At the East Bay’s lone location of this local Filipino bakery chain, there’s no need to look beyond its trademark offering: señorita bread, a kind of cross between a dinner roll and a sweet, buttery pastry. Crucially, the bread is served piping-hot out of the oven all day long, and you can buy a huge boxful for around $10. It makes the most welcome addition to any potluck or barbecue.

Tucked away in a cluster of warehouses on a side street next to the freeway, Gran Milan is one of Richmond’s real hidden gems. This little bakery has a short menu of pizzas and salads, but the main attractions are some of the finest Italian pastries in the Bay — a truly impressive lineup of flaky, delicate, and often-custard-filled beauties.

Plan ahead before making a trip to this buzzy French bakery, which, despite its tiny, anonymous-looking storefront, draws some of the East Bay’s longest lines every weekend — to the point that if you arrive more than an hour after it opens for the day, you may find that everything in the display case has sold out. Buttery croissants are the biggest draw here, but the kouign amann, canelés, and Portuguese egg tarts all also have faithful followings.

Husband and wife team Paul and Marcia Masse consistently produce some of the most gorgeous cakes and European-style patisserie in the East Bay. Call ahead to order museum-quality cakes and tarts, or stop by for a coffee and pastry at their North Berkeley bakery.

It's a no-frills place that constantly has a line, but Acme is a wonderland of bread. Step up to the counter and choose from sweet and savory loaves, and pastries like flaky croissants and danishes. Sourdough, challa, olive loaf, pain de mie, and sticky cinnamon currant bread are all made fresh daily. Pop into Bartavelle next door for a coffee while you wait.

Berkeley's Crixa Cakes has a wide array of specialty cakes and baked goods, with an emphasis on Hungarian, Russian, Central European, and American treats. That means cakes like coconut cream and New Orleans bourbon cakes sit side-by-side with apricot and custard kolachy, Russian tea buns called bulochki, and raspberry mochi cake. And the bakery’s generous deep-dish fruit pies are second to none — whether it’s peak summer pitted fruit season or during the throes of your holiday-driven pumpkin pie cravings.

Sam Butarbutar and Wenter Shyu made a name for Third Culture Bakery before even opening the Berkeley brick-and-mortar. Their cult-hit mochi muffins first made their way through Bay Area coffee shops and converted legions to Third Culture’s Asian-inspired treats. Start with the original mochi muffin, a squishy riff on Hawaiian butter mochi infused with coconut and pandan, and then move on to the matcha custard cakes and passion fruit-glazed mochi doughnuts.

Now serving three East Bay neighborhoods (Rockridge, Piedmont Avenue, and the Dimond), La Farine has been an Oakland institution for over 40 years. The original location on College Avenue is still offering boatloads of gorgeous breads, pastries, cakes, and the like, and can be counted on for holiday offerings like hot cross buns at Easter.

Literally an underground bakery, located in little basement on an Uptown Oakland side street with barely any exterior signage, Gregory’s has nevertheless long been a local cult favorite for cheesecakes and pies. Try any of the most popular offerings — say, the Ugly Duckling (a cheesecake that incorporates coffee and Oreos), the key lime pie, or the peach cobbler — and you’ll become a believer too.

The employee-owned co-op is known for its veggie-only pizza made with a sourdough crust, available by the slice or whole pie, and wide selection of cookies, breads, and pastries. The breads change daily, and include options like cinnamon-raisin sourdough, honey wheat bread, and corn-cheddar-onion bread; don't miss the bins full of cookies, granola, croissants, and scones. There’s also a location at 4301 San Pablo Avenue in Emeryville.

For the most flaky, layered, and buttery egg tarts in the East Bay, there is only one place to go: Ruby King. The old-school, no-frills spot in Oakland Chinatown does brisk to-go business, serving a variety of Chinese buns for about a buck. But those egg tarts, with their quivering, still-warm centers? Just 95 cents apiece.

East Oakland is home to a number of Mexican bakeries, but the undisputed favorite remains Peñas Bakery II, a community staple since 1989. Trays are always stacked high, brimming with fluffy conchas, custard-filled empanadas, and other fresh pan dulce. Be aware it’s cash only.

Alameda’s best bakery comes from pastry chef Beth Woulfe and baker Christian Fidelis de Goes, industry vets who met while working at Bouchon Bakery in New York. Breakfast pastries particularly sing here, from the gooey pecan sticky buns to the weekends-only cinnamon rolls to the ham-and-cheese croissants laced with mustard and rolled in seeds. But the breads, cookies, and French-style desserts all measure up, too.

One of the Bay Area’s only Portuguese bakeries, this family-run gem in Hayward is worth a trip for the pasteis de nata (Portuguese egg tarts) alone. The shop also carries a variety of other hard-to-find pastries and breads, as well as as imported foods like sausages, cheeses, and canned fish.