The Best Cinnamon Roll, Sun & Fun in San Francisco🥐🦭💃

I flew into San Francisco as part of a larger road trip down the west coast, and even though I just spent 2 nights there, I’m glad I did!

P.S. If you are interested in reading about the FULL road trip, which consisted of 1,000 miles of driving from SF to LA, check out my other blog posts here.

Day 1: Dancing and Pizza

Bolivian Food & Music

I didn’t arrive until the late afternoon so the first evening was reserved for walking around and for eating. Nothing better really.

I had read good reviews for deep dish gluten free pizza in Tony’s Pizza Napoletana and so thought we’d pop in here. We arrived early for dinner time, at around 5.30 but, even so, they were fully booked and we joined the wait list which was going to be about an hour.

In the meantime (don’t judge us we were hungry), we went to another spot around the corner which has an almost entirely gluten free menu, is entirely vegan and has live Latin music, Peña Pachamama. Live music was an understatement. It’s a Bolivian restaurant, but with more of a cosy living room feel, and we stumbled right into the live music and dancing. Guitar, tap dancing, clapping, singing… the lot. This was such a fun and unique experience.

Everything except the empanadas were gluten free. As this was just a pre-dinner snack, we opted for the Andean papas a la huancaina, which was a small plate of potatoes in the most amazing cheesy with a chilli kick sauce, and some fried plantains with a refried bean dip to share. Recommend both, but particularly the potatoes, *chefs kiss*. And a margarita, of course. Note: the beer was not gluten free.

Did someone say deep dish pizza?

Next stop was Tony’s Pizza Napoletana. They had so many gluten free options it was unreal, gluten free thin crust pizza, deep dish pizza, bread sticks, chicken parmigiana, giant meatballs, spaghetti, beer! There were also some vegan options. For all my fellow pre-reading menu lovers, a link to the menu here.

Although I was very tempted by the meatball and parmigiana, I’m a deep dish pizza girl at heart and had never had one outside of home, so it had to be that. It did not disappoint. The pizza had so much depth of flavour but honestly my favourite part was the edge of the crust, it tasted like the crispy bits of cheese that escape from your cheese on toast on the grill. Magical.

The whole atmosphere here was of a busy Italian eatery, the staff were so friendly and happy to talk about the gluten free options, they seemed really proud of their award winning pizzas. Meals are designed to share and portions are big, with plate stands given on each table to encourage it. Highly recommend this place, but also suggest booking a table in advance unless you don’t mind the wait as it really was super busy! We also had a table outside, as there’s a mix of inside and outside seating, so bring a coat if it’s chilly just in case.

After dinner activity?

If you’re looking for an activity to do after dinner that doesn’t involve too much drinking, we didn’t find too much but ended up going to a bowling alley, Lucky Strike. Again we hadn’t booked anything so had to wait an hour, but there was a fun arcade to keep us entertained there until we were called to play. No food here of note, just unfiltered fun.

Day 2: Buns, Boats and Bridges

100% GF Bakery, of course

The next morning for breakfast I went to one of the best gluten free bakeries, Mariposa Baking Company. This place was genuinely made of gluten free dreams. An entirely gluten free bakery, they had an assortment of baked goods (croissants, pretzels, bagels, scones, muffins, cookies etc.), freshly girlled sandwiches, all the different types of bread and even fresh pastas to take home and cook. They would take a large portion of my money if I lived there.

That day we were going to Alcatraz late morning so I bought extra goods to keep me going through lunch. It was so moreish, we went there the next day too for breakfast, and so through both trips I tried a raspberry and almond croissant, a pain au chocolat, a bear claw, a cinammon roll and a bacon and egg sandwich.

All were delightful, but my top scorer was the cinnamon roll. It was so good, my partner ordered solely one the next morning for breakfast. Oh, and they can heat up any baked good for you if you’re eating it straight away, just ask. Top points for this bakery.

Explore the Famous Alcatraz

Alcatraz was a cool if not spooky experience, having been an island used only as a prison until the 60’s. Tickets were easy to book online and boats leave the wharf every 30 minutes. There’s a great view of San Francisco from the boat and once you get to Alcatraz you can pick up a pre-recorded tour on some headphones and walk at your own pace around the prison.

Seals upon Seals! – Fisherman’s Wharf

After getting back to the main land, we walked for a while down to Fisherman’s Wharf where tons of sealions have decided to make a home. There are so many just lazing about in the sun and fighting for a spot on the decks.

Feeling a bit peckish, we decided to look for some GF food here but didn’t find too many options. There was an IN-N-OUT which was way too busy for us for a bunless burger, so we settled for The Blue Mermaid, in which I had a Manhattan chowder and crispy caulfilower. There wasn’t anything surprising here, but GF was clearly labelled on the menu and the waiter was very knowledgable. So a decent option if you’re in the area. On the note of chowder, I would have loved to try a proper clam chowder but couldn’t find any that was gluten free, if you know of any, let me know!

Classical Golden Gate Bridge Snap

We really tried to fit a lot into this day as it was our only full day here, so after refueling we caught an uber to the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge (everything is so far away from each other in SF!) where you can walk up to a pretty amazing view point in just 10 minutes. I probably was a bit skeptical about going to see ‘just a bridge’ but it is so iconic and when we got to the view point it was a fun place to take some breezy photos while I hummed away to the That’s So Raven theme tune in my head

(IFKYK). We walked back across the bridge at the end and recommend if you have time to do this too, even just to appreciate how long it is!

Before Dinner Beer

We had some time before dinner and had already settled on an Indian. I don’t know if this is common knowledge but I had never found a GF naan bread on offer before, even in places that had GF gulabjumans or other options for GF bread, but there are SO MANY GF NAANS in San Francisco. We chose one that had 5*s on Google revies (5*s!) and found a bar across the road that offered live music (a common theme) and GF beer called Madron Art Bar, as we were arriving in the area a little early for dinner.

We arrived between sets so didn’t get to hear much live music, but in the interim music was playing through the speakers and a black and white version of Star Wars was playing on the small TV screens. It had an interesting art exhibition at the time on golf, which apparently rotates to other themes often. But most importantly, it offered a San Francisco brewed GF Pale Ale.

I feel like beer and curry is such an inherently British thing that I’ve never experienced, does it count if the beer is before the curry?

The highlight… GF naan and gulabjamuns!

The Indian restaurant we chose to taste the gluten free naan bread was Nepa Indian Cuisine. I have to admit, I didn’t have the most hope after asking the first waiter if the pakoras were gluten free, because although they offered GF naan the rest of the menu didn’t specify which items were gluten free, and he seemed a bit flustered to answer.

He asked another employee though, who came and said that the pakoras were fried in the same oil as the samosas so were not gluten free, however, they could fry them in new oil for me which restored my faith. This also opened up the gate to papadums for me too which I was super grateful for. On top of this I ordered the plain naan as well as a garlic one to try and salmon tikka.

What a taste festival. The pakoras were so light and crispy, the salmon so soft and tender and the naans… also a bit crispy to be fair which is not what you want from a naan, but for a gluten free one out I’ll take it and taste wise they were great and wow was I just happy to be able to eat them.

Yes, of course I asked for raita and made a kebab.

Day 3: Bakery and Byes

The next morning we went for a run down to Fisherman’s Wharf again as I wanted to pick up a San Francisco hat as a souveniour but mainly just needed an excuse to stop by Mariposa Baking Company again. This time I got the bacon and egg sandwich to fuel us up before starting our road trip down the coast that morning and my partner got the freshly heated cinnamon roll.

I left San Francisco feeling full and happy, and that rounded up our 2 nights and 1 day in San Francisco.

Thanks for reading my itinerary for San Francisco, if you try any of these places and enjoy them like I did, please let me know! I’d love to see you enjoying these places, share your experiences in my facebook page, tag me on Instagram or TikTok!

Round-up!

Recommended Food Stops:

1. Mariposa Baking Company – Entirely GF bakery, pastries, sandwiches, fresh bread and pasta, the best cinnamon roll I’ve ever tasted (10/10 – go, go, go)

2. Tony’s Pizza Napoletana – Fantastic GF deep dish pizza, pasta options available too (9/10 – must try)

3. Peña Pachamama – Almost entirely GF Bolivian restaurant with live music and dancing (7/10 – fun food)

4. Nepa Indian Cuisine – GF Naan Bread (7/10 – good options)

5. Madron Art Bar – GF beer, live music (6/10 – 1 GF beer, good music)

Recommended Activities:

1. Alcatraz tour

2. Golden Gate Bridge

3. Walk / run along Fisherman’s Wharf

4. Bowling / Arcade at Lucky Strike

Thanks for reading all the way down here, if you do any of these activities or eat at any of these places then I’d love to see you enjoying these places, share your experiences in my facebook page, tag me on Instagram or TikTok!