Lincoln Market & Deli — Restaurant in San Luis Obispo

we came in about 4:15 which i know is within an hour of closing but it was the first time i’d been able to get away from work before 5 in a long time and i was excited to check out a place that had come so highly recommended by so many locals. unfortunately we felt super rushed through our entire time in the store and it was apparent we were an inconvenience. i’ve worked plenty of hospitality and service jobs and can understand wanting to get out of the shop after a long day but it does feel a bit rude to do that to hard working customers who tried to rush in to town to come to the deli.

the ortega sandwich had a good flavor profile but the roast beef was a little tough, maybe just a tough cut or something. the tots were the really disappointing part though as we had gotten so many recommendations from locals to get tots from this place specifically. they must be good if you go in closer to lunch time but man at 4:30 when we got our food they had obviously been sitting out for a long time as they were pretty stale and not-soggy-but-definitely-not-crispy. once again, i understand if the fryer is already off for the day but it does feel a bit disrespectful to charge someone $6 for stale tots. at that point i would rather be told there aren’t any rather than get charged for subpar stuff… maybe that’s just me.

on the plus side the market side was really cool and had a sweet selection of beers and household goods! the merch is cool and the shop and bathrooms were very clean.

i will probably come in and try again on a weekend closer to lunch (they’re always just so dang busy on weekends!) because they’re recommended by so many people and one bad experience doesn’t necessarily define the store as a whole. being a service worker is hard in this day and age and i totally understand having a bad day. but for the immediate future it’s going to be hard to reason coming back here instead...

We were passing by after visiting the mission, and couldn’t find a parking spot around the restaurant that we wanted to visit so we left and as we were passing by the street that the deli is on, we saw multiple cars off loading people who entered the deli. So we took a chance found parking right up the street and thought it was meant to be as we made our way to the deli. The deli is in a nice residential neighborhood with plenty of street parking. You order food at the door and walk in - to shop and look for a place to sit if you plan to dine in. There is plenty of seating inside as well as outside. After ordering out the door, we walked around, looked for drinks.- PLENTY of options, chips- pretty decent options, and bought some trinkets. We also found our new favorite lemonade, Lori’s Lavender lemonade!! we ordered two of their veggie sandwiches (they do halves if you ask) and a kids turkey sandwich. It was all very good - great quality, fresh veggies, and well made! The kids, turkey sandwich was a bit bland, but we asked for some pickles, and they were very gracious to give us some. We resisted the tater tots very hard - but they appear to be very popular! We saw them on almost every table - maybe if we stop by another time, we’ll get them! The sever at the entrance was patient and pleasant, so was everyone working in the store. All in all, so happy we made the stop and got to enjoy some good food...

disclaimer:The atmosphere was very inviting and pleasant and all staff were extremely friendly. That being said, we ordered multiple walk of shame breakfast sandos this AM and were beyond disappointed. As pictured, my boyfriend ate one bite before immediately deciding it was inedible. I deconstructed mine(also as seen in the other half of the picture)-I was extremely hungry and felt I had no other choice, but it was a very unpleasant experience in doing so. I asked my boyfriend if we should give the fairly intact sando to a homeless person instead of just throwing it away, but he said they probably would not be able to eat it either and it would be mean to give them something so inedible. These sandos presented alright upon first glance, however the flavor of artificial lemon was extremely overpowering and off putting to say the least. I am assuming this was supposed to be the “honey jalapeño” as mentioned in the items description, but we all mutually decided it was in fact lemon we tasted that was soiling the soggy scrambled egg placed between the two slices of mediocre sourdough bread(worse sourdough than Dennys). We were very excited about these sandos as we were all very hungry but are sad to say that these were ultimately the worse sandos we...