Le Cafe du Soleil — Restaurant in San Francisco

Today was a rainy, cold day. My sister and I needed a cozy place to sit and eat the food we got from a restaurant that offered no good seating. We stumbled upon this café, which looked decent so we walked a considerable distance simply to enjoy our food, as well as supporting the business by buying whatever drinks they offered. Fortunately, this café had available seats upon our arrival and was not as busy/overcrowded as the other cafés we checked out before arriving at this one. We got there and I was already annoyed as I stood waiting patiently for the cashier to wrap up her convo with a customer that lasted longer than it should have (that customer had already ordered and taken his sweet time to pay).

Eventually, it ended. But before I was able to say a full sentence, she rudely interrupted me and directed my attention toward my sister, who had started eating her food, saying that we couldn't have outside food. I apologized, finished my order for both me and my sister, and sat down with my sister. We didn't want our food to get soggy, so my sister and I initially agreed to go somewhere else after getting our drinks but made up our minds to just eat our food outside of the café which seemed reasonable.

We got settled outside in front of the café and began to eat our food and drink our drinks in peace despite being in the cold, rainy weather. However, the same woman at the register came outside to tell us that we couldn't eat our food there because it was outside food, despite us eating outside food outside of the establishment. "It's just policy," she says. When there was no sign of the policy being displayed in plain sight. We were like "Okay, that's ridiculous." But did not make much complaint.

We had the decency to get something from this place (both drinks were hella milky btw), walked out with no issue, and simply sat outside in the cold, wet weather under some shelter from the rain to enjoy a meal that would've been finished in 10 minutes. Then, I asked her politely where there may be places we could go that don't enforce that policy of eating outside food outside of the establishment -thinking that she may be a local who is familiar with the café scene since she works at one. But then, her response was what pissed us off. She reacted with a stank face like I asked her a stupid question, and replied by saying for us to go to a bus stop, or a park, or just go back to the restaurant where you got the food.

Wow. An older woman tells young women to go to a filthy bus stop to finish their meal in the rain. To go to a park (an outside space intended for outside activities) where not-so-stable individuals prey on those weaker than them just so we can finish our meal in the rain. To told us to return to the restaurant where we got our food when we came all that way just to eat while supporting the café. "You're welcome to eat the food we offer here." Uh, no. We're good. Not gonna force ourselves to eat food that we have no taste for.

Honestly, I don't understand why it was such a hassle to be accommodating considering the weather today. Seriously miss, I don't know what you could have gained or lost being that unnecessarily strict at a café; a space where it's usually meant to be welcoming and reasonably accommodating. Have some human decency and understand that making reasonable exceptions to business policies is natural and does not ruin business integrity. It strengthens it. So let's be decent humans...

My partner and I visited & ordered two sandwiches, a coffee, and an iced matcha latte. With tip it was $52.

My issue was with the server + the iced matcha latte we ordered.

For the iced matcha latte, the server brought over a glass of hot milk with a green tea bag sitting on top and when we gently mentioned the order was incorrect, she scoffed and said she hadn’t heard me order an iced one (weird because my receipt says “iced latte”). She took the drink back, then poured the hot milk over ice and plopped the teabag on top again, which was just… both passive-aggressive and bewildering because someone two seats away was drinking an iced matcha latte. Mistakes happen sometimes, so I brought it up to her at the front and softly asked if she could make it more matcha-y (because a teabag on top of iced milk isn’t going to steep). This is when the interaction turned sour: she snatched the cup out of my hand and then grabbed the teabag with her bare hands and plopped it into a glass cup and filled it with hot water then told me to sit. I thanked her and when she returned to our table it was with the cup of ice milk & the teabag in a glass of hot water. I was honestly confused at this point, but I just thanked her because I didn’t want to make a big fuss. The server came back over and asked if it was okay. Before I could get a word out, she slammed a $5 bill on the table and patted it twice and said, “Fine! There you go—that’s for the latte!” and stormed off. I followed her back up to the cash to try and explain I didn’t want a refund (if anything I just wanted what I ordered and I’m honestly not one to make a scene, so this interaction felt embarrassing) but she disappeared into the back room before I could tell her it was okay and to keep it. She didn’t come out so I left the $5 bill in the tip jar.

I understand someone having a rough day, or maybe she didn’t feel up to making a latte an hour before the cafe was set to close, which would’ve been fine had she just been like, “I’m sorry, the kitchen is closed,” but her behaviour felt hostile when we were nothing but polite (I tipped 18% when we ordered, which felt normal?)—genuinely I am just bewildered by her aggressiveness. Not warm nor welcoming. I’d avoid...

(Posting here from Yelp because when you’re a jerk to your customers, they are more committed to letting people know.)

Long story short: Skip this point and go across the street Taragon Cafe, the hospitality and options are far more enticing. I'm moving this from 2 stars to 1 for the management.

Review begins here.

It's an average cafe, good for bringing a compute and working. I'm not sure why I expected from a chicken Caesar salad. But for $23 it was a mound of lettuce and 5 pieces of very thinly sliced, cold chicken that was deff not cooked fresh. It looks like the chicken you get at a grocery store counter in the plastic containers. Meh.

Edit: after posting the review mid meal, the owner came and brought me more chicken. Rather, came over with an attitude and dropped the bowl on the counter after microwaving some. Then told me I should "tell him to his face" next time.

Suffice to say I didn't finish the salad or the microwaved, bagged salad chicken, and I brought the plate up to him and tried to explain. To which he argued back to me about how his restaurant has been open 16 years or something and people love the food. Right... I was trying to explain my view, but he had no patience while I stuttered a bit, told me to get the hell out and walked away.

So, to the owner: my review was simply an honest reflection of my experience at the time, in my own voice. How you can feel ok making people pay $20 (but the way, the online menu said it was $16) for a bagged salad is beyond me. Reviews, in my view, are not about receiving a custom response or plate afterward but about sharing how things are as they happen, on first impression.

By no means are you going change your menu item over this, you didn't stop to ask feedback or show concern as a professional business owner. Whether the customer gives a review you expect or not, your poor behavior and lack of professionalism was in appropriate as someone who claims they are some neighborhood staple. If you think that shows hospitality, then you're...