Thinking of trying to find and visit Ross Alley and the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory. Any rants and raves about this place? Best time to visit or avoid? Would welcome info on how to find it, and other nearby attractions worth a look.

Ross Alley is the oldest alley in San Francisco. It was known for brothels and gambling. Today, it is home to the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory and murals depicting the everyday life of the Chinese American community. Between Jackson and Washington Streets. The closest reasonably priced parking garage is at Portsmouth Square. Bus 27. 56 Ross Alley, San Francisco, CA 94108

We stopped there three years ago while doing the Fodor's Chinatown walking tour. It was just a small shop with a couple of older Chinesse women hand making fortune cookies. The whole visit took five minutes and we were the only ones there. They charged us 50 cents to take their picture

It is worth the side trip if you're in Chinatown. The kids still talk about it and always check fortune cookies in Chinesse restaraunts to see it they were made there. I was a little leary of walking down the "alley", but it was perfectly safe.

Check out the Chinatown walking tour in Fodor's on line mini-guide.

A visit to SF's Chinatown is ALWAYS worth the time, although the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory underwhelmed me too.

Bit of trivia: Fortune cookies are NOT Chinese. Nor were they invented in San Francisco. They were invented here, down the coast in Los Angeles (where you still find fairly large facilities making "Chinese" baked goods).

Definitely worth a stop. We went there on a City Guides walking tour (www.sfcityguides.org).

If you're planning on visiting China Town, then yes, stop there, just to brag later, don't expect much, it's not a real factory.

By the way the fortune cookies come in 2 varieties, depending on what the paper inside say, clean and x-rated.

ChatNoir,
I normally do my own self-guided walks, but....
I strongly suggest you do the City Guides walk through Chinatown. They are the best walks and the they are free. It is run by the public library The guides (volunteers) are fanatic about their neighborhoods that they lead tours through and have exhaustive knowledge about the culture, history, architecture, etc. for their particular piece of home.
The Chinatown guide will take you to Ross Alley, GGFCF, and many other secret wonderful places.

Thanks for the info. I've been busy bookmarking planning sites and found several Chinatown walks. Super tip about the city guide site - it has tons of good walks.

We went without a map so it was handy that I had a printout from the internet that I could just hold up to show to non-English-speaking people and they could point us in the right direction. I went to an open door down one alley, held up my paper and a woman came out and led me by the arm right to cookie factory door! Friendly people in Chinatown. Sure, we didn't visit the factory long, but we thought it was fascinating to see how the cookies are made. Ouch, they're hot. A good-humoured man was making them when we were there. I didn't realize until later, after looking at our photos, that we were supposed to pay to take pictures, but they may have not minded because we bought a few bags of cookies. People back home found the "funny" fortunes quite sexist, so I would stick to the regular kind. All in all, it was a fun experience.