Chinese Bakery Near Me in Chinatown: Eastern Bakery's Century-Old Mooncakes

Eastern Bakery has been baking at the corner of Grant Avenue and Commercial Street since 1924, which makes it the oldest bakery in San Francisco's Chinatown. The shop is at 720 Grant Ave, San Francisco, CA 94108, takeout and cash only. Its 2026 mooncake list prices a single lotus mooncake with two yolks at $10, and a slice of its coffee crunch cake is $8. Anyone looking up chinese bakery near me in Chinatown should start with the mooncakes, which the bakery still fills with lotus paste it makes itself.

Look for the big neon sign at the intersection of Grant and Commercial, which The Bold Italic compared to an old American diner sign. It still reads Chinese and American Food, a leftover from the decades when Eastern served burgers, plate lunches and soda-fountain drinks alongside pastries. The bakery sits on the block of Grant between Sacramento and Clay Streets, in the heart of the Chinatown shopping strip.

The closest rail stop is Chinatown–Rose Pak station on the T Third Street line, under Stockton Street at Washington Street, which opened in November 2022 as part of the Central Subway. From the station exit it is about three blocks to the bakery. Grant Avenue is narrow and slow for cars, so if you drive, park in a garage and walk in rather than looking for a curb space outside.

Li Chiu Fan opened Eastern in 1924, according to The Bold Italic. A sign behind the counter says the bakery was here before the Great Depression, the Bay Bridge and World War II. In the 1960s David Lei, who later directed the city's Lunar New Year Parade, washed dishes here, and he told ABC7 that the baker of that era, Kwan Yo Shing, cleared the room whenever he made the mooncake filling.

Orlando Kuan and his family bought the bakery in 1985. Kuan was born in Lima, Peru, moved to the United States in his 20s and greets some customers in Spanish, according to a 2023 ABC7 profile. His family also opened Golden Gate Bakery up the street. Kuan says the recipes, including the coffee crunch cake, were passed down from the previous baker and that he follows them as written.

The bakery's most-told story is a presidential one. In the mid-1990s Bill Clinton stopped by during a San Francisco visit, wanted a lotus mooncake and ate it on the spot, then bought a case. Kuan told The Bold Italic he kept the bill Clinton signed and framed it. Photographs of the visit hang inside, and the mooncake list still advertises Eastern as the only bakery in the USA visited by President Clinton for its mooncakes.

Mooncakes are the reason to come, and Eastern sells them all year, not only around the Mid-Autumn Festival. The bakery grinds its own lotus seeds and cooks the paste for about eight hours with vegetable oil and sugar, with no preservatives, Kuan told ABC7. He said the practice began during World War II, when the bakery could not get supplies from China and had to make everything in San Francisco.

On the 2026 list, a lotus mooncake with two yolks is $10 each or $40 for a box of four, and a single-yolk lotus is $9.50. The winter melon, the mixed fruit and nut with ham, and the Chiu Chow winter melon are also on the menu, along with a four-yolk lotus at $12. Pig-shaped mooncake cookies without filling are $3.25, and a box of 12 mini lotus mooncakes costs $54.

The other legend is coffee crunch cake, a yellow sponge layered with coffee whipped cream and covered in crunchy coffee toffee. It descends from Blum's, a San Francisco pastry shop that closed in the 1970s. Customer Winston Fong told ABC7 he grew up riding BART into Chinatown with his father for a slice. Rick Shiu, a regular who moved to Los Angeles, told The Bold Italic he would carry a whole 12-inch cake back to Los Angeles after visiting family.

A slice of coffee crunch is $8 and half of an 8-inch cake is $32. Whole cakes must be ordered by phone at least one full day ahead, and writing on a cake adds $6. From the regular case, baked pork buns, steamed pork buns, cocktail buns and pineapple buns are all $3 each or $36 a dozen, and almond cookies are $6.75 a package. Eastern's own chip-like snack, called Smackles, is $6.50 a bag.

Eastern is takeout only and does not take cards at the counter, so bring cash. Mail orders are paid only by mailed checks or Zelle, and the bakery ships mooncakes nationwide, with shipping at $13.50 for one box. On Mondays, Google lists hours of 11 am to 4 pm, a short window, so a Monday visit should be a midday one. The bakery paused shipping from June 6 to July 5, 2026, and it posts pauses like that on its price sheet.

The honest skip is the egg tart. The Infatuation says that for egg tarts you are better off at Golden Gate Bakery, which the same family runs, but Golden Gate is known for closing without notice for days at a time. Spend your cash here on a mooncake and a slice of coffee crunch instead, and if you still want a warm dan tat, Plan B is Garden Bakery on Jackson Street, which is open daily from 8 am to 7 pm.

A block and a half south on Grant, at California Street, stands Old St. Mary's Cathedral, built in 1854 in the Gothic Revival style and designated a San Francisco landmark in 1968. It is a proto-cathedral and working Catholic parish, and it sits at the same crossing where Grant Avenue meets California Street, so it pairs naturally with a mooncake stop on the way back toward downtown.

One block east of the bakery is Portsmouth Square, a 1.5-acre plaza bounded by Kearny, Washington and Clay Streets. It was the first park in San Francisco, older than both Washington Square and Union Square and is named for the USS Portsmouth, the American ship that captured the city. A box of pork buns and a coffee crunch slice are easy to eat on a bench there, since Eastern itself has no seating.

Eastern Bakery, 720 Grant Ave, San Francisco, CA 94108, at Commercial Street in Chinatown. Google lists Monday hours of 11 am to 4 pm. Takeout only, cash at the counter, mailed checks or Zelle for mail orders. Whole cakes need at least one full day's notice. Nearest transit is Chinatown–Rose Pak station on the T Third Street line.