The Front Door Cafe in San Francisco, California: A Restaurant Review

The Financial District in San Francisco is, for the most part, a food wasteland. Vastly overpriced, yet incredibly bland is the order of the day here, and easily home to the most generic chain stores per block in all of San Francisco, this is a place where time-crunched office workers try to do the best they can on their lunch break, not where lovers of cheap and delicious chow venture in search of tasty bargains.

And yet, you find the occasional gem in the rough here. Such as Front Door Cafe, and their tasty breakfast burrito for only $3.25. Not only is it cheap and sizable, but it uses really good ingredients - a whole wheat tortilla, real and fresh eggs that are grilled and not nuked or steamed, sausage, avocado and pico de gallo. Also worth investigating on the breakfast menu are some good and inexpensive oatmeal with the option of cinnamon and fruit, and a good breakfast croissant with ham, egg and cheese.

This is also a good lunch stop for sandwiches. The turkey sandwich is particularly good, and I believe they use local Sonoma turkey. Whatever it is, it's clearly deli fresh and not processed slimy stuff, and you've got the option of topping it with cranberry as well. Not a bad range of side soups and salads either, and most of the full sandwich and soup combos are only around $6 in price.

Other points of note - pretty good coffee that isn't chain stuff (kind of hard to find in this area), good smoothies at about 2/3 the price of Jamba Juice, delicious crab bisque soup when it is in season, sandwiches specials for less than $5 that rotate daily (Wednesday is the day for the turkey with cranberry if I recall correctly), decent frozen yogurt and other desserts, and felafels that looked pretty good though I haven't gotten around to trying one just yet. Not to mention unfailingly sweet and friendly service from a husband and wife team that owns and operates the establishment. If you're stuck in the Financial District this should be among your top choices of quickie breakfast and lunch spots. You'll find it at the big building at the corner where Front intersects with Market not far from the Montgomery BART and MUNI station entrance. Also, hours are standard for the Financial District - they open at 5:30 on weekday mornings, but they close up at four in the afternoon and aren't open at all on weekends.

The Front Door Cafe
1 Front Street (at Market Street)
San Francisco, CA 94111
# 415-989-3244