Le Petit Marchet in San Francisco, CA: A Restaurant Review

Le Petit Marchet is a combination of Mediterranean deli, sandwich and pizza joint, and convenience store. Some of their prices are a bit high, some a bit low, but on the whole the food quality is pretty good with a few standout items that are worth checking out.

The sandwiches are definitely the main selling point, particularly the hot sandwiches. You can get meatball, chicken parmesan, grilled chicken and chicken teriyaki hot at lunchtime for $5.95 each. These are of a pretty good size, in a soft roll cut kind of like a pita pocket, and absolutely stuffed with meat. Grilled chicken was definitely the big winner here, though the chicken parmesan was also decent as was the meatball. I didn't care for the teriyaki. There's also cold deli sandwiches for $5.25, which are also fairly big and all pretty good - roast beef, turkey, chicken breast, ham&cheese, and mixed veggie heavy on the cucumber and avocado. And then there's bagel sandwiches, if you want something a little smaller (and cheaper) - a ham sandwich, "pino" with cream cheese and avocado, or hummous and babaghanosh for $4.25 each.

Speaking of hummous and babaghanosh, the Greek/Mediterranean items on the menu are the next best thing to stop here for. They've got dolmas (grape leaves stuffed with rice, onion, spice and/or raisins and nuts), falafel, m'jarda (rice with cumin and lentils), babaghanosh (eggplant mashed up with a bunch of stuff I can't even identify), tabouleh (tons of herbs diced with tomato, onion and olive oil), shawarma (roasted lamb in a pita wrap), and a bunch of other stuff I don't even recognize and can't guess at the ingredients of. Good stuff, though.

The one disappointment here is their pizza. It tastes like cheap grocery store pizza from the freezer, sits under heat lamps all day, and they rush it through the oven when heating so it's lukewarm and the cheese is undercooked. It's really pretty icky. Head a block and a half down to California and just around the corner to the left instead, there's two very decent pizza places right up there.

Also available, but I've never tried - fried garbanzo beans, hot wings, garlic bread, various salads, various paninis, wraps and some overpriced-looking dessert cake and pie slices. They're also a deli with sliced meats and cheese available by the pound, and they've got a little mini-mart section at the back with soda, chips, juice, ramen, and a small selection of fresh fruits and veggies and canned foods.