Fredricks Cafe Breakfast Joint

Homemade Hollandaise at Fredericks on Geary Is Worth Returning For. It’s possibly the best I’ve ever tasted.

Fredericks is a cafe and eatery located inside the Clift Royal Sonesta Hotel San Francisco, serving as one of the hotel's updated food and beverage options alongside the famous Redwood Room. It offers breakfast and lunch with both sit-down and counter service, paying homage to the hotel's original owner, Frederick C. Clift.

Fredrick’s is located on Geary adjacent to the Redwood Room at the Clift Hotel a gorgeous 5 star city centre place to stay where you can sip a cocktail after 5pm in the infamous Redwood Cocktail Lounge, another snoop. This trip I was staying in a small hotel around the corner right next door to the Mason St Cafe diner in the Tenderloin district that didn’t have a restaurant so we had to find breakfast brunch places in the neighbourhood for the three day stay. So spending time in Frederick’s every day gave us the Clift Hotel vibes without the expensive room rate. The highlights were the freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, at 10 bucks sweet and tangy in equal measure and the naked fruit smoothies, I loved the berry option at 9 bucks.

We stayed on a budget on Mason St around the corner from Fredericks Cafe at The King George Hotel which was fine but not fancy. It is an old property, the rooms are a bit dated, no restaurant, but most of the hotels don’t have restaurants as there are some many different great food places. It was clean and we had everything we needed, except we did have to pay 15 bucks a day extra for WiFi which was temperamental.

The hotel comparison room rate in this neighbourhood, The Clift Royal Sonesta, like I mentioned first choice at $215 per night, the two budget options we looked at were the Bijou Hotel on Mason at $136 per night right now and The King George Hotel at $120 per night. We opted for the lower price. We just needed a base. If you want a cool aesthetic and are happy to pay a bit more the Bijou Hotel is a little further away from Union Square but closer to Powell Street where you catch the underground and BART but FYI there were more homeless people the closer you get to Powell St station, which can be difficult to see.

Frederick’s within a couple of minutes walk became our go to serving pastries and a limited order at the counter hot menu that changes daily.

It’s not the cheapest joint, a smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel runs around $20 but the homemade Shakshouka billed as Californian was a spicier take on the South African tomato and pepper like stew over a poached egg cooked in the tomato liquor. At $24 bucks a plate you’d expect it to be good and the eggs Benedict came out with the creamiest of buttery hollandaise sauce you’ve ever wrapped your lips around. The chef knows how to cook. And no expense is spared on the bakery items, bagels as good as you’d find in New York and the croissants and pastries were totally delicious and fresh every day.

The building is impressive, massive windows on either side of the steps up to the entrance. On the inside you get gorgeous black and white floors however there’s no waiter service, it’s an order at the counter system and the seating is on a first come first serve basis. The best tables by the windows fill up first so you need to arrive early if you want a table here otherwise it’s the booths in the back which I have to say I did find a bit cramped.

The crowd is pretty smart, we were there on weekdays so most people were quietly working on laptops and iPads. The WiFi was fast and free. Which made up for the hotel.

The service was urgh…. Not super friendly but hey the food was good, the coffee barista style, hot and strong, tasted pretty decent, no free refills.

Everything was a la carte, expresso shot extra, flavour shot extra, but on the upside the hot chocolate was not from a packet and they had every choice of milk and non dairy alternatives imaginable.