Pan de Mie

I love this place. Low key and delicious. Ahi Nicoise, Vietnamese Chicken and Noodles Salad and the Meatloaf Sam are all to die for.

===Good items===
Chicken Bearnaise — Great bearnaise sauce. Rest of the ingredients were whatever. Would get it again.
===Decent Items===
Tuna Wraps — tuna is too salty, but it’s still edible at least.
Vietnamese Chicken & Noodle salad — a nice light touch, though I prefer vermicelli if I’m going to eat vietnamese cold noodles.
===Bad Items===
Vietnamese Grilled Chicken Breast Sandwich — sauce is too sweet for me. Don’t get this if you’re not a fan of sweet things.

I love this place because not only a block way from my office, but it also has a very good Nicoise salad for only $ 10.00. I’ve ordered this same salad three times and it’s always been great; the tuna is always fresh and I love that they used sear tuna rather than tuna from a can as so many places choose to do, the veggies are always crisp and the dressing is nice and light. I always order baguette on the side and it’s always good as well, it tastes as if it was baked just that morning possibly because it was.

Whelp, it was bound to happen. I walked by here today and the store was closed. Boarded up. They are gone!

I like Pan de Mie. There are a few hit-​or-​miss things: the banh mi is only okay, but the seared ahi Nicoise salad is quite tasty. The folks behind the counter are quite nice, and that goes a long way with me.

I am sad to say they have been bought-​out and the quality has gone way downhill. No more amazing fresh baked, French pastries. The new owners didn’t even bother training their staff on how to make a good cappuccino.
It’s really a different, very mainstream, cheap and pre-​made operation. With so many better places next door, I will not be coming back here again.

I honestly can’t believe this place is still open. I’ve given it three tries and I’m done with it. To those who rave, I shake my head in wonder. Do you care at all about what you put in your mouth?
Best croissants in SF? Seriously? They’re flavorless and limp.
A simple ham and Swiss sandwich disapointed. Got it back to my desk and NO SWISS, frigid cold «French bread» that was dense and chewy but without the nice crunch of a fresh crust and nothing-​special deli ham. I guess that at $ 6+ I got what I paid for.
The service is a tricky thing to rate. The young woman at the register was nice enough, but she was alone in the shop and seemed a little befuddled. She walked away a couple of mintues after I placed my order to ask someone (who? I didn’t see anyone else in the café) to make the sandwich, then returned to the counter where she gazed out the window for a few minutes before going into the «kitchen» to make my sandwich, which she goofed by forgetting the cheese.
Given the hundreds of choices available to Financial District office workers, I simply cannot understand how this café has survived. This is one that must go and the sooner it closes, the better.

I’m on the fence about this place. It’s new and needs to workout a few kinks so maybe I’ll give it a few more tries.
Currently their webpage is down because they haven’t renewed their domain name. New business blues?
I pass by this place several times a week in the morning. Sometimes the pastries are out and available, sometimes they are not. Lack of consistency — new business blues. I’ve also had the worst latte ever from this place. Shoulda stuck to Starbucks. Their chicken banh mi sandwich was bad — the chicken was unbearably dry and the sauce tasted weird. They also have no sense of urgency in the morning.
On the plus side, one morning they did have an assortment of pastries available before 8am. I bought several to share with my coworkers and everyone enjoyed the pastries. Super cute interior.
On the downside though, they pull their morning pastries out of these old boxes, like leftover costco run boxes… not nice white shrink-​wrapped boxes like at Starbucks.
The service can be a little weird. One of the morning time ladies reminded me that my daily deal didn’t cover gratuity. I planned to tip anyway even though the deal didn’t say anything about an automatic gratuity and isn’t it rude to mention anything about gratuity in the first place? I dunno.
I’ll give it another try, if it lasts that long.

Walking around wondering where to go for lunch & see Pan de Mie.
Egg Salad — large sandwich on chewy baguette roll
Very eggy & little spice — letting the eggs do the talking in this egg salad which isn’t a bad thing at all but didn’t necessarily provide a wow factor
Eggs & celery — thank goodness no pickle!
Standard lunch accomplished

REVIEW OF CROISSANTS ONLY.
Omg the plain croissant is the best! Unlike the usual light and airy croissants, somehow the Pan de Mie croissant is buttery and densely layered and flakey on the outside. I ate one for breakfast. I ate one for dinner. And then I ate a chocolate croissant for dessert. I’m a fatty.
Don’t get the chocolate croissant — it’s not half as good! It doesn’t have those nice layers on the inside and is more like a regular roll of bread. Moreover, the chocolate ganache on top is poorly executed — it tasted gritty suggesting that the granulated sugar wasn’t fully melted before cooling.
Oh also: plain croissant = $ 2.25, chocolate croissant = $ 2.75, roasted veggie pastry = $ 3.25. And they have no restroom.
4 stars only because that plain croissant is so shockingly tasty.

Got the free coffee + pastry for breakfast today from the Munch on Me deal.
Coffee was fine. Not really a coffee connoisseur so can’t really review that. The woman (the owner?) was sweet and found soy milk for me from the back.
Pastry was a croissant, which was a little disappointing as I was eyeing the raspberry and almond pastries. Overall not too much selection at breakfast, and they didn’t look too impressive.
Boy was I wrong! OMG that croissant was the most delicious croissant I’ve ever had! Dense, buttery, not to flaky, soft, and awesome. I didn’t know croissants could be that good!

I came here to redeem my MunchOnMe deal for the free pastry a few days ago during late afternoon. It was a rainy day so the café was empty with plenty of seating. There wasn’t a whole lot of pastries to choose from but I got the strawberry croissant. I highly recommend it as it was absolutely delicious and free! I did see a small fly making it’s hops from muffin to muffin so I shied away from those.
Unrelated, check out the hand sanitizer dispenser by the doorway, pretty neat and handy!

I’M SORRY… i’m not a fan :(
(2 stars)
When you see highschool cafeteria and backyard picnic style like
servings and presentation, YOU DO NOT THINK «FRENCH PASTRIES».
— food, meh.
— price, not worth it.
— service, good.
— ambiance, simple.
Don’t get it twisted, I really wanted to like this place. There’s always a high turnover rate around the area as it is in FiDi of SF. Restaurants/Cafes/Deli’s come and go. This is just another one of those where you think «how long will they last». And I thought I’d give it a try to see if it’s a place i’d return.
HEFFER-​STYLE STATUS.
I wanted to try pastries as I am a sucker for french pastries. Walked in and there were no pastries behind the counter. It’s lunch hour but still this is a bakery, i’d assume some kind of pastries.
VEGTABLE WRAP — just had a decent size of two bites to try it out for taste. what did i think? starchy. i was glad it was just a sample and not a dime came out of my pocket for it. the wrap was «starchy» and it just threw off the enjoyment. i didn’t bother to finish my two bite sample.
RASPBERRY LEMONADE (~$ 2.50) — what a great way to quench your thirst with something tasty right? WELL… i was assuming if i was going to pay for something above $ 1.50 it better be some good stuff. It was lemonade with a dabble of flavoring syrup. AND they didnt have raspberry flavor at the time, they had something similar (didnt understand the server and just said yes to whatever he was suggesting instead). I could have made this myself. I really expected different.
MIXED GREEN SALAD ($ 5.50) — nothing special about dressing or the mix of greens. it was just typical. nothing popped or tasted good (like other salads i’ve tried at neighboring cafes for the same price). basically, 85% of the salad was left un-​eaten and brough back to work and left in the fridge in the breakroom to rot.
On my way out, the table adjacent to my table had ordered some open sandwhich item that was on the menu. STRAIGHT UP BACKYARD PICNIC PRESENTATION. Straight up backyard picnic presentation. wasn’t feeling the paper plates they were on. Glad I didnt order anything further off the menu.
Will I be back? I’ve considered coming back to try their «french pastries» but probably not.
Until the next review…

Charming, friendly and good food.
I’ve been here a few times and always have an excellent experience no matter how busy.
The croissants are really good (5 stars), do try one with a cup of coffee in the morning.
For lunch my favorite so far is the chicken but the meatloaf is darn tasty if your really hungry.
Something can be done to make it more inviting, I don’t know exactly what but it is missing that, «I don’t know what?»

I thought I was craving my usual granola and yogurt breakfast. What I actually was craving was french toast with a strawberry compote. I did not know that until discovering Pan De Mie does not offer the former, but they do make a mighty fine latter.
The four slices are enough to save half for another breakfast, even thought I wanted to eat every last bite right then and there.
Four stars for the french toast. Five stars for my discipline.

Just had the WORST blueberry muffin experience here unfortunately…
I called in to make sure they had some left (and they did). But when I arrived, all I saw were deflated-​looking, barely-​holding-​together muffins. I purchased one regardless because they’ve had such a good track record in my experience, but it was a mistake.
Cold (like refrigerated cold), stale, and mediocre. The top wasn’t even crunchy or coated in that thin layer of sugar I so very much enjoy…
Sad, sad day. Hopefully, it’s just a fluke.

(See pic)
Interesting chocolate muffin, even generally I thought chocolates are more associated with desserts than breakfast.
Delicious and fresh!

Wow, $ 2 croissants! It was probably the best croissant I’ve had and I honestly don’t even like them usually. Perfectly baked, lightly crispy on the ouside and nice and buttery on the inside. It’s great, I will definitely continue to make a weekly visit. If it wasn’t so decadently bad for me then I’d probably be there everyday. As for the people that have had bad costumer service experience, the man is perfectly friendly and nice once you start talking to him. Perhaps he seems a bit snobbish at first b/​c, let’s be honest… he’s French and if it wasn’t for that fact then the goodies might not be so wonderfully made.
Just the smell of the place warrants 5 stars but the croissants are definitely simply delicious.

Pluses: clean, bright, great menu of breakfast/​lunch fare, og coffee, takes cards, has good seating options. Homemade incredible croissants.
Lows: latte was crap. SERIOUSLY bad. No «for here» dishware. You stay there? Enjoy your lunch on a paper plate.

Despite its inviting name, this bakery and café just did not have its act together when I invited two coworkers out for breakfast this morning:
— few baked good in the case
— no regular coffee out (although we were handed a cup with nowhere to fill it)
— specialty drinks (one mocha and one iced coffee) that we felt were sub-​par
Service was disappointing as well. Folks on their cell phones and doing pretty much everything except taking targeted care of their only customers in the place.
Too bad. It looked nice. Don’t plan on going back anytime soon.