Caffe Mono

Great coffee, great pastries, great service. What more could you want?
Free internet, you say?
They have that too! In fact, their internet is so good, and so fast, if you can’t find a seat inside the café, you can use it from the comfort of your car, I know I have.

I like this café a lot. It has a homey feel, they serve bagels and cookies and pastries and make decently good coffee. What I like the most is their honey oat granola — it’s so incredibly delicious, I can’t even explain! It almost has the same honey taste as baklava, but instead is made with granolas with dried fruit, but with that honey glaze taste!!! Yummy yummy…

«That’s harsh, Ty.»
That’s me thinking about my original review of this place. Yes, the décor is kind of strange and put-​together haphazardly. But the place continues to grow on me. And some of the people who work there are very genuine and friendly (not all, but some). And they have a variety of different types of tables: tall circular, small square, a full out computer desk minus the computer, and even some couches for you and friends to enjoy your latte on one those unusual foggy days in the Outer Richmond.
So, Caffe Mono, I’ll be seeing ya… and I hope not sporadically.

There are two reasons to go to a coffee shop:
1. Friendly service
2. Good coffee
This place has neither. Go elsewhere.

I’ve been here a few times. Free internet, cheap drinks and food. Lots of space to study. I like… Parking is a pain. Friendly lady behind the counter who made small chat with me.

Oh the memories — last time I was here was probably five years ago, so I don’t know how its changed, but back when dirt was new and dinosaurs roamed the earth, this was a great place to kick back and have a chat with some friends.

i ordered an americano from a very very very pretty girl that worked here in a red hat on her head.
she made a good sandwich with it and i ate that as well. there was this weird boy who was being trained i think. he kept staring at me and then just standing there. that’s fine for him if he needed to do it. and it seemed like he was doing whatever she told him, which i very likely would have done as well, to my shame, had i been in his position.
i did not see any sort of cell phone store here. i was so tired when i came here i was literally turning over in the grave having walked ten miles from bay bridge to baker beach.

Praise be to the sweet baby Jebus above that I don’t have to venture out to 30^th and Geary anymore on a biweekly basis and use this place as my pre-​work hangout.
It took me TEN MINUTES (not including the three minutes where I got fed up with waiting to be acknowledged and ganked the bathroom key… incidentally, the bathroom? ALWAYS out of paper towels and toilet seat covers. If your coffee tastes differently, guess why) to order a latte and another five to have it made yesterday. How many other people were in line, you ask? TWO, one of which was a snot-​nosed brat who seemed to know the owner and as a result felt it necessary to be condescending to the poor guy working solo behind the counter, who was slowly going crazy fielding more orders than he could handle.
The best part was when, AFTER the «rush» had died down, the owner came over to the barista and asked him if he needed an extra hand.
Once the much-​desired latte was obtained, I was less than thrilled to discover coffee grounds in it. Is this a trend? I feel like this is a trend, like sun-​dried tomato everything in the 80s and pomegranate juice currently. Let me go on record as not being in favor of it.
Uncomfortable chairs, a lack of art, and a blaring indie rock soundtrack round out the Mono experience. Avoid if possible… hit up Royal Ground on Clement instead.

In the land of cool indie café’s there is nothing really distinguishing about Mono’s, other than its name. It is not quite dirrrrrrrrrty enough, not eclectic enough and way too many normal people hanging out there. But mostly. .. what is up with the phone store thing, that is just tacky, and not in an indie café kind of way. Again, not very distinguishing. Still coffee was fine, wi-​fi was free and we found seats and an outlet.

Okay — lets spend a minute talking about customer service.
I have worked retail, so I know some jackass might come in from time to time trying to get me to post this or survey that or to try to sell me something. Hey guy, just to be clear I am here to sell YOU something so leave me alone and let me help my paying customers, can’t you see I’m working???
Apparently helping the PAYING customer does not trump talking to said jackass here, because coffee guy had to be told by clipboard man to take our order. The sadest part is clipboard guy actually ensured I got my coffee faster than I ever have in my past experiences at this place.
To add insult to injury the coffee isn’t even that great. I’d rather walk across to Joes Diner and get some Folgers than deal with these incompetents anymore.

one of the only decent café’s in the outer richmond unless you cruise down to clement. You can buy a coffee and tap into their free wireless with your laptop. but when the place is packed with college students on a week night to except to be surfing the net with speed.

I used to come here alot right when they first opened.
Many many many moons again, I somehow befriended the owners while all of us were out of minds on illegal substances *cough many many moons ago cough*. They told me about their café and from then on, I always stopped by. They were also so friendly and never screwed up my drink order. Even when the owners weren’t there, their employees have always been kind and cheerful.
I’m rarely in this area anymore, but when I am I stop by for a good cup of joe.

Not as common as Café HPV, or as serious as Café AIDS.
PS. $ 2.25 plus tip for a generous-​yet-​mediocre café americano. Cavernous space with a walkthrough to a cell phone store, in case you need to reevaluate your wireless plan as you sip. Old-​school internet café style computer terminals. Startlingly generic mediocrity.

I love sumatra, and this place always makes sumatra.
That would be enough to give it three stars, and the fourth star is for excellent baked goods, fast service in the morning when I can see my bus rolling down the hill, free Internet and staying open late.

i love this place…
it’s big and comfy… like central perk on «friends»
it’s hard to find a nice roomy caffe in san francisco cus there so many cafes and not much room for them to expand. not many cafes have bathrooms for both sex… MONO IS BALLIN’! =}
mono is cool cus the owners are cool plus the place looks alot cleaner then most caffes… and the food ediable.
mono also poses as a art gallery which is interesting cus alot of the art work cost hundreds of dollars.
if you’re bored you can use the internet or check out the cell phone shop right next door. actually you dont have to walk next door cus it’s connected direct to mono.
i like to collect their free random postcards to send to friends.
EDIT: MAY 2007
new owners… what will happen to mono???

I love this café. I think it is a great neighborhood café. They have great sandwiches, all freshly made to order. I love bring my laptop there because they have free wifi. The employees are sweet and friendly. Although, I think they could use a couple more sofas because i get a bit tired of the wooden chairs. Overall, my favorite café in the outer richmond.

Caffe Mono is most appropriately named since I felt like I was coming down with a case of it when I entered this rather depressing place way out on Geary. No music, live or otherwise. No work from local artists on the walls (well, one painting… I think). An adjoining T-​mobile store. Gnats flying around the bagels. Cleanliness apparently not next to Godliness but somewhere else entirely. Somehow I wasn’t feeling the intimate coffeehouse vibe here.
The service epitomized passive-​aggressive indifference. I simply ordered a cup of coffee for myself and for my non-​caffeine-​addicted friend, a glass of milk. It was evidently complicated enough for me to repeat twice. The milk was a particular point of consternation as she looked like I asked her to take out a breast pump. I usually like my bacon crispy but not my coffee. I threw it out once I got my caffeine fix. And upon searching hopelessly for a napkin, I found the server outside looking forlornly out onto Geary apparently dreaming of the movie, «Escape to Starbucks».
BEVERAGES — 1.5 stars… they indeed looked like coffee and milk
AMBIANCE — 1.5 stars…“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” meets Levitz fire sale
SERVICE — 2 stars… after all, she got the milk and poured the coffee
OVERALL — 1.5 stars

This place used to have live jazz and some other cool stuff, but then they turned the area they used for music into a cell phone store. Um, yeah — a cell phone store in a coffee house. Real classy.
But I do like their green tea soy chai. It’s freaking good. And I have yet to find a similar drink anywhere else. I will tolerate cheesy capitalist cell phone sellers because I like the green tea soy chai so much.

The first time i went in here, i instantly liked it despite the phone ringing constantly in the cellphone store portion of the place with no one to pick it up because it was «closed.» It was hailing outside and dark with storm clouds which added to the charm of the café’s christmas lights, friendly barista, and Gorrillaz drifting from the speakers.
But other times it’s cold inside, the refridgerator hums too loudly, the coffee’s just okay, etc.
The crowd varies, typically older folks, a writer’s group meets there, women from the nearby russian church, some studious individuals here and there. free wifi.

Pretty bad.
Employees are assholes.
Coffee is crap.
It could be a nice cozy coffee shop. It has so much going for it: old hardwood floors, location in a neighborhood that lacks a good coffee shop, good furniture.
But it sells Cellphones… they should put in a lotto machine and be done with it.
Imbeciles.
Some of these other reviews are all class.