After the parade of classic haute cuisine French legends that called it quits in the early 2010s like Fleur de Lys and Masa’s, we all thought San Francisco had had enough with French cuisine, right? Finished with the duck à l’orange and pastries?

Wrong. Very, wrong (cue the image of a mime with a beret wagging his finger).

Monsieur Benjamin, Petit Crenn, Gaspar, and the buttery treats of Mr. Holmes Bakehouse, just to name a few, have made French cuisine not only relevant, but chic again. And, I haven’t even mentioned the most French place of all, Union Square’s Bouche, where with its 1 a.m. closing most nights of the week you’ll find many of the city’s French restaurant workers gathering after their dinner service ends.


But somehow in the midst of the French rejuvenation, crêpes have always been and remain a little forgotten. We just think of them as another form of pancakes because everything has to be generalized somehow. They are not pancakes. Next issue: much of the Bay Area learned about crêpes from the Crepevine mini-chain (cue the mime shaming you again). Crêpes are not the burrito-species that particular restaurant serves. Then there is the disturbing mindset that crêpes are merely a blank canvas for Nutella or jam. After all, this writer had to make crepes for many fundraisers taking French class while growing up, only to see the hard work get covered up as an afterthought in sauces and condiments. Crêpes are not toast and they are not omelettes. Thankfully, a trio of establishments agree with me: the specialty of isolated, windy and cold Brittany in the north of France needs the spotlight. Let the crêpe speak for itself.

And so it’s time for a showdown. A San Francisco crêpe-off between the casual dining room of one of the city’s most celebrated chefs, a Portland-evoking street stand in the midst of the FiDi hustle and bustle, and a hidden crêpe-focused café and caterer with beautiful views of the Harrison Street Bay Bridge traffic back-ups. Allez viens.

Crêperie Saint-Germain has a brick and mortar café on California Street but since some of my fondest crepe memories from living in Paris involved take-out crêpes eaten along the Seine or the steps of a metro station, I had to visit the adorable “to-go” shack randomly placed in a FiDi parking lot (pro tip: go one block to the CBS Interactive plaza for free tables). The menu here is far more extensive than the other two in our contest. It’s too big, honestly, leading the crepe to be a supporting character in most cases, but the crepe batter itself is terrific courtesy of its buckwheat base. I opted for the “#7” ($8.50) and regret the choice, largely because the promised roasted peppers were raw green bell peppers and the spinach covering the top also was not wilted. Double loss. Crêpes and crudité don't mix.


Fortunately, the goat cheese and egg added needed moisture and the jalapenos perked everything up, saving the day because what do those three ingredients not help out? But overall, the crepe was too compartmentalized — each bite was a different ingredient instead of a mix of flavors. Being the only portable crepe of the trio, this was the only conical crêpe. All the others were folded on plates. There is nothing wrong with being a cone but it made every filling layered without mingling. That being said, the sweet crêpe I sampled fixed every problem. The “#19” with chocolat and bacon (add banana) was everything you could ask for: soft, smoky, and an alluring dark chocolate ganache that Nutella envies. Everything tied together seamlessly.


From a street cart to the all white glistening salon that is Petit Crenn in Hayes Valley we head nexr. As rain fell one recent winter morning, the space was as serene as a zen garden combined with the slick look of a modern art gallery. Crenn hails from Brittany, as do crêpes, so expectations were exorbitant. And fully met. This breakfast-only crêpe was the most vividly tasting buckwheat crêpe I’ve tasted since the high point of my crêpe-eating experience at the acclaimed Brittany-inspired Breizh Café in Paris. You don’t know buckwheat crepe batter until visiting that café in the Marais or, now closer to home, a morning at Petit Crenn. It’s a side and correctly so. Crenn’s crêpe is a proper, thoughtfully composed crêpe that is the complete opposite of the aforementioned gigantic, massively filled burrito versions. It is tightly rolled, bursting with energy, yet only lightly filled with the earthy kick of gruyère cheese and a little scattering of fines herbes. Every bite is carefully calibrated and restrained. That’s it. That’s all that is needed. No nutella. No strawberries. The crêpe speaks for itself: basic and perfect. You’ll have room afterwards for a pain au chocolat, too.


We could wrap it up there but as you’d expect, the best is saved for the finale. For the pinnacle of crêpe eating in San Francisco, we need to head back to the FiDi/SoMa area and Crepe-Madame. They employ French hours (weekdays 11:30 am to 2:30 pm), plenty of Paris photos and Eiffel Tower miniatures as décor, and a tidy space with barely enough room for tables and an open kitchen. The “Chocolate Tropicale” ($8) with melted dark Belgian chocolate, bananas and mangoes (strawberries for me because they ran out of mangoes, so I guess it wasn’t so tropical) again proved that somehow chocolate and fruits just plain taste better wrapped in a crêpe. But the stand-out of this journey was “La Citrouille” ($11) with tender roasted pumpkin, goat cheese, caramelized onions, wilted arugula, the crunch and salt of sunflower seeds, sundried tomato pesto, and a not necessary but nice to have around chipotle aioli on the side. What a thrill. And they kindly added bacon gratuit because the affable server insisted the combination tastes better with bacon and I admitted to not being a vegetarian. The fillings were superb. The nutty, almost funky gluten-free buckwheat crepe itself an exemplary form. As I gazed at the picture of the Pont Alexandre III, which was about 100 yards from my shoe box-sized apartment as petite as Crepe-Madame, I thought to myself how this is the one. These crêpes at Crepe-Madame end the search. And the charm of the little store front puts it over the top.

There are only winners in this showdown but for the most magnifique combination of fillings and a perfect buckwheat crepe, it’s Crepe-Madame who is truly the most formidable of this crêpe-off.

Creperie Saint-Germain, 222 Second St., 415-434-4117
Petit Crenn, 609 Hayes., 415-864-1744
Crepe-Madame, 685 Harrison., 415-513-9252