so cute, we were excited for breakfast. We had gotten there on a weekday around 9:00am and were seated immediately.
Our waiter came around and took our order. I got the Herbi Omelette & my fiancé got the Sm Omurice. The food looked really good! Both dishes came with a side of potatoes & a thick cut piece of ciabatta toast. The Herbi Omelette had tomatoes, mushrooms, arugula, bell peppers, shallots, and was topped with a cucumber wasabi cream. I was glad to find that the cucumber wasabi cream had a light wasabi taste, and the omelette was good as were the potatoes & toast. My fiancé really enjoyed his breakfast as well. His food was unique in that there was rice topped with eggs, a few mix-​ins, & a siracha demi glaze on top.
Only the service was a bit lacking while we ate … Or actually, more like non-​existent. No one came by to check on us or get refills on our drinks. We did get to put in our order in & got our check in a timely manner, however. Overall, a 3.5 star experience, rounded up to 4.

TL;DR: Fantastic, strong mimosas!
The wait was very long (they estimated ~30min, we waited about 1.5 hours) on a Saturday afternoon, I suggest putting your name down and checking out Japantown for a bit.
The long wait was definitely worth it for bottomless mimosas! You can choose between 4 different types: Sweet (raspberry lemonade), Regular (orange), Bitter (grapefruit) and Beer. We all chose the sweet one. They were STRONG and delicious. The waiters kept coming back to refill before our glasses were empty. There is a 2 hour limit for mimosas but you really won’t need all that time to get to a pleasant level of drunkenness.

YUUUMMM. I love brunching so of course I had to stop by Sweet Maple when I was in the area!
The wait was prettty long. It was a Sunday at around 10am and we had to wait about an hour and there were a whole ton of people waiting outside! We finally got seated and ordered the Blackstone Benedict and the Big Hip with scrambled eggs and chicken mango sausage. I usually go with smoked salmon benedict when I go to brunch, but after reading so much about the Millionaire’s Bacon, I went with the Blackstone Benedict and I didn’t regret it! They gave thick cuts of bacon and they were so crispy and had such a nice sweetness. it was so good. I recommend it to anyone. The Big Hip was also really good but it was too rich and fried and sweet for me, but if you’re into French toast definitely try it out! Overall, I was super pleased with my experience here and would come back again :)

I’m starting this review off with 4 words:
THAT MILLIONAIRES’ BACON THO!
I came here on a Friday morning with my cousin from out of town and waited a few minutes before being seated (thank goodness for beating the crowd, even on a Friday). Ordered their Blackstone Benedict (Millionaires’ bacon, asparagus, cherry tomato, meyer lemon Hollandaise, $ 18), and it was absolutely excellent. Why? Two things:
1) Millionaires’ Bacon: This is coming from a guy who has not bought and will not buy into this obsession with bacon. I am not fond of the smell nor the taste of regular bacon. Millionaires’ Bacon, on the other hand, is a different beast. The brown sugar glaze helps to nullify to over-​savoriness of regular fried bacon, and with the addition of cayenne and black pepper, it actually tastes more balanced in terms of savoriness.
But honestly, the star of the show for me has to be:
2) Medley of potatoes: Visually, it looks stunning. The variety of color just pops out at you, and gives what would normally be a dull breakfast a spring-​like joie de vivre. Taste wise, they were well cooked and quite light to eat also!
One thing my cousin and I agree on is the visual display of both our dishes. She got the Florentine, and noted how well the eggs benedict were plated on the groups of vivid green spinach. My plate also had an excellent presentation, so much that I still look at my picture of it and salivate over it.
Excellent food, excellent service. I’m making a return to this place when I get a chance!

My cousins were in town visiting from LA so I wanted to take them out to brunch. Originally I was planning to bring them to my favorite spot in the city, Kitchen Story. But since my cousin wanted to go to Japantown afterwards, Sweet Maple was the better option location wise. I’ve heard they’re the sister restaurant to Kitchen Story in the Mission and Blackwood in the Marina so I knew it’d be good!
This was actually my first time here since I know weekend waits are always long. We came on a Thursday and there was bit of a crowd waiting by the door, but the tables became available super quick. We probably waited no more than 10 mins. There are also definitely more seats than both Kitchen Story and Blackwood.
I usually get the Frisco Benedict from Kitchen Story, but as I was scanning the menu I noticed that they seemed to have more options. I got really excited (and hungry) scanning over all the items on the menu, both sweet and savory. I decided to go with salmon benedict with their signature roasted potatoes. This particular salmon benedict stood out from others that I’ve had before because of the cucumber wasabi hollandaise. It was tasty and brought out the freshness in the salmon.
In addition to our own plates, we decided to split their french toast with mixed berries on top. This topped off our meal, so crisp, fluffy and deliciously sweet! Also if you’re looking to have a boozy brunch they offer different juices for their mimosas. Will be coming back for sure!

The service is horrible especially when it is more crowded on weekends and holidays. The wait staff is inattentive. We waited for over 45 minutes and were ignored every time we asked how long the wait would be. When we finally sat down they brought out our food for a party of three at three different times, ten minutes apart, so that none of us were eating at the same time. Overall the food isn’t worth the bad service.

Nous avons pris notre premier petit dejeuner ici en arrivant a SF et franchement ca ete le meilleur! Leur millionaire bacon (epicé) est au top, les patates douces un bonheur avec un iced tea reservi a volonté, attention il y a du monde nous sommes arrivés a 9h et ns avons attendu 15 min mais sur des fauteuils avec new paper, eau aromatisé avec des fruits et café a volonté!