On a mobile device? Try our mobile site, optimized for faster browsing.
"Awesome spot. As other yelpers have mentioned, the service is very friendly and the menu is extensive. I first came for breakfast, and loved…" read more »
Loading...
Now if Lee's just only did sandwiches it would probably have more more then a 3 star average. It does everything and anything. I like them for their sandwiches. They make it in front of you, which I like no tricky stuff like in some places close by.
Also they come below 5 dollars. Wow ... I've tried their Pastrami sandwiches and right now this is my place to go for lunch.
So I'll give them 5 stars because I've liked what I see so far in an area that's been relatively disappointing really to me.
What more can I say other than GROSS and over priced buffet bar? I haven't tried the sandwiches here but I have had both the breakfast and lunch. I can honestly say most of the food is stale unless you get it early. The chow fun noodles were OK as was the spicy tofu dish. Other than that, unless you're really desperate and can afford it, I recommend Bristol farms for the price (at least there's more selection and you can get things prepacked for less, even fresher sushi or soup. Or try Chipotle and even better yet "soup freaks" which is all organic and healthy and still costs less.
If I do go back, perhaps I'll go with a sandwhich instead...
Growing up in Chinatown/Downtown as a kid, and going to school over on Pine and Grant, I grew up going to Lee's for sandwiches. And it was my favorite part of the day for many years. I felt so grownup standing in line with all the adults in their suits, ordering my sandwich, customized to my exact specifications. I could opt for mayo one day and none the next. I could change my meat and cheese every day and even my bread types. What a grown up I was, choosing and creating my own sandwich. I loved it.
So when I, now at 32, saw the chance to come back to Lee's. I jumped at it. And the sandwich was almost as good as I had remembered it. I mean it was pretty darn good. Even though now as an adult, I know that there isn't any big secret about the sandwiches, somehow their sandwiches always taste great to me.
The let down at this location this time was in the differences from how I remembered the place. They used to just offer sandwiches, chips and drinks, and now they have a full on Chinese self serve buffet, sushi, seating at some locations, and salad bars. Not this is bad, as they had to grow with the times, but for me and my memories of things when I was little it was a change I didn't' like.
Prices are not as cheap as they were when I was a kid, and yes I know about inflation, but even so it is not as cheap as it used to be.
The salad and Chinese food buffets were messy and sloppy looking and so were the seating areas. And the cashiers were not friendly at all.
But the sandwich was still good. So that made the visit worth it.
Friendly and inexpensive, with a huge variety.
Chinese, (and multinational) buffet with all kinds of things, including sushi and fruit fried chicken and salad by weight, and then also offers a variety of sandwiches etc made-to-order. The buffet bar has always seemed fresh, which is pretty rare for places that are also inexpensive.
They also have a deal where if you have one of their coffee mugs, you can get refills for 70 cents or something silly inexpensive. They also were giving away those mugs for free with the purchase of a gift card when I got mine, so, it was a super deal. I am a student at the school across the street, so I was coming there to get coffee and egg rolls or fruit or something in class breaks on the regular, and the owner started charging a little less per trip and has always been really nice. Friends of mine who repeat visit say he's given them discounts as well. I recommend this place often.
Lee's Deli is a staple for many who want a quick solid lunch at a cheap price. For that, they really can't be beat. I mean their solidly made sandwiches are all under $5. You can't even get a ghetto sandwich at Starbucks for under $5. I highly recommend the turkey sandwich. The turkey here is delicious!!!!
They may rush you through but with a solid lunch crowd sometimes they have to rush to keep up with the demand. Overall a great place for a lunch time break. This one even has some seats outside on the sidewalk. Probably the closest since the Market St one is now closed (oh how I miss it).
We need more Lee's Deli's outside of the financial district!!!!
I tried the BBQ pork sandwhich....the meat was stiff-hard with mustard, mayonaise, lettuce, and tomato $4.25. I should've Yelp-ed it and tried the turkey sandwhich.
Will come back next time!
Sometimes you have a craving for very good chinese food; Yank Sing, perhaps. Your mouth waters thinking of the peking duck, the soup filled wontons, and other such culinary delights that tickle not just your tastebuds but all of your senses. You long to eat a long and slow lunch, all the while sipping on a bottle of Sonoma Cutrer and ordering way too much food.
And then sometimes you just say "fuck it," and go to Lee's instead. There, what you'll find is a self-serve buffet that serves food soaked in MSG and oil and probably many other flavorings and artificial ingredients that you really don't want to know about. Basically you'll tolerate a meal there and it'll fill you up, though most likely you'll be paying for it about 8 hours later when it comes out the other end....
And yet this place stays in business... nay, it thrives! What the fuck is wrong with all of us human beings?!?!?
I've always thought of this place as being just "ok" - and that was the experience I had again. I was here for breakfast and ordered an breakfast sandwich that, quite frankly, I could have made myself at home - if I'm paying for a meal, I want it to pretty close to amazing. While I don't think the sandwiches, breakfast or lunch, are all that great, the Chinese food is usually pretty good and satisfies my fix for greasy, flavorful food.
Not bad, not bad. Not fantastic, has a hole in the wall quality. But I didn't get sick from eating anything here (yes, I had some doubts) although I stuck to the salad and did not eat any of the "Chinese food" under the lamps.
It's small and cramped and tends to get messy. Still, they have a variety of food from burgers to salads to the mentioned Chinese buffet to sandwiches. Most people will probably find something they like. I really liked the miso salad dressing quite a bit.
don't get anything in the chinese food bar!
I dont know what others are rating this place low for! For 5.90 I got a small hot an sour soup, salad that I made myself and 2 pieces of sushi and fresh shrimp! Whats not to love about it!
My turkey sausage gumbo (sans sausage but plus liberal dosing of tobasco) was only $3.50. That beats my crock-pot in the locker at school idea any day.
Got a quick look around their buffet. I'm not a fan of buffets that charge by the pound, especially since I live so close to some tasty noodles for $2.50/lbs. If i'm really in the mood for some greasy noodles, I'll hop on the bus and make my way there.
However, if I'm in the mood for inexpensive soup. I think this place will hold a little nook in my stomach.
You know you love to hate it...or hate to love it. But its cheap!
And cheap is nearing extinction for lunch downtown.
I love their wonton noodle soup, te broth is actually tasty and the wontons have a good combo of meat and shrimp.
I hate the bossy cashiers and messy unkept dining area.
They did add nice outdoor seating, so very nice of them.
If you are in a rush for business reasons or heaven forbid parked at the outrageously priced MOMA garage and need to get food ASAP then this is the place to go. The supply of Chinese food here was spotty the times I went for lunch but on a good day there is definietely some good tasting stuff. The price does add up really quick though depending on how much your plate weighs.
after a long night of restless sleep on my grandmas lumpy sofa bed. I pondered on all the breakfast possibilities on my J line muni ride to work. Walking down new montgomery- Lees sign glowed and wooed me and i walked closer and closer to my destination. I walked in grabbed a 20oz cup and commensed to pour hazelnut flavored coffee spiked it with half anf half and sweetner.-- chocolate glazed donut to boot. Now...I'm ready to cease the day my dears.
A staple in my daily commute to and from class. Sandwiches are produced quickly, and properly. They are dirt cheap too!
i've only had he chinese buffet once and i found it to be pretty tasty but pretty expensive. They charge by the 1/4 pound. Redonkulous!
Yuck.
I'm tempted to leave it at that. Just yuck.
My office mate tells me that they dutifully have the Chinese lunch buffet filled by nine am. Wish he hadn't told me during my three pm snack from said buffet.
I'm gonna go lie down now.
This place is fine if you need a quick lunch for "yourself" and only have $5 in your wallet. But here's my horror story as an admin temp in the financial district.
The business manager gave me an order to pick up lunch for everybody in the office, here's the bitchy part..."order and pay individually" If you've been to a Lee's during lunch you know it's a matter of knowing what your want by the time you hear the calling for...NEXT! WHAT KIND BREAD, WHAT KIND CHEESE, EVERYTHING? (meaning everything on it mayo-mustard-onions). So when I ordered the first sandwich she was so quick to bump me over to the cashier while she shrieked ...NEXT! Wait, I have another sandwich order (her eyes almost drop out of her head) WHA? WHAT KIND BREAD, WHAT KIND CHEESE, EVERYTHING....NEXT! Wait, I have a couple more sandwiches to order ( her jaw drops open to hit the counter) WHA? WHAT KIND BREAD, WHAT KIND CHEESE, EVERYTHING....NEXT!
So finally over to the cashier, the cashier says ANYTHING ELSE! and before I can answer...boom she's rang everything up on one transaction. "I need to have these rang in individually, sorry...(once again eyes pop out of head). And as I was leaving, one of the managers ran and chased me out saying DON'T TAKE TRAY! I said wait, I just ordered $60 worth of food, I work upstairs, I'll bring your friggin cafeteria tray back on the way down, relax! I think I gave the whole Lee's establishment a heart attack that day.
Epilogue; the business manager bitches me out saying, I think you got the wrong change, (is picking up someones lunch considered an admin duty?, guess so if you're a temp) That's what I like about temp assignments...NEXT!
After looking at some of the other reviews Lee's has gotten I am surprised how many people talk about the Chinese food. I can never bring myself to eat Chinese food off a steam table ANYWHERE. Not to sound like snob, but c'mon, why eat stale Chinese food when you can get a big ass fresh sandwich for cheap?!?!?!
I'm a big fan of their fresh roasted turkey sandwich with some cranberry sauce and all the rest of the fixin's. They have a good bread selection and loads of options for the carnivores to veggie friendly folks.
They move you through quick, which can be pretty funny in itself since they go so fast it's hard to figure out what's going on. It's hard for me to want to go anywhere else in the area for lunch with Lee's right there!!!
Lee's Deli is what it is. Want an organic spinach salad with candied walnuts, dried cranberries and goat cheese? Keep those feet moving, foodie. I hit Lee's at least 25 times a month and it kicks ass during my work week. Why wait in line at Starbucks or Pete's for 20 minutes in the morning for your $7 cup of fancy coffee in your recycled paper cup, when you can get perfectly good styrofoam cup o joe from a big old urn, plus an english muffin with peanut butter and jelly for under $5? My lunch today -- chinese chicken salad with miso dressing from the salad bar and a bag of baked potato chips only cost me $2.95! Two Ninety Five. That's like 1950's prices! 4 stars for getting me in and out of there in the morning when I roll in at 8:59am so I'm only 6 minutes late for work. If I'd stopped at Petebucks, I'd be seriously on the verge of being fired by now.
I do tend to shy away from the hot buffet, only because the food is already out when most people are there for breakfast. But that's just me.
The day they remembered my breakfast order, I felt like I'd been voted prom queen or something!
Diet? What Diet? Luckily, my skinny ass doesn't really need to worry about gaining too much weight. I mean, I'm doing everything in my power to gain 20 pounds so eating as much as i can is something I try to do as much as possible.
So, with that said, when you come here and look at the food, you will see that everything looks obviously unhealthy... I mean, i haven't seen this much grease since... well... i don't know! This factor may turn a lot of people off to their food. But now that I have told you, you really can't complain or be surprised. Right? RIGHT.
I usually only get stuff from their buffet, but they do have tons of other options. I love greasy chinese food and I have never spent more than 5 bucks here. Hard to beat that!
The only problem with the Chinese buffet here is it seems that it's replenished on an "as needed" basis. As such and has been mentioned by other yelpers, when the buffet is put out at 9:30 by 11:30 (the time I when I went there for lunch) most of the food is dry and crusty. That did not deter me unfortunately. I wish it had. It's about $5.50 a pound which for a moderate eater such as myself came out to be about $7 total. I enviously eyed Chipotle across the street as I chewed on my hard fried rice. I also regretted my decision 2 hours later when I was ravenously hungry.
There's also a salad bar which might be better and more healthy for those so inclined. Maybe I'll try a sandwich the next time too.
The Good: $4 bucks and change for a sandwich piled with more than 2 servings of meat. HUGE value.
The Bad: A medium sized lunch portion from the Chinese buffet will run you more than $8 dollars.
The Ugly: Compared to the super friendly atmosphere next door at Specialty's, its clear the focus of this establishment isn't necessarily customer service.
Lee's is a great place to grab and go in a pinch. They're pretty busy during the lunch hours, which helps keep the food fresh. The self serving salad buffet isn't Fresh Choice, but it's very acceptable. Good bang for the buck.
Good selection if you like Chinese food, but lacking in other areas. I'd love to see a "make your own" sandwich bar or something like that.
Seems a little dirty inside.
Flea's in an institution. Ooops, I mean Lee's.
You really can't beat their $4 huge soft roll sandwiches filled with ham. Plus, if you just want to stock up on essentials (milk for your coffee, candy, chips, etc.), it's a great choice.
That being said, I walked in one morning to get my egg beater, ham, and cheese bagel and was horrified (horrified!!!) to see the Chinese food buffet already sitting out. At 9:30am!!! I think I threw up a little in my mouth. No Chinese buffet for me!
I always knew there was a reason why I fear buffets.
Getting to be a regular here. Have had the turkey like everyone recommends. Yes it does seem homemade. Also have had the chicken salad and roast beef. I like their dutch crunch toasted please. They don't charge for toasting. Out the door for under $5 for lunch in SOMA is rare in deed. I walked to the back the other day and saw they had wonton soup and burgers. Wontons were ok, a bit on the salty side, no shrimp, all ground pork. Will try the burger and fries next time. The only thing that scares me is the 82 as you enter the place. What on earth can you do to get a 82. I'm blissfully ignorant at this place and hope never to find out.
Since relocating to the financial district for work, I have noticed a thin but pervasive stream of dismay creeping into my stomach every day around noon. It could be the gross burrito from taqueria cancun I had last week, or perhaps it's just the thought of all the eateries in the nearby vicinity that just don't give me enough bang for my very expensive buck.
Until now. Thank you, Lee's, for making your chinese food so damn cheap. I know I can't eat this stuff everyday, or even every other week due to the greese factor, but hey, when I'm broke (which is quite often) and I don't feel like brown bagging it or eating subway, I know where to go.
Where can you get fried rice, chicken strips, hamburger, a BLT sandwich, cereal, a banana, orange chicken, sushi, salad bar, and a Pepsi- all in the same trip?
Lee's.
Pretty much the default lunch spot when one cannot decide what to eat for lunch. Because the minute you walk in and are hit with the smell of chinese food mixed with turkey sandwich, you will surely be fighting the urge to be "bad" and load up on some chow mein but choose to eat a healthy turkey sandwich.
Although... the chicken tenders scream my name. SCREAM!
Can I make a confession? I love noodle-y soups, but rarely ever drink the broth at the end. I like the broth as a noodle/meat/veggie dampener, I like how hot broth keeps the real food warm, I like the slurping experience, but my relationship with broth ends there.
So, the wonton noodle soup at Lee's is perfect for me because they load up this plastic bowl with egg noodles, really huge wonton, BBQ pork, bok choy, and green onion and cilantro. And then, it's maybe one ladle-full of broth. $6.75.
Lee's also has the cheapest bagel with cream cheese that I can find anywhere. $1.25.
"Next, please! Next!" says the surly cashier, a gaunt Chinese man whose attitude resembles not unlike Seinfeld's soup nazi. While saying "hi, how are you doing," he takes my card and, in mid-air, uses his one arm to open a brown paper bag, the other grabbing my debit card and swiping it in the check machine. And during the lull, when the machine checks my funds, he's off to another customer, repeating the same perfunctory tasks. His general take-no-shit attitude is justified, though. Lee's Deli operates on efficiency, and they won't let anyone break their cash-flow. Not even paying customers. One thing's for sure, because of their efficiency, the service is damn fast.
But surliness aside, the food is a bargain. Under just five dollars, you can buy a huuugge sandwich big enough for two meals. And if you're a meat lover, the nice employees aren't skimpy with it, either. Often they'll stuff the sandwich with an unhealthy amount of cold-cuts, chicken, bacon, or turkey. Best of all, their meats are quite good: order the turkey sandwiches and they actually cut big slices from a real turkey. It's not thanksgiving quality, but it's way better than anything at Subway.
And when you're tired of sandwiches, check out their made-to-order foods, especially the won-ton noodle soup. At just 4.75, it's the cheapest Won-ton soup deal outside of Chinatown. Lee's Deli stuffs copious amount of wonton, thick and juicy, crammed into large, white cup. Plus the egg noodles, while not the best, is more than enough to satisfy that ramen or won-ton mein craving.
One day, when you're craving for a sandwich, when subway and specialties or quiznos lost their appeal, try one of Lee's sandwiches. Or their won ton noodle soup. Just be sure to move quickly and attentively in line, just in case the nice Chinese man accosts you for being too slow.
I can't give it a four star rating until they do something about their 'by weight' thing with the Chinese boofete. I dunno what they can do about it, but it makes a few dumplings way more than they are worth.
That being said, I have to admit my weakness for the damn dumplings, and all the friends of dumplings at said boofete. And I hate group food. But for some reason, I have convinced myself, due to the rapid pace of check out, and plentiful choices here, that there are no germs.
Please don't burst my bubble.
I'd also like to meet a gal or guy who has managed to make it out without a bag.
Why must the Quick Ones bag EVERYTHING?
It's only right that my first review is of the place where I start every work day morning: Lee's on New Montgomery. I walk in, nod at the lady behind the counter, and she makes my Asiago bagel with cream cheese while I prepare my coffee (large iced vanilla w/milk and sugar). I love weak deli coffee, and I love living in a city where I can drink it iced year-round without any funny looks. If only the rest of my day was this easy.
Occasionally I'll go there for lunch. The turkey burger is good but the Chinese food is disappointing.
Ah yes, whenever I can't decide on what to get for lunch, my feet always wander into Lee's. My feet and myself, mind you. No feet walking around by themselves, lest they get hacked up and put into the hot dog mix. Ew.
Anyhow, Lee's got everything covered. And I love, love, LOVE, the salad/hot food bar. A bit on the pricey side, but I try to stick with lighter options like croutons. Yeah, not lighter on fat, but literally lighter, know what I mean?.. Like yesterday, I just got back from a 4-day business trip, on which we ate out every single meal, so I was in a palate overload. Nothing tasted good, really! So I needed some palate cleansing. Went to the salad bar and got peas, carrots, garbanzo beans, some barley salad thingy, honeydew, watermelon, and I snuck three spears of asparagus (aspargi?) from the hot food bar. Perfect! And it cost me less than $4. Can't beat that price anywhere!
Great for what it is -- cheap decent sandwiches fast. The entire order, make, purchase pipeline is super-optimized -- I wouldn't be surprised if the person who designed it was an engineer.
I believe this is why all the programmers I know love Lee's. I love it too. It's not gourmet, and that, I think, makes some people assume Lee's is going to give them ptomaine poisoning. The place looks quite clean and well-managed to me, and I've never had any problems -- I'll bet Lee's is one of the better fast food places in this respect.
The hot chinese dishes are decent, too.
Get a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a pint of milk (for cheap!) and feel like you're in second grade again. Whee!
Great cheap food. Good sandwiches. Great chicken chili. Their salad bar is decent, but after the price increase it leaves me wanting another salad bar elsewhere.
Best meal under $5 in the city.
They also have a great cinnamon crumb coffee cake.
This lees has incredibly fast service, the place can get packed during lunchtime by everyone that works downtown as well as academy of art students, but you won't have to wait long.
This location also seems to now be their flagship location.
I had the pack ur own chineese. Pretty much really expensive for food that was sub par. There is no sign that says that it is weighed per pound so I ended up with a $10 meal and i could have gone to one of the better places and gotten a 2 dish meal for like $5. The sandwhiches looked cheap but not sure about quality.
i was really happy to discover that our new offices are located so close to a lee's. they make my turkey reuben manwich-sized and for under $5.
There are power walks, power naps, power jogging, power lunches. Seems like everyone's in a rush these days, you know? Particularly if you work in that cluster of towering old buildings between FiDi and SoMa. (Do they say FiDi, or did I just coin the next hip abbreviation?). So you've got your Lee's Deli, because the whole thing about the place, see is that it makes it really easy for you to not actually take a legitimate lunchbreak. I know how many of you office drone worker bees feel - I bet you've got that pile of papers sitting on your desk, those tickets q-ing up in email asking for troubleshooting assistance - and you feel completely guilty when you use your god-given inaliable right to take a 30 minute lunch. Lee's is here to help you and here is how.
1. They've got sandwiches, a salad bar, a hot Chinese food buffet and a variety of soups. Which means you don't have to waste your time deciding where to go for lunch, because most standard options are covered (they even have a curry!). All that is missing, maybe is a big fat burrito, some Ethiopian, and a naked lady covered in sushi. And this is your go to place. Time saved: like, a ton. Most of the lunch break is usually spent deciding where to go, anyway.
2. The people behind the counter, they're really goddamn fast. You're in line and they already somehow magically know how much it's going to cost (practically). So you better have your money ready when they shout "Nexpeezehihowareyoutodaythankyouforcomingbuhbye!" Time saved: I'm not doing math for you, buddy, but you can figure it out. At least five minutes, you know?
3. Here's the cincher - the food? It's made of magic. Because while you're eating it, you can already feel it traveling through your stomach like a super sonic bullet train from Tokyo. In fact, by the time you finish scrubbing away at the last little dried up chunk of rice on your styrofoam container, you've got to go to the toilet like WOAH. Which means, you run back to the office because Lee's doesn't have a restroom. Before you know it, you're already at your desk, and that annoying lady in a cubicle next to you says in her nasal twang, "Well well, aren't we important, working on our lunchbreak!" and you can say "Bitch, you don't even know!" and smile all smug.
Obviously, that's why I keep coming back to this g-damn place. Cuz it ain't the food quality.
As if working at Utrecht didn't suck enough, Lee's is basically the only affordable lunch option my art store employee friends can go to on their 30 minute lunch break. I think it would be a little better if they just stuck to one kind of food rather than try to do every single kind of food. They basically fuck it all up, but at these prices, I guess you can't really complain.
I used to eat here frequently, but stopped a couple years ago and haven't been back. Their breakfast sandwiches were good, though not exactly quick. The burgers they do are ok, but the fries are lousy. I stopped going for 2 reasons - 1) a very bad experience with a tuna sandwich one day, and 2) food sitting out. I periodically had lunch at their buffet line, then realized one morning while getting my breakfast bagel that the lunch food was already out.
Ribs on Thursdays!
Neighborhood: Potrero Hill
Now offering Frozen Yogurt!
Neighborhood: Nob Hill
Neighborhood: Union Square
Neighborhood: SOMA
Category: Caterers
Neighborhood: Financial District
Category: Caterers
Neighborhood: SOMA
Category: Vegetarian
Neighborhood: SOMA
Category: Drugstores
Sometimes I like to experience nothing spectacular…
Much to my sadness, I have traded in my sneakers…
heavenly, scrumptious, delectable, and lavish but…
and a search it was. Hooray for new job that…
Some call it whining, I call it warning. Patronize…
The dregs of the business world, at least in my…
Here are the lunch spots where you'll find me and…
If I ever go to lunch or pick up a breakfast item…
