El Cafetazo

Please wash your hands before you juice the veggies! !!! Ahhhhrrrrrrrrgggg! Shit! The cashier with dyed blond hair and 2 nails painted red helped a bunch of customers, then he helps me, takes my money as well and then went straight to cutting my beets and apples! I’m so disgusted. he always has a stank attitude too… I like everyone else that works here, just not the boy with blond hair and long nails. your gross. .smile boy!

Overall a great experience. My wife got a small coffee (which was delicious — very rich without being bitter), I got an Italian soda (perfectly blended with just the right amount of vanilla) and we got got small dishes of ice cream (which were good but not great). All of that cost us under $ 10. I’ll definitely be going back as Italian soda is one of my great weaknesses.

Smoothie was good. Got the orange burst and it’s the perfect combo of creamy and frozen. And it tastes fresh most importantly!
However, I also got the tamale. The tamale unfortunately, SUCKED. I picked the pork one and when the man pulled out the little sucker with the tongs I was expecting something at least warm. The thing was frozen. The masa was hard and dry, the pork dry (albeit plentiful), and it was just not good :(.
Will be back for smoothies though!

Tazo is the quintessential «home away from home». The relaxed and open atmosphere has made this quite the neighborhood meeting place for not just meeting a friend for a quick coffee a bite to eat, but for all manner of local celebrity, community activist, the tech guy who wants to plug in his phone and laptop, business people talking business, political people talking politics, and the occasional person talking to themselves. Anywho, it’s all good because everyone is a regular customer at Café Tazo.

You call that a tamale?!?
Ok, so my husband and I are meandering around the Mission, photographing… and we came across this place that has «Handmade Tamales». My husband LOVES handmade tamales, and the mom of one of his best friends growing up used to make them for «the boys» — so it’s a very fond memory… not to mention delicious.
So we walk in… and we see this large vat of individually saran-​wrapped tamales, in this steaming contraption on very low heat. The PERFECT environment for bacteria growing little beasts! How do we know it was low heat? Well, because she pulled them out with a pair of tongs (as if she would burn herself if she touched them) and put one on each plate. She then proceeded to take the first one over to the microwave and heat it for 2 minutes. Yes, microwave it. So I touched the one on the plate that was still in front of me on the counter (yet to be heated), and it felt like it had been stored in a fridge, wherein the power went out about 2 days ago. You know that feeling… that luke-​warm/​room-​temperature feeling… and you’re not sure if you should keep it or throw it out? Yah… THAT kind! That should have been our «sign» — but we were so hungry, we started making excuses. «Well, maybe the ‘tamale maker’ JUST dropped them off and they’re not fully heated yet?» Instead… we SHOULD have been saying, «Holy cannoli… how long have these things been here?!?»
So, back to the experience… my husband orders the Pork and I order the Green Chile and Cheese. Well, they were both HORRIBLE! And… here we go:
Green Chile and Cheese Tamale: I LOVE Green Chile and Cheese Tamales! However, I’m not sure in what universe that «Corn and Peas» is «Green Chile and Cheese» — but apparently at this place it is! There was literally (and I kid you not) about 1 Tablespoon of corn and peas. Not 1 T of each… no, no! 1 T COMBINED! And, there was NO CHEESE. The corn masa was dry and bland. It was hands down, the WORST tamale I’ve ever had. I proceeded to eat my ginormous helping of peas and corn and threw the rest away. I felt like I was on some tortuous episode of The Biggest Loser! ;-)
Ok… now onto my poor husbands experience.
Pork Tamale: Let me start off by letting you know, he actually contracted a mild case of food poisoning. It was awful. (I’m now thanking the Tamale Gods that I only had peas and corn!) I felt so sorry for him. As he was eating it, he wasn’t enjoying it… but he was so hungry, that he wanted to eat ‘something’. Many places in the Mission don’t open until 10am or 11am — so it was too early to go someplace else. Little did he know he’d be paying for this sickly, horrible little tamale LONG AFTER he paid the lady at the counter!
We can’t comment on anything else here, only the tamales. But for that fact alone, we will NEVER eat here again!

I needed a quick place on a Saturday morning at 6:30 AM to get fuled for the day. So I drove to this place with plenty of street parking. I ordered a beet juice ($ 5.00 for 20oz!) a latte which the lady put in my personal tumbler and she rinsed it out for me without asking. Then I saw this amazing tub of hot tamales just waiting for me. I got the pork tamale with the green sauce. The tamale was salty but the heat on the green sauce and the pork was amazing. Folks I did all this for $ 10.49 this is unheard of please go here. The place is clean the women working behind the counter are so so nice.

The only reason I go to this place is because it ‘s cheap. Nothing stands out for this place and the old Hispanic lady always put change on the counter even though I stick my hand out. It’s really RUDE!

I actually used to (briefly) live just around the corner from this place on Valencia a few years back and would hit it up in the morning a lot for cheap but decent dark coffee and bagels. The floral garden up front is new but the prices don’t seem to have changed — 1.50 for a small coffee, 2.00 for a butter and jelly bagel, 2.75 for cream cheese — but the portion size has, at least for the coffee, it’s smaller than a McDonalds small now. No bueno :(
Also $ 2.00 for each piece of pan dulce seems quite a rip when you can get this stuff 2/​$ 1 at a bunch of markets right nearby. That little market catty-​corner from here on Valencia used to have all this same stuff 4 for $ 1 back when I lived there.
Still has a lot of seating (relative to most SF hole-​in-​the-​wall cafes), but I can’t get their wifi to work anymore as it’s doing some weird cross-​site scripting handoff that my security settings don’t like.
Guess it’s better if you want smoothies and ice cream, judging by the other reviews … gotta say I might go down to Burger King for coffee instead since they serve Seattle’s Best now.

Great smoothie for a great value. Fast, free wifi. Place smells like homeless people. They need to wash their chairs. I’m sitting in the back and there is no one around me… and I can still smell BO. Please wash down your walls, tables, chairs with bleach or something else. It smells.

This place is kind of random (there seem to be foods that qualify as meals as well as more expected café stuff like pastries and the like), but the smoothies are incredible. I frequently stop by here after yoga and love that a typical smoothie is not at all overpriced and also features the use of actual fruit and not too much else (most involve some sort of juice and who knows what those consist of! But I’m pretty sure they would remove it if asked). Super legit, rejuvenating, and fulfilling. And the staff is super nice!

It was Sunday mid afternoon and I was craving a smoothies with fresh fruits, and found this place on Unilocal.It was a pretty standard-​looking eatery in the Mission, standard menu, probably not where I would go for food. When I walked in, there were a few people sitting down and eating food. The only person working there was in the small kitchen area next to the cashier’s counter making food. When I walked in and stood by the counter, he looked over a few times but didn’t acknowledge me at all, just kept making food for a while. Eventually, he walked over and took my order but still not friendly, just took my order and literally said nothing else. I didn’t know when he smoothies would be ready, or where to pick it up, etc. it was pretty awkward. The smoothies, however, was solid and made with fresh fruits. Overall, 2 stars for the service and 4 stars for the juice.

I was craving a smoothie and was conveniently nearby El Cafetazo. I saw through the window that this place has smoothies! Totally thought they just sold plants because that is what stands out when you first glance towards the café. The cashier helping me was very friendly and recommended the Summer Soy Better (dairy-​free) when I asked what’s popular. This particular smoothie consists of soymilk, strawberries, and bananas. The prices are not bad. $ 3.50 for a 12oz small, $ 4.00 for a 16oz medium, and $ 4.50 for a 20oz large. As soon as I paid for my beverage, he whipped out the blender and made my smoothie. You can taste the freshness. Zero artificial flavor. Perhaps next time I will try some of those tamales they sell at the counter.

Had coffee and a bagel. Food all seems great! It’s kind of neat that they also sell plants here. A little bit of a run down place though ans after dark it doesn’t feel very safe. Staff are all friendly though and there is free WiFi.

Fresh and refreshing juice/​smoothies!!!
It’s more of a fruit smoothie vs an ice cream/​yogurt smoothie, so if you’re in the mood for something heavier, head to your ice cream place, but if you want a thick but yet fruity and healthy tasting (i have no idea if it’s healthy or not, since it’s so tasty, I’m afraid of the sugar content… sigh).
I love the TANGY TART smoothie (big size!!!) and the HAPPY HAWAIIAN smoothies. Super super super fresh and tasty. I don’t feel full afterwards, I just feel happy and satisfied.
Oh, and their FRESH SQUEEZED ORANGE JUICE. That is what you call fresh, sweet, and so refreshing. Sometimes I swear I run into small pieces of orange, but I like that because I like my orange juice to taste like oranges. not like that from concentrate stuff. This is a guilt-​free (or at least feels like it) way to refresh with juice!
I also like the tamales. I prefer the pork because it’s super flavorful but the chicken is good too. Just a little lighter.
Really reasonably priced too.
YUM!

The + are fresh, tasty, relatively inexpensive. no-​frills juice, coffee, sandwiches, and tamales. And, for me, it’s close to where I live, and on the way to BART.
The minus is the staff. Ironically, mostly the case on weekends – when they could and should have a thriving business.
It seems there is only one person working weekend afternoons – a man who is not pleasant, seems overwhelmed in trying to serve everyone since there’s only one person, and who doesn’t speak English well – which leads to getting orders wrong. Every single time he’s working. Doesn’t happen with other staff. Ask for bread, get a roll. Ask for mayonnaise and no tomato – get tomato and no mayo. Ask for Swiss cheese, get American. Ask for lettuce, get none. As whether the lemonade is fresh-​squeezed (like their other juices), told yes, and then he digs out the canister of Sugar-​Free «Country Tyme»…
Still, after pulling the tomatoes off the sandwich and getting used to the processed cheesefood – and reordering lemonade with fresh lemons — the sandwich is good, as is the juice.
Note: I feel like some techy person in the neighborhood who is driving people like this out of business by raising our rents should pro-​bono offer to help them SLIGHTLY upgrade their business – not into a douchebag hipster joint, but a business that does a bit better, is a TINY bit more together, and can be more competitive

Great, cheap coffee. Fresh juices. House plants. AND tortamal. Go check this out.
As a matter of fact, I’m kind of obsessed with thinking about them. I am going to have to go over there for another cup of coffee and as many tamales as I can carry home. Maybe some juice to rejuvneate.
Can I pack a succulent?

This place is so unprofessional. I had received a coupon sent to my email from them offering a 50% Any Smoothie. I work nearby and frequent the place once in awhile to grab some iced tea.
The day I went to redeem my coupon was a terrible experience. I noticed the woman working behind the counter was a different woman then I usually see. Fine, no problem. I ordered a smoothie and showed my coupon from my phone. The woman automatically said «Nope we have no coupons here».
I explained that they do and obviously the email address came from them. She argued again and completely ignored me when I tried to at least explain it to her more. There was a man behind me in line who decided to bully me and harass me by calling me a «b***h» just for trying to get a coupon redeemed. I had said I had no problem trying to pay for a smoothie but that was not the point. The woman behind the counter TOLERATED this man harassing me and hurried to make his coffee while ignoring me completely.
I was in tears and in shock that NOBODY stepped in. I left the store. I would never ever come back here. I told my whole office and they to are boycotting their business.
And to the people on the way out who mentioned to me it may be a language barrier, please save me that excuse. They have Wifi and an ipad at the counter to sign up for apps and deals.
Disgusted.

This was the second place that either didn’t have wifi or didn’t have working wifi (even though it was advertised as being available).
I got a banana strawberry smoothie. On the windows of the place it clearly stated they had wifi for customers. I got my smoothie (which was delicious) and proceeded to pull out everything I wanted to work on that morning. I tried to get onto the network (with the password the employee provided) and it said it couldn’t connect. I mentioned this to one of the two employees working and she said, sorry. I figure the router needed to be reset or something, but I am not sure she knew where that was or what to do.
So, I walked around looking for the next best option. I stumbled upon Muddy Waters heading towards the area where I would be having lunch later. I walked in and saw they had some vegan options. I asked if they had wifi, and they did.
I got an onion bagel with hummus and topped with tomatoes and 3 dolmas. An almost perfect breakfast if you ask me. The wifi worked great and I was able to get a good amount done. I would go back to this place, if even just to have a bagel and dolmas again.
Yum!

Love fresh squeezed juices, bagels are alright, restroom is filthy, older lady (I believe an owner) always looks unhappy, not a great start of the day, but I am still there every morning before work, its just because i need my dose of vitamins to start my day and location is convinient.
Get «Tap to Belly» card to earn points
use your points to get free bagel every 10^th visit

I order always beet juice to go. Excellent service from the staff as they fill my water container with the superfood juice. The beet juice is fresh and I walk out happy. End of story. Happy customer.