The Westfield is a mid to high range shopping mall in the heart of downtown San Francisco. Though mostly it's a tourist and teen hangout so when we go it's to see a movie at the theater there. This particular visit also included a journey to the underground food court. Since The Westfield has positioned itself as not your average mall they've tried to upgrade the normal food offerings you'd see at a suburban mall--no Sbarro or Panda Express here. Some places have managed to stick around while a few others have come and gone. One newish (about a year now) place there is Caffe Central (sorry no website).
They have cases of sandwiches and salads on one side and sweets on the other and they do serve Blue Bottle Coffee. I'll venture to say they are a lot like a La Boulange without trying to be too French. Most items are $6-$7 and for $2 more you can add one of their salads and with that in mind we got these....
Vegetable quiche with quinoa salad and chicken olivet salad (their variation of chicken olivier salad) on wheat roll with a barley kale salad. I was trying to be healthy by getting the veggie quiche--what I liked about it--the egg was nice and fluffy and the crust was deliciously flaky and buttery, it was the best part of it. The veggies were a mix of spinach, mushrooms and red peppers--things I like but I wish they had been cut into smaller pieces. The large chunks gave it some weird texture issues for me but it's a quibble, overall it was still tasty and served warm. The quinoa was perfectly done with small bits of red and green peppers and capers, lightly seasoned with a little dash of salt and pepper. I really liked it and felt good about eating it.
The chicken olivet salad was a variation on chicken olivier salad just without the potatoes and olives. This one had the chicken, peas, carrots, cornichons, capers and what I'm going to call a dijonnaise--a cross between mayo and spicy mustard. It had a tart tangy taste akin to vinegar almost, can't say I was the biggest fan. Plus the bread was served straight out of the case--cold--making it tough to bite and chew. Which causes the filling to just squirt out, it's no way to make a sandwich. They need to figure out a better way or use a different bread that doesn't get so hard refrigerated. The side salad had kale, barley, garbanzo beans, red and green peppers--coated liberally with olive oil. It had a nice crunch and a green earthy taste, not a bad thing, but again a healthy thing. Very leafy yet not bitter which kale can sometimes be. I enjoyed it but the quinoa was better to me. I think either salad would be a good choice.
After eating all this healthy stuff a decided to treat myself from the dessert case.
Yeah, I know, I'm rationalizing, but don't care. I went basic and got the chocolate dipped chocolate chip cookie. I'll give it 2.5 stars, it was okay, but I've had way better cookies in this town. The part not dipped was a little too crumbly and overly sugary. The coated part was slightly better as the semi-sweet dark chocolate tempered it and kept that part of the cookie from falling apart. Oh, well, that's what I get, should have stopped with the salad. I would say next time I'll know better, but where desserts are concerned I'll usually indulge and run it off later.
Overall though food here is decent and a step up from your usual mall fare, from the choices you have to the good for your waistline salads on offer. But if that's not your bag you can always go for the sweets and some Blue Bottle, either way they probably have something you will want to try.
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