Update 3:
Tartine Bakery (Revisit)
For this morning’s bang x bang with Plow, I really wanted to go back to my favorite Croissant in SF at Arsicault, but I had promised one of my best friends to buy her some Tea Cakes from Tartine (Arsicault sadly doesn’t have any), so we ended up at here.
We’re starting to find out after more and more visits that Tartine’s strengths are more in their Desserts & Sweets instead of their Pastries.
Croissant:
Time from Oven: 1 hour 30 minutes.
We had to order their plain Croissant again, just for comparison and to see how consistent they were. Sadly, this was just like our 1st visit: The Croissant was barely crisp, kind of soft, dryish and pretty average. 
It seems Tartine’s Croissants don’t hold up well at all over time, so get them when they make a new batch / first thing in the morning only. Arsicault’s are so much better (as are Chaumont’s).
Eclair (Valrhona Chocolate Glaze, Pastry Cream):
I love a good Eclair, so I try to order one of these whenever I see one. 
Tartine’s Eclair is wonderful: A beautiful Valrhona Chocolate Glaze and nice Pastry bite, giving way to this amazing Pastry Cream that is more like a super smooth, silky Custard! 
Banana Cream Tart (Dark Chocolate Coated Flaky Pastry, Caramel, Vanilla Bean Pastry Cream):
Finally! On this 5th visit we finally saw the Banana Cream Tart again. Taking a bite…
Impossibly light, clouds of super fresh, lightly sweet Cream, then bits of Bananas and this decadent Custard. But it’s the hard Dark Chocolate Shell (hard to see in the cross-section) that holds the Custard and some of the fragrant, toasted outer crust that just elevates this to pure JOY!
This is SUCH a good Dessert! 
(@PorkyBelly @TheCookie @Bookwich @BradFord @ipsedixit @T3t and others!)
I don’t even like Banana Desserts usually, but this Dessert is outstanding!
Tartine Bakery
600 Guerrero St.
San Francisco, CA 94110
Tel: (415) 487-2600