The Sage Cafe

I had their pork and shrimp wonton noodle soup. It was very disappointing for $ 12.95. The noodles were raw, like dough!

Disgusting. Terrible service, even when services by the lead manager, unsanitary working conditions. I’ve never seen a manager that saves the leftover food from customers until this place. Disorganized system so food takes forever to come out even when it’s not that busy. Never coming back here. Avoid it at all costs Unilocalers!

Noodles had chunks of fat all covered with ketchup. Didnt eat it.
Waste of money

Jardinière wasn’t open yet after our event today, so we went to Sage Café instead. I’m so glad we did! The woman who took our order was patient and very nice, and the food (which arrived quickly) was great. My husband had the lettuce wraps, and I ordered the tomato and mozzarella sandwich. Excellent pesto, and the lightly, perfectly toasted bread had good flavor too. The bread was sliced just a little thin, a nice touch actually, and still balanced the layered stacks of tomato and mozzarella. A big serving too– the sandwich was easily two inches thick even with the thin-​sliced bread (I took half of it home). My husband’s lettuce wraps were also very good (he finished only 2/​3, again a generous serving), and this café obviously knows how to make Vietnamese coffee. A word about the potato salad, though: if you prefer traditional potato salad with basically mayo, mustard, and dill, you might be let down by Sage’s. It has a lot of minced carrots and (I think) hot sauce in it. Not my thing, but it wasn’t actually *bad*. I finished it, but I’ll choose a different side when we go back. And we will be back!

This place was exactly what we were looking for before going to a matinée at the Opera House. The service was friendly and fast. The food was fresh and tasty. The beef lo mein, the chicken lo mein and the chicken tom yum soup were all hits with our group. The after-​meal mochas hit the spot. It was an all around good experience without breaking the bank.

Stopped in on our way to matinée at Opera House. We found this café to be a great choice after a long ride to the city.
The food is fresh and the service friendly, helpful, and prompt. Folks in our party found the hot chocolate rich and real… lettuce wraps tasty… pearls in the bubble tea abundant! It was an all around good experience!

The Sage café may not be the hippest looking place to eat in San Francisco but don’t be fooled. There is definitely a solid place in the ranks for the Sage café. Sometimes you just don’t have all the time in the world to go to an opulent restaurant. If you happen to be on your way to the Opera house or to the Ballet and don’t have time to go elsewhere, this is your place.
You can be assured that what you’re getting here is prepared with care and made fresh. It’s a favorite for the girls during the SF ballet summer intensive due to it’s proximity. During our summer intensive we were here almost every day. The coffee was surprisingly very good and so was the breakfast. The owner is very kind and personable. A plus! I’ll be back.

This was just the right casual place for a bite before going to the Davies Symphony Hall to see Straight No Chaser. It is a sandwich/​coffee shop but also have table service with a short Asian Menu. We mentioned that we were celebrating a birthday, and the waiter brought a mousse dessert after our meal. The service was quick and the noodle dishes that we ordered were tasty! We finished our meal with delicious lattes before walking the block to the Symphony Hall. I would go again for the casual, reasonably priced and quick meal.

This is the best place to grab something quick to eat before heading to the shows in the area. Prices are reasonable for this area. The owner, Sidney, and his staffs are very friendly. The foods are delicious and served very fast.

Traffic driving into San Francisco is getting so bad, we only had 20 minutes for dinner before the symphony. This was the first place after parking and it was just perfect. We tried udon soup and it was extremely fresh and piping hot. The vegetables were crisp and fresh and the noodles tender. I loved it.
We were in such a rush, I thought we’d end up with chewing gum and water to hold us over. The service was lightening fast and the everything immaculate. It was the perfect pre concert dinner.
Highly recommend.

My order of Lo Mein noodles with Beef came pretty quick. Taste simple and good enough for my craving for noodles :)
Place neat and staff was courteous.

Friendliest staff ever, super accommodating. Perfect location, fabulous boba tea.

Had the BBQ Pork Wonton soup and it was bland… the wonton and bbq was chewy. The vegetable was barely cooked and it actually had a bug on it. It was just terrible!

Food is mediocre, at best.
Prices are fair.
Service — some visits, they came to our table; other times, it was counter service. All the servers were incredibly nice.

My favorite little neighborhood café. Its a café, so don’t expect gourmet meals, just some homemade goodness! Their prices are insanely cheap for Hayes Valley and SF in general. Good people and staff too!

Tom yum gai — each piece if chicken had fat. Sammies served on white not sourdough. Salads over dressed.
Got one of five orders wrong.
So many other choices, try another place.

When I have to be in the office I tend to stop by this café to grab breakfast and sometimes lunch, too. My usual order is the breakfast sandwich muffin and a large coffee that costs less than $ 5 total. They use Peerless coffee which has become one of my favorite coffee brands.
I tried a few different items and now I stick to ordering the same foods because some items can be expensive for what is given (but it’s cheaper than what’s offered in the area). If I order lunch along with my breakfast, I typically get the veggie sandwich and add a protein like honey ham.
The food and coffee is always good.
Time it takes to get in and out is fast, normally around 5 – 10 minutes. When it gets busy it does take longer, but they are quick to try to reduce the wait time.
The best thing about this café is the customer service. Sidney is always friendly and warmly greets his customers and regulars by their names. The lady at the counter (daughter?) is nice too, she remembers my order.

Bottom Line: The service was appalling, the food was quite good for what it was.
My partner and I were going to the Opera and sought a place to eat a quick meal. We stopped at the Sage Café where we waited to be seated for approximately 3 minutes. When we were seated we were not provided menus or anything. A few minutes later a server came by and dropped off menus. I informed her that we were in a hurry because we had tickets for a show in about an hour. She then disappeared for ten minutes.
I went to the counter and was met by an Asian man who seemed to have trouble understanding English, yet who I believe was the owner. I told him we were in a hurry and tried to order. He handed me over to a female waitress who took my order and then handed it to him. He then read back the order which was completely wrong. I told him the order again and he said OK. About 25 minutes later we received our food and had to rush to eat it. The food itself was decent but not memorable.
I would not return to this location due to the very poor service received.

Gee, I was here a while ago, and I’m still not sure what kind of restaurant the Sage Café is supposed to be. I think it’s a hybrid between Chinese-​Southeast Asian (photo:
) and a deli (photo:
), but I remember being perplexed by the menu realizing I only had 45 minutes before a show at Davies Hall. In other words, I wasn’t feeling all that picky about what I had, and frankly this place fits that need just fine since culinary finesse is not a specialty here. From the bland décor, you would expect more of an all-​you-​can-​graze, country kitchen-​style menu with maybe chicken and dumplings or chipped beef on toast (photo:
). But no, the reality is that this is in a parking garage where the well-​heeled park their BMWs before the symphony or the opera, take your pick.
Those patrons have reservations at Jardinière and wouldn’t be caught dead here with the rest of us 99%. So I threw caution to the wind and ordered the $ 12.95 Beef Chow Fun, which was a generic treatment of a fairly greasy dish with flank steak slices, bean sprouts, onion and green pepper stir-​fried with the familiar flat noodles that I was craving (photo:
). It took a while to come out as the clock was ticking, and once in front of me, it wasn’t the Chinese comfort food I was hoping it would be. It was on the lukewarm side, and I probably should have ordered a side of anything that would lend a little crunch to provide contrast with the slippery noodles. But I had to go. The concert was about to start, and I hate being the one stepping on people’s shoes on my way to my back mezzanine seat. Sadly there is no sage advice I can provide from my experience at the Sage Café.
FOOD — 2 stars… no-​fun chow fun served that night
AMBIANCE — 2.5 stars… strangely suburban vibe in a parking garage
SERVICE — 2.5 stars… kinda slow considering I needed to get to Davies
TOTAL — 2 stars… pre-​theater eating for the plebeians among us

My son and I ate dinner here before the Opera «Tales of Hoffman». When we entered the café on a Thursday afternoon around 5:35 pm, we were quickly seated.
We have been here several times, and were recognized by the waitress who even remembered what things we like. That is a nice personal touch.
As we were on a limited time schedule due to the early lecture and performance at the Opera, we placed our order with special timing instructions. The staff kept perfectly on schedule, including bringing cappuccino at exactly the required time of 6:10pm. I appreciated their keeping to our schedule.
We each had the Chinese Chicken Salad appetizers. I felt it was a little light on the dressing, but was good. My son had the Short Rib Noodle Soup ($ 13.95) and I had the Mongolian Beef special ($ 11.95); both were very good.

I like this place; I had a pretty good experience here. I think it’s a great place to hang out, grab dinner with friends to kill time before watching your symphony, ballet or whatever. The interior is pretty chill, and the servers are too. The presentation of the food is definitely eye candy ;) I had the chocolate mousse cake. Omggg so good! My friends said I made like an «orgasmic-​this-​food-​is-​amazing» when I tried it, haha.