Chocolate Chip Cookie Craving

[Pei]

I can't believe a search did not turn up some kind of "chocolate chip cookie showdown" in the Bay Area.

So, in the interests of research (and my own selfish cravings), I ask everyone what their favorite bakery chocolate chip cookie is.

Alas, I don't currently have a bakery favorite, but I do love the ones at Michael Mina. Too bad they don't sell them in to go bags.

Edit: opinions will vary, but to me the perfect chocolate chip cookie is chewy, but crispy around the edges, preferably with walnuts and smallish chocolate chips.

[rayfilwong]

Sugar Butter Flower in Sunnyvale and Campbell.
It's your traditional flat crunchy disk, but with one bite you can experience the balance of chocolate, cookie, and sugar all dancing in your mouth.
http://www.sugarbutterflour.com/

[pilinut]

Oh, yes, Michael Mina's are wonderful! And I agree that Frog Hollow has great chocolate chip cookies, too. But my current favorites are at Patisserie Philippe's, which is the best patisserie I've found in the Bay Area. Crisp along the edges, chewy in the middle, and buttery all through. . . Four 3 1/2 inch cookies for $4, last I checked.

Patisserie Philippe is on Townsend near 8th Street, and I am a big fan of their Frasier cake, caramel-apple tartlet, rose macaron de Paris, diamante cookies, chicken criossant sandwich. . . I'd better stop there or I shall start obsessing and won't be able to sleep.

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Patisserie Philippe (moving)
655 Townsend St, San Francisco, CA 94103

[iheartfruit]

I bought two around lunch time from a girl selling them in front of Village Market at the Ferry Building during the farmers' market today. She said they were fresh out of the oven-- and tasted like it too. They were even a little bit warm and gooey. She had peanut butter and jelly cookies along with chocolate chip ones, and said that she'd be back every Tuesday. I'll have to try the PB&J ones next week.

[NativeCalGal]

I would have to vote for Sweet Adeline in Berkeley. It is the best I have found. However, I will have to qualify and say that MY perfect CCC does *not* contain nuts ~ and theirs does not. Lots of other varieties to choose from. Love, Love, Love them. If you like Tea Cake Bakeshop you will like these just as well, if not better ~ especially for the cheaper price.

[gaianeh]

I had Arizmendi Bakery's chocolate chip cookie once and it was pretty great. It was a huge cookie though, and took me a while to devour.

[lmnopm]

The best chocolate chip cookie in the area was made for Scharffenberger (for the Berkeley retail store) prior to its Hershey days. I have not been able to locate whatever happened to the baker that made them. If anyone knows, please post.

[ylerner]

The Grove make great choclate chip cookies that are soft in the center and crisp on the outside, available starting at 11am.

[ylerner]

link added

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Grove Cafe
2250 Chestnut St, San Francisco, CA 94123

[Pistou]

A few years back a friend and I did a survey of the Civic Center area (where we work). At the time Larkin Deli Express had pretty good ones, but they switched from butter to marg when the new owners took over and I am no longer even tempted, though it is less than a block from me.

My gold standard in the area and beyond is still Arlequin, though theirs have changed a bit, too. I think they no longer have walnuts in them. But they have great butter flavor, and for me are just the right balance of chewy and a little crisp around the edges. Not cakey at all. I'd be surprised if there is more egg than a couple of egg yolks in their dough.

IIRC, Citizen Cake makes a decent CCC, but I haven't stopped for one in a long time.

[Nina]

Sorry, I thought the link had attached, but not quite....

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Slow Club
2501 Mariposa Street, San Francisco, CA 94110

[Nina]

Not a bakery, but the Slow Club makes a very fine chocolate chip cookie, of the saucer-sized, there-must-be-a-half-stick-of-butter-in-this-thing variety. It's $2.50, though, for those who have a philosophical objection to paying that much for a cookie.

[ML8000]

My vote goes to Bakesale Betty. As you described but perhaps not smallish chips. Quality ingredients and very well balanced in taste and texture. Any way, some people don't like the subtle and home baked quality but I do...afterall a cookie is a simple thing. Getting too fancy or overpowering can kill a cookie. For $1 buck (and a big cookie) it's an easy try. With or without walnuts.

[Pei]

Thanks for the quick replies! They were a nice morning surprise. Too bad I can't enjoy them with some cookies...

On further thought, the best chocolate chip cookies I've had lately were at Cyrus. They were tiny, somewhere between the size of a quarter and a nickel, and even my dessert-eschewing husband admitted they were good.

I think the comments here sum it up: chocolate chip cookies are a simple pleasure, require quality ingredients to shine, are seldom done well, and are too often subjected to super sizing.

[JasmineG]

I like the Bakesale Betty ones a lot.

[Windy]

Mission Beach Cafe's are very good, although they're much bigger than I like.

Frog Hollow sells bags of mini chocolate chip cookies with dried cherries that I'm fond of.

And was it Fish and Farm that offered a dessert with warm cookies?

I can think of very few great cookies in this area in general. All the bakeries seem to think they should be the size of Frisbees.

[Ruth Lafler]

Yeah, those warm chocolate chip cookies at Fish and Farm were delicious.

Great chocolate chip cookies are hard to find. But you might want to check out Focaccia.

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Focaccia Cafe & Bakery
119 Sacramento St, San Francisco, CA 94111

[rworange]

Tea cakes in Emeryville (and some second location in Marin, I think) makes good chocolate chip cookies.

I had a really great hot mini chocolate chip cookies at Ubuntu ... and it was vegan.

Anyone tried the cookies at Thourough Bread? I over-bought on my last visit and didn't give the cookies a try.

I don't like chunky chips. For me it is about the butter ... I still miss the old Blue Chip cookies. They were my gold standard. Don't like walnuts but pecans are ok.

[kc72]

Teacake Bake Shop has locations in Corte Madera and Lafayette