Proper Food

I love their takeaway meals. There’s no seating, this is a gourmet take away spot for delicious quality food that you can bring back to the office or enjoy in your favorite public space. If you walk up the stairs next to the building there’s nice little area with tables and chairs where you can eat in the fresh air.
The meals are something you might get in a whole foods. They’re pre-​packaged, made fresh each day. The offerings range from salads, to soups, sandwiches, entrees with fish and rice, and even sushi. There are also many different influences in the recipes in terms of international elements. Innovative flavors and ingredients are sprinkled throughout, to create food that’s a huge step above your average work lunch.
You can place your order online and prepay ahead of time to reserve your favorite dish, so that it’s ready to go when you pick it up. The pricing is a tad higher than places nearby, but believe me when I say that it’s very well worth it for the quality.

Good quality organic, locally sourced and very presentable boxes to go… if you and your wallet are comfortable paying around $ 12 for a salad. Not a fancy place at all, but soft to the eye and somehow nice aesthetics. This is not the usual place I would go for lunch or breakfast, just if I happen to forget my Tupperware and need something quick that is not food truck level. You will find great combinations and I always find pleasant flavors and textures.

Great place to pick up some pre-​prepared food if you’re in a rush. Their salads are very big and filling (I usually end up saving some for dinner). The taste is exactly what you would expect of a well prepared fresh salad with a balanced mixed of ingredients for taste and texture. It’s a bit on the expensive side ($ 11.95+ for a salad) but worth it since it’s pretty much 2 meals.
I also had a chocolate nutella cookie from them once which was pretty delicious. It was more on the thick-​cake-​y side of the cookie cake spectrum but I still really enjoyed it.

I had passed by this place hundreds of times and finally thought it was time to figure it out. If you’re looking for a quick decent meal then Proper Food is your place. I couldn’t decide what to get but ended up with the Harvest Salad with Chicken. It was good but didn’t have anything that blew me away and made me want to come back for more. The chicken was a little dry. I’m curious to check out some other items on their menu to see if I might have ordered the wrong thing.

Love this place to grab a quick bite!

Face-​palmingly bland & dry food.

This is a quick place to grab some delicious, fresh made, sustainable organic lunch foods (or breakfast!). They will heat up your sandwich in an oven for you if you want, and their butternut squash soup is **delicious**. Also it’s vegan and dairy free, if you ask them to leave the crème fraîche topping off! This lunch spot has something for everyone, and it’s all well made and delish.

Delicious and healthy. The egg frittata is a perfect breakfast. The people at the counter are very friendly. Good lunch options, too.

This is a great place to get something good and FAST. don’t be intimidated by the lunch line– it goes very very quickly. Even when they need to heat something. They’re very efficient. Breakfast options are also available.
The selection is great! Yes, some options may not be as «tasty» as some may like, but keep in mind these guys are a relatively «healthy» option. My favorite is the salad with salmon. Oh man. It hits the spot and everything is FRESH. The dressing isn’t overwhelming either and the price is reasonable! I’m curious to try the sandwiches. The salads just look so good and I don’t have to wait in line at Mixt Greens.
Everybody raves about the PB&J. It’s pretty good! Super filling. I couldn’t finish it because it’s loaded with fresh banana and walnut bread. Two bites in and I’m full. I’m not crazy about the taste but I can see why it’s popular.
All the employees there are super excited and when you’re looking at what to pick, there’s an employee walking around asking if you have any questions. Super nice people!

Proper Food is an excellent option for group breakfast delivery in the Financial District.
If you’re looking to feed an early morning meeting or conference — I highly recommend looking into purchasing some breakfast items from Proper Food. They deliver for a reasonable fee and they have a diverse selection of unique breakfast items that will satisfy a vast array of people and their dietary restrictions.
We had Proper Food provide breakfast fare for a past work conference meeting and the spread was lovely. Their yogurt parfait included House-​made greek yogurt, nutty granola, and Proper’s own all-​natural fruit preserves. Their heartier breakfast sandwiches featured were beautiful and arrived warm — and were topped with free range eggs and delicious ingredients like garnet yams and all natural maple-​turkey fennel sausage patty. Their fresh fruit cups were adorned with blissful ingredients like fresh figs and their gluten free egg white frittata was devoured hungrily by the group.
The customer service at Proper Food is also outstanding. If you have any questions or concerns about a bigger breakfast order — their helpful staff will walk you through things and will ease any apprehension you may have.
For a proper breakfast to start a work week — check out Proper Food.
Trust.

I can understand the appeal for a place like this when you just want to grab and go, but the food needs to shine. I’ve been here twice and have been disappointed with the food and the prices.
The tandoori chicken wrap is dry and not so tasty. Maybe because I’m brown, I have really high expectations.
The PB&J is not very yummy (props on homemade peanut butter) and it’s super expensive.

Purchased a Smoked Chicken Sandwich. They heated it up for me in the store and by the time I got back to my desk across the street the sandwich was basically a soggy grilled cheese with really great quality deli meat.
My biggest confusion was the romaine… why suggested heating if there’s lettuce in it? Lettuce doesn’t work heated. It was a weird element of the sandwich.
Anyway…their items look good. I think I just choose poorly.

In a way I’m very sick of the San Francisco lunch scene: not only is there a line everywhere you go, but there’s not really any grab’n’go options. I lived in London for a long time and had quickly become a fan of the Prêt culture: step inside, grab one of the prepared sandwiches or salads, pay and leave. I would literally be in and out in under two minutes and then wander off to a nearby park and enjoy my lunch there.
Here in San Francisco everything is made-​to-​order, which is great sometimes, but most of the time I want to enjoy my lunch break while actually sitting down and not wolfing down the food because I be stood in line forever and now my break is about to be over.
Here at Proper Food they sort-​of get this concept. They have mostly pre-​made lunches even though some of them require heating up, such as the sandwiches or burritos… which in my opinion defeats the whole purpose a little. I’ve come here now a few times, but mostly because of the efficiency factor and not because of the flavor factor… the latter is not really worth mentioning: A-​ok at best.
So, overall I applaud this business on bringing a little more efficiency and speediness to my lunch break, but I would suggest to work on that flavor a bit more.

You’d think this concept would saturate the urban grab&go lunch scene: take the airport model of fast food from a fridge, and kick it up seventeen notches.
Instead of Cup o’ Noodles, you’ve got a fresh ramen base that gets steaming broth on payment. Instead of a bleached out «chicken» Caesar salad, you get a citrus-​braised octopus over farro concoction that tosses in seasonal corn, glazed almonds, semi-​sundried tomatoes and all the herbs to create a light, bright, surprisingly substantial and balanced stray from the norm at $ 12.50.
Locally sourced when possible and incredibly fresh, the options at Proper Food are intentionally bougie because anyone can do (and has done) everything else. Of course, this means a Proper PB&J runs $ 7 and the juices are power blends and the clientele can crowd the cramped space for a self-​important clusterbang of GMTFOH proportions. But hey, it sure beats that Sushirrito line amiriteoramirite?
A welcomed addition to the midday hustle, and I’m eyeballing a return visit for that new age niçoise featuring line-​caught ahi tuna. Did I mention breakfast is also served, and Fridays usher in chilaquiles? You’ve been warned.

Two of my co-​workers kept telling me about this spot. I ended up wanting to eat something fresh and healthy, so I decided to go here today. I’ve heard about how busy the place gets, so I used their website and ordered ahead of time. I ordered the catfish po boy sandwich. I dropped by the spot at the time I designated to pick it up. The people there were super nice and friendly. I noticed around 1:30pm when I went that there is kind of slim pickings on what to get, so I’m glad I ordered earlier. I brought the food back to my work and it was delicious. The bread was so good mixed with the fish and purple cabbage. It was very filling and I liked how I didn’t feel all too stuffed after. The only gripe I have is that the place runs on the slight more pricier side (even for Fidi). I liked the food overall and will definitely go and try something else too!

A wee bit over priced, but all the food I’ve bought here has been fresh, delicious, and filling — without weighing me down.
You can get a huge variety of foods here, including breakfast burritos, parfaits, cold pressed juices, cold brew coffee, spring rolls, ahi tuna salad, sandwiches… you name it! You can’t go wrong. They nearly sell out every single day, so if you want to make sure you get your pick, don’t get here too late! A couple times, I’ve gotten here around 1:30 and only three meals or so were left.
If it’s nice out, there’s a public space on the roof of Proper Food that has plenty of place to sit and soak up the sun!
ALSO… the staff is great — genuinely nice, friendly people that I’d want to be friends with!

Fresh, pre-​made food to go! What more do you need?
They have a ton of different options form sushi and spring rolls to soups, sandwiches & salads. With so many different options to choose from it’s easy to get lost staring at all the wonderful choices.
I wasn’t feeling to hungry so I went with the nigri sushi and some spring rolls. The place fills up quick because it’s so small but the line is blazing fast. You can be in and out in 5 minutes easy if you know what you want.
The sushi wasn’t very good but that’s mainly cause the rice wasn’t cooked very well. It was very firm which kind of ruined the whole sushi party but the fish tasted great! The spring rolls weren’t my thing either. I think I chose the worst items to get from a pre-​made food store but sometimes you gotta take a risk… just maybe not here.

Great grab-​and-​go lunch spot that I took advantage of twice while I was at the Unilocal offices last week. I particularly appreciated it since I was trying this whole «eat healthy» thing for the first time during a SF trip.
Lunch options vary from soups to salads, sandwiches and rice bowls. They also have sushi and spring rolls. The first day I stopped in I went with the tuna niçoise salad. Filled with greens, green beans, fingerling potatoes, roasted tomatoes, kalamata olives, soft-​boiled eggs, chives, crispy capers, endive, line-​caught ahi tuna and tossed with a house-​made lemon-​thyme vinaigrette. REAL good. Tons of flavor and filling but not too heavy.
The next visit I picked up a bowl of the ramen and it was also delicious. Miso-​bone broth, hen of the woods mushrooms, spinach, soy-​marinated free-​range egg, ramen noodles, slow-​cooked all-​natural pork belly, and chili flakes. There’s also a variety of beverages like juices, cold brewed coffee, and teas. Plus sweet treats like dried fruit, energy bars, and cookies (in particular I sampled a bit of the nutella cookie and that was excellent).
They also have breakfast, which I didn’t try, but the options looked good. From yogurt parfaits, to frittatas, breakfast burritos and sandwiches, and chilaquiles. Next time!
Service is fast and friendly. But because it’s grab & go once something sells out, that’s it. So on busier days or past the lunch rush you may end up with a smaller selection. The earlier you get there the better. The prices are also really reasonable given the quality of the ingredients and portion size. That huge salad? $ 13.95. The ramen? $ 7.95. Not too bad, I thought.
Overall a great place to grab a bit if you’re looking for something fast, fresh, and healthy.

Vous êtes à San Francisco et commencez à né plus supporter le régime burger-​burrito ?! Proper Food est là pour vous servir ! Comme son nom l’indique, Proper Food propose de la «vraie nourriture», comprendre une nourriture plutôt saine, prête à emporter et déguster.
Le choix de salades est vraiment sympa, et j’y ai trouvé mon bonheur avec une salade thon mi-​cuit, graines et riz, un peu trop huileuse à mon goût (d’où l’étoile en moins) mais bien savoureuse et pas mauvaise du tout ! Sinon les wraps et sandwiches avaient l’air plutôt pas mal non plus, et j’ai surtout regretté de né pas avoir pris de green juice, cela aurait été parfait pour compléter ce déjeuner presque detox ! (Rassurez-​vous, après ça j’ai remangé plein de junk food aussi, hein !)

This place reminds of Pret A Manger, which I used to enjoy while living in NYC. A wide selection of pre-​made (earlier in the day) sandwich, salad and bowl options ready to quickly grab and go. Seemingly higher end and more creative than a typical deli. Go for the more exotic/​unusual options so you don’t feel like you’ve overpaid for a common PB&J or Turkey sandwich.
Grilled Tandoori Chicken Wrap: A lot lighter than the heavy Indian Burritos you’ll get around town. Served chilled, the fresh cucumbers and lettuce are quite refreshing. A little bland by itself, but the spicy cream sauce that comes with it really rounds out the dish.
Sweet Potato & Egg Muffin Nest with Bacon: This is definitely unique. Riced sweet potatoes holding an egg on top. Tasty gratinéed cheese on the edges and thick chunks of bacon sprinkled on top. Felt like a dish at a fancy restaurant where all the components of your meal are layered in an aesthetically pleasing stack.

This is quite a sterile-​looking place, isn’t it? No homestyle dishes to scoop up. No colorful personalities behind the counter. It’s like an Ingmar Bergman movie without the Swedish angst. The only angst I had was running into a guy I hired and managed for three years at my old job nearby only to be snubbed by him like I had the plague or something. Not sure what his problem was since I was the one who lost my job but whatevs, bro. Karma will come back and haunt him. But maybe not me, at least not for spending more than I usually do for a lunch they describe as «handcrafting fresh, honest fare from locally sourced, organic ingredients». So all the culinary buzzwords are on their website — local, organic, sustainable, artisanal, and of course, integrity.
By the time I got there at 1:30PM, most of their shelves were emptied out, but they had one of their Charbroiled Flank Steak, Rice & Bean Bowls left. For $ 11.95, it consisted of four thick slices of all-​natural flank steak, black beans, cannellini beans, Mexican red rice, queso fresco, shredded iceberg lettuce, avocado, and a topping of crispy corn tortillas, all of it tossed with a lime vinaigrette (photo:
). It was surprisingly middling for all the fresh ingredients with the steak a little too overcooked for my taste and the dressing a bit sour. What salvaged the lunch was their $ 3 bowl of Soup, a Butternut Squash Carrot mix that was creamy, warm and all good things soup (photo:
). I took it back to the office since there’s no seating although you can take advantage of the roof terrace at 100 1^st Street on a sunny day. Quite proper indeed.
FOOD — 3 stars… a steak salad that was middling at best… that doesn’t seem all that proper
AMBIANCE — 2.5 stars… looks like a tasteful hospital cafeteria
SERVICE — 3 stars… pleasantly robotic
TOTAL — 3 stars… packaged lunches for suits. the culinary buzzwords should please them