Coffee Mine in San Francisco, California: A Restaurant Review

I was a little disappointed upon entering Coffee Mine for the first time to find that it wasn't some giant pit full of swarthy dwarves unearthing mysterious java beans from somewhere beneath the crusts of San Francisco. This disappointment was quickly tempered by discovering that they have reasonable prices, pretty good food, sweet service and a decent environment to sit in in a part of downtown really not well served by coffee shops.

House coffee is $1.25 for a 12 oz., $1.50 for a 16 oz. and $1.75 for a 20 oz., which is definitely on the reasonable end of pricing for downtown San Francisco. I didn't catch the producer's name, but four varieties are available - French Roast, Italian Roast, Colombian and some sort of decaf that I didn't even bother looking at since decaf coffee is the most pointless beverage of human history. The coffee here is really just OK at best, but it's good enough to be passable at the price range, and the only other real options nearby are Charizardbucks and Burger King making it a big winner by default.

Helping the favorable view of the kinda mediocre coffee along is the really sweet service from the people that own and operate the place, and a clean and decent environment to sit down in if you so care to. The shop has a few small tables toward the back, and a row of window seats at a bench with stools if you want to watch Days Of Our Hobo Lives play out on 9th Street while you sip your coffee. Don't let the crappy neighborhood put you off as their most recent health inspection score was a perfect 100 according to the little green card proudly hung near the doorway.

As far as food goes, the menu is pretty much bagels, deli sandwiches and crepes. A bagel is only one buck, and with butter 1.35, which is lower than usual for the immediate area. Deli sandwiches are generally 5.25 except for the roast turkey, ham, roast beef, pastrami and chicken tarragon (chicken with tomato pesto sauce) which all run 5.95. You get a choice of side salad with any type of sandwich - potato, pasta, macaroni, coleslaw, tabulen or mixed greens - which makes the whole thing a pretty good value given area pricing. The ingredients always seem to be fresh and the size is decent. Sandwiches come with mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomato and red onion by default unless you ask them to hold something off.

The only real downside here is that they keep the "office hours" that most places in the immediate area do - 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and closed totally on Saturdays and Sundays. It would be nice to have a decent inexpensive coffee place open on the weekends right in this immediate area, but oh well.

Coffee Mine is located right across from one of my favorite cheap breakfast places in the city, and a pretty decent cheap Chinese lunch stop as well, so on weekdays at least they've usually got my coffee dollar when I'm passing through. Nothing fantastic, but not bad for a neighborhood that is otherwise pretty much a culinary dead zone.