Golden Gate Fortune Cookies

This was the biggest let down! I found this place on a website of tourist activities for SF and immediately wanted to go! It was a little hard to find Ross Alley because it is literally an alley. You have to find parking and walk up a big hill to be able to go down the alley. I have to be honest, if it was dark outside, I would have been scared. I guess I’m just not used to hanging out in alleys. As soon as I walked in, I realized what a big let down this was about to be.
The «factory» is a small room with a few women making cookies. You’re stopped at the front by a man and he offers you a free fortune cookie. It was kinda cool because it was flat and not yet folded. (I had never seen one like that) They let you take photos for a charge. I think the sign said 50 cents. And that’s it! That’s the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie experience. I was extremely disappointed because I expected a factory and a tour. I do have to admit, the cookie was pretty good. However, I was so disappointed and let down that I didn’t even think to buy any until I was at the airport later.

Swing by this unique «attraction» to see how fortune cookies are made! Inside the historic Ross Alley, Golden Gate Fortune Cookies is one of SF Chinatown’s oldest establishments. Here, you can see the cool contraptions that rapidly cooks the dough into fortune cookies in a two-​woman assembly line where the workers quickly takes the flat cookies to bend them before they cool.
The whole affair takes less than 10 minutes to see and it’s free. Plus, you get a free sample of a piping hot «flat» fortune cookie! I wasn’t a fan of fortune cookies before, but the hot sample was really good. $ 0.50 to take a photo but hey, it’s a very good deal! Anyway, check out this cool spot in Chinatown!

Omg I’m in heaven! My secret love is fresh fortune cookies. After coming here a few times before I needed my fix. You would never know it existed if you were just walking around. it’s in this small alley on a side street. This place looks like something straight out of the movies. You walk in and you get greeted by this sweet little lady who is pushing the hell out of those cookies. I always go for the flat ones and xrated adult fortunes always fun for the office. If you take a look around you see the ladies working. This place is a true little factory. Today was very fitting because around the corner someone was filming a movie based in the late 60s. This place is a must try fit those visiting the city. Everything is super fresh and the prices are great. I failed to notice if it’s cash only because when ever I’m in china town I assume everything is.

Best and freshest fortune cookies you can find! Super neat to watch them made in this little alley way. I’ve been coming here since I was a kid.
Bonus — They always hand you some fresh warm cookies right off the press!

This was a hole in the wall kind of place. We kept walking past it and didn’t realized it was in a dark alley. When you first walk in you are greeted by the workers who are making those fortune cookies right in front of you. You also get a sample of the fortune cookie before they are folded into their shapes. It was interesting to see how those little cookies are made.

Which alley way is it?
I have been wanting to visit this fortune cookie store every time I’m in Chinatown in San Francisco but could not remember the name of the business nor where it is located… all I knew was from memory of my first visit in the 90’s, way before Unilocal was conceived [in October 2004], that it was in a small alley way and that it was a popular spot for delicious fortune cookies. Literally a hidden gem! I finally found it again when I looked for it in Unilocal during a visit to Chinatown on Christmas Day! yay!
From the dimly lit place it did not look very big and it doesn’t even look like a store, more like a manufacturing place. The lighting was poor (we arrived around 5:30ish?). There is no cash register counters or fancy display racks or cool neon signs… our transaction was done right there by the entrance. Once you walk in the metal racks filled with packaged cookies for purchase are immediately to the left. There was a table to the right and this was where an employee was packaging flat fortune cookies in individual packages. He allowed us to try samples from it, freshly made and still warm. In the same room is a female worker sitting next to a machine where she was pulling the small flat pancake-​looking cookies from a conveyor belt while still warm and forming them into what we know as fortune cookie shapes. There were rows of these machines but it was a holiday and I only saw her working on one machine. She would take a fortune and insert them in the cookie and fold. She separated the reject flat ones and the formed cookies in two separate bins. I asked permission from her that allowed me to take a video while doing this process. They could be a supplier to restaurants and walk-​ins were welcomed. We were the only customers here at the time.
And that’s it, folks! We paid for our treats and left. Quick transaction. This place is cash only. $ 4 for one package of the flat fortune cookies. I also purchased a package of ‘Smackles’ (it had chocolate swirls). They are not formed like fortune cookies. Light, crispy, delicious. They also make them in chocolate flavored which I didn’t purchase. If you must find this place it is near a bakery called Golden Gate Bakery and it seemed to be really popular as there was a loooong line waiting to purchase pastries and desserts there… my next mission!

This is a hidden gem. A local mentioned it to me so I hunted it down in a back alley of chinatown. Wasn’t quite sure what to expect but the experience was so interesting. When I was there, there were 2 women sitting at the machine hand-​making fortune cookies. A helpful man at the front assisted me in making my own fortune cookie, plus he gave me & my toddler lots of nibbles. Just a really fun, off-​the-​wall experience. We’ll be back!

Awesome! You can also make a special one as a gift! Like I missed you, Viky! :)))))). Nice to see how they make it.

Can’t beat these fortune cookies! The ladies working here are pumping out fortune cookies like nobodies business! I usually buy the $ 4 bag of flat cookies w out the fortune. They’re just as delicious without all the work of removing the fortunes (also less crumby).
They’re dangerously delicious! I can eat 10 without noticing.

I am mortified! I was helping my niece with her «Flat Stanley» project and took it to what I thought was a gem spot in the city. I explained to the woman (young adult daughter who understood and spoke English about the project). Especially for the fact that my niece was in 4^th grade. Without knowing I guess I ended up buying the X rated fortune cookies…
They were handed out in my niece’s classes room and the teacher was shocked! I was never told they were xrated… Naively picked out the mix color bags, «cool they make chocolate ones, the kids would love it…»
Please, please, please watch out for the X rated fortunes. It totally shadowed the work I did for the project and embarrassed my niece! I am furious that I wasn’t told, or warned by the lady… I didn’t see a sign! It was a mistake and never did I ever expect that…

If you’re looking for fun custom made edible party favors — check out Golden Gate Fortune Cookies.
For $ 35 dollars — you can get 100 individually wrapped freshly made fortune cookies filled with your own custom fortunes. Not only are the fortune cookies well made — but they’re also delicious.
Tasty morsels of wisdom.
The staff here work hard and they are very responsive. If you’re under a tight schedule — they are open to working with your time constraints. Just be mindful that they’re cash only and I would recommend E-​mailing them with your order ahead of time to make sure that your custom fortunes are printed correctly.
Golden Gate Fortune Cookies is one of those classic San Francisco businesses that produces a fantastic product on the regular — despite the hype. Though they’re perpetually busy — they are quick to pick up the phone and they are efficient at producing fantastic fortune cookies without a long wait.
Trust.

Buy XXX-​Rated Fortune Cookies made by blissfully naïve hard working old Chinese Grandma’s
like my wonderful Chinese Mother-​in-​Law.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I happen to wander down Ross Alley, while dragging my reluctant Chinese Wife, who kept saying…“there is nothing here… there is nothing here”, and thought I discovered an un-​Yelped place… ha ha… yeah right. Since I could not find it to check in, which was weird, I took a pic of their business card to do a «first». Well apparently it was a first for us, but not for thousands of others. Anyway, since it was a quiet post-​Halloween Monday, there were no tourists to be seen in the ancient alley & few Chinese for that matter.
Anyway, my wife is neither into Chinese history, culture, nor holes in the wall… so I had to literally beg her to come in with me… later she did love eating what we did buy there…
which are called
PIG’s EARS in Chinese
& look like a flat wavy fortune cookie chip that has swirls of dark & light cracker… I say cracker, because like so many other Chinese Deserts, it is basically not sweet, and I found it to be too oily.
Anyway, my wife loved them when we came home to Shell Beach, and stated that they were her favorite treat as a kid… but for some reason, after all these years, she did not find them as delicious as she remembered.
ERROR PRONE GASTRONOMIC NOSTALGIA can fool one… again & again.
My wife had various theories:
1) Did her tastes change?
2) Did the Pig Ear change?
3) Was it a different formula than that used in her hometown of Tiashon eons ago?
4) Did her palate become Americanized & spoiled since she move to the USA?
5) Did her old Orangutang of a Slovak-​American husband spoil her taste with too much great
expensive gourmet food over the years?
…anyway, she still enjoyed them…
but apparently she still concluded that it was my fault for some reason…
so what else is new.
Too bad, you cannot buy global general «NO-​FAULT» insurance when you get married, so that
you can be cover in these events.
No matter, I almost alway agree that it is my fault anyway… that leads to more harmony in a marriage.
~~~~~~~~~
Back to the shop.
Since we were the only ones in the shop, my wife had plenty of time to yack it up with the «boss-​lady». For some odd reason, she kept gesturing toward the X-​rated fortune cookies as she kept talking to my wife. Since my wife would totally be insulted by even the suggestion that such things even exist… let alone buy them, somehow my wife did not pay attention, nor maybe realized what X-​rated Fortune Cookies meant. Apparently, I found out later that was the case.
The boss lady kept suggesting that I could always have custom-​made fortune cookies, with my choice of sayings, more than a few times. Obviously, those would cost a small «fortune»…pun intended.
Like many, I really enjoyed looking at the old hand making process & equipment more than the product itself…
and thus… that is why they have a 50 cent for photos jar… both I an my wife gladly threw in a few bucks. It was only while I was taking photos of the photo charge jar which was right by all the Chinese «Saints» figurines, that I realized that I was sinfully taking unauthorized photos…
no matter… apparently I could, since I had a charming Chinese wife with me :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
I did favor the flat fortune cookies and bought a $ 5 bag of three different kinds (Regular (good), Chocolate (not so great), & Pig’s Ear (wife’s fav)…as well as… two bags of Almond Cookies.
THE ALMOND COOKIES TURNED OUT TO BE AMAZING!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
& was a great hit with my co-​workers at my SLO job… so fresh &
tasty. These were far far better than any others that I have had in eons
& reminded me of the ones I loved as a NYC kid. Like there other products, they
are freshly made with simple «wholesome» ingredients like flour, sugar, salt, water…
& did not contain any crap, that extend shelf life.
SO– TO BE A BIG HIT AT YOUR NON-​BAY AREA JOB… get a whole bunch of these
for your co-workers…I was shocked & pleased at their glowing reviews of them.
~~~~~~~~
I will be sure to stop by this little shop again, when we need another C-​town fix of
Chinese Feet Dim Sum for me, Vege Dim Sum for wifey, assorted high grade teas, assorted
«alien» things that my wife cooks with, and the ever obligatory Chinese junk that you may or may not really need… but hey… why not?
It is cheap & they surely do not sell them in the White Bread area of San Luis Obispo… not to mention that each SF trip costs a bit & is a 5−6+ hr drive each way from the mid-​central coast.
~~~~
This new cookie discovery, plus the gloriously cheap & excellent Chic Feet discovery at the nearby Hole in the Wall… House of Dim Sum… will drive me this way again soon.

Apparently the roommate’s nephew loves fortune cookies! So much so, that he asked me to pick some up if I’m ever walking through Chinatown. I didn’t have anything to do during my lunch hour, so I decided to walk there and grab some on Tuesday, October 20^th around 2:45pm.
*Mix chocolate adult x-​rated cookies ($ 5.50)
*Regular fortune cookies ($ 4.50)
The nephew is less than 2 years old, so he can’t exactly read. Would it be wrong to get him adult fortunes?! Initially, I just grabbed the mixed adult bag since I wanted some to humor myself. But I started feeling somewhat responsible and grabbed a bag of the regular ones before I left. (In the end, it probably wouldn’t have mattered as the adult fortunes are rather tame. I wouldn’t call them x-​rated at all!)
The regular cookies are good. If you can get some hot ones, go for it! There’s nothing like a soft warm fortune cookie. I’d stay away from the chocolate ones as they tasted burnt. Not sure if it was the chocolate flavoring or if they really were burnt, but I didn’t enjoy them at all.
I’m actually not a huge fan of fortune cookies, but there’s something oddly fun and kind of comforting about them. Given Golden Gate Fortune Cookies history, they’re one of the shops that does them the best!

Hidden in kind of a sketchy looking alley way in SF Chinatown is truly a hole in the wall gem.
As soon as you walk in, they have a bucket of warm freshly made fortune cookies. I never had one that was still warm, and it was incredibly delicious. They also have chocolate fortune cookies, but I didn’t really think they tasted that great. I’d stick with the originals. They had a bag of cookies with xrated fortunes for $ 5. My gfs bought a few, but they didn’t open it so I didn’t get to see what those fortunes actually said. Hopefully, they’re not too risqué, cause they’re planning to take it back to the office :-p. They also have little mixed baggies with regular and chocolate for $ 2. I opted for that since I wanted to taste the chocolate cookies. You can also write your own fortune for $ 1. You write what you want on the piece of paper and hand it to the ladies to fold into the cookies. Awesome idea!
It’s pretty cool to watch the ladies actually make the cookies and fold them into their signature shapes. It is a super tiny shop, and because you’re so close to the action it gets really hot in there, real fast. Otherwise a cool place to visit!

A must-​see when I visit San Francisco. I love coming down the small alley to find a fortune cookie shop with piping hot flat/​pre-​molded fortune cookie samples! I bought the small flat cookies to take home with me. The small cookies are easier to eat than the larger ones and they stay crispy and fresh for days! Great to share with the family in LA. If you take a picture they want you to pay 50 cents so be ready to pay… or be a ninja with your camera. But you should just buy some fresh cookies! They also have chocolate fortune cookies and erotic adult fortune cookies haha.

Best fortune cookies EVER.
Guaranteed!
Located in a small alleyway, but you will know which one when you see plenty of people… mostly tourists haha, walking in and out of the alleyway. They are more than happy to give you plenty of fresh samples to try and you will have bags of fortune cookies in your hands in no time.
THEY NOW HAVE X-​RATED FORTUNE COOKIES! I just got them for the first time. Get your bag of X-​RATED cookies to find out what your fortune says haha.
Lets just say I come here every time I visit SF… WORTH IT! I buy tons to bring back for family and friends too! Okay, maybe no the X-​rated ones for the family, but my homies love em HAHA!

Even if the fortune cookies tasted like garbage (you know, like most fortune cookies), I would still love this place. Where else can you get commission 100 custom-​made cookies* and have them made within the hour? Where else can you handwrite a fortune for someone special in your life, and pretend like it was difficult to get it done?
But the fortune cookies don’t taste like garbage. They are the tastiest fortune cookies you’ve ever tasted, probably because they are hot off the presses in what really does look like a fortune cookie sweatshop.
Assuming the folks making the cookies aren’t slaves, this place rocks.
_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​
*You have to provide the fortunes.

FREE samples!
This place is in a little alley but you will probably recognize it with the line of tourists outside it. When I went there was a small line but it did not take more than 10 – 15 min to get in. When you walk in, there are free samples of circular fortune cookies that you can try. Cool to see the fortune cookie making process — it was like a conveyor belt of small pancake molds that a lady would fold into fortune cookies. You can customize your own fortune cookie with whatever fortune you want for $ 1.50. FYI: it costs $ 0.50 to take a photo

Located in Ross alley in Chinatown. It is a pretty tiny place in a little alley. The place gets packed with customers but luckily I got in before the rush. There is an old man in the front providing samples and helping customers. Towards the middle to the back you can see the workers making fresh cookies.
You can make your own fortune cookies, grab various size bags of regular fortune cookies, chocolate fortune cookies, or almond cookies. They also have bags of X-​rated fortunes for those adventurous ones.
The cookies here are amazing! They are great fresh and will get stale after a few days of leaving it out. Very cheap tourist stop when in Chinatown and a great place to fill up on snacks. There’s not too much to see here so I was in and out in about 5 – 10 minutes.

I’ve heard about this place for a while and so was glad to finally make it this week. It’s worth a stop but is definitely a no frills place. It’s located within a narrow space within an alleyway, and I saw one lady in front, seated and hand folding fortune cookies into a metal muffin tin. There are racks of freshly made fortune cookies and almond cookies on the left in bags.
Almost immediately I was handed a sample — a warm, flat round circle of a pre-​folded cookie that fits in the palm of your hand — by the guy running the place, who doesn’t speak English. All of a sudden my forgotten Mandarin was unleashed and I could communicate with him. It’s funny how that you can remember foreign languages when you have no choice!
There are small bags of ~6 fortune cookies for $ 1 and larger bags for $ 5. Surprisingly there are paper message strips inside. Which I realized after many of them were crushed in my suitcase coming home. Next time, I’m bringing a plastic Tupperware box as Soo H suggests! At least the flavor and freshness weren’t affected.
There’s a sign that says «50 cents if you take a photo» which seems a bit offensive. I think they should just charge more for their cookies.
Now I can check it off of my list of things to do in SF. Makes a great mini gift to take home and people appreciate trying what a freshly made fortune cookie tastes like. Still, I wasn’t blown away by the flavor although it is definitely better than one you would get in a restaurant.
Lucky me: I beat the rush as a large tour group of 20-​yo Americans came immediately after I was walking out.
TIP: Due to the construction currently blocking the most direct route to Ross Alley, you may have to make a bit of a circle to get here.