Cafe Venue

The fresh juices are great! There are a variety of salad options. The salads are huge and not the best salad you’ll ever have but they are pretty good!

Love this place for the basics. Chicken Caesar salad yummy. The strawberry chicken salad really good as well. The pesto has gone downhill a bit from the early 2000’s but good portions for what you pay in this area. Still one of my go to spots.

It’s a decent lunch location. I got the half sandwich and soup combo. The half sandwich is on the smaller side. Just a tad bit pricey.

This has been a regular stop in my lunch rotation since my office moved to SoMA last fall. I still haven’t tried any of the salads, but I’ve worked my way through an assortment of sandwiches and soups and haven’t had a bad one yet. I particularly love the avocado and hummus sandwich.
This place is always hopping around lunchtime, but they do a great job of keeping things moving quickly. They have a pretty good amount of seating in the form of both tables and stools around the periphery, and as long as you avoid the absolute peak rush (i.e., between 12−1PM), you can usually find a spot.
I also want to give a specific shout out to their manager Jesus. I had an issue recently (nothing to do with food, that’s always spot-​on), and he went out of his way to address everything. My experience in dealing with him actually made me like this place even more.

The food is decent and fast, but I recommend ordering online instead of going in person. A few times that I have ordered in person things have gone wrong. One time an extra item was added to my bill and another time, someone gave me a Cesar salad instead of a steak salad.

Updating this review to see if it’s possible to give less then 1 star. Still good value for money, but for all «To Go» orders, stay back and validate if you have the right ingredients. They always miss something in my regular chop-​chop salad. Most recent — didn’t add chicken and eggs.
Word of advise — pay couple of bucks more and go to MixT Greens.

As far as customer service, this place is as good as it gets! I currently live in Hawaii, but did live in SF for several years– this was my go to breakfast spot. When I decided to deliver my Mom breakfast for her and some friends on her birthday, I went with Café Venue. It was the morning of and I called to see if it was en route, the nice lady on the phone had to call me back cause she didn’t have the order that I placed online the night before, in a panic, I checked my email and boom– I entered the wrong day! The nice lady went to ask the manager what they could do for me and they rushed a small catering order within less than a hour! Bravo.
Mom loved it, and I love Café Venue!

This is the place for safe lunch options. Not stellar, never amazing, but just good to decent on most days. On a more positive note, when you’ve tired of the salad places that have become so overly fancy with toppings and creative combinations, sometimes this place is a breath of fresh air.
The salads:
I’ve gotten the chop chop, spinach and cranberry, and Mediterranean salads. They are good enough for me to come back. The quantity is consistent, and they don’t skimp out on the toppings. They will mix and chop for you if you request it.
Service:
The service is quick and efficient, and depending on the person, they can lenient about swapping ingredients and making a more customized salad. There is usually a line around lunchtime, a good sign. I’ve never spent more than 10minutes in line before.
Other menu options:
Many people get their sandwiches which they can make hot. The tuna melt actually looks pretty delicious. I haven’t tried their juices yet, but I’d definitely be willing to.
Price:
Pretty decent. This is why I’d choose this over a pricey salad place any day. $ 8 for a good salad vs $ 13 for a delicious salad (a gamble some days).

That was very weird salad! Ppl with allergies will have a big problem here. They mix everything in one bowl. I wanted to have some normal healthy salad, instead I got a mix of so many ingrediences together. And the taste was not the one I was looking for. But the customers here are pretty handsome, so it was not such a bad experience after all :).

Veggie sandwich 7.50 and had a piece of ham! Fresh juices are good. Not going back for the sandwiches but might go back for the fresh juices.

Their large salads are huge, like a bucket-​o-​salad — easily enough for 2 or 3 people. And at lunch time, it’s a total cluster in there. The food is decent, and reasonably priced, but the inside is just total chaos.

THE STORY
Adventure time with Sis caused us to get lost. We were extremely hungry and ended up having to choose Café Venue or Safeway for a late lunch. Didn’t realize they closed at 3:30 PM and we came in at 3:20 PM. When I found out, I was politely excusing ourselves but one of the guy at the counter said it would be fine as long as we left before 4. The ladies that made our sandwich smiled and chatted with us for a bit but when I got to the counter, the cash register lady took at least 3 minutes before acknowledging my presence and ringing me up. I was weirded out by her staring at me.
We got the chicken pesto sandwich. It was relatively large and tasted fresh. I liked it but then again I love pesto and pesto makes everything taste good. We ate quickly and left. I wanted to bus my plate and could not find the bucket to put my plate. I assumed they must had taken it as they were closing up and went to the counter. Was ignored by another lady for 5 minutes. Gave up on trying to get their attention and just left the plate by the table on the trash can. Service is very inconsistent here but they do have a lot of staff.

I give it a STRONG 3 stars! This is definitely a place where you can spend under 10 dollars which is near impossible in SOMA! Small salads are like a large and large salads are an extra large. You will leave full and have some for later for those late afternoon hunger pains. The water is always unique with different types of refreshing fruits. It is always the little things that count. If you can get in early or after the 12pm rush you can have a very relaxing lunch.
I recommend the spinach and cranberry salad.

Great food, lower prices for the FiDi area. The staff is always friendly and brightens my morning. Chicken breakfast burrito is awesome. Iced coffee could be better, as I prefer the taste of cold brew. Salads are the best value for a really good salad in this area. They always have a delightful infused water — cucumber, cantaloupe, watermelon, orange … And their juices are reasonably priced. Sandwiches are also great!
Café Venue is my go to for breakfast or lunch, reliable, quick friendly service, good filling meals.
I recommend!

This is my go-​to spot for lunch.
Service is fast and no-​nonsense.
If it’s your first time here, be sure to know what you want, place your order when they ask you what you want, walk down to the cashier and pay while you’re waiting, and then they will call out your order for you. This helps to keep the flow going and you can just jet once you’ve received your food.
My favorite items include the Caesar salad with chicken, Thai chicken salad (it has noodles!), and their pesto chicken sandwich. Prices are standard for the FiDi area.

Food is really good, but the service is horrible. I get yelled at every time I go in there. I realize they want to move the line along quickly, but they basically throw your change and food at you to get out of there. I wish I had more food options near work, or that they would hire some nice people who care about their customers.

Good place to grab a quick lunch. They make the salads and sandwiches to order but do so pretty quickly and at prices that aren’t great but not outrageous — most items are in the $ 7.50-$ 9.00 range.
The chicken pesto sandwich — chicken, pesto, mozzarella, lettuce, tomato, marinara on foccacia — came out nice and warm with the mozzarella nice and melted. The lettuce seemed a bit wilty and it could have used more pesto, but overall it was a good sandwich. I don’t know that the foccacia was really necessary as it didn’t add a whole lot of flavor. I might ask for it on sourdough or ciabatta next time.

The salads here are very generous portions, very fresh, and a lot less expensive than Mixt Greens! Their sandwiches are very delicious as well, and they are quick to get the food out. Great for lunch. Easy walk to waterfront after to eat as well.

Best Chicken Mediterranean Salad EVER. Something about this salad keeps me coming back but I can only come once in a while cause it is so expensive! I’ve also had the Pulled Pork Sandwich and Ceasar salad and they were both amazing. I love the free flavored water too. Always has fresh strawberries or some other fruit in it and it pairs well with the foods!

Venue, y’all have been slippin’ as of late. You use to be my go to spot for a decent salad but your inconsistency got me feeling some type of way (mad). After repeatedly forgetting the pasta and feta cheese in my Mediterranean salad, I got to take my patronage elsewhere. You raised your prices by 50 cents and I think I’m done paying $ 9 for mediocre greens.

Café Venue is beats out the other named salad and sandwich place around town. For the price and turn around its worth going there before 12pm. Otherwise line is out the door. Order online. Make it easy. Good for large groups. There open for breakfast too!

Ordered a chorizo fajita off the menu, was told it didn’t exist and that they only had steak fajitas, pointed to the menu where it said Chorizo or Steak fajita, got a uninterested shrug in return. Received a bland steak fajita and an average mocha.
Not returning. Surprised at the 5 stars, despite the number of reviews with photos of actual insects in the food. FiDi folk in a rush can put up with anything, I suppose.

My new favorite post commute breakfast. Place. Good coffee, smoothies and friendly staff.

I generally despise chains, mostly nation-​wide ones like PF Chang’s, Cheesecake Factory, and the like; however, in San Francisco I find myself curious to try the local chains which often are delicious (Buckhorn — kinda, Chez Maman, Blue Bottle, Philz, PPQ, Perilla…).
When I arrived, at around 11:45 there was no line, but 5 minutes later there was a huge line. It moved quickly, and the waitstaff was super friendly (unlike Mixt Greens). The large salad is the same size as Mixt but cheaper ($ 8 vs. $ 9), more substantial (includes meat and alot more ingredients), and is much more delicious. Get the chop chop, chock full of avocado eggs and bacon!
Sandwiches included really fresh, soft looking bread but did not look very substantial. It was more of the pretty artisanal kind rather than the Algiers/​Miss Tomato sub kind. I would recommend the salads.