Greenhouse Cafe

+free wifi
+50% scoutmob discount!
+super friendly staff
+gypsy chai latte
Great place to get some quiet reading or work done. If your’e not in the mood for your typical starbucks, greenhouse is the spot.

I was glad to have a local coffee shop in the neighborhood so that I can have a place to study and yummy lattes to sip on. With the 50% discount from Scoutmob, I was even more eager to go. But shortly after settling down, I was already getting turned off by many things. The employees were smoking right outside the café with the smoke fuming back inside. They were later fooling around and racing each other up and down the block. To add to the distraction, the tables are really uncomfortable to sit at. They are not ergonomic– some of them are designed so that only the corners can be seated.
The drinks are good but this place fails as a study spot. On to the search for another one.

It pains me to give this place 3 stars, it should deserve better.
For the most part, almost everything is great about this place.
They have an ok selection of food.
Everyone’s friendly.
There’s live music, once in a while.
FREE INTERNET, that’s NOT crappy.
Nice vibe.
My only problem, like many coffee shops, is the coffee.
The coffee here is pretty muddy.
Maybe it’s some sorta special organic brew or something. but It doesn’t taste that great.
I like my coffee like peets, blue bottle, or philz (strong and clean).
*Sigh*
I’ll probably still come here. But, I’ll pass on the drip and opt for the Americano.

Came here early Sunday morning to study with a good friend of mine.
I enjoyed the lofty, upstairs area. There were many different sizes of tables, chairs, sofa, and even a mini-​tv all arranged nicely. As one of the first few to enter Greenhouse that day, I got the table of my choice with great lighting. The music level was… tolerable…an employee cranked up the speaker volume for a bit, then decided to lower it again. This didn’t bother me that much since I’d pretty much trained myself to study in different kinds of settings.
However, it did get really annoying when a mother brought her daughter to work upstairs, a table away from us. I’d rather them speak than whisper OUT LOUD. I looked over several times and smiled through gritted teeth so that they could get the message. Unfortunately, the girl continued to whisper very loudly while the mother whipped out her phone and conversed at a volume that was really distracting. We were the only ones upstairs while other customers spoke quietly. At noon, the noise level reached my limit with more customers coming in and the mother-​daughter duo whispering as loud as they could.
This was not Greenhouse’s fault. But if you’re a student and you’re looking for a place to study in peace (at least during the weekends based on my personal experience), then don’t come here.
The house coffee didn’t meet my expectation. Frankly, McDonalds ice coffee tasted better… but props for the clean restroom!
Will only return to use the $ 1.00 off Unilocal check-​in deal for a quick bite.

UPDATE: Down to 1 star due to:
Employee playing music via phone because every 30 seconds a sound plays alerting him got a text message. WTF?
With that it shows they are breaking the law. They must not pay ASCAP/​BMI fees to play music. What do you have against paying artists? Follow the law, which says you must pay for the rights to play other’s music. Otherwise, play the radio which IS legal to do. Other cafes pay for the rights, you should too.
Customer came down for refill and he said they charge full price for refill! 8 OZ coffee for $ 2 and no discount on refills?!
San Francisco is a great café city. So it’s only right to be picky when it comes to cafes, thus my complaints:
The good: Coffee is high quality, quieter music than other places, wifi with plugs.
The bad: Menu, where is it?; chairs and sofa=uncomfortable, need more tables, lights off on a cloudy day=dark!
The ugly:
French pressed coffee done ahead of time.
It’s a slow Sunday as I sit here in the café. They offer French press coffee, but keep it in a typical urn. So when did they brew it? Not sure, but I have been 1 hr and they are still serving that same coffee in the urn. French press is wonderful, but when it just sits in the urn, it doesn’t taste well. Blue bottle places require you to wait as they slow drip their coffee. French press takes 4−6mins of brewing. It’s so slow, why not offer it fresh?
Prices
Way too much for basic sandwiches
Day old pastries
Offering 2 for 1 on day olds, with the same $ 2.50 price is ridiculous. So if I just want 1, I still pay full price on day olds!?!

Random acts of kindness is what makes the world go round! I did not get coffee here, but felt they deserved a review!
I was 3 miles away from home on a great run, when I realized I really had to go to the bathroom. I am sure you all have been here at least once. Went into a laundry mat, no luck! Popped in here and they were so nice to let me use their restroom and didn’t ask me to buy anything. Thank you for helping a runner out in her time of desperate need :)

The food is good, but the staff really don’t know what they’re doing. One of the baristas was forgetting everyone’s order… he forgot mine twice and kept asking me to repeat it. I waited 20 minutes for a veggie wrap and salad because he forgot the salad… which is ridiculous given that the place wasn’t very busy. The second barista sounded like she had an attitude problem with the first barista and customers.
I only come back to this place because it’s close to my house and open on Sunday.

This place is seriously not the place to study at unless you bring earplugs. The music is kind of loud and when I was there the track kept skipping and skipping. After staying for only half n hour I left! Who likes music like that? not me…
coffee is alright though

I needed a place to get some work done and there were no Starbucks nearby. I used to work from the café that was here before, but it has since gone out of business and become Greenhouse Café.
I ordered the Vietnamese coffee thinking that it was the iced version but was surprised when it arrived hot. While it wasn’t what I expected it was still pretty good, and was basically a hot version of the same thing. The cup was kind of small and the price was a bit high ($ 3.25) for a small shop, it still powered me through my day.
Greenhouse Café has plenty of seats and lots of outlets to plug into and don’t make a fuss if you sit there all day like I did. I suspect I will probably be back very soon.
Food: ⁷⁄₁₀
Service: ⁷⁄₁₀
Price: $
Atmosphere: ⁷⁄₁₀

I like good, local coffee shops. I, however, frown when I get coffee that makes me wish I just stayed home and brewed my own.
Greenhouse Café is very local for me; it’s just a block or so from my house. It has a speedy, ‘free’ Wi-​Fi connection and several power outlets throughout; perfect for the laptop lounger. It is a sizable space, with comfortable seating and an upper level with games (e.g. chess). The staff, for the most part, is friendly, and so are the customers. The menu contains a large variety of drink and food.
Yet, their basic, ‘French Press Coffee’ is atrocious. I don’t use that term lightly; I drink my coffee black and I don’t believe good coffee requires much in the way of sugar and milk. They committed several coffee offenses. It was relatively expensive at $ 2.00 in-​house to $ 2.50 take-​away (I admittedly wouldn’t mind if the coffee was better). It was served lukewarm! It was far too bitter. There was far too many coffee grounds/​solids in the cup (the result of an awful, too fine grind). Although it comes with a free refill, I would pay not to have to drink another cup.
To be fair, the first time I had their ‘French Press Coffee’ it was adequate, but every subsequent time has been a palate destroyer. It’s also Fair Trade, which I believe is a dubious marketing tactic (and price inflater); mostly because Fair Trade Coffee has a tenuous link to a good track record with equity.
I haven’t sampled their other drinks, but when a basic cup of coffee is this far off it puts a damper on the hope that their other offerings are much better.
They also tend to play the music too loud, like that teenager on the bus who’s iPod is blasting so loud you would swear they had the ears of an eighty-​year-​old grandpa (who is deaf).
I will give them two more stars if the coffee gets better.
Positives:
— Large, Open Space
— Comfortable Seating
— Wide Selection of Drink & Food
— Fast Wi-​Fi
— Power Outlets A Plenty
— Live Music, Some Nights
— Local Artist’s Work on Display
— It’s Local (very for me)
Negatives:
— Bad French Press Coffee
— Sometimes, Too Loud Music

The Product: Their French Press coffee is consistently good, but like their other location, you have to pay a little bit more for it. Though I am a fan of darker coffees, the blend that they got isn’t too bad. It’s also not bad that they support fair trade beans.
The Venue: I think they can do better with their table arrangements. Those tables are small enough for one person to take over an entire table, but big enough to fit maybe two to three people and their work. I think they can either reduce the size of those tables to fit one person, or make them bigger to fit more people on one table. If the intent is to be a study café, they should optimize studying space.
Overall: I wish I could give a 3.5 out of 5 stars. It’s not a 4, like their West Portal location, and it’s definitely not a 3. I think for a good, but slightly more expensive coffee in a mediocre set up, this café may be worth the trip. If you can, hop on the MUNI to their West Portal location.

The place is good, the music is awesome! I really love that cozy home atmosphere there;) and free wifi. There Vietnamese coffee I really good.

I’m surprised to see such mixed reviews for Greenhouse, maybe they didn’t have their act together before or something. I’m sitting in the café as I write this, there’s a pretty good jazz band playing and the place is busy.
First time I came here got the french press coffee and a bagel with cream cheese. This morning I got another bagel and a decaf americano. I’ve been here for like 3 hours (still don’t have internet at my new place and have stuff to get done) and just ate a pecan chicken sandwich, which was pretty good.
The place is welcoming and comfortable. Service is good, coffee is great, and the food is decent. The wifi is free and fast, which is essential to any coffee shop in my opinion. What’s not to like?

=Single visit review=
The barista was harried with only 2 drink orders and it took her about 10 minutes to turn out some lemonade and a Mexican mocha. The mocha was so spicy it was inedible. When I asked her what she put in it she claimed it was only cinnamon, but it tasted more like cayenne.
If you go watch out for the skinny blonde.

Nice quiet place to study. I didn’t check out the loft upstairs since it was occupied at the time, so this is just a review for the bottom half of the café. It was pretty empty during the afternoon which made it an ideal place to get some work done. I ordered a chai latte and it wasn’t sweet enough in my opinion. I most likely wouldn’t order it again, but the guy who made it was nice. He brought the drink over to me after I ordered.
The place was smaller than I expected but still has a decent amount of tables. It gets kind of hot and stuffy in there, so they have a fan going at full speed… Just don’t sit at the table next to the fan if you want to keep all your papers.

Relatively new coffee shop on Taraval st. Nice ambiance within. A soothing and tranquil environment to SIP on some java, unfortunately the coffee is mediocre and expensive vs. other shops in the neighborhood. Also a large list of other treats and sandwiches that I have yet to try.
Greenhouse is a sustainable business too. Which I like. Still has a way to go but a lot of potential in this place.

I have only been here one time. Shamefully, it was to use their free wifi because I didn’t have any at my apartment yet. :(
Still! It wasn’t too bad! The prices are at times comparable to, let’s say, Starbucks… but most of the time, way more expensive (up to a .25 more!)
I got a caramel latte, but couldn’t really taste the caramel. :/​
They serve sandwiches and salads that look pretty good, but I didn’t eat one.
Off topic: When I was there, I saw an accident! A guy in a van tried to speed past the L-​Muni, and hit someone. D: D”: It was intense!
Anywhoodles, it’s like, right around the corner from my place, so it’s more than likely that I will TRY this spot again. I’d like to see one of their music nights.

I am so sad that Mocha is gone. Eric was a very friendly and down to earth man. I am very sad to see him go.
I really like the concept of this new café. I’m into that whole organic thing. So, I decided to come check it out.
My first impression was that the barista was very nice. The place was still kind of busy. I ordered Korean Citron Tea which was $ 3 for a small cup. This was absolutely preposterous, as you can buy a whole jar of Korean Citron tea for like $ 5. But whatever.
It’s really loud compared to Mocha, and in general. There is music, and for some reason these kids and their father (?) kept going in and out of the «Employees Only» room, banging the door on their way in/​out. Maybe it was just that day, but I wouldn’t recommend this place to study at.

I was excited coming to this coffeehouse because it was across the street from me. A very soothing environment to kick back and enjoy a book over a cup of coffee. Great place to sit and relax after a long hard day of work or school.
Service is friendly and attentive. What I love most about this place is it’s quiet! But the silence is attributed to new ownership of the joint. Nonetheless, its still awesome for a small little coffee shop.
The menu selection of beverages gives patrons a choice of organic or fair trade (coffee) along with juices and sodas. The entrée menu has a small selection of sandwiches, wraps and misc baked goods. I would have liked the menu to have small descriptions of the entrée, so I knew what I was ordering before hand.
I ordered a buffalo chicken sandwich. The sandwich had cucumbers, lettuce, chicken, and some sort of Parmesan condiment dressing. The Parmesan dressing in the sandwich was a little overbearing in taste and I would have liked the sandwich to have more of a «buffalo» taste to it like the name suggests. The latte along with my sandwich was prepared beautifully and with great flavor. I would definitely go back for more coffee and not sandwiches (or the buffalo sandwich in particular).
**Highlights: peacefulness, great coffee and seating areas.
*Low points: pricey entrée selections

I’m excited about this grand opening since I like the Greenhouse Café on West Portal. So many coffeehouses have come and gone at this location. Most last for about a year. (Update, the West Portal location is under new management. It’s gone downhill.)
There are remnants of the previous coffeehouses — like the furniture and brown paint. It has a typical coffeehouse ambiance: mismatched furniture, art on the walls, books and magazines upstairs. They play music (glad the loud TV is gone) and also have live music at times.
While I was expecting Greenhouse Taraval to be just like GC West Portal, the menu is different (more sandwiches, wraps). They have pastries, coffee, tea, smoothies. You can build your own salad or your own Panini. Prices are surprisingly high, e.g. $ 7.29 for a breakfast sandwich.
* Turkey & havarti sandwich: I thought I chose the build your own panini option but I received a regular cold sandwich (I assume this is because they just opened and the cashier seemed new/​inexperienced). I like the multi-​grain bread, thickly sliced. The sandwich was good and homestyle, with thickly sliced turkey, a thick slice of cheese, lettuce, onions, tomato, pepperocini, and black olives. The house salad had cherry tomatoes and mushrooms.
With free wi-​fi, power outlets, a bathroom, a stamp card that works at both locations, and a comfy upstairs seating area, I’m likely to return — hopefully I’ll actually get a panini next time. For now I prefer the West Portal location but maybe things will improve at the Taraval location.