Carmelina La Petit in San Francisco, California: A Restaurant Review

Carmelina La Petit is a pretty simple little operation. They offer up pre-made sandwiches and wraps wrapped in cellophane, basic pastries and donuts, trail mix, some candy bars and other snacks. The draw here is fairly low prices and quick convenience, which is a fine thing to offer, but they have a number of other restaurants right nearby to compete with that offer up better versions of pretty much everything they sell.

There's a pretty decent range of sandwiches on offer - white albacore tuna salad, cheddar or jack cheese with avocado, azuki rice roll, burrito colorado, chicken with almond, a hummus pocket sandwich, veggie burger, solo colorado, Indonesian organic, and a "Japanese sandwich" (never got brave enough to unwrap one of those and find out what it really is.) They also have chicken and spinach empanadas and a croissant with turkey and cheese. Sandwiches are mostly $3.75 with the exception of the empanadas and the croissant sandwich which are only $2.25. These prices compare favorably to general lunch items around the area, but the sandwiches are pre-made and all the ones I've sampled seemed like they had been sitting out a little too long. Kinda lukewarm and the veggies never seem fresh, which is especially not good for something with tuna in it. No stomach issues after eating here so far but a couple of times I was expecting it.

One point of note is that they offer Peet's coffee. I think this is the only place on the San Francisco State campus that sells any kind of "big name" chain coffee, so if you need that sort of thing you can get your fix here. Unfortunately, they charge slightly higher prices than both the nearby Cafe 101 and Cafe Rosso. While on some busy mornings and afternoons you might be able to beat the line here, I don't think the generic Peet's stuff is quite as good as the organic Mexican and Sumatran blends they sell at the other cafes.

Everything else on the menu is generic pastries and donuts (I assume from one of those industrial bakeries in South San Francisco or over in the East Bay), along with snacks and bottled drink items of the type and price you'd find at a standard convenience store. In other words, nothing in particular to make you go out of your way, unless you are jonesing for a cheap candy bar or something.

I'm honestly not sure how this place hangs on with all the other superior options within a one minute walk away, but I guess it is an OK option for simple convenience things at at a low price. Without the guaranteed year-round student traffic I'm pretty sure this wouldn't make it.

Carmelina la Petit
1600 Holloway Ave., rear of Cesar Chavez Center
San Francisco, CA 94132
# 415-338-6484