Matching Half Cafe

Matching Half Café has exactly two things going for it: (1) the beautiful building and (2) the cute sign. It’s also situated interestingly on a hill and has decent outdoor tables, but I said two things and I’m sticking with two things.
Everything else about this place is annoying. It’s expensive. Food takes forever to come out. Portions are anorexic-​model-​in-​training meager. It’s frequented by all the annoying people who have moved into my neighborhood in the past five years. It’s uncomfortable inside.
It reminds me a lot, in fact, of One World Café, which it replaced, in a way. But whereas One World Café was merely disappointing, Matching Half Café is disappointing, annoying, and pretentious – and that’s a pretty good description of how my neighborhood has gotten worse since 2011.

Staff are friendly and coffee is good, but don’t order the grilled cheese.

The atmosphere here is quite nice and the barista was kind to explain what’s on the menu and help find something that I would enjoy. Definitely would love to come back and just have a lax day drinking a cup of cappuccino on a sunny day.

I used to love this place.
Now it looks like it is becoming one of this pretentious café. People there used to be friendly and paying attention to customers, now it looks like nobody cares, they make you wait for ever etc… Very disappointing
Also, same problems that have been existing for a while (read your reviews!!): no power outlets and VERY BAD wifi. Like, if you offer wifi, offer a descent connection or don’t offer it at all. Somewhere in the middle is just making your customers frustrated.

Super cute café with tables lined up next to the windows for lots of light. Quiet neighborhood with low traffic and not much street noise. They have a serious cookie collection and homemade poptarts (nutella??? dayum!!). I like the old skool ice-​cream-​parlor countertop seating, and there are lovely stained glass windows that filter in blue light. Tea/​coffee + a pastry will run you $ 5 — $ 7. They have the requisite milk-​ish options: skim, almond, soy. Downsides are that the seating is limited, there aren’t any (working) outlets if you want to plug in, and the wait can be long if you come at the wrong time. Oh, and if it’s cold and rainy they won’t close the door because «the windows fog,» so bring a coat. Otherwise — customer service is friendly and intimate, coffee/​tea selections are top notch, and it’s a lovely place to sit and work if you’ve got an hour to spare.

Intimate spot with excellent coffee and food. I ordered an egg, ham and cheddar sandwich and my wife had the egg, avocado and cheddar. Both were delicious! And the barista knows what he’s doing. His soy latté was spot on. We will be back.

Okay — loveeeeee this café!
Delicious lattes.
Yummy breakfast sandwiches.
Awesome vibe.
And…GREAT customer service. Like when you’re treated like a regular, but you’re not.
Random story: Was killing time here waiting for a ride. Store was closing. I was worried bc I had just gotten my hair done at a salon across the street, and it was raining. Asked if I could wait in here. Said yes and offered me a free muffin. What?
Love love love.
:)

Lors d’un sejour de deux mois a San Francisco j’ai eu l’occasion de me rendre à de nombreuses reprises dans ce café (en habitant a 3 minutes à pied c’est encore plus facile).
Que dire hormis que l’ambiance est parfaite et trés reposante (parfait pour travailler ou aller de blog en blog), que le service est egalement top avec du personnel agréable et enfin que les chocolats sont excellent.
Les plats salés sont également de trés bonne facture.
En bref c’est un veritable havre de paix ou j’ai passé du bon temps chaque semaine.
Seul bemol sur la connexion internet parfois saturée (la rançon du succés).
Allez y vous né serez pas déçus

Want to find the geographical center of the city? Apparently, if you come here, you’re there.
This is my neighborhood café, so I may be a little bias, but I love Matching Half. Unlike other reviewers, I only have the occasional problem with the wifi and if you ask the baristas, they are more than happy to give you tips to improve your signal (like walking towards the door to grab the signal before sitting at that back table).
I usually get a pot of tea and work. Their tea is good, but they always leave the leaves in, which will make the tea too bitter. Easy fix by tossing them out after a few minutes. They’re much more focused on coffee, but I never drink the stuff so I can’t comment on that either.
But if you’re looking for a nice quite café to get some work done in the literal heart of the city, this is it.

Great neighborhood coffee shop. Friendly staff, good coffee and other food and beverage offerings. The only major problem is TERRIBLE wifi. If you are looking for a coffee shop to do some work — find another place. Otherwise, it’s solid 4 stars.

Great little spot to come and do a little work. Free wifi but be prepared with a full charge. There’s only one working outlet (intentional) in the whole place and it’s near the milk/​sugar station to discourage long term squatters. Coffee is solid and the sandwiches are good albeit a little pricey…

Quiet, cozy, and good coffee for a refreshingly non-​San Francisco price (less than $ 3 for a good cup). 4 stars because not much outlet access so it’s not a good all-​day work spot if you’re on your computer, but the weekday daytime environment is definitely good for brainwaves.

It’s my favour neighborhood café! Nice vibes, good coffee and the home style décor just made me productive while staying there! My favors combo are the café latte and the breakfast sandwich. One thing though, they are a bit pricey, $ 2.75 for a coffee and around$ 7 for the breakfast sandiwch, so if you plan to have a big breakfast, come with friends to split even the costs. They are also busy during the morning but the wait isn’t crazy at all. A very nice corner café!

High end coffee and lattes set the bar for this modern café. There are a few outlets at the group table for those looking to camp out and get some work done. But I really love sitting at one of the outdoor tables nicely shaded from the morning sun that bakes many of the other local cafes. The cherry muffins are also great and bagels come from the House of Bagels one of my favorite local bagel shops.

Come here if you have nowhere to be. If you don’t mind waiting over 20 minutes for a basic breakfast sandwich, this place is for you!
I wouldn’t mind waiting that long if there was someone actually cooking my eggs, but when it’s a dude making them in a microwave, my patience starts to wear out.
I’m sure the person who made my sandwich is nice and all, I just wish I would’ve seen a little more hustle from him.
For a mediocre sandwich, I didn’t think the wait was worth it.

Perfect place for working! Good coffee and sandwiches!
The place is very quiet and peaceful…

The matching half café. Went there with some people and tried the grilled cheese, turkey and Jack sandwich, and the salami baguette. I wish I could give this more stars but it was just a little pricey, with a drink the meal would be $ 15 easily.
The sandwiches were good but the grilled cheese was definitely way too oily for my taste. The turkey jack sandwich is fit for two people while the salami is fit for a child.
Seems to be a local favorite, there were lots of hipsters and students lounging around.

Cool place to study while drinking a beer/​wine or coffee.
They have outdoor seating, just limited outlet space for your computers so come charged!!!

Nice and small café to get shit done. Their salads actually look amazing and their chai tea lattes (my go to pick me up /​get shit done drink) were quite nice.
Downsides: kind of a small café, so I can see it being hard finding a table or place to sit. In addition, only one power source! And I wasn’t really feeling the music when I went (a bit on the rock-​ish side?). I also wish their wifi had a password and wasn’t free.

I’ve been dying to try this place, as I always pass it while visiting San Francisco. Overall, the experience was ³⁄₅ stars, but I’m giving it 4 for the ambiance and friendly staff. So I ordered a Gibraltar and yogurt with granola and my dad ordered a breakfast sandwich. The Gibraltar was ready in under 2 minutes, which was great. However, the two items we got took about 15. My yogurt was done after 5 minutes maybe and it just sat on the kitchen counter while they slowly prepared the sandwich. The wait sucked, but the food was delicious, including my now-​cold Gibraltar! The girl who took my order was really kind and the interior was super cute. Hopefully I can come back here soon and stay a little longer!

Mannn, I have such mixed feelings about this place. Here’s a quick breakdown:
PROS
–Great food, great coffee, AWESOME baked goods
–Nice vibe, lots of natural sunlight
–Friendly staff
–Very clean and pleasant bathroom
–Outdoor seating available
–Right on the 5 bus line
–ALCOHOL (wines and beers)
CONS
–No power sources
–Long wait times
–Limited seating area
Essentially, this place is fabulous as a spot to get a jammin cup of java and to enjoy a pleasant breakfast, brunch, or lunch with a friend. The food is great, vibe is chill, and the overall quality of the establishment is great if you can get past the fact that the friendly staff just kinda take a while to get orders out.
This is a BAD place if you want to camp out to get a bunch of work done with your computer. Yes, there are outlets. No, they’re not going to charge your electronics. They turned off the power sources for a reason. I can understand this from a business perspective. They don’t want you camping out for 10 hours taking away precious table space. They want to flip those tables and keep the money coming in to stay in business. I get it. I can’t hold that against them.
I do have to say that my Lox bagel did take a good 15 – 20 minutes and it was not extremely busy. But then some other people around me got their food within 5 minutes of ordering, so it’s not like ALL of their orders come out super late. Just keep timing in mind if you’re in a rush.
Overall, I’d definitely come back to this place for a light meal/​date with a friend, but definitely not to get work done unless I’m going all paper.

Matching Half Café is
!
I discovered the café a few years back when I was living in the Haight. I used to stop in with a good book and order a nice cup of tea or a kale salad. Last week I had the chance to return after one of my close friends moved to the neighborhood. We were walking to Divisidero when I took a detour to show her some other local businesses. That’s when we wandered in!
It’s a quite space with nice artwork and a killer playlist (very important). They sell a variety of coffee, tea, wine, and food. We just ordered drinks, but the food that I’ve had in the past has been very good. Staff is friendly and they have wifi. My friend also loved it and I know she’s stoked to have such a nice spot so close to her apartment!

The café that’s literally across the street.
Service is slow, and delivers on quality.
The seating area is pleasant. On the inside, broad windows stream in daylight, and provide a grand view of the neighborhood. On the outside on a nice day, this particular corner of McAllister and Baker gets some nice sunlight.

Neighborhood gem. Great coffee & breakfast or lunch. I found the service to be fine and I was there on a weekend morning. The coffee was really good, and yeah it did seem a little stronger, I like my caffeine buzz! Had a homemade jalapeño poptart, it was so flakey and good, yum yum. A nice little seating area outside. A great place!

My brother and I met up here for lunch today and it was an excellent spot to spend a couple hours eating lunch, having a beer, and then enjoying coffee while watching people pass by outside. The space is a little tight for the lunchtime surge, but the fact that it surges is its own signal!
I had a turkey sandwich with avocado and tasty chips on the side, and washed it down with a pilsner. My brother had a regular coffee, which he reported as very acidic, but my double espresso cappuccino was perfect.