One Block Radius

28 July 2006-
Spazio Soma Cafe: 215 Fremont Street in San Francisco
Cost: $6.00 (bacon cheeseburger, fries typically included)

Image Source: blogger's own

I guess I'm pretty lucky to have a handful of burger places within walking distance of work. Spazio Soma Cafe is among the closest lunch spots, within a one block radius. The cafe utilizes fresh and quality ingredients for breakfast and lunch with great variety in their menu.

Spazio boasts the best salad / entree bar that I've ever encountered in San Francisco. In addition to a wide selection of gourmet salads, there's also a variety of buffet style entrees with an emphasis on asian cuisines, such as chicken and beef teriyaki, dumplings and freshly prepared, artistic sushi rolls. They also have very interesting sandwiches, wraps, and burgers made to order. I'm always impressed by the presentation, production-efficiency and price.

I decided to get a mid-afternoon snack after the peak hours. The place looked deserted after the typical lunch-time crowd terrorized the salad / buffet bar; the chairs were a little disordered, and there were a few staff casually eating their lunch. I felt a little bad that I insisted on ordering from their menu, since I still saw a lot of food at the salad / entree bar that probably needed to be disposed of before the weekend.

When I brought the burger package back to my office, I realized there weren't any fries that usually accompany the burger at Spazio's. Secondly, the bread was very unusual, a roll that I've never seen before. Clearly, they had run out of ingredients, or slacked off when preparing my burger (c'mon no fries today?). Understandably, it was also a friday afternoon.

Verdict: My burger tasted pretty cheesy today, it tasted like squeezable cheese. Burgers are usually grilled about medium-well, there's no grilling preference option. I wish that the bun was toasted more, because it was quite chewy and tough. The bun and the fixings definitely over-powered the burger taste.

Coincidentally, I ate a Spazio's bacon cheeseburger last friday, but failed to take the necessary photo documentation at the time. Unfortunately, that previous burger was a heck of a lot better. One of my coworkers (fellow burger enthusiast) considers the Spazio burger to be the best burger within a two block radius of work. I tend to agree that it can be quite good, I'll just have to make sure I go during regular lunch hours next time.