Espresso Gourmet

I can’t believe this place! It looks like a whole in the wall deli from the outside… I stopped in for coffee and a bagel and was BLOWN AWAY by their mediterranean food offerings. I order the chicken, rice and some cucumber side salad and it was all delicious. Actually, the chicken was incredible. They also have fresh hummus, falafel, eggplant, and other tasty dishes. The ingredients are also super fresh and the portions are huge. LOVE THIS PLACE!

Ordered for pickup. Was charged once online then again in restaurant. Was then told the quoted price online was incorrect and I had to pay even more. When I pointed out I was being charged for everything twice in addition to the mystery «extra» charge, I was told I would get a refund. Was then shortchanged on the refund. Cheats! Terrible. Oh and bonus the fruit salad (originally was given the wrong salad) had a hair in it. Disgusting. Lost my appetite after that. Will never order again. Too bad bc I heard good things.

Although there are a mountain of menu options including sandwiches, I can only speak to the food as my backup Mediterranean place when I don’t have time to wait and wait and wait at the tastier Adam’s a block away.
The Mediterranean platter is VERY VERY big, even too much for me and I’m an overeating champion. I like the food for the most part too… like not love. The falafel are rather dusty and brown not green and loaded with flavor as I prefer… but if you opt for the falafel sandwich instead the sauce they use completely masks the meh flavor and the taste is great. All other sides are good enough.
Service is affable and brisk.
There is a fantastic selection of bottled drinks (even beer if you want to slip in some corporate day drinking) and a vat of fresh lemonade.
If you need a quick protein infusion there are hard boiled eggs at the counter for cheap. I got one once and it was perfectly cooked. Yellow in the middle, no ring if green. Yes. Hard to do when cooking industrially.

The food, excellent!
Service, excellent!
The owner is wonderful to work with for catering needs. She creates magic ;-)

I looked long and hard for a great breakfast sandwich downtown near my office. I’ve tried most places within walking distance of City Hall.
Espresso Gourmet has the best, hands down! Why? Real cracked eggs, cooked in a frying pan.
For some reason, preparing breakfast in this style is a lost tradition at most breakfast places in this area. Replaced with eggs out of a carton and bacon cooked in a microwave. Or worse, pre-​made Starbucks style sandwiches.
They even put this fresh cooked morning gold on a croissant for me with lettuce, tomatoes and mayo. Just how I like it! (#dontjudge)
These young ladies are pleasant and hard working and impressively consistent.
Thanks Espresso Gourmet for making my mornings week after week!

Great value, great service, and the food is delicious!
Espresso Gourmet offers so many different things: hot meals, Mediterranean platters, a variety of salads, home baked desserts, and this really delicious strawberry basil lemonade.
The roast chicken is seriously fall-​off-​the-​bones tender and quite delicious. Mixed with their rice, it is like the best home-​cooked style meal you could possibly get.
They also cater, if you work around the area and are looking for ideas.
They do microwave the food before giving it to you, if you eat in, so if that is a concern, please note!

First off I am rating the food as that is the reason why I came here to EAT (here or to go) in the first place!
Who the hell cares about about everything else! If you want the EVERYTHING else factor then stay your ass home and cook fo’ yo self!
So here goes!
I have been ordering from Amal over at Espresso Gourmet Café for 2 years now. We love her food! The staff at the school enjoys her delicious food options.
We have ordered full hot breakfast also continental have ordered her lunch menu items and also hot full service dinner. We have feed groups of 5 to 200 for bigger meetings etc; The staff, students and parents at our school really enjoy her refreshing food items for meeting, parent workshops, back to school nights, Senior prom, well I can go on and on.
Here are our favorite selections:
Chicken entrée’s (so many ways she prepares it)
Fish/​salmon really good
Pastas all kinds and sauces
Enchiladas
Rice, Beans
Guacamole
Dips, spreads, smears with fresh HERBS! sooooo gooood!
Mediterranean menu (a hit with the staff)
Sandwiches all kinds of deli meats (tuna and fried/​baked fish) and cheeses, also veggie sandwich options all served on a verity of breads including rye, dark rye, rolls, french, sour dough, rolls etc;
Yummy fresh green SALADS all kinds!
SOOOO good breakfast menu (hot or just continental)
Breakfast sandwiches
BACON!
Breakfast sausage
Spinach omelets
Mushroom omelets
or just plain eggs!
Breakfast potatoes really good!
She has vegetarian options too!
Pastries, treats and desserts!
Coffee, teas and juices
Also she makes lemonades with fresh mint, berries etc;
And for me just coming in for lunch: All of the above! The falafel is really good and so are the gyros. Custom made sandwiches you can’t go wrong with that!
I really enjoy all her food and so does everyone else that I have ordered for and eats it!
Amal is a very kind and sweet person and so is her staff. I admire her for her hard work and dedication and she touched my heart when one day I went in to visit. She took me to the dinning area and presented me with her son (an older adult) disabled and wheel chair bound looks like a muscular disorder or cerebral palsy. He struggled to talk. She stated «This is the love of my life and who I work hard for»

Really nice staff and yummy tabouli salad. I ordered the falafel plate (falafel, hummus, tabouli, Greek salad, rice, and slices of pita bread).
Pros:
— nice staff
— really fast
— large portions if you’re really hungry
— healthy options
Cons:
— The rice was premade then microwaved when I ordered.
— hummus was bland and too runny, too much tahini?
— rice was dry (probably from being microwaved) but flavorful
— falafels were dry and too bready like a cake, not sure if they were also microwaved but they tasted like it.
Overall was disappointed with the quality of the food.

This is the caterer to call if you’d like a case of food poisoning (several of my colleagues and myself can attest to that). I’m surprised the restaurant side of the business has gotten decent reviews because the catering is AWFUL. The food is not fresh, the pastries are days old, and sometimes they just sell you platters of food from the frozen section of Costco (Bagel Bites, Don Miguels Frozen Tacos, Foster Farms chicken wings).

Lived here 9 months and this is the best breakfast burrito in town. Like the real economy used to be. No hyperinflation with love at its center.

Time: 12:06pm
Purpose: Trying to get a healthy wholesome lunch before the crowd begins. Also have afternoon schedule meetings.
Ambiance: Small place with a J shape bend. About 6 – 7 tables and 1 communal table in back. Kind of stuffy when they cook in the back as the drafts just spews inwards.
Staff: Nice older woman with sandy blonde hair red square glasses (owner). Greeted me right when I walk in I guess there were not much people so help to me was attentive. Hispanic lady with tie back bun style hair was funny as she kept on calling me amigo this and that. She probably thinks I can pass for Latino too.
Cleanliness: Sticky tables and chairs almost had to grab paper towels wipe down before sitting. Trashbin had flies and back entrance had flies also but no screen door. Some dessert items are push onto display case and stuck there from the looks of it might as well been there over a months period.
Eats: Turkey sandwich (premade) at counter next to hot food section a bottle of Welch’s concord grape juice and a side fresh fruit salad.
Turkey sandwich was great but took me by surprise what I mean by this is that the breast meat would be shown on the outter part of sandwich the rest hidden were gristles and skins. Red chard lettuce was showing browning and had sand particles. The fresh fruit salad was the only thing fresh from my POV at the moment everything seems refrigerated from last week as they don’t open on weekends here. What does that tells you they’re only catering to the M-​F lunch crowd and makes enough not to open anymore than that.
Products: Hot&cold food items, snacks, coffee&tea, cold drinks, chips, desserts, special orders, soups, salad, lunch combos.
Expectations: Sharing a table with random stranger, gets stuffy, self serve water dispenser (plastic tumblers can be use for other purposes) becareful if you must grab one from middle of stack. Microwave are being use with no shame I was shock when my syran plastic wrap wasn’t taken off if I saw it before hand I would request for it to be off. Free Wi-​Fi here but at times can be choppy at best. When they have a catering order all hell will break loose lots of yelling and phone answering. I ask for a key and they said hanging right there, where? There is about 1000 places that means right there any longer I might have to unzip and piss near your communal table.
Final Thoughts: Like most small businesses when you have a good day everyone is in sync if not you’re asking for trouble. Might return prices are reasonable if not better than others around. I will learn not to get premade items and try their falafel combo looks good until next time.

Sub veggies for rice with the turkey for a healthy meal! Baklava is good but pricy for a tiny square— it is pretty good though, not the best baklava I’ve had though.
The turkey is good, veggies fresh, and the baked chicken looks great as well.
The service is a bit scatterbrained; I stood around for several minutes with nobody in sight. Somebody walked out ahead of me because nobody came to take our orders. That said, a very nice lady did emerge and all was restored in the universe.

Bringing my review down one star because of the service. I’ve been coming here for about two years now, and whenever the owner isn’t here, it seems like the staff are kind of clueless about the lunch specials that are posted (i.e. was this supposed to come with bread?). They also always try to microwave my food in a styrofoam container, and that really freaks me out. It just kind of feels like they can’t be bothered with my silly needs/​requests as a customer whenever I come in (and by that I mean, ordering my food, receiving it somewhat hot/​warm, and paying for it).
However, the food here is still excellent. I love that they do seasonal/​holiday lunch specials (turkey/​mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving, corned beef cabbage at St. Patty’s Day, etc). I’ll probably still walk by most of the time, and get lured in by something on the specials board every now and then.

This place is the SHIZ. Sure, the walk is effervescent of stale urine but it’s worth it when you get there. Slow-​roasted meat falling apart and the freshest salads ever. And it’s so reasonably priced. I love this place.

Espresso Gourmet isn’t. If EG were a foreign country, i wouldn’t drink the water there. therfore EG being a «foreign» eatery to me, i shouldn’t drink their coffee. on the other hand, the food looked fine.
menu: expresso, middle eastern entrees, salads, sammies, pastries.
pour: «columbian supremo» (L.1.65), «San Francisco’s Best Roasting Company»
–pretty harsh coffee, no character
–wonder if they have a different grade? alll places carrying this brand had terrrible coffee
–in thermos of house blend, french roast, columbia supremo,…
–coffee 2 stars
coffee drips:
–very nice people here.
–lots of seating to the side.

If you find yourself stuck in downtown oakland part 2: this is a good little place to go get a quick breakfast sandwich, breakfast burrito, some toast, eggs, and bacon for breakfast. If you don’t know where to eat for lunch while stuck in oakland this place serve great deli sandwiches… Good high quality food, cheap, quick… Hell! i’m satisfied.

This place has a great BIG breakfast burrito.
Also, the mediteranian food is sooooooo good to. Authentic and tastes so fresh and really like an expensive restaurant.

I love going here for lunch! I get the mediterranean plate if I’m really hungry and the falafel sandwich if I’m not as hungry. The people here are all so friendly and delightful. The mediterranean plate comes with a ton of things. The standard salad is a «greek» salad with feta, but if I’m not feeling like cheese, they let you substitute any of the other salads, which is a great thing (all kinds of delicious salads like carrot, vegetables, etc.)
I’ve had the chicken and lamb here too and they are also delicious and a lot of food, but I don’t get those too often because it’s a lot of meat.
The baklava is one of the best I’ve had! Crispy and not too sweet. Plenty of seating usually.

Mmm I like this place! I really wasn’t expecting that much upon entering this little café. I was just hungry and it happened to be conveniently located for me. But wow! This place surpassed my expectations. The fare served here is both tasty and inexpensive :)
I suppose I may be a bit of a hot chocolate fiend. I find myself ordering it at nearly every café I go to. The hot chocolate here is yummy and only $ 1.50 for a small or $ 2.00 for a large. Cheapest hot chocolate I’ve ever purchased in a restaurant type setting and it’s not just a cocoa powder mix either. Awesome!
The falafel sandwich is yummy too. A generous helping of delicious falafel inside warm pita bread w/​a garlicy hummus and tabouli. At only around $ 4.50, it was definitely a steal. I also like their asiago cheese bagel with cream cheese and sun dried tomato. It has been my breakfast for the past 2 days. Yum!
Service is also great. Very friendly and efficient. I have alot left to explore on their menu, as they do offer quite a large selection. I’ll definitely be back when I’m in the area. 4 stars!

This place is a little cafeteria style eatery full of fantastic foods that are quick and inexpensive. From the name you think coffee but I emphasize that it’s a cafeteria– a damn good one too. It is perfect when you want a no hassle lunch in the midst of a business day in downtown Oakland.
My personal recommendation is the Lamb Gyro sand served on warm pita. Yummy.