The Chameleon Cafe

Uh oh the new place that is replacing Chameleon has not been designed in good taste. It is not open yet but I peaked inside to see terrible décor (cheap looking lighting, art, etc) and questionable espresso machine. I hope they fix it up in time for opening. The new paint, name and signage is not a good sign :(does anyone have updates?
I am giving 5 stars for Chameleon — miss you guys!

This place is super convenient to my place, which is fantastic. Glad they serve breakfast and lunch items. I do wish they would invest in some new furniture to make the place more cozy and inviting though; the chairs are a bit battered.

If you like the kind of place where the employees think everyone in the café wants to hear what they have to say, then this is the place for you. The girls behind the counter are super friendly, but when I go to a café, it’s not to listen to the extremely loud voices and opinions of the staff. Doubt I’ll be back.

Just walked in and stood in front of the cashier for the 30 seconds while he was fiddling on his phone. No thanks.

Great food, drinks, and amazing owner.
In the span on 3 hours I sat here in the café, I witnessed how attentive he is to his customers, efficient in taking orders and making everything himself, and also saw him run out in pouring rain to help out an old grandpa limping across the street. What a kind man.
Watching him made my heart warm and made me feel like I was in southern hospitality in the middle of sf city. I’m definitely coming back here.

Not a fan of the décor.
Service was cool.

Pretty bummed about this place– I live pretty close to it, so I decided to go in one morning looking for some fresh orange juice. We went to the front and it was $ 6 for two cups. We shrugged thought it would be good OJ — only to watch the woman pour KIRKLAND orange juice into two cups. We left without saying anything but to top it off, the orange juice tasted really, really old. Just wish that for the price you could at least stock naked juice or something…

I passed by many times while driving around the neighborhood, and it always looks appealing as a place to have a coffee and get some work done. Particularly in the afternoon, when the sun bathes the whole place. Although I see that mon-​wed they close at 3pm.
I finally made it today and I am glad I choose this place to work from, big tables and good steady WiFi. Not too noisy (no music) just the normal coffee bar sounds.

My experience has been similar to Blake S. I go there when I’m in town visiting my brother, as it’s close to his house, the coffee is decent and I like their breakfast bagels.
This last time, however, it was rather busy, they took my name and wrote down my order. I stood by while I watched them serve food to customers who were in line after me. Then the young man making the food finally brought a bag over looking at me, and I asked «2 bagels» and he said yes. My mistake was that I didn’t say «2 BREAKFAST bagels» and didn’t notice until I got home that it was 2 plain bagels.

It’s a Sunday, you’re out of eggs at 11am? 0_​o
I love my eggs. 13 essential vitamins, good amount of protein, all for 70 calories. But I got tuna melt instead.
Tuna melt?! =(
It was actually pretty tasty. But we had to wait awhile, because they ran out of that too. No biggie, we wait and use your strong wifi connection to catch up with the IG world. #othersocialmediawebsite
Their tuna melt was served with a small salad. Well toasted, wheat-​sourdough bread. Very delicious, but I’m still craving for eggs.

Only been there once, but I think it’s alright. I worked from Chameleon on a Friday and getting there at 9:30, it was already pretty crowded with single people taking up tables with their laptops. I got the last open table– a small round one awkwardly shoved in the middle of the café next to a few other round tables. (They have tables along the windows, a couple outside, and a couch and armchairs too.)
I saw a review that compared their bfast bagel to an east coast bfast bagel, which caught my eye because I’m from the east coast and definitely recognize that SF is missing the culture of big egg and cheese (and sausage for me!) bagels in the morning to cure your hangover or just make you feel like everything’s ok in the world.
Chameleon’s breakfast bagel left quite a bit to be desired. Only option is with ham, which is ok, but the fillings don’t fill up the bagel and it was overall just mediocre. Coffee was fine, I’m not picky.
Nice people working there. I’ll probably come back and try something else next time.

Friendly and helpful staff! This is a great coffee joint equipped with sofa and cushions, free Wi-​Fi and plenty of tables! They offer a great selection of books customers can read if they’re bored, from kiddie chapter books, to more mature young adult novels. Prices are fair, and their Almond Joy was delightful!
The restroom is infested with flies though.): Other than that, would highly recommend!

Love this small spot. Great coffee and pastries. And when a food truck rolls up – lights out.
The test to me is a proper cappuccino — the foam needs to ride on top of rich, thick espresso. Sounds simple, but so many places fail to execute. This place does.
Enjoy.

This place SUCKS!
I enacted a moratorium on The Chameleon Café after I was made to wait over 20 minutes for a TO-​GO cup of coffee one morning. I mean really?! I have a strong need to be caffinated first thing in the morning and 20+ minutes for a latte is ridiculous. I’d hate to think what the wait would be if I dared ask for soy.
Anyway, that was about a year ago, and recently I decided to go back to determine if my judgement had been a little too harsh (and perhaps compromised by lack of coffee). Afraid not. Not only do they not have their stuff together, they couldn’t even find their QR code for my stampt app (coffee loyalty app), despite it being featured on the app (which I assume required a sign up/​acknowledgment from them at some point in time).
Save your time and money and go to the Nook. It’s a million times better.

The almond joy coffee was great. But the burrito was not. People are friendly but the seats are not too comfortable. I like that it has a cute neighborhood feeling but I think they can work on the décor a bit more…

This review is specifically based on the owner of the café as I have yet to eat or drink anything here.
I was using the awning of the place to keep dry on a rainy evening while waiting to be shown a nearby room for rent. The owner came by to setup for a private event that night and offered for me to come in out of the cold and gave me some water and chatted with me while she setup. I hope I end up getting that room down th estreet just so I can become a regular at this place.

This was she-​who-​must-​be-​obeyed and my first time at this lovely neighborhood café that introduced me to a depth charge coffee comprised of coffee and 2 shots of espresso. It was wonderful.
She-​who-​must-​be-​obeyed enjoyed an extra hot low-​fat, decaf latte and chirped about how delicious it was all the way to the bottom of the attractively priced large serving.
What separates The Chameleon Café and my offering a 4-​star review is the constant smell of cooked onions. Mind you, I love the smell of cooked onions and even cooked onions and garlic but not with my morning coffee.
Great coffee and relaxed atmosphere though…

Pretty empty, a lot of tables, reasonably spacious, and open pretty late for an SF café. It also gets a lot of light (:
I wish they’d close the doors, but other than that, I don’t really have any complaints. I have yet to try the coffee here, but their iced chai latte is bombbbb. Even the barista who 1) admitted to being new and 2) asked me what goes in a chai latte made it really well! Chai lattes are easy as shit to make, but considering that he’s supposed to be a barista, it’s a little alarming that they didn’t train in more. I don’t know if he’d have done such a good job with a coffee order…

For a Wednesday at 10am, there were a surprising number of people at Chameleon!
This place feels like a neighborhood joint, super homey and non-​pretentious. Coffee is strong, people are friendly… what more do you need?
I wasn’t in the mood for bagel so I decided to get a sandwich off their daily special board: turkey and pesto. The sandwich was ok but they didn’t ask me if I wanted it toasted — I did not — and it came out hot. Also, the greens it came with were pretty wilty looking. But maybe it was my mistake ordering lunch during breakfast hours. I’ll stick with bagels next time.
Given its proximity I’m surprised I didn’t know about this place sooner but I’m sure this won’t be my last visit.

Their Smoked Salmon Salad is a MUST! They put a lot of ingredients in this salad, it came with smoked salmon, capers, onions, cucumbers, roasted peppers, tomatoes, slice of lemon, and a few small slices of a baguette thrown on top of a bed of balsamic-​covered mixed greens. It usually costs $ 8, but I used a deal through ScoutMob and got the salad for $ 4, so worth it!
A picture of my salad:

The café has a bunch of tables and sofas inside, and it seems like the majority of the crowd present was there to do some work/​studying (free WIFI). I came around noon and most of the tables were already occupied, so if you are trying to grab a seat I would suggest you to try to come earlier in the morning or after lunchtime.