John Campbell’s Irish Bakery

Creamy rich whipped cream nestled between fluffy yet firm chocolate chip scones — top of the morning stuff here. And afternoon & evening too! If this be Irish, the lads & lassies should foresake the pint and indulge in baked goods instead! Don’t let the average ambiance be a turn-​off.

I’m a sucker for pastries. When I found out that this bakery was down the street from my house, I took the first excuse to try it out. I was impressed by their selection.
I purchased 6 scones for the week, flaky crusty bread and a soda bread. All were fantastic. I took the soda bread to a family dinner night. Everyone loved it.
The person behind the counter was helpful and looked in the back for some non-​almond scones.
I will certainly be going back, especially to try out their meal items mentioned in the other reviews. Yumm.

So much to say about this bakery, which has become my go-​to place for desserts and such.
1) Bring CASH, and preferably small bills. They only take cash, and helps them out if they don’t have to keep changing 20s.
2) Incredible value. Wonderfully made food (I can only review the breads and pastries, although they offer lots of lunch/​hot sandwiches). I love getting the little individual tarts — a STEAL at $ 2.50 a piece
3) The Irish Brown bread — OMG SO so wonderful.
I am so glad they opened up on the Hill. Welcome John Campbell!

Came here in search of a meat pie for pi (3.14) day on March 14. Unfortunately, giant meat pies is not something you can just get off the shelf (must preorder), but I found lots of other goodies!!!
Goodies include:
1) chicken curry meat pie: a tasty curry with tender chicken, potatoes, peas, and carrots in blanket of flaky deliciousness
2) irish soda bread: decent, a bit softer than i’m used to (my fave is still La Farine in the East Bay)
3) pesto sundried tomato bread: tasty, but a bit soft… would have liked a heartier bread to stand up to the strong flavors
All in all, a great addition to Potrero Hill! I’m eager to try their scones… they look yummy!
NOTE: cash only!

as Jerry and Elaine would say «Sweet fancy Moses!» This place is AWESOME and probably the single reason why my glucose level is elevated. My favorites are the flat «pan» bread (the exact name is escaping me now, but it comes in plan or cinnamon sugar varieties) and the chocolate chip scones. Add to that it’s a good walk from the office — making it accessible on foot during lunch, before work and after work — and cheap… it’s a dream. An Irish baked dream. Sigh.

The prices are great and the baked goods are delicious, fluffy and soft. I got the onion foccacia roll ($ 1.75, 5-​stars), a blueberry scone ($ 2, 5-​stars), and a raspberry tart ($ 1.25, 3-​stars).
It’s a cute place and if you’re jonesing for some baked goods, stop on in!
I’m looking forward to eating the rest of my buns for breakfast.
P.S.
Have cash on hand!

I love this place! Great little bakery in Potrero Hill. Lovely selection of delicious scones for cheap! High quality for low price. Also, its fun to shop here, feels like a bakery should. The blueberry scones are super tasty. They have a good savory selection as well. Will return here.

If there was a way for me to fit the variety of goodies from this yummy bakery into my tummy, I would. As a first timer, I struggled between the Shephard’s Pie, sandwiches, tarts, cookies… you name it, they had it. I finally decided on the Breakfast in Bread. YUM! And for $ 3.75 for 2 slices of this hearty bread filled with sausage, eggs, black and white pudding with a crispy layer of cheesy crust, it’s a steal! I could only eat one and saved the rest for lunch… Yep, still good!

Oooh, this place is so delicious. Awesome sweet and savory pastries. Since John Campbell’s came to Potrero Hill I’ve made it a point to «happen to be stopping by» multiple times a week. Love their shortbread cookies and snowballs. The vegetable curry pasties are my favorite — the chicken curry shepherd’s pie is soooooo good too. Savory foccacias make for the perfect snack or meal. Great hours, also, love that they are open on the weekends! I will be back again and again to see what new delicious eats they have as the selection changes frequently. Also, the staff is super friendly and nice every time I go in there. Five stars and then some!

I first heard about John Campbell’s Irish Bakery, specifically about the one in the Sunset, from a Tasting Table email. I was itching to get there to try their scones and meat pies (pasties). Serendipity fell upon me after a gym run nearby, when I zoomed passed their Portero location, slammed on the breaks and reversed to park.
This place is a little gem. For scone lovers like me you’ve got quite a conundrum of a selection. I opted for the my fav. flavor for sweets, almond something or other and was very happy I did. Also picked up 5 for 5 tarts (raspberry, apricot, custard) for a hostess gift later that day. They were well received. I’ll be back for their various savory pies and sandwiches on potato bread, as well as an irish soda bread, which would make a nice contribution to a dinner party. Before I forget, it’s cash only and prices are extremely reasonable.

I love their beef pastie. So good. Also had their open faced turkey and ham sandwich with melted cheese all over and what I thought was a whole portion was just half! It was huge! Good coffee and tons of delicious baked goods.
Staff is funny though. They always look so miserable lol. You walk in and feel like, «ummm are you closing… sorry am I bothering you?». All jokes aside the staff is actually super nice they’re just not über exuberant which is totally fine.
This place always ruins my low carb diet. I hate and heart you.

I’ve been to their main bakery on Geary Blvd last month and also wrote a review on Unilocal then! Here again I find myself going to make a trip for their delicious Pastie. This small shop has only been here a few month and it fits very well in this nice neighborhood, not to far from my work place in SOMA.
I was checking out their fine Irish Baked Goods like a kid in a candy store! I wish I could have brought alot, but had refrained from doing so for the next trip here. I brought the Fantastic Irish Raisin Soda Bread, a Chicken & Vegetable Pastie and 5 Tarts for my friends kids (wink ;=)).
The Chicken & Veggie Pastie was to Die For!!! Took it home and heated it up with a side of green salad with Heirloom Tomatoes. Excellent Irish Raisin Soda Bread was awesome and as for the Tarts, I confess that I had the Custard and Raspberry ones only! Now, I guess I’ll go to their third Bakery next month!!!

Fantastic tiny little place right next to PIzza Nostra. Plenty of parking between the lot or the street. Free samples. Everything we’ve had there has been yummy. The Irish Soda Bread is light with a cripsy crust. The scones are sweet and dense without being cakey (I hate cakey scones). I’ve tasted the little mini tarts and been very tempted to buy them (the pumpkin ones are in season now). This is one of those neighborhood treasures that I sincerely hope will stay in business. A well-​kept secret for now, but it won’t stay that way. Note that they also have a variety of sandwiches and other things you can pick up on your way to work in the morning or on your way home at night when you’re craving easy comfort food.

I overheard a woman in line at Whole Foods telling the cashier about this new Irish Bakery down the street. I remember because it was dinner time, the line was LONG and I was getting angry at how long she was chewing this dude’s ear off before even handing him the money. My hot-​bar dinner was burning my hands.
Whatever.
The next day I kind of remembered that experience, and being a sucker for awesome neighborhood bakeries (‘Sup Patisserie Phillipe and Baked!) I decided to check out this mysterious new Irish Bakery a block from my digs.
It’s a little hard to write an entire thesis on everything good here, but let me put it this way. The only people who need not apply are the Atkins dieters. This place is Carb-​o-​licious. Let me just tell you instead that after one night, and one morning, I’m ready to vouch for anything that they make.
Things I had:
Garlic Pecorino bread is awesome. (Whole cloves of garlic baked in.)
Snowballs (like Donut Holes but with coconut on the outside and a little whisper of jam on the inside.)
The piece de’ resistance last night was a plain scone, beheaded along its equator and filled with a very mildly sweet éclair cream and a perfect portion of raspberry jam. Dusted in powdered sugar.
This Morning, we returned at 7am to get Lunch:
A Vegetable Curry Pastie for her, and a Brie, Mushroom and Bacon bread (like an Irish Quesadilla) for me.
Portions are big. Prices are Small. Come support this awesome neighborhood bakery open 13 hours a day, 7 days a week, because if they have to shutter their doors, I’m going to be very upset.

Yum. I was riding my bike past John Campbell after a killer workout at the gym. My mind said head home and my stomach said stop and check out. Well, my stomach won. And I am glad it did. I never had irish treats so I was really curious!
I was in the mood for sweet so I bought a lemon poppy scone, a blueberry scone and a savor foccica for later. The scones were delicious with my morning coffee, perfect in flavor and not too sweet. I have a sweet tooth but loved how it was simple in flavor and great in texture!
All in all, my workout was nullified but at least I worked out!
I will definitely be back for more savor goods since it is on my home from the gym. Dangerous!

Many things can make me happy. One of those things is a sausage roll. Common in every pie shop in the UK and Australia but hard to find in the US.
So how happy was I to find that the new bakery that had opened in my neighborhood? VERY!
This an old school bakery. I can tell you what there is gluten-​free, what is made with organic freshly ground flour or if any of it is even vegan and I frankly don’t care. It is more a place for savory treats and bread than for sweets.
This is a great place to go for a savory bakery treat. Their selection of savory treats run from 3 dollar sausage to meal sized shepherd’s pies. There are also focaccia sandwiches. There is a good selection of savory vegetarian treats too.
They also have sweets that look good and are decently priced but aren’t sweet enough and are too dry for me. I’ll stick to my cupcakes from Baked up the hill.
This bakery is a huge improvement to the hipster one that was there last year that had big prices and boring treats.
They are also cash only although there is a wells fargo atm right in the parking lot in front of them.

Saturday afternoon driving along DeHaro.
Me: Hey, is that a new place next to Pizza Nostra?!
Lazy boyfriend: I dunno.
Me, as I’m driving slowly past: Babe, could you please see what that sandwich board says?
LBF: It’s too far. I can’t read it.
Me: *sigh*
Cut to Sunday afternoon as I’m Unilocaling nearby places for lunch.
Me: OMG, there’s a John Campbell’s Irish Bakery near here! That’s the place we drove past yesterday!
Now-​not-​so-​LBF: Oooh, meat pie!
*******************************************
Minutes later we were buying a beef pasty, curry chicken pasty, and a loaf of pecorino-​garlic bread. The pasties were big enough for us to share, and just as tasty as I remembered from my visits to the Geary location (
). But the bread was almost too good for me to write about, because I want to make sure there’s plenty of it whenever I want! Created in a thick focaccia style, the loaf is studded with garlic cloves that have been roasted into sweet submission, and dusted generously with cheese. We had to prevent each other from eating the entire loaf as dinner that night!
I love that this bakery opens early and closes late. And I’m sure we’ll be making regular visits to John Campbell’s, whether for a morning scone and coffee, for some bread or rolls to serve at dinner, or for some tarts and cookies for dessert. BTW, I had selected three shortbread cookies for LBF and myself to share for our lunch dessert, and the counter person threw them in for free! :)

I just had their Veggie pie and it was delicious! Their coffee wasn’t bad either.
The samples of Focaccia and potato bread they had were also amazing, this place is sure to become a staple of my work breaks.

Borrowing my husband’s Unilocal account to write this review…
I stumbled on this bakery yesterday and was extremely impressed by their selection of freshly baked goods. With my black Irish ancestry, I picked up a loaf of traditional Irish Soda bread for our breakfast. Warmed it at 200 in the oven and coupled it with Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter and James Keiller & Son Dundee Orange Marmalade. It was fabulous. Absolutely melt in your mouth incredible. We consumed the entire loaf. If we had another, we probably would have eaten that, too. I highly recommend this local neighborhood bakery.

Out and about enjoying the glorious sunshine this afternoon I came across a sidewalk sandwich board that just seemed out of place to me. Lately I’ve been enjoying and sampling the delicious baked goods of the John Campbell’s Irish Bakery on Geary Street and keeping notes and photos for a future review, but here I was in front of the old storefront once occupied by Pinkies Bakery and Bento 415 surprised to see John Campbell’s has taken over the site for their third San Francisco bakery. The friendly young lady inside told me they opened their doors on July 4^th.
It’s a similar set up as the Geary Street location but with a lot more open space inside. Scones and breads both savory and sweet are on display in two windows stored behind glass doors. These are the pastries that you can serve yourself. Paper bags of assorted sizes can be found on the wooden display shelf to your left as you walk in. The good stuff I usually go for are in a refrigerated glass case in the back. Delicious favorites like their focaccia slices, pasties, sandwiches and Shepard’s pie can be ordered there, and the friendly staff will be glad to reheat everything for you while you wait.
There were sample trays featuring six different bakery items and a cup of toothpicks on top of the refrigerated case. Anticipating my big lunch I only sampled an Irish raisin soda bread that was very good.
For my maiden visit I ordered the Roast Beef Focaccia Sandwich which is already pretty big, and decided to get a Curry Chicken Pastie as well since I had read from some of my favorite reviewers that that was a good choice. Only the sandwich was heated up at my request when I realized I might be too full to try the pastie. In terms of beverages they have coffee, tea, refrigerated juices, water or Izze sodas for purchase.
Although there is seating outside I paid for my goods and took my sandwich to a secret secluded lunch spot near my work and enjoyed the still-​hot sandwich loaded with thinly sliced roast beef, cheese and a savory pepper sauce (
). The focaccia was nice and chewy. The sandwich was delicious. I didn’t get to try the pastie (
) until later in the day as that sandwich and a bottled soda filled me up pretty well.
When I finally sat down to try the Chicken Curry Pastie I found it was simply amazing. The super flaky outer shell is overstuffed with big chunks of chicken with potatoes, carrots, peas and peppers in a curry sauce (
) that slowly creeps up on you and slams your tongue with spicy delight.
I can’t wait to go back to John Campbell’s tomorrow since it’s only a ten minute walk from my work. Best of all, they open early and close late. Welcome to Potrero Hill, John Campbell’s Irish Bakery! I have a feeling you’ll be seeing me fairly often.
As is the case at the other two locations it’s cash only so come prepared.