LA Cafe

This remains the best and cheapest banh mi I have had in SF.

Wound up here after a 5:40am emergency evacuation of my apartment building on a Saturday morning. With elevators out of order and time to kill, it became a «where can we get breakfast at 6am?»
So we wound up here. To be honest I am wondering how many times this place has changed ownership during the review cycle. I see the oldest review is from 2006, and the last seven years of reviews seem like they are describing completely different establishments.
I had a Bagel with egg, cream cheese and salmon. It was quite tasty. And only $ 3.99.
I also ordered two pancakes for $ 2.99. They were dry and chewy and frankly not good at all.
Top it off with a V8 and a Vitamin Water and my morning was mostly complete. Well, it was complete after three mentally ill homeless people walked by screaming through the window. It is the Tenderloin after all. If you don’t get your local color, you feel left out.
Normally I would drop to 3 stars because the pancakes were so bad. But my bagel was excellent and they were open at an hour when no one else was brave enough. So 3.5, rounded up to 4.

LA café is delicious! It has a great atmosphere with different kinds of customers. We liked the falafel sandwich. It’s a nice spot to just stop in at.

Okay– hands down best owners of a business in SF goes to the owners of LA café. I used to go here a few times a week. Each time I have sat in the window and witnessed my share of live action «cops”/ «law and order». One day a man was thrown up against the window and cuffed by the po po– the only thing blocking me was the glass. This is the TL’s center and you must come to expect this show as you sip your coffee here at LA Café, I would have it no other way. The owner communicates with everyone with respect, poise and professional demeanor– regardless who you are. I respect this place and give it props for running a tight ship when the ships «a rockin». The Vietnamese sandwiches and spring rolls are delicious and CHEAP!

This place is right across the street from my work, which actually is not a homeless shelter but an SRO. They’re the only place open when I have an early shift and they perpetually have my favorite kind of tea in stock. Their bahn mi is pretty clutch as well, but I have yet to have time to order food since promptness is not my strong suit. The couple who own the café know both my cold & hot day orders — something you don’t get at Starbucks, and are really sweet people.
My only gripe is that they’re closed Sundays, but most things in the TL are so I won’t knock stars off for it. Overall good coffee, good service, good people.

This is really a 2-​Star place but it gets an extra star for being a victim of such horrible geography!
Walking the streets of SF hunting for lunch one day… I ended up in a fairly iffy area… looking around, somehow I’m near a homeless shelter and a bunch of abandoned restaurants… Making my way past the drunks & drug addicts, there it was… the L.A. Café… is it a taste of home? a creepy coffee shop? would it even be open?
YES, THEY ARE OPEN FOR BUSINESS!!, The fun begins…
Gawd, here we go… the entrance is one of those half-​doors where the top is open but the bottom is closed, but it can only be opened from the inside… you read the sign, reach in and grab your Purell…
You then find out that the LA Café, although seemingly focused on sandwiches and burgers for locals looking for a quick bite, is in fact a Vietnamese Phở restaurant that happens to have burgers, sandwiches, etc… WOW!
I ended up getting a cheeseburger and fries… it wasn’t the quick service we had hoped for, so we were «entertained» by a crazy gentleman in the corner with a coffee that he had clearly finished 2 hours earlier… he rambled on about «…more police means less freedoms» and how «mormons run everything…» Then what appeared to be a pimp and a whore walked in… this gal was (un)dressed showing inappropriate bodyparts as she ordered her food at the counter, and even more as she sat… eew… If you’re into the local culture, enjoy the show…
An awesome shouting match followed where the cashier kicked some lady out as she was trying to order… the (potential) customer told the cashier and the cook to learn english… I think I would have kicked her out too, but I would have kicked everyone out… haha!
The burger seemed like it came from one of those frozen 12 packs you get at the grocery store… wasnt great, but since this wasnt your usual «Café», I asked for some Jalepenos, to help the flavor and hopefully act as a disinfectant… The place isn’t «dirty», but the environment makes you wish you just ate at the hotel.
Gawd, it’s good to be home…

L.A. Café is a clean attempt at offering a slice Larkin on Jones for espresso & coconut juice sippers alike. Their menu is pretty varied, and though I prefer Baquette Express, their sandwiches are cheap & tasty. I have yet to try their spagetti.
They have been open for about 2 – 3 months, so I’m anticipating the changes that come with new business… good or bad.