Caffe Museo

One star for breakfast. Can’t comment on lunch but not willing to risk it. Cute place but the food is terrible. I can make a better waffle with a mix. Ihop would have been better. The omelet was super bland and the potatos were so so at best. There are too many great places to eat in The City… try somewhere else for breakfast. Services was rather ho hum as well.

Not terrible… Great counter service and smiles. The food was sub par for the prices however. My fish tostada was not bad, snapper served on two fried corn tortillas with a red cabbage slaw and I asked for some habenero salsa, which helped out the entire table. The kid ordered the mac and cheese, which looked great but had no salt. at all. It was so bland, that she added my salsa to it and even then it was bland. The chicken panini was mostly bread and chips, but the pickles were tasty. I ordered a chai latte, it was okay but it was not hot. Next time I’ll most likely skip the café after the museum and mosey on down the road somwheres.
Oh, bonus — the not so saintly Virgin Mary paintings were awesome!

First time experience.
I ate here only because I was spending the day at SFMOMA.
For what it is (museum food) it’s decent and good when you’re hungry from walking around the museum.
It may be a tad on the pricey side, but so what. I don’t want to leave the museum.
I’ll pay it.
Who knows what will happen to this place if it will get upgraded of not after the makeover.

Reeeaallly good for museum food!
Grilled chicken breast panini… ohhh my god delicious. Best panini evvverr! (Or maybe im just used to cafeteria food but really, I wanted to cry)
Came for lunch but im so full i think ill be good for the rest of the day

It might be a bit expensive, but it IS a café connected to a museum. I’ve always found those to be pricey.
I wasn’t too hungry when I went. While my friend had a sandwich and chips, I only had their corn soup with bread. The soup was so full of corn flavor – sweet and slightly salty. I loved it. I saw a lamb burger on their menu, and I really want to go back and try that.
However, it wasn’t the food that stood out to me. It was my experience there. I went to go grab a table after I ordered, and one of the men working there brought my good over. I was going to wait for my friend to get his food, then go grab utensils and such from the designated utensil/​napkin/​water table. The man who brought my food looked at me, seeing that I hadn’t moved, and went over and grabbed everything for me and brought it back to my table. I was really surprised. I don’t think they’re required to do so??? But he did it anyway. So nice!

Yes, it is pricey. Yes, the chairs are uncomfortable. Yes, it closes early in the day/​15 min after the museum closes/​is closed on Wednesdays when the museum is closed. Yes, not all of the dishes are good.
BUT the chicken in red mole sauce is outstanding. We come back often just to eat this dish.

Stopped here before a Thursday ‘late-​night’ at the SFMOMA to grab a bite to eat and use the free wifi. I had a hot chicken sandwhich is somesort with bluecheese, it was decent. Nothing to write home about but I was satisfied.
I had their homemade lemonade as well, same, decent, nothing to write home about.

A First Look: Beside the Zagat rating calling to me, the café seemed pretty busy for the afternoon time. There were people enjoying their coffees or a late lunch. I figured a café, located in a fancy museum, that prides itself on organic and made to order food would be good right? Wrong.
The Menu: The café had a fairly extensive menu with options like daily vegan soups, burgers, pizzas, salads, and tantalizing desserts in a glass case. I was drawn into the café because I was very much in the mood for a veggie burger, but the potato and yam soup sprinkled with pumpkin seeds ended up calling out to me.
The Food: Deciding to forego my veggie burger may have been the wrong choice, but unless I return to taste the burger, I will never know. What I am certain about is my lack of excitement about the soup. As a vegan soup, it was not cream based. The soup wasn’t exactly thin nor was it thick. While the pumpkin seeds sounded like a good addition, in theory, I immediately realized the oddity of the two flavor combinations within my first bite. Also, it was bland enough that I tired of the taste by about the fifth bite. The soup seemed to be missing some seasoning. I could tell it was underseasoned because I utilized the crunchy bread to dip in the soup which was able to restore some flavor. The bread/​cracker on the side itself was not a favorite either. I also ordered a fruit salad. They really do need to rename this as the cheapest fruits salad as the only fruits included were grapes, watermelon, and honeydew. Fortunately for them, those were actually the exact fruits I was in the mood for. But, where are the berries or the pineapple?
Value: Ex-​freakin-​spensive. Seven bucks for soup? Seven bucks for fruit? I can cap it off at that.
I will be speedwalking past SFMOMA’s café for future lunches. Like most movies, skip it!

Had just finished my visit to SFMOMA and thought I would give Caffè Museo a try. Even though on the website it says Italian food, the menu at the time had a lot of Mexican influences and was focusing on one region, I think Yucatán but don’t quote me on that. Decided to try their chicken mole with plantains and rice and tortilla chips. The sauce wasn’t too bad, had a tropical/​fruity taste to it. The portion of chicken could have been bigger and juicy. Wish they hadn’t use store bought tortilla chips though since it had no personality. Come on for a place that houses modern art, I expect more forward/​risky food. Come SF don’t be OC. ;p The dish was on the pricey side.
Most folks at the Caffè Museo seem to be there for tea or coffee and seems like a place to unwind and watch people stroll by.

Nice spot for a drink or a cup of coffee. The place is clean, well-​attended, and the menu is surprisingly long for a museum café. My friends had a lemonade and a seltzer, and I had a cup of coffee.
If the weather’s nice and there are tables open, it’s great to sit in the afternoon sun and watch the world go by. If not, you can sit inside where there’s plenty of space.

The quality of the food here surprised me, I generally skip restaurants attached to museums. I ordered the tomato salad, which came with several generous slices of heirloom tomatoes, covered with olive oil and big slices of mozzarella. Nice!
I ordered to go; if I was to do that again I think I would call ahead. The layout of the café is a nightmare. There are multiple ordering lines, the staff constantly weaves between those waiting to order, the kitchen, and the stockroom (which is located on the far side of the restaurant). I constantly felt like I was in the way of someone, and waiting for my salad was nerve-​wracking.

Spent several hours here over two evenings last week having meetings. I do think it’s a little pricey — especially for the cappuccino which is teeny tiny, but the portobello pita was absolutely delicious. The pita part seemed more like fry bread (but not greasy) than pita, but that was okay with me.
Also, the people who work there are extremely friendly and extremely helpful. And they are constantly cleaning the tables and floors so it is always clean. Also — not to be ignored — lightening speed wi-​fi. Seriously — never found anywhere faster than here. That alone made the teeny tiny cappuccino worth the $ 3-​something I paid for it.
Wifi lightening speed: 6 ½ min video upload = 4 minutes

In a sentence, I’d describe Caffe Museo’s menu as mediocre food for extraordinary prices. It seems essentially like a tourist trap; a convenient spot to reel in hungry folks as they leave from their museum tours.
Admittedly, I’ve only eaten here twice, but each time I ordered different dishes and neither did little more than satisfy my hunger. On my last visit I ordered a chicken caesar salad. It was mostly lettuce with some tasty croutons and chicken slices, but not nearly tasty enough to justify the cost.
I also think it’s slightly deceptive that Caffe Museo is advertised as a «Mediterranean-​style» restaurant when there is little about the menu or the interior décor that would remind me of Mediterranean anything.

I love sitting outside here. Great people watching while you enjoy a cup of coffee and a little snack. Inside is nice too when you want to read a book and not be distracted by the sidewalk activity.
The coffee and food has consistently been good.
The staff is friendly and it’s always nice and clean.

I love museum cafes. The best museum café for me is the MOMA one in New York.
This café is quite good, not the best. You can come in from the street. I think that’s good. I had pizza which was ok. Pizza dough was not the best. The service personals were so nice to us. They brought our drinks to our table and high chair and booster seat also. Yeah, I needed both.
Definitely I will go there again, when I’m in SF MOMA.

Museum cafes are usually a bit more expensive and feature a few creative items to cater to the clientele. This museum café is no different.
It’s still a cafeteria, where you pay up front, pick up a tray with your food, get your own utensils, and find your own seat. But the coffee is good and the pastry we shared was fresh and of good quality.
I wouldn’t seek this place out, but after some time in the museum on a cold, rainy day, this was a nice place to dry off and enjoy a hot coffee. Free wif ain’t bad, either.

$ 2.25 for a micro-​sized coffee? Are you out of your fucking mind? Too late, you already poured it, and I paid because I was too lazy to haul my ass to the Peet’s on the corner, and then I’m so bored with that stupid piece of foccacia I could only choke down two bites of that I’m rebroadcasting part of Ed U’s review because he’s funny and says it all:
«Instead, I had a particularly arid Grilled Chicken Breast Panini for the blue-​haired lady price of $ 8.95. There was rumor it had onion jam and aioli in it, but it was only a rumor. I did see the arugula… yes, there it is. But the foccacia appears to have been left in the oven too long since the result was a parched concoction suitable for a maximum security prison. I suppose I would have had better luck with a hot dish or maybe something pre-​packaged. But maybe the food represents the true state of the arts. Maybe the National Endowment of the Arts should add a food allowance.»

We’ve had lunch here once before, several years ago. It was unmemorable. We took a break for lunch today after seeing the Georgia O’Keefe/Ansel Adams exhibit. I like that they had a sign where the lines formed informing patrons how the process worked so most questions were answered. There were three lines and they moved as lines do, slowly. The regular menu is beautifully engraved on metal strips on the wall behind the counter and then there are specials menus by the registers. The staff do yeoman’s work weaving through the crowds bringing food to the tables.
I ordered today’s soup, a vegan heirloom tomato, after watching several being carried by, and a Caesar salad. Alan ordered a portobello panini. He had water and I had iced tea. The soup was top notch, tasty and fresh. Because it was vegan it had no cream, which I like. The salad was pretty good, w/​crisp, fresh lettuce. The dressing had a nice hit of lemon, but not much anchovy depth. Alan was disappointed in his sandwich. The portobello was lukewarm. The iced tea was good, but outrageously overpriced at $ 2.95 for a small glass. It was worth half that. Lunch kept body and soul together and we didn’t have to wander too far from the museum, but aside from the soup, it wasn’t particularly special.

I’ve never had a decent meal at an art museum café. They always look nice since they have to complement the design of the museum. But they’re always these cafeterias with plenty of choice but nothing of interest. I wonder if that’s intentional. Caffe Museo is no exception to this rule. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that they epitomize the typical art museum café.
Perhaps curators think we can’t be satisfied with the art at the same time we could enjoy something good to eat. Do they worry about art lovers experiencing sensory overload? Not me. I like quality art, y’know, the kind that looks good on a motel room wall, so the MoMA can be challenging that way. Consequently, I deserve a quality meal, especially if my eyes have been burned by some confounding abstraction that invariably has some ties to the world’s ills. I didn’t get it here.
Instead, I had a particularly arid Grilled Chicken Breast Panini for the blue-​haired lady price of $ 8.95. There was rumor it had onion jam and aioli in it, but it was only a rumor. I did see the arugula… yes, there it is. But the foccacia appears to have been left in the oven too long since the result was a parched concoction suitable for a maximum security prison. I suppose I would have had better luck with a hot dish or maybe something pre-​packaged. But maybe the food represents the true state of the arts. Maybe the National Endowment of the Arts should add a food allowance.
FOOD — 2 stars… a sammie for your trip through the Sahara
AMBIANCE — 3 stars… sure, the MoMA is nice
SERVICE — 2.5 stars… it is a cafeteria after all
TOTAL — 2 stars… better to be a starving artist, I think

It’s ok… but meh, I’ve had better, and it’s overpriced for a lot of dishes. The menu is interesting, but the execution is lacking.
–Mixed green salad was ok, needed more flavor in the dressing.
–Carrot soup was disappointing: grainy and lumpy, tasted too much like uncooked carrots
–3 cheese ravioli was tasty, especially the mushrooms on top — but it was served lukewarm/​cold :(
–Focaccia bread — cold, and unspecial
Oh well, it was just a lunch before going to see the exhibits. Not the end of the world.

Had a quick bite here at the café. Since the museum just opened at 11 am when we walked in, there’s no problem snatching a table.
The crab crêpe with Hollandaise sauce was decent, although I don’t know why it was called a crêpe — it was definitely thicker than it should be, almost pancake-​like. The crêpe also came with pea sprouts salad and chopped Hazelnuts on top and that was yummy.
Skip the $ 6.50 slice of Strawberry cake, the icing just wasn’t flavorful, although the strawberries used were pretty fresh. Safeway has a better version!