Cafe Bean

Not a lot of places serve chai tea, latte yes, straight tea, no. They had chai spice black tea, which was lovely to sip on while walking around a cold SF morning. Small place and they need to declutter though.

Simple neighborhood café that serves coffee and draft beer, among other drinks, and also has a limited food menu at certain hours of the day. The décor and ambience is fairly homey, and the clientele seems to be mainly neighborhood residents on a first-​name basis with the family owners.
Café Bean probably won’t be the best at any one thing, but it’s the kind of true neighborhood establishment that seems increasingly rare these days in San Francisco.

I’m not one of those people that write bad reviews constantly, actually, this is my first one:
I used to be a regular at Café Bean, every Saturday morning. It’s around the corner from where I live. I always noticed the mess, for example, for some reason one of their three main tables is always used to pile up old restaurant supplies. I also knew it wasn’t the cleanest place, as I’ve seen the staff go smoke around the corner and go straight back to handling your food. But the decent coffee and their little corner covered with large cushions always made up for it and I continued to drop by for a coffee and a lox…
… but being ripped off and yelled at in front of other customers is not OK. I paid $ 22.50 for a lox (w/​extra lox), packaged orange juice and a coffee. When I asked for additional lox to simply have enough to cover my bagel I was yelled at and told that moving forward they would not serve me extra lox ever again?!!
You will never see me here again!

We had the lasagna and salmon pappardelle and they were delicious. The berry berry tart for dessert was amazing. The pizza looked very good. I so glad we walked in here

Café Bean is wonderful! Consistently wonderful! Thank you for clean, fast and friendly service! Best apple streusel around!

Café bean is a perfect little café where Chester show off is love for comic heroes and his love for coffee. His signature Irish cream latte is to die for made perfect every time I pick one up. If your interested in chatting about movie Chester is the man :) especially comic book movies… and Star Wars.

A quaint little café with great coffee however I tried to order pancakes at 9:30am and was told they were already out.

My favorite local coffee house. Consistently good locally owned shop. It’s not the fanciest, but with outdoor seating in the meaning sun it’s become one of the little joys in my life.

FRAUD.
After finding out this place serves Dutch pancakes only on the weekend, I made sure that I stopped by here again on a Saturday morning while visiting from Long Beach. We waited 20 minutes for our food and when it finally arrived, I realized what I got was not actually a Dutch pancake. Its American pancake mix made into a very thin, crêpe-​like pancake. Flavorless by European standards. This Dutch girl and her Belgian companion were not impressed.
The only saving grace was the thick, delicious bacon. Four dollars for 3 pieces though…

Watch out for how much the bill is. The owner made a «mistake» on my order when he charged me. The place is also really dirty.

Believe me… I REALLY wanted to enjoy this spot! I turned to Unilocal to find a local, neighborhood café that wasn’t your typical tourist joint– and with all of the great reviews, I thought this place would be a shoe-​in. Sad to say, it wasn’t so.
Perhaps you need to be a regular to truly appreciate this place. My experience was BLEH! It was messy beyond messy and didn’t feel clean at all. I don’t know if the place is undergoing some redesign/​interior decorating changes– but it looks like hoarders have come in and settled in ½ of the dining area… oh and there was a ladder sitting in front portion of the sitting area. WEIRD! Large food, drink and chip boxes sitting and balancing upon each other, old magazines and paper piled high, junk stacked upon junk. Serious clutter everywhere! They MUST be doing some serious spring cleaning… in the midst of winter, while all their guests pardon their literal dust.
As far as the food: I wondered if they even had a full kitchen in back. Our food tasted microwaved and «toaster oven’d». In short– the food was nothing to brag about. I ordered:
Chai Tea Latte– Must have been from a flavor packet. When I took my first few sips– I would get random «crunches/​crumbs» in my mouth– perhaps the owner/​manager didn’t stir the packet in to dissolve the powder? I dunno… but gross!
My Nutella and Banana French toast was luke warm, toaster oven crunchy, and didn’t taste like FRESH french toast. It LOOKED delicious when the gent delivered to the table though!
Daniel’s Omelet– the egg look like a scrambled egg mix that came fresh out of the microwave! It was perfect in shape, rubber texture and color. The soggy veggies inside were par for the omelet course– and the dish came out steaming and overly piping hot. Not complaining about the temperature– but further made me think it just came out of the microwave.
The owner/​manager was nice enough. Not rude– but certainly not pleasant, perhaps because he didn’t know us– and we weren’t regulars. Customer service doesn’t appear to be their forte. A kind smile and thank you can go a long way in the service industry. It appears that he didn’t care– didn’t care about our experience or about the way his place looked. A little bit of pride in their service can really help this place out.
All things considered, I may go back again in a couple months once the assumed spring cleaning and redecor takes place. It’s very hodge-​podgy and it appears the café is having an identity crisis… but perhaps that what gives it an artsy appeal. Vintage décor, some random «european» décor, random sports paraphernalia, dated things/​pictures randomly taped around the place. Hey anything can be called «art»… right?
So many reviews talk about how wonderful the food and menu is here… I’m hoping it was just an off day!

Love this Café! Chester is the man with the magic touch on the expresso machine! My fav is the white mocha. The food is great too!

I’m updating my review to grant Café Bean three stars instead of the one star I gave them in 2007 in a piqué of annoyance that they wouldn’t let me plug my laptop into the wall. That was seven years ago, this is now, the owner has reconsidered and asked me to do the same. I think it’s a perfectly nice little café, very humble and comfy, the window pillow seat is a nice place to lounge as others have said.

Perfect example of a great local SF find! The service is fantastic — down to earth, humble owners. Even though the space is small, the café has a comfy homey feel with the mixture of nook seating and communal seating areas.
Top pick if you’re in nob hill and looking some a «me time» spot to dig in a book over a tasty espresso. Love this place!
Oh and they have wifi!

Great java for the morning and good beer on tap for the late afternoon, with a creative food menu to boot. If you’re a coffeeshop aficionado like me and avoid Starbucks like the plague, this is the alternative. Chester, the owner, is a great guy if you get to know him. Outdoor seating too. It’s my neighborhood coffee shop for a reason.

I was walking around the area looking for a good inexpensive breakfast. I order a croissant ham, egg, & cheese with a small hot chocolate only for $ 10.28 Not bad for the city. Keep in mind you will be leaving with a happy tummy. =p

Awesome spot. Don’t go if you’re in a rush because there are only two employees, but if you have time to sit outside on a sunny day, then Chester will hook you up. My favorite breakfast is the «dog in heat» burrito and iced coffee. The brie and veggie sandwich is prefect for lunch.

I had a good cafè au lait but the owner is unfriendly and there are no plugs for anybody to charge their computers. This place is bad if you want to stay there and use your computer, but it’s ok if you have to get a coffee to go.

It took us some days to find THE café in San Francisco. We had a week of holidays, walked our feet off and took breakfast in different places every day. Then we went back one evening on Sutter street and saw the Bean — we decided to take breakfast there the next day. After the first visit we always came back, until the holidays were over.
Café Bean is such an uncomplicated, quiet and nice place. The coffee is wonderful (we live in Vienna and we both love coffee, so I dare to judge), the sandwiches are as well and they prepare them any style you ask them. The place is clean and there is a lot to see on the walls and in the corners. But the best is the owner — he is not just friendly, he is really a joyful character and we had a lot of fun with him.
Thanks for some of the most pleasent moments in SF!
(The professor and his assistant :)

Café Bean is european in it’s breakfast presentations. there’s a choice of omlettes, eggs, dutch pancakes, granola, yogurt, etc.
lunch offers crossaints, bagels, sandwiches, etc.
tables outside to sit in the sun.
just avoid the french roast (m, 1.75) coffee in the thermos by the register.
–pretty harsh, not so mellow tasting
–will surely keep one awake for hours.