Focaccia Market and Bakery

Like almost everyone else who works in the FiDi area, I also come here on a regular basis to get a salad for lunch. I love make-​your-​own option places!
My go-​to salad choices:
1) Mixed greens + spinach + cucumbers + edamame + red bell pepper + hint of salt & pepper + light soy dressing = an Asian inspired salad.
2) Mixed greens + spinach + beets + goat cheese + cucumbers + light raspberry dressing = a fresh salad with just a bit of rich creaminess.
Optional: adding free croutons and grabbing some fresh focaccia or honey wheat bread the door.
The service here is as efficient as they can be during busy lunch rushes. I’ve only come to the salad bar, but they typically have about 5 people putting your salads together and a couple people as designated «salad mixers.» However, I do notice that some workers like to pack your boxes with veggies while others are less generous.
Other things to note:
— Come before 11:30am or after 1:00pm to avoid the major lunch rush
— They close after 2:00pm and will be out of popular veggies if you come late
— Croutons are a free topping!
I’m a fan of Focaccia offering both small and large salad options with a huge variety of fresh veggies and toppings. I’ll keep coming here for lunch as long as I work in the area!

Quick Review: My go to for salad in SOMA but I also love the made to order breakfast on occasion. If you are looking for a healthy lunch option, this is a great place for fresh salad and yummy fixins but it’s on you to choose wisely. You get 3 free toppings in your salad and then charged per topping, which can get pricey depending on what you order. They are also serve hot food, the Mac and Cheese is sooo good. Be prepared for a long wait, you definitely have to time your arrival.
FOOD
Its mainly a salad spot because everything is so fresh. The line is sometimes 20 minutes because its so popular. They have whole eggs that they smash to order or egg whites. There is also a protein option you can add. I have also had the sandwiches, I love the fact that you can get it toasted. They have really good cheese options, my favorite is the gouda. There is a variety of meat options as well, not your typical processed stuff but REAL meat. The hot food station typically varies by day but consistently there is rotisserie chicken. Breakfast — fresh omelets (does not use egg beater), potatoes, oatmeal, breakfast sandwiches (croissant, bagels). Everything comes with free focaccia bread, hence the name lol. Also good portions regardless of it being lunch, breakfast, sandwich or hot food!
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Despite the long lines they are pretty fast considering how much traffic they get each day. Some pack on the dressing compared to others, I don’t like my salad drenched so I always say «light dressing» just in case. For the most part super nice and friendly staff.
Definitely recommend!

For our weekly catered office lunch on Friday, December 4^th, we ordered food from Focaccia Market & Bakery. Everyone basically chose a lunch box.
I ended up getting a Specialty salad box ($ 14.95). Decided on the Seafood salad box (+$ 1): grilled salmon, chopped romaine lettuce, edamame, tomatoes, cucumbers and lime vinaigrette dressing with Fruit salad, Cookies. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like the food here as their selection seemed kind of boring. I was pleasantly surprised. The salad was super fresh and a hefty portion. I adored the refreshing lime dressing and the salmon wasn’t overcooked. I did note in my order that I wanted the salmon medium, so I wasn’t sure how much that attributed to the cooking of the salmon. The fruit salad was disappointing as the watermelon was mushy and a piece looked kind of moldy. I ended up throwing it away. I didn’t try the cookie as I don’t really like chocolate. The box also came with a piece of focaccia bread.
It’s fun when a place exceeds my expectations. I was completely ready to not like my lunch. Great place for fresh salads!

My first time in this bakery and yes the food is good but the guy who helped me was very unprofessional. If I hear that you speak Spanish just like me and I talked to you in Spanish. You as a good employee with customer skills you suppose to help me and not tell me that you speak Italian boy please !!! I speak 4 languages and I’m sorry I don’t speak Italian. I don’t know who’s the store manager in this location but I hope he/​she retrain him because people like him make the business look bad .
I will never come back again.

You can get a half grilled chicken here for $ 7. And add 2 more sides for about $ 4 – 5 more. That’s a good deal considering their portions are huge! An order like that was big enough to give me lunch for 2 days in a row! Their grilled chicken is super yummy and flavorful. I love the spices on the skin.
I saw that the line for the salad bar was crazy long, but you can make your own salad and the portions are also really big for a salad too. I’ll have to try that or a sandwich next time! But there will definitely be a next time cuz their food is yummy and price is reasonable.

Work lunch time is valuable time and there are plenty of good salad/​sandwich places to go. I have been super excited to add Focaccia to my list of places but I just ordered a salad (a co-​worker did as well) and we both stopped eating it because we both agreed that our salads were not only unsatisfying but they were generally just bad salads. To elaborate, the dressings are not good and not properly mixed, including the ingredients, and the overall quality of the chicken/​other ingredients were poor. There are better places for salad than this. Hope this helps other lunchers out there!
*side note: I’m told the bread is good there though.

Build your own salad is the best approach to eating salads. I loved getting to add all of the toppings I want while leaving my least favorite out. I also liked getting a piece of bread while I paid.
The lines are quite long so get there early!

Nothing mind-​blowingly awesome about Focaccia, but it’s the type of place I can appreciate for what it is. Yes there are long lines, yes the ordering can be somewhat stressful, but there is much to love about this typical neighborhood lunch spot:
+ long lines that move quickly thanks to hard-​working staff
+ variety of salad and sandwich options, the number of salads you could create is really endless
+ fresh ingredients + huge portions and fair prices
+ clean space
If I could offer up one piece of advice — take them up on the «light» dressing when they ask. If having the dressing mixed in, you’ll have the option of light, medium, or heavy. I opted for medium my first time and my pour salad turned into a soupy mess. Rookie mistake!

i’ve never really wanted to try Focaccia even though it’s around the block from my work. there’s always a long line but coworkers wanted this so i got their toasted salami sandwich (i normally get the Italian sandwiches). they give a good amount of meat but it was only ok. i most likely won’t vote to come back here. although i heard people liking their salads, but salad is just a salad.
honestly not sure how the pricing of this works. there’s no marker or any sticker receipt on the sandwich when you order.

The weekday lunch line can be daunting, but it actually goes pretty fast. The salad here is very fresh and affordable!
I would just go for the mix green with a few toppings, it is delicious, and now I have developed a weekly routine to come here for a vegetarian lunch. Plus they have a staff who looks like Zoe Barnes from House of cards.
Overall a solid place for reasonably priced salad.

Consistent! You know what you’re going to walk out with every time. In a couple dozen visits over the years, this place has proven that.
Only bad thing to say is that the lines are ridiculous, but then again that speaks to the quality of the product.
Imelda (sp?) should get a raise. While the whole salad team operates smoothly, she smiles with every interaction and actually develops a relationship with her customers. That’s the kind of service that’s a tie-​breaker win when I can’t decide one day between Mixt Greens and Focaccia. Please recognize what you have in her as an employee.

My favorite lunch spot as I can never get enough of the filling salads! You basically customize your own and the ingredients are all super fresh. Generally a small is more than big enough, and then you can choose the type of lettuce, 3 toppings (for free), and then if you so choose, add meat/​seafood, and then they’ll ask you for light/​medium/​heavy dressing. The container is jam packed (which I love) and I always feel satisfied after eating the salad. Definitely takes salads to a whole new level!

Poor quality food prep and terrible customer service.
If you’re thinking of catering from here, imagine taking a bite of a breakfast burrito or scramble… and crunching down on eggshells. So disgusting.
We catered breakfast for my company from here, and we found eggshells in our dishes on 3 separate occasions. The first time, I thought it was a fluke. The second time, I told Focaccia management, and they promised it wouldn’t happen again. After the third time, I’m never ordering from here again.
The management here is also very unprofessional. I had to call and email several times before I could get any response. When I finally did get in touch, management was very apologetic but still didn’t fix the problem. Egg shell again a few weeks ago, I wrote the same manager and he didn’t bother replying.
We love the taste of the food here, but we’ll never order again because the preparation is obviously very poor and management can’t do anything about it. Thankfully, there are plenty of other options for breakfast that deliver in the area.

The choose-​your-​own salads are a great deal. They’re plenty filling (even the small size one), tasty and reasonably priced (~$ 6). While there can be a long line at lunch, it does move quickly since they have 3 – 4 people working behind the salad bar counter.
Here’s some salad ordering tips:
1) When it’s your turn, move to a position in front of salad maker so you can hear each other. It can get noisy in there.
2) Choose your base leafery (arugula, mixed, baby spinach, kale, etc)
3) Choose your toppings. 3 are included, and meat costs extra.
4) Choose your dressing. They will also also ask light, medium, heavy. IMO, light tends to be enough.
5) (Optional) Choose specialized toppings. There are some additional toppings (croutons, nuts, sunflowers seeds, etc.) on the sides of the salad bar. These are not listed on the blackboard.
6) (Optional) There’s complimentary focaccia bread in both white/​wheat forms next to salad counter. Unfortunately, it’s greasy and spongy and just unappetizing. Yes, I just recommended skipping focaccia bread at a place called ‘Focaccia’.
What about the other stuff?
They offer sandwiches. They’re a step above Subways, but not my favorites. You can get them toasted as well.
They also have a rotating menu for the hot meal entrees (with customizable sides). It feels like old school cafeteria type food and can be bland, but I always check it out. I’ve had some unexpectedly good food. You’ll probably have leftovers as well.
ProTip: There’s a soup line to right side of salad bar, so you can skip the salad line and order some soup directly. Their soups are pretty good most days.
ProTip #2: Cookies at payment counter are tasty.

I just noticed this bakery/​market on my way to a clients home, and stopped in to see what they had. There’s a large selections of salads that you can custom make, sandwiches on fresh focaccia bread and hot bar items, in addition to baked goods and drinks. While it is a bit on the pricier side, I’ve come to expect this from downtown and but has healthier options for the price.
The cheese pastry is really delicious and i found my salad to be very fresh and filling (i had a large) which does come with your choice of white or whole wheat focaccia bread.
Tip: unless you work down here, i suggest avoiding the rush hour between 11:30−1pm.

Not a bad place for a quick lunch stop. And the prices are relatively reasonable. The salad bar has some good options and your salad will be tossed for you (why are salads SO much better when tossed-life’s greatest mysteries). Sometimes the line moves slower than you’d think but still never too long of a wait.
I’ve also had the mac n cheese here which is worth getting.
Note: there is no seating, so it’s just a to-​go place.

I have been here probably close to 100 times for lunch. It is great to be able to get a salad for less than $ 10 in SF at lunchtime and this place delivers for about $ 7.00 (for small salad that is big enough). The food is fresh and delicious and custom-​made. I like my salads with a mixed greens and arugala for some kick, three veggies, some nuts, and a light salad dressing.
Don’t forget to pick up a slice of the focaccia bread next to the cashier that is included in the price of the salad.
Yes, the lines are crazy-​long at lunch time, but what popular place in SF isn’t?

My almost daily lunch on the weekdays — compared to all the «greens» offerings throughout FiDi (Tender Greens, Mixed Greens, you get the point), this is my favorite salad shop! They have a variety of offerings: prepared salads (really good stuff actually– you can get a caprese salad with delicious mozzarella balls and grape tomatoes in a pesto sauce or a mixed pickled beans salad or a tuna salad etc) for about $ 3 – 4, cold/​hot sandwiches to order (start at at about $ 9, so kinda steep for a small sandwich) and the famous salad bar. I always get a small salad with 5 topics for around $ 7, which is not a bad deal considering that the salad always fills me up and the toppings are fresh and plentiful!
Tips:
+Trust me when I say you can wait FOREVER to get a salad — the line here is unreal. Although I hate giving away my tips to snag a salad here, get here at 10:50 am. I know that is ridiculous for lunch, but it’s the trick to missing that never ending line. Seriously, I have been there at 11 am and you will definitely be waiting in a line.
+Mix your salads! You can get half kale, half mixed or arugula or anything!
+Meats are an extra $ 2.50, so pick your toppings wisely (first three non meat toppings are free)
+Grab a free piece of focaccia bread /​butter on the way out! A little too greasy/​heavy in my opinion, but it’s their specialty so worth a try.
+If you’re here for breakfast, their scrambles are DELICIOUS and so well priced! And grab a parfait. Yum.

When I need a protein-​packed kind-​of-​paleo lunch that isn’t a salad, I come to Focaccia and laugh at all the people in the ridiculously long salad and sandwich line. I mostly come here for the hot meal, which has its own line (or rather, no line at all!). The hot meal consist of the entrée and 2 sides for anywhere between $ 12 — $ 15. I’ve had the Coq au Vin (which was a bit dry and the sauce didn’t provide much additional flavor) and the Tri Tip, which actually came out pretty tasty and not over cooked. The entrée specials change daily which is great because I’d get so sick of eating their roasted chicken day after day.
The available sides look like they’ve been pre-​cooked hours earlier (especially the grilled veggies which I’m prone to getting), but at least there’s a little variety.
I really do wonder what’s with this city’s obsession with standing in line for salad.

Is your dream meal a monstrously chunky salad with toppings overfloweth that weighs approximately 2 pounds? Then look no further than Focaccia! I’ve consistently gone here (and the one in China Basin) for a couple years now and they have consistently put me into greenery-​induced coma. Yes, I always get the LARGE, and yes, it usually lasts me two meals unless I’m feeling a little masochistic.
Some of the salad makers are a little more generous than others, so sometimes I am resigned to a 1.5 pound salad instead. First world problems. Anyway, spicy chicken is great! Their greens and toppings are always fresh and great quality — I usually go with mixed greens & arugula with some combination of beets, mushrooms, artichoke, and hearts of palm. Lime vinaigrette is also a winner!
On days I don’t feel like braving the line (yes, there’s always a line, but it goes pretty fast), I beeline to the hot foods counter (usually no line!) and get their rotisserie chicken! Half a chicken with two sides again covers two meals for about $ 11!
Everyone here is pretty friendly and efficient. They are super busy so sometimes can be curt but I’ve never had a bad experience. I admire their energy and ability to keep up with all these crazy salad-​mongers, myself included.
They recently upped their prices due to increased ingredient costs but it’s pretty negligible. I definitely like this place way more than the other salad establishments in the neighborhood.