Sugar Cafe

Chic place, nicely laid out, cute and slightly clueless bartenders.

Came here on a Monday and apparently they don't serve dinner on Sunday and Monday's. Not questioning San Francisco too much we decided to just have the drinks instead. I had the cucumber gimlet which was good and my friend had the Manhattan and we got the roasted almonds which come well presented on a little toasting pan. What was weird was that as soon as we were served, we got the check at the same time as service since we didn't want another drink. It was like.. Hey I'm done with you leave now.

Anyhoo it's worth the one drink wonder that it is. I would come here for a date or a girls night.

Work hard and play EVEN harder! That's my motto.

Sugar Cafe epitomizes that...

During the day, work furiously on contract proposals while sipping a latte as the soothing flames from the fireplace whispers in the background. At lunch, take a break and enjoy a scrumptious chicken swiss melt sandwich. To get over the food coma and get another caffeine jolt before resuming work, take a shot of espresso. As a group of young professionals start streaming in, you then know what time it is...It's HAPPY HOUR TIME!!!

Store away your laptop and plop your hiney on their plushy sofa while chugging, I mean sipping on one of their $6 HH special cocktails (ends at 8 PM). If a charity HH happens to be going on, then my golly support the cause.http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/A1eB91Uz6RrCaQ2YTx3KUg?select=pZB56P6hymnE7VO92qP_DA

Got the drunken munchies? No problem, Sugar Cafe can cure them with their sliders and truffled fries. You can then satisfy your sweet tooth by indulging in their triple chocolate mousse.

You know the night is still young as the crowd gets bigger from the post HH people starting to trail in. The fluorescent purple lights become more apparent and the dance music starts blaring. If you're like me, your head will start bobbing along to the untz, untz, untz, and sooner or later you will end up shufflin' to The Cellar next door (same owners). My review:http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-cellar-san-francisco#hrid:ssbxZeiwOMkb6c75GR0weA

Because drinking and driving is never encouraged, hop into a cab...ALONE (it is a school night after all) and go home. Make sure to pop a B12 and wash it down with a carton of coconut water before you go to sleep. Trust me.

And then...
You'll be ready to do it ALL again tomorrow, the day after that, and the next next day until you reach bottomless mimosas weekends at Sugar Cafe! *Woot*

Now, that my friends is HOW you work hard and play even harder.

OTHER NOTES:
*Great place for post dinner drinks(~$9-$10/cocktail)
*Free WiFi but bad cell phone reception
*Cozy home living room meets Temple night club vibe
*Friendly and very attractive bartenders
*Music comes on after 9PM
*Hipster crowd

Party like a rockstar, party like a rock star. Girls night out, and only for my mains. Been there done that how many times over and over, but never gets old because its never a dull moment when your having fun.

I've never been here to eat so I can't review the food, only for poppin bottles! Cafe sugar is also connected to The Cellar. Started the night on the second floor VIP area. The upstair area overlooks the whole venue, which is great for a private party. As for music? House and top 40. Smaller vicinity but perfect since I don't like clubs. After a couple of drinks moved on over to the Cellar. Music? Hiphop/Mash up. Definitely a memorable moment.

This place is like the bar equivalent of the Van Halen video for "Hot for Teacher". At first, the schoolteacher is prim and proper, but then she rips her clothes off to become a former Playboy Playmate in a bikini bottom, a ripped top and a sash that says "Phys Ed". Yeah, that's what Sugar Cafe is about - a quiet coffee bar by day and then a trendy, thumping house music lounge by night with a Euro-hip decor and back lighting in blue and purple (photo: http://bit.ly/16LhOBa). I was first here years ago with my friend Carlos when we met for coffee, and I finally returned with Jamie W. just the other evening when we were feeling a tad peckish for dessert after a burrito bowl at Chipotle and a free concert at Union Square.

This time, we were there as its identity was going through its day-to-night transformation. You could tell because a middle-aged man came in and immediately hit on the striking-looking waitress setting up the bar. The area around the faux-fireplace was taken (photo: http://bit.ly/11WAaiy), so we took a tall table across from the bar and immediately zeroed in on the Sugar Sweet section of the menu where all the desserts were $7.99 (photo: http://bit.ly/16Li4jw). The flashiest of the decadent selections looked to be the Signature Deconstructed Brownie Sundae, and indeed it was with a wedge of chocolate brownie and a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, all of it drizzled with chocolate sauce and house caramel crème Chantilly (photo: http://bit.ly/14KqsP3). Yep, my sash says "Phat Ass".

DESSERT & COFFEE - 3 stars...intensely sweet dessert was probably what we didn't deserve...oh well...but the Americano was rich & piping hot (photo: http://bit.ly/14M4QS3 )
AMBIANCE - 3 stars...Euro-clubby with a high Asian youth quotient
SERVICE - 3.5 stars...I thought the striking waitress was quite serviceable
TOTAL - 3 stars...schoolteacher or stripper, it's what you want it to be....'cause I've got her bad, got her bad, got her bad...I'm hot for teacher!

I loved the concept of combining a bar with a cafe, but I didn't like the execution. I felt like I would have liked this place more if I was a college student. I saw many students with their laptops sitting at the tables near the window.

SERVICE: Bad. Service could differ greatly based on the day and who is working at the establishment, so I don't let it influence my review too much, but I really hated the attitude of the bar tender here. It was so bad that I will probably never return to Sugar Cafe. Attitude is not something I could easily describe in words, so I won't get into it too much, but as I was observing her bad attitude, I thought to myself, I really needed to start kissing up to her so that I could receive adequate service. Then I remembered - hey, I am the paying customer.

ATMOSPHERE: A nice fireplace, which is perfect for a cold day during the summer. Entrance area, with the two walkup computers, is pretty ugly. I know they designed it to be stylish, but I just didn't find the place cozy.

I came during the day when it's more of a cafe than a lounge. It's a nice space with lots of interesting art hung everywhere and comfy leather couches. A lot of people were on their laptops using the free wifi.

I had the Classic Matcha Soda which was actually pretty disappointing. It was basically matcha green tea powder with club soda but all I tasted was club soda. Bleh. My friend's Greensycle was really good though! It was basically the same as my drink but also mixed with orange juice.

They also have a lot of sandwiches to choose from but since we came after lunch, we were too full to eat. We were hoping they'd have a wide selection of pastries (it IS called Sugar Cafe after all) but surprisingly, they didn't really have any! They only had some muffins in their tiny plastic display on the counter. Booo.. disappointment.

I think this place would be a lot better at night when it becomes a lounge.

Service is TERRRRRIBLEEEEEEE, maybe because we went in the afternoon around 5ish and it just wasn't happenin' or what.

Other than that, we had the Cappuccino Cheesecake, which was extremely rich, thick, and flavorful. There were sprinkles of real coffee beans here and there, which added to the richness of the flavor. It was good, but I definitely could not finish the whole thing because it was just too rich.

The only thing saving this place from a bad review was the cozy fireplace. Too bad it illuminated the worn-down leather sofas...sigh...

Came here with my husband and 2 of my dogs for lunch last week while visiting San Francisco. Since we were with our dogs, we sat outside. By the way, there are only a few small tables outside and honestly, if we could have, we would have preferred to eat inside.

Anyways, when I came inside to place our lunch order, I noticed how there are plenty of outlets available, right next to the tables (which of course is always a nice touch if you are surfing the net.... and yes they have free wifi here). The cashier/barista/ bartender I placed my order with was pretty friendly. But I felt that he must have been too familiar with taking orders since he was processing my order in a little on the slow side (but I am not usually an impatient person). Since this took a little longer than normal, 1 woman behind me seemed very upset about waiting in line and just left.

Anyways, this is what we ordered:

Cranberry turkey wrap- I ordered this with a side salad (the lunch box special that I ordered comes with a side salad, cole slaw, potatos, or chips). I really enjoyed the wrap. It was very flavorful and creamy. I loved the pesto sauce and the cranberries. The cranberries really added just a hint of sweetness and in one bite, everyone just went so well together. The wrap was plenty for me to have as a lunch. The side salad I got was made of the dark green leafys, which is something I love (MUCH better than that cheap iceberg lettuce crap) and it was nice and cold and fresh. I also liked how I was able to request for my dressing to be on the side. Overall, this entree was a total win for lunch.

French dip sandwich- I ordered this with cole slaw. My husband enjoyed his sandwich. He thought that the sandwich was not skimpy on the meat and he thought the dip/ sauce given to him to dip his sandwich in was very good. He also liked the cole slaw and liked that it wasn't dry, nor an overkill of excess mayo.

We both got ice tea & 2 cookies (The lunch box special, which is $10 each, also comes with a drink and a cookie or brownie). The ice teas were pretty standard. As for the cookies, I picked one cookie that was half vanilla and half chocolate. The other cookie I picked was an all chocolate cookie. The vanilla and chocolate cookie was dry and crumby and really reminded me of something you could buy at the market bakery, so it was just average. The other cookie I got was actually pretty good and very chocolately. (It had chocolate chips and the cookie itself was chocolate).

Wait time for our lunch was not too long.

Overall, we both enjoyed our lunch and felt satisfied.

By the way, parking is only street (metered) parking.

Quick update because of a new brunch item: asian pork belly sliders.

They are really yummy however on their own, not too filling. I would order it as something to share versus a brunch entree. The braised pork belly is wonderfully tender and flavorful especially when dipped into the sweet soy dipping sauce. Nice alternative to usual brunch fare.

Bottomless mimosa is still on for brunch but now with a set time limit. Weird that our first carafe of mimosas came with ice in it but all was good after when we told them not to. Staff are nice and accommodating as usual. For a low key boozy brunch around union square, Sugar Cafe is still one of your few options but a decent one at that.

First time I came here when it was in 'bar' mode instead of 'cafe' mode.

Happened to come here on St Patrick's Day so it was nice not being around a bunch of belligerent drunks that can barely stand up.

They had some kind of special on all drinks because of St Paddys and the special ran til 9pm which was great! We got 5 high end cocktails for $35!!!! We were like 'load 'em up!'

But otherwise it has a great fireplace out front, high top tables and small tables in the back or the full bar.

Would've been awesome if they had table service though as it was hard at times getting drinks but someone was constantly coming around picking up our empty glasses.