Bio Cafe

- Taste: yay
- Value: ok
- Service: eh... a bit like the soup nazi
- Ambiance: eh...no seats really

// Sandwich (4 stars): $10.95 pre-tax for a warm toasted OLIVE bread baguette sandwich with a hefty amount of pulled chicken breast. A bit oily for my taste, but the chicken was flavorful!

// Banana bread (2 stars): would pass on this item, too moist.

Overall, this place is indeed very tasty - but the sandwiches are a bit oily and weren't well labeled in the case... the person didn't seem too keen on sharing what each sandwich was, but the tastiness was worth it.

***** TIP: pricing seems bit odd... for sandwiches: via online yelp: $7.25, via their website $8, and in-store for $10.95 *****

I like doing Yelp searches for businesses within 4 blocks of places. Home, work, etc. Bio kept showing up within 4 blocks of work, so I decided to finally check them out. It was Tuesday, August 25th around 11am. I grabbed takeout for lunch since I was hungry!

*Saucisson gruyere ($8)
I was originally looking at the avocado and tuna sandwich. But I wanted something fattier and more satisfying. Decided on the salami and cheese sandwich. They are nice enough to heat it up for you and it's a good size. But the filling to bread ratio is a little off. It was hard getting equal bites of filling and bread. The baguette is a nice crusty bread that will cut the roof of your mouth if you're not too careful. The saucisson and gruyere had nice flavor, but I wanted more of it. Or at least more of it to be evenly distributed. Due to the way the bread was cut, the filling stayed on the top parts of the sandwich.

I've also eyed their smoked salmon sandwich, so I may be back. Looked like a nice substitute for a bagel and lox if I'm too lazy to walk far.

Tiny bistro with delicious goodies. My kids think I should give 4 stars for the food bc they love the prosciutto sandwich with homemade jam and goat cheese on olive baguette (they ordered 2!). The homemade yogurt with honey was nice and creamy (with berries).

More of a grab-n-go although they have three tiny tables against a wall with 4 chairs. Lots of foot traffic. Outdoor seating has a view of construction/port-a-potties against the Macy's men's store. Would come back but NOT sit outside.

Bio Cafe continues to evolve and their products do as well.

Today I was disappointed to discover that their brussels sprouts salad has changed. It used to contain hearty whole brussels sprouts - that were soft and delicious. Now they shred the brussels sprouts, they're crispy, and and the salad doesn't have the same magical qualities that it used to.

Bio Cafe's baked goods selection has also gotten dramatically smaller. I remember always being smitten by their diverse section of vegan and gluten free desserts - often sweet potato or coconut based. Their baked goods offering today was slim and none of it looked too appetizing.

I still enjoy the stuffed avocado here and I appreciate that they carry a nice array of gluten free goods.

Trust.

I was in the area a couple of days ago when I stopped at Bio Café to grab a quick sandwich at lunch. It is a small mainly to-go place with a couple of tables outside. Bio Café is your typical French Café with some coffee, bakery items and sandwiches. At the peak lunch hour it looked pretty crowded as there were quite a few people waiting for their orders. The ordering system here is not organized as there seems to be only one pay station but multiple people behind the counter to help customers. It's just chaotic, but manageable.

I decided to get the Tuna Jalapeno sandwich as I had not seen this combination before. I think the sandwich was $8 or maybe $8.50. Sandwiches are pre-made so it was simply having them heated and I was on my way. I got a decent sized sandwich cut into two halves. The simple feedback would be that the sandwich was good but everything could be a little better. The quality of bread could have been better, it could have been better toasted and lastly the flavor profile could have been a little better.

Price-wise most of the sandwiches are in the $8-$9 range which makes them one of the few places to get a full sandwich under $10 in FiDi. I felt that their sandwich was good not great. They are up against some though competition in FiDi (there's a Café Madeleine just a few steps away on the same block) so when bench marked against their competition I feel they have some scope for improvement. If I'm in the area again I'll stop by and try some more stuff off their menu but my first visit does not warrant a special trip.

Holy moley! By chance I took a slight detour before going to my lunch destination and saw a bunch of people sitting out in a couple of tables eating soup on a hot day. I thought to myself that it must be a pretty darn good soup to be eating in 80 degree weather. I took a step inside and was immediately mesmerized by beautiful looking baguette sandwiches. I would never have guessed by the name of the place that they would have French sandwiches. Having lived in France I even noticed the writing was French.

The menu was full of choices that there were at least 7-8 things that I had to have and was suggested either the salmon or prosciutto baguette. I chose the Prosciutto with herbs, goat cheese, and house jam on a slim olive baguette. It was love at first bite and immediately became my favorite sandwich in the neighborhood. I can imagine eating it once a week.

The next day I came back looking to try the salmon, but the owner (Sophie?) suggested I try the brioche sandwich with avocado and turkey and apple jam! I could eat only half! The brioche bread was amazing! A filling sandwich can you believe it inly cost $5????!

This place advertises organic, vegan and gluten free meals and Although my choices don't fall in that range I find it amazing that I find so many alternatives. They have some great breakfast choices with yogurt and granola that I am going to have to try as well

Try not to look at the cookies or you will walk out of there with a dozen! Oh and the fact that they are gluten free is the perfect excuse to get 2 dozen!

So now back for 3rd and 4th visits I have eaten the Saucisson baguette and the Salmon baguette and my first gluten free dark chocolate and peanut butter cookie! Holy smokes! I need to go gluten free!

Wait! But there is more. I am not a soup person....but pea soup? Yes Pea Soup! I can't believe it, but this must be the best soup ever! Run, don't walk, to try some of the most interesting tastes you've ever had!!

Lousy service, bad food, won't return. I walked in, looking forward to trying the vegan Brussels sprouts sandwich and when I arrived, I was the only customer there, but as soon as I stated my order, a friend of the only employee there came in and she ignored me and started speaking to him, I believe in French. I know she saw me but I was immediately invisible as she continued her chat with her friend. Seeing that my presence was of no concern to her, I left.

Walking down the street, I was still really curious about that sandwich which had gotten several great reviews, so I turned around and decided to give her a second chance. By now, there was one customer in the store but SHE was talking to the man to whom the employee had been speaking, and as I walked in, they moved aside so I could order. The employee, again, ignored me, refused to greet me or even acknowledge I was there, so I said, "Can anyone here take my order?" Her reply was to argue with me. Really? That's the BEST you can think to do? I ignored her stupidity and ordered the sandwich, which she packed in the smallest box possible and handed it to me. No thank you, no apology, just "that's your receipt, you don't need to sign."

Well, service sucks, for sure, so this sandwich has GOT to he worth all this trouble, right? Not. Even. Close. When I sat down to eat, a few blocks away, when I opened the box, I couldn't believe they actually call this a sandwich. It's more of a splot of salad stop something that resembles bread but tastes more like a brick. The "bread" is hard, terribly dense and dry, dry, dry. After just a few bites of this mess, I was done.

What a disappointment.

When I first walked by this closet of a place late one evening, I remember wondering why there was a biotech office in what looked to be a prime retail area near Union Square. I mean I'm all for combating debilitating and rare diseases, reducing our carbon footprint, and feeding the hungry, but hey, I could go for a bag of cashews, too. I miss the nut lady at Morrow's Nut House on Geary, but that's another story. Anyway, I didn't realize until weeks later that this place was the Crepe O Chocolat shop that friends of mine used to rave about. Apparently caught on the same health-centric wave I seem to be on, the Frenchwoman who runs the place has changed the name to Bio.

"Bio" appears to be short for "Biologique", the French term for "organic". Now I have no idea whether their menu changed significantly due to its identity makeover, but she and her assistant appear to focus on organic and gluten-free items for breakfast and lunch with quite a display case of appetizing-looking sweets and pastries (see photos). Lots of exotic-sounding beverages, too, like French cider and spicy lemon cha. Given my plant-based emphasis lately, I was more than happy to give it a fat-free try. It was hard not to order any of the almond cookies or the coconut cake or chocolate-covered grapefruit slices - all vegan, of course - since they did look tantalizing from my woefully deprived sweet tooth. I was able to hold on to my willpower, no small feat since I haven't had a cookie since February (!)

What I really wanted at that very moment was the $9.25 Quinoa-Stuffed Portobello, but they were not making it on that particular day, so I settled on their daily special, the same-priced Kale Salad wth Quinoa and Brussel Sprouts (see photo). There are just a couple of little outdoor tables already occupied, so I took my box of healthy goodness back to the office. Well, it was certainly abundant with dark leafy greens, so I know it had to be good for me. I just think it needed more of a contrast in flavor between the sprouts and the kale, even though the quinoa helped provide some texture to it. Service, I found, was a bit on the surly side, perhaps the result of multi-tasking when I couldn't tell if she was paying attention to my questions. Ah the French...

FOOD - 3 stars...healthy abundance but a tad bland for my curdled taste buds
AMBIANCE - 3 stars...a busy closet with a lot of good-looking edibles on display
SERVICE - 2.5 stars...a tad surly but understandable given how long people take to order
TOTAL - 3 stars...a Bio break is not a bio break

Interesting place: yummy food + odd pricing. A sandwich is less than $6 but a muffin is $4? How does that compute?

The sandwich bread is surprisingly good. Will have to return and try something else.

And oh - they don't accept cash. That's right. Not a typo.

Walked by here the other night and I stopped in my tracks. Their little cold case held a big bowl of strawberries that were calling my name. So this morning, we headed there to see what breakfast fare they had.

Fresh baked quiche made without crust, gluten free, and oh so tasty! For $5, the portion size was huge! I couldn't even finish mine. I got myself a $2.00 dark chocolate dipped strawberry for later, and i'm glad I did. This is apparently house made chocolate and it's scrumptious!

The coffee is also house made and though it's a bit dark for me, and there was no cream, it was still good. I would reccomend this place for anyone who wants a quick bite. Don't expect friendly service, The folks behind the counter are no nonsense sort of people and though they'll smile, they're not there for chit chat.