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vegan brunching at herbivore in san francisco
12March 19th, 2011bay area, more restaurants (not LA), san franciscomy friends who live in the bay area jokingly refer to this restaurant as herbi-bore, in reference to what they say is bland food and an unimaginative menu. i don’t know though, it seems like i always end up having a pretty good experience at herbivore.
on our recent trip to san francisco, we decided to hit up the divisidero location for an early meal. one thing herbivore really has going for it is it opens daily at 9am and is one of the few places in the city to get a great vegan breakfast. we weren’t coming for breakfast though, even though it was morning time. after reading on the herbivore website that the “lunch and dinner menu is always available,” we had our hearts set on the grilled seitan shawarma, which we’d had before and is absolutely incredible.
unless i have reading comprehension problems, i think that means shawarma should be available at 9:30am
unfortunately, our waitress informed us that ONLY the breakfast menu is served at breakfast time, and she had no clue about the website. so sad. we’d walked across town for that shawarma, but had to settle on morning-appropriate food instead. luckily, it was pretty tasty.
we went with the tried and trusty breakfast burritos, which we’d eaten on a previous trip and quite enjoyed. the deal is, you get an absolutely humongous beast of a burrito in a wheat tortilla filled up with black beans, choice of scrambled tofu or tempeh, salsa, and guacamole for $9.75. ours were served with breakfast potatoes, although the website says they should be served with corn bread. (herbivore obviously needs to get their act together when it comes to their website).
WORD OF WARNING to people (like me) who hate bell peppers: even though they aren’t listed on the menu, these burritos are full of them. i learned that the hard way a couple years ago, and now always specify “no bell peppers” when ordering at herbivore. not hard to believe, considering the fact that their logo is a GIANT fucking bell pepper.
we ordered one burrito with tofu and one with tempeh, then split them down the middle…
tempeh breakfast burrito
both burritos were excellent, though i think the tofu scramble one was a wee bit better. the tempeh was a little bit sweet and maple-y for my taste, but the tofu was perfect. so, so, good for a savory breakfast.
scrambled tofu breakfast burrito
the potatoes were top notch as well—smashed up and pan fried with crispy edges and a fluffy center. i’d rather have these potatoes than corn bread any day, so you may want to ask for them when you order if it says corn bread on the menu.
i’m not gonna lie: we were pretty damn disappointed not to be able to eat the seitan shawarma at herbivore, but our breakfast wound up being pretty damn good. definitely hit up herbivore when visiting san francisco. sure, i’ve heard that some of the other menu items are bland and herbi-boring, but you can’t go wrong with the breakfast burrito.
check out herbivore’s website for a (hopefully accurate) list of locations and hours.
Tags: breakfast, burrito, san francisco
12 responses to “vegan brunching at herbivore in san francisco” 
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I agree with your friends. This place is very average.
Also, I get worried when I see pages and pages of menu items.
Bleh.
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Gregalor March 19th, 2011 at 10:04
I have no complaints about Herbivore, it’s good eats. Then again, I’m an out-of-towner, so I guess I haven’t been bored by it yet!
Yeah, extra points to any restaurant where a vegan can go and get a hot breakfast. So hard to find.
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Gauri Radha गौरी राधा March 19th, 2011 at 10:35
Looks good!
And I agree with Gregalor’s above comment, a good vegan breakfast is not easy to find in general. -
I ate at Herbivore in Berkeley, which I was nervous about because of the name herbibore. We ended up absolutely LOVING it.. I highly recommend the spinach & mushroom scramble and the sausage biscuit was amazing too! It was seriously the best vegan breakfast I’ve ever had. The mimosas were also perfect. I am still in shock that people don’t like this place.
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I too, learned that hard way that you could only eat breakfast at breakfast time there.
I had a pesto scramble that was delicious at the time, but hours later, when I was still burping the pesto, my stomach and nostrils begged to differ.
I did absolutely love the blueberry corn bread toasted with buttery spread and my dining companion loved the sausage and biscuits.
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TerraD March 20th, 2011 at 07:32
I love this place as well. Also, as a SoCal girl, visiting any place outside of LA where I can get a great vegan shake, excites me! BTW, try their shakes!! 🙂
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Cheddar March 20th, 2011 at 09:53
I’ve had better results at the Berkeley location – again, much like the SF Cha-Ya vs. Berkeley Cha-Ya, the Berkeley location is much better.
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Quarrygirl, the seitan shwarma is the BEST! So sad you couldn’t get it!
I totally agree with Torie that the Spinach Mushroom Scramble is the way to go for breakfast. The French Toast is great too!
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I loved this place! I’ve only eaten their once but I enjoyed the tofu scramble burrito and the pancakes. Maybe it’s because I was starving after running a half marathon — but it tasted pretty delicious to me. 🙂
EricM March 19th, 2011 at 09:25