Boudin Bakery @ Fisherman's Wharf
Restaurant · Fisherman's Wharf
160 Jefferson St, San Francisco, CA 94133
Highlights
Iconic sourdough bakery offering clam chowder in bread bowls
Iconic sourdough bakery offering clam chowder in bread bowls
"San Francisco is known as the nation's culinary capital, offering a vibrant food scene with diverse offerings and innovative approaches to food. It features a mix of Michelin-starred restaurants, legendary seafood spots, and diverse global cuisine." - Stacey Leasca Stacey Leasca Stacey Leasca is an award-winning journalist and co-founder of Be a Travel Writer, an online course for the next generation of travel journalists. Her photos, videos, and words have appeare
"Boudin Bakery, the oldest continually operating business in San Francisco, has locations around the Bay Area. The flagship location on Fisherman’s Wharf allows guests to watch the sourdough being made at the waterfront setting while enjoying sourdough bread bowls filled with clam chowder and other options. The bakery reflects a blend of tradition and modernity, using wild yeast from San Francisco’s fog-cooled air to leaven the mother dough, which is replenished daily with flour and water. The original recipe from 1849 is still used to produce as many as 25,000 loaves daily." - Tim Newcomb
"Not only is San Francisco a carb lover paradise, but the city is home to some of the oldest, most unique, and innovative bakeries in the country. Sourdough is, of course, a local specialty, and no one has done it better — or for a longer time — than Boudin Bakery, which has been using starter dough cultivated 150 years ago. And Loquat, a Jewish cafe and bakery opened in 2022 by Tartine Bakery alumni, has become a local favorite for its Middle Eastern specialties like babkas and bourekas." - Dobrina Zhekova
"This sourdough bread institution is iconically SF as railing against driverless cars. So naturally Boudin is a tourist magnet, and the fact that it’s the city’s longest operating bakery is the draw. The flagship Fisherman’s Wharf location is in a warehouse-like space with a cafe, a coffee kiosk, and a marketplace full of Golden Gate Bridge-branded mugs and dish towels. Expect a loud, chaotic scene. Everyone’s here to snap photos of the bread loaves randomly shaped like bears, scorpions, and crabs, and eat clam chowder bread bowls—they’re surprisingly good considering you’re in the Times Square of SF." - Lani Conway
"For new-school artisan sourdough that’s dramatically dark and craggy, please see Tartine Bakery or any of these excellent San Francisco specimens. But for an old-school heavyweight, Boudin is an original. They claim their mother starter dates back to the Gold Rush, and they’re still making dense, tangy, tourist-friendly sourdough, which, admittedly, does make the best bread bowl for serving creamy clam chowder." - Lauren Saria, Eater Staff
