San Francisco Bites

Searching for a jeans-wearing, 30-something architect? How about a nearsighted, beleaguered editor? Or, maybe tie and coat lawyer is more your style. You can have your pick of the stressed-out litter at Centro Caffe in South Park.

The line can wind out the door, but the friendly staff have perfected their order-taking formula to make it go quickly.  The space houses only a dozen tables, but that’s ok, because most of the worker-bee clientèle get their eats to-go.

The menu offers a simple mix of sandwiches and salads as well as a daily soup and hot special, like lasagna or macaroni cheese. The food is fresh, tasty, and portion sizes are generous.  The tuna nicoise is piled with a flaked tuna, mixed greens, red potatoes, green beans (I’ll admit they’re overcooked) hardboiled egg, olives, and a balsamic vinaigrette. The spinach and goat cheese salad bursts with fresh orange slices, pine nuts, and a refreshing citrus vinaigrette.  Get this – the salads (and soups) comes with two slices of bread? Who does that anymore in San Francisco?

The grilled vegetable sandwich is amply stacked with roasted eggplant, zucchini, roma tomatoes, goat cheese. The staff will glad grill any sandwich upon your request. If you’re in a a true hurry, you can grab one of the prepared ham or salami counter paninis along with a foamy caffe latte.

Basics:

Salads run about $7.25 and sandwiches are about $6.50. You can also order half-sandwiches.