Citizen Cake

Citizen Cake is a cute little restaurant/bakery in Hayes Valley. We came here on a Sunday, and it was quite busy, with people going to the performance halls for matinee showings.

We came during brunch on a sunny day, which was nice since it’s a corner restaurant with lots of uncovered windows. It’s also a nice place to sit and people watch. Both in the restaurant and at the passersby.

The menu is quite unique. It’s not just scrambled eggs and ham. But beware, because I wanted to try the desserts but came out too full from my salad.

Portions aren’t huge, but I’d say a good size for brunch. If it were dinner though, I’d think the sizes were too small.

Overall a good experience. I’d like to go back again to try the desserts though.

First, the waiter seemed to be disgruntled and angry with us as soon as we revealed that we were there for dessert instead of dinner. He mumbled his way through the meal until he glowingly announced, “There is an 18% gratuity added to parties of 6 or more.” I was aghast partly because I was sure he was incapable of speaking louder than a mumble and partly because he deserved little more than the change we would receive. But at least it explained why he felt that he did not need to be nice to us; he was confident we would have to tip him.

Second, I was extraordinarily dissatisfied by the desserts on the menu. I had been looking forward to one of the luscious cakes or pastries I had heard so much about, but which do not (apparently) appear on the menu. I learned later that those are only available for take-out – which I think is strange for a place called Citizen Cake. Nonetheless, I ordered the “My Milkshake, It’s Better Than Yours” which was the worst attempt at a milkshake ever to be experienced. The rest of my entourage felt similarly about their desserts – especially since nothing on the menu was nearly as appealing as what was in the glass case only a few feet away.

I’ve only been to Citizen Cake once and it was a couple years ago, but I still remember the terrible service we received. Hopefully they’ve improved since then, but I won’t be going back to find out.

A group of us were looking for a place to grab dessert and coffee in the city and found Citizen Cake…we assumed they’d specialize in serving desserts because of the restaurant name. However, when we got there the waiter assumed we were ordering dinners and was visibly displeased when we ordered desserts instead. (I’m pretty sure we arrived around 9 so it was after peak dinner hours anyway). Our waiter was unfriendly the entire time we were there.

The desserts were interesting…I don’t think they had any traditional desserts or cakes on the menu. Again, the name confused us as we expected a big selection of cakes. I remember my friends ordering milkshakes that had popcorn in them. I decided to order the 3 cheese dish instead of dessert…the cheese were quite tasty, but the portions were small (just 3 small pieces of cheese for $12).

I don’t think this is the place to go for sit down desserts with friends. They did have a separate bakery-type area where people could pick up desserts.

well, like the other reviewers, i agree, the service is poor, but my experience wasn’t nearly as bad. whew~

we were also served a lunch menu, and thought, what the heck, why not? had sandwiches and soups.. they were pretty good actually, but very pricey. afterwards, i wanted to get a dessert, but i couldn’t decide which one i wanted, and our server was so unhelpful. she was just like “if you like chocolate, get the chocolate one, if not, get something else”

this place is pretty pretentious for a bakery/restaurant and the prices prove it. bleH~