Love N Haight Deli & Cafe
Categories: Delis, Sandwiches [Edit]
Neighborhood: Lower Haight553 Haight Street
(between Fillmore St & Steiner St)
San Francisco, CA 94117 (415) 252-8190
- Hours:
Mon-Thu 11:30 a.m.-2:00 a.m.
Fri-Sat 11:30 a.m.-2:00 a.m.
Sun 11:30 a.m.-1:00 a.m. - Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: No
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: No
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: No
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: No
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Good for: Lunch, Late Night
- Alcohol: None
42 reviews
Neighborhood: Outer Richmond
"I don't remember how we started coming here after bike rides across the Golden Gate through Marin, but we did . . . and I'm glad. Parking…" read more »
135 Reviews for Love N Haight Deli & Cafe
Love N Haight is my eternal savior.
Not only are there sandwiches incredibly delicious (veg. chicken steak with avocado on dutch crunch... hell to the yes) but they're an adorable family business and they're open until 2 a.m., which in San Francisco is no small detail.
After a couple of whiskey sours at Molotov's I've found myself pounding on the door here at 2:02, and a few times the lady has actually opened it and let me get a sandwich. She's like my fairy godmother.
This place can do no wrong in my eyes.
I really like Love and Haight. Their chip selection is awesome (yeah for Kettle Chips, and those Hawaiian ones...oh man they are good). But more than their chips, I love their sandwiches. The options are great, and they are so cheap and huge! Talk about getting what you pay for.
Reasons Their Sandwiches Kick Ace:
-Varied and Delicious Bread Selection
-Good Cheeses (well, standard)
-Awesome vegetarian selections
-Veggies
-Great meats to choose from
-Nice ladies, or their son (nephew) to help you.
-They also have hummus and pita
Too bad I don't live in Lower Haight anymore...I still make the trek though if I'm in the neighborhood.
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This place rules for vegan sandwiches. It is open till 2, too! My favorite menu item is the veggie smoked goose sandwich. I also enjoy the veggie pepper steak and the veggie bbq steak. I wish they had soy cheese. I keep meaning to just bring my own so they can make me a toasted veggie ham and cheese. mmmmm. They also have a great selection of no sugar added fizzy fruit juice sodas and healthy chips, veggie jerky, and vegan cookies and chocolate.
The family that owns it is sweet as pie, they have been my neighborhood pick for take out lunch for a good decade.
I grew up quite carnivorous (because I'm Korean) but when I was in college, I stopped eating land animals for 4 years. Not that hard to do in Berkeley. This made me try a lot of foods, particularly vegetables and fake meat, that I may have continued to avoid. Then one day, I was at a Wells Fargo picnic in Tilden Park where I ate a kielbasa and then played some two man volleyball (we won), neither of which my college friends had ever seen before. They decided meat makes me athletic and competitive.
After splitting a sausage from Rosamunde, we were not quite full so we continued our food crawl to Love N Haight. It's all about balance.
I remember reading Mimi's review and she said the fake duck sandwich was delicious but I couldn't quite remember at the time. The friend said the beef peppersteak was definitely nice so we went with that one. Yum.
All the sandwiches sounded great, service was pleasant and I hear they are open late. I wish I lived closer even though I'm not a hippie.
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First off, if you are a meat eater and you resent vegetarians eating wheat meat, go faux yourself! L& H does the impossible. They make a delicious and affordable deli sandwich with like ten choices of bread and another ten choices of wheat based faux meats like chicken, duck, steak and ham. Their smallest mistake is not having vegenaise and offering real mayo on a vegan sandwich. Their biggest mistake is not putting the word VEGAN in huge letters on ther outside windows. If you walk past this place and you don't know what it is, you're going to assume its some shady chinese deli. Do yourself the biggest favor and go inside! The family that owns the place are a bit quiet and I wouldn't put any emphasis on their customer service. Just order your sandwich and wait for the pay off! The young gangsta kid that works the counter is my favorite. Maybe it's because he has a homemade tattoo of the word "Onion" on his hand. L & H is open really late so if you've had a few drinks its the place to be.
Oh, if you eat meat and actually know what salami truly is, they sell that too.
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This carnivore loves the vegetarian duck sandwich...I don't care if faux meat defeats the purpose of eating healthy vegetarian food. Whenever I'm in the area, I have to have one. I've seen them take the duck out of a package, but keep forgetting to ask what brand it is. I haven't been able to find a sandwich like this anywhere else. Even though I'm curious about the other faux meats (chicken, steak, meatballs), I can't not get the veg duck. They also have a huge wall of chips, like Dirty Chips which are rare, and Asian snacks.
On the way to Lower Haight last night, I GOOG-411'ed the deli to order my sandwich and when I arrived 10 minutes later, it was ready. I finished my sandwich before my friend found parking...
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I got sick from the vegie snowfish last time I ate here. The snowfish did not taste quite right, kind of like stale bread instead of how it usually tastes. The fake meats have been the biggest redeeming value for this place, but I'm not ready to wait ten minutes for a sandwich after the last time I ate here.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
-
04/08/2007
I love the veggie smoked duck on dutch crunch with honey mustard! They've got a great selection of… Read more »
Let's get something straight. I am an omnivore who, as a friend, lover, and housemate of vegetarians and vegans, happens to have a largely non-meat diet. That's fine, I love veggie food, but I DON'T LIKE FAKE MEAT. Eat your veggies and stop trying to synthesize steak from wheat gluten! Stop it! It's gummy and gross! Except... the vegan duck breast at Love N Haight. OMG. Amazing. I was down the street at Molotov's and this amazing smell filled my drunken senses with delight. Someone had brought their fake duck sandwich from down the block. A couple days later, I tried it myself. AMAZING. Get avocado on the sandwich and it adds back that buttery goodness that you get from the fat on real duck.
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So there was a point a couple years ago where I was getting sandwiches here all the time and man were they delicious. In, fact I can't believe I slipped in reviewing this cool little spot. I mean, I was getting sammies here a couple times a week at one point. The folks behind the counter were always super nice and quick on the sandwich artistry. But I revisited Love N Haight and fell in love again, this time with a sandwich I never really even thought about - falafel. Seriously, this was the perfect after concert food I've had in a long time. Not greasy, just crisp and delicious. I will certainly remember that the next time I'm in the lower Haight. And I'm not even a huge falafel fan, who knew?
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where to eat at 1030 pm on a sunday night that is fairly healthy? i just got back from mexico last night and felt the need to eat something less fatty, so we came to love n haight after my bf picked me up from the airport. i remember mimi and seong talking about the faux smoked duck sandwich, so i decided to try this here. the sandwich was pretty big, but of course i ate the whole thing, and it was really good. i'm usually not a faux meat fan, but i love duck and wanted to see if it actually tasted like duck. it's actually a pretty good imitation and substitute, since i don't eat meat very often anymore.
my bf just got the veggie sandwich and added hummus. we should have asked to have our bread toasted, b/c it doesn't come toasted. this is such a weird place, b/c they even sell cigarettes and random asian snacks and drinks. i will definitely be back!
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Finally discovered this place after living almost a year in the neighborhood! Great little hole-in-the wall deli! As previously stated in reviews, yes there are a lot of veggie selections but there are also some good non-veggie choices! I got the smoked turkey on sourdough with swiss and everything. Fantastic! $5 for the base sandwich, 0.79 for cheese and they don't skimp on the portion.
Great little neighborhood deli!
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Perfect light sandwiches - wheat bread, veggies, fake meat! And they have Jamaican ginger ales in the refrigerator in the back! I used to take my sandwich to Duboce Park just a couple of blocks away. Fun.
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I was SO excited to try this place. Every week when the inevitable "what should we have for dinner" dilemma arose, I suggested going here.
Then we finally went. We listened to the advice and called in our order, and it was ready to go.
We got the chicken & duck and agreed we liked the chicken better. But we didn't love it. It was just ok. I'm really bummed bc the thought of a fake meat sandwich seemed to combine my 2 loves. But it just didn't happen for me...
It's worth trying this place though!
The vegan options are good, my omni boyfriend liked the vegan bbq steak sandwhich. I had the vegan chicken which needed a bit more 'meat' to stand up to the mustard and veggies. The only problem was my boyfriend requested no onions and got a pile on his sandwich - he just picked them out.
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Vege smoked ham...mmmmm....
Four stars for the good selection of veg-friendly foods (helpfully labeled "vegetarian" or "vegan" -- breads too).
Not 5 stars because there's a disconcerting (like 3-4") gap between the bottom of the door and the floor. Maybe they wedge something in there when they close at night. I'd like to hope so.
I'm so glad that the craigslist gods decided to bless me with a house super close to love and haight. I'm a vegetarian, and this place is one of the many places in sf that makes me forget that anywhere else in the world, i might have an eating handicap, having to order dinner from the appetizers part of the menu. But Love and Haight gives a wide array of delish fake meats to choose from. Hooray!!!!!!! the bbq steak is the best. ( vegi tip- most of the fake meats that they use can be purchased at Richmond New May Wah Supermarket)
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The sandwiches are great, all of them. The vegan duck is AMAZING!!! Be prepared to wait a while, it's family owned and understaffed. And they stay open pretty late.
Is it bad that I eat the sandwich on my way home? While I'm driving?
I love the late hours of this place! The fake meat smoked duck always hits the spot. They don't skimp on the portions either! The service is a little slow, but it's worth the wait. They also have a good selection of drinks and snacks.
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A while back, my brother got me hooked on the vegan sandwiches here, which are super filling and only about $5. I'm not vegan, the sandwiches are THAT yummy.
Very addictive.
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I've had quite a few memorable veggie chicken steak sammies here and love the menu. Service tempo is not In-N-Out style so no fair knocking the long waits that inevitably will occur. For the food, chip and bevie selection alone they deserve 4 stars but as has been stated before, one of the big draws for L&H is the late night hours...
I'm not vegetarian although I do eat a fair amount of tofu and fake meats with some of my housemates. Maybe I'll try something else and not care for it much but until then the 4 stars will stand.
I love sandwiches. Sammies are the best.
Love N Haight does not disappoint. Options here are key; you can make any sandwich any way you like. Bread, cheese, meat (real, fake, or none!), even mustard is all at your choosing. You really can't beat that. Oh, the turkey sandwich I usually get is $4.50. Fuckin' sweet.
I've never been here to see it completely packed, but there is a limited seating area (roughly 4 tables). The park is nearby, though, so if it's a nice day out, enjoy the weather and your sammie together. Match made in heaven.
I wish I lived closer to Love N Haight :(
Who doesn't love a really good sandwich place? The best thing about Love and Haight: OPTIONS! You can get a meatless anything sandwich on any bread and then choose from the huge variety of hydrogenated oil free chips and delicious beverages. I LOVE the veggie pepper steak and dirty cracked pepper chips with sparking water.
You should try it...there's also real meat sandwiches for the carnivores.
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I got the turkey (real meat) sandwich from here last night. It was pretty big, and it was pretty good. It was also $5, which made it taste even better. There were a lot of options to choose from, different mustards, etc. This is definitely cheaper & better than any of the sandwich places in Hayes Valley.
It's a late night and you need a sammie! But you're with a vegan, which for me is every night because I live with one. Well take them here because it is perfect. Plenty for the Hands-off -the-animal types and plenty for the rest of us. make your own! The first time around I got a turkey sammie. I wasn't so impressed but a week later we went back and I got a straight avocado on dutch crunch. PERFECT! my roommate got a something-or-other which he loved it as well. Coke in a bottle too? home run! We no longer have to make our own sammies at home. (We all need to be lazy sometimes, unfortunately for us that's like twice a week.)
Watch out for the drunk yuppies 2 doors down at the bar.
Love: Makes a delicious sandwich.
Hate: The tuna made me sick.
Not sure if the food is five star but considering the late hours this place is open, I would say a five star rating is justified. Consider the quality please, how many other late might sandwich shops give you the fake meat & vegan bread option? Not many. They also have a decent selection of drinks, chips and candy. Sure , the fake chicken kind of smells like pancakes but the texture and taste is close enough.
When they wrap it in the excellent sourdough bread with the good ole fixins the fake meat is good in its own right.
CONCLUSION: It really pisses me off when people ask me for change when I am trying to fucking eat. If you are interrupting my meal I will have NO sympathy for your plight. If that makes me sound like a fascist well, fuck you get a job!
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The veggie duck is to die for! Its a bit of a long wait to get your grub, but its well worth it. They even care enough to verify if you are vegan or not before putting mayo on it. That is service!
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I used to eat here all the time when I lived and worked in San Francisco. The meatless chicken steak sandwich is great! They heat up the fake chicken in the toaster oven so that it's nice and warm and a bit crunchy. Yum! They're open late too!
I really love this place. It is not fancy in the least, but it has loads of fake veggie meat that they make into sandwiches that you cant find anywhere else... except your own kitchen! They are quick to get it together and are open wicked late for the near after 2am snack after an evening in the Noc Noc or Toranado. I lament I moved to the other side of town, when I used to live a mere 2 blocks away, I must have eaten there 3 times a week!
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I forgot how great this place place is. Vegan smoked duck sandwiches are the only thing I ever get. And they are good.
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Yes, upon first glance Love and Haight seems to be a hole in the wall. Once you enter, yes it's still somewhat of a hole in the wall HOWEVER the place is clean and has the best vegetarian friendly sandwiches in the city. The fake chicken steak is my favorite and the sandwich is so big, you can save half for later. The fact that they're open until 1am (maybe later, I can't remember) is a bonus. I'll take love and haight over sparky's or orphan andy's greasy diner food any day!
Meatless chicken sandwich! What more is there to say?
True, it doesn't look like the nicest place in the world, but it's totally worth it. Big sandwiches, decent prices and a couple of tables to sit at if you want to eat there.
These guys know how to make a great veggie sandwich. I'm so tired of those places that only offer one veggie sandwich and its usually just a meat sandwich minus the meat.
With a variety of faux meats and other options for vegetarians, not to mention a full meat menu, you cant go wrong at this place.
and its family owned and operated!
Score one for the small businesses!
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Always a good idea to stop by. On top of that, they're open late.
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Yes, they make the best vegan sandwiches in the city.
Yes, they are the nicest family on the planet (seriously)!
Yes, this place has been in business for at least 11 years.
Yes, It's cheap as hell.
Yes, they define the term "mom & pop shop" in the fullest possible way.
Yes, I am a bit bias towards the place.
Yes, It is what it is...a sandwich shop.
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Laura B. is so, so right about the vegan chicken steak sandwich. Sweet lord, this was one of the tastiest sandwiches I've had in a long time. I should have bought those sea salt and vinegar Kettle Chips, thought, and put them in the sandwich too, but then I might have died from over-deliciousness and never been able to devour one of these sammiches again.
It'd be nice if they had spicy brown mustard, and crustier sourdough, but those are such minor complaints in the face of such delight. And such a good price, too! This is important to me, not because I am cheap, but because I had a lower-middle-class childhood that taught me to fear spending money on anything but the direst necessities. My lunch yesterday added the vegan chicken steak sammich to the necessities list.
I've lived in the Haight for about a year and half and yesterday was the first time I ever patronized this place. Moral: Don't be shy and neurotic about ordering food alone, lest you find you've wasted valuable parts of your short life not eating delicious things. Like the vegan chicken steak sammich.
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Last night was my first visit to Love N Haight Deli & Cafe.
Points for an affordable menu. I had the small hummas platter with a drink and it was around six dollars or so.
It was really tasty. I got a heaping serving of greens, four cubes of feta cheese (that I mistook for tofu and ate one in entirely on its own), hummas, a falafel, pita bread and olives.
It was a very yummy dinner indeed. And it was nice to see regulars popping in for their to-go orders. Always nice to see a place has loyal clientele.
I can't tell you how the south bay is hurting for a place like this. The veg duck sandwich is reason enough for me to move to the shity and set up camp outside this place bummin for change and delightfully grubbing on one of these everyday. I had the peepersteak vegan sandwhich and it was good, but not great. So why only 4 stars. Well I don't like being stared at. And one of the staff, maybe owner, maybe family, whatever; he was eyeing me like I had the plague or he wanted my first born. If he laid off even a smidge, I wouldn't have taken the star away. It was a bit much.
By the way....What's Mischa got to do with it?
As a vegetarian, I have always wanted to stop by here. The other day I double-parked my car and ordered a Veggie Pepper Steak sandwich to go. The veggie steak patty wasn't peppery at all. In fact, the veggie steak was a bit cold.
I am pretty disappointed. Don't get me wrong. The sandwich was decent but not worth risking getting a ticket for.
"Hey, are you guys sure this isn't real duck?!?" my drunken friend yells from his table. I'm not sure if it was the smoke or the drink that got him like this.
In either case, he absolutely murdered that sandwich.
He asked his lady friend to order for him. She (also a big fan of LnH) knowing his stiff vegetarian standards ordered him the veggie roast duck. He loved it. But enough about him...
I've experienced both the love and the hate (Haight).
The Hate (Haight): I remember coming here once at about 11pm on a Sunday. I was tired and hungry after electing to go see a movie during dinner. I didn't want the grease-fest that is Volare sitting like a rock in my stomach when I went to sleep in a few minutes. My roommate recommended LnH. What I stepped into was an awful, sweltering deli, staffed by one person even though about 7 people were in line. It took roughly 10 minutes to take care of one person's order before the line meandered along. I left, disgusted.
The Love: I came in at about 1:10am on a Friday. Again, me and some friends wanted to avoid some less savory choices and figured sandwiches would be the good way to go. I ordered the tuna sandwich on 9-grain slice, it was awesome. It was probably better than any burrito I could have eaten at that moment, which in the world of late night food is blasphemy. The Tuna was well spiced and delicious. The sandwich was the perfect size, not so big I'd have leftovers and not so small I'd have to order something else. The three of us who ordered sandwiches finished every last bite. I've come here gain since in the late afternoon and received equally as delightful service.
I look forward to coming back for more love; awesome sandwiches washed down with a vitamin water.
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