Arsicault Bakery
Armando Lacayo managed mutual funds on a computer until a few years before he opened this bakery in April 2015. He taught himself the croissant out of a book. His great-grandparents ran Arsicault Boulangerie in France. One of its delivery carts stands inside the shop, beside a photograph of them from 1907.
Why go
Bon Appetit named it America's Bakery of the Year in 2016. Andrew Knowlton wrote the reason in one sentence: What does it take to stand out in a city of sourdough savants? One, and only one, thing: a croissant that's simultaneously so preposterously flaky it leaves you covered in crumbs, so impossibly tender and buttery on the inside that it tastes like brioche, and so deeply golden that the underside is nearly caramelized.
1
Lacayo woke to a line down the block the next morning and capped the counter at six items a person. He had not built the shop around one trophy pastry. I only make things I like,
he told Stefanie Tuder that week.2
Cesar Hernandez ate more than fifty Bay Area croissants over two years for the Chronicle. He put this one first. He kept to plain versions. That is the hard test.3 The kitchen also bakes a sourdough that placed third in the paper's 2026 blind tasting. You can only buy that loaf at the Civic Center shop.4
Order this / avoid
- Order: the almond croissant. Julia Chen calls it
the gold standard. No one does it better.
6 - Order: the ham and cheese, filled with thinly sliced prosciutto cotto and comte, $6.75 in February 2025.5
- Order: the kouign amann, which Dianne de Guzman and Becky Duffett still send readers here for.8
- Avoid: the plain croissant if you are only getting one. Chen rates it the weakest of the four.
What locals & experts say
- Cesar Hernandez, San Francisco Chronicle, March 2024:
Each one is chewy, impossibly light and a little stretchy; the embodiment of flakiness without any dryness.
3 - Paolo Bicchieri, Eater SF, carries the croissant here on his eighteen iconic dishes and drinks of San Francisco, updated in November 2025.7
Good to know
- Getting in: a counter, no bookings, and a queue most mornings.
- Where: 397 Arguello Boulevard, in the Inner Richmond. Takeout only.
- Doors: three in the city. This page is the Arguello original; Civic Center is 87 McAllister and Mission Bay is 1070 Bridgeview Way.9
Verdict
must-visit — Come on a weekday and you will still queue on Arguello; the McAllister door moves faster for the same pastry. Nothing is booked and there is nowhere to sit here, so plan to walk to the Presidio with a bag.