Jay’s Cheesesteak

Okay, so to be fair, Jay’s is exactly what you would expect from a Cheesecake shop on divis. The décor reminds me of a mini Denny’s mixed with a taqueria shop in the Mission. The menu is pretty straightforward. There were two of us getting food to go, so we ordered a few apps and each ordered our own sandwich. We got the app sampler, pretty solid and no shortage of food. It contained chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, fried zucchini and fried mushrooms. Our own complaint is that it came with two creamy mustard dipping sauces, which went with the chicken but seemed like an odd pairing for the rest of the items. Thinking ranch or marinara makes more sense.
Okay, so for the sandwiches. You wouldn’t close your eyes and think that you were in Phili, but for the cost, size and convenience, they were good sandwiches. My guy friend ordered the veggie option, so I didn’t try it, but he said it was good. (I took his word for it.)
I got the mushroom cheesesteak, and my only complaint was that it didn’t have peppers and onions too. I thought that the peppers and onions were a given and the mushrooms were a bonus. Not so much. If I go back, I will definitely ask for mushrooms, onions and peppers.
Bread was crunchy and fillings were tasty. The sandwich was so big I saved half for a snack a few hours later. If you are looking for a quick, tasty, easy meal this is your spot.

Got the mushroom cheesesteak and it tasted fine. They didn’t put mayo on it which was odd but overall a decent cheesesteak. Garlic fries were not so good. Very bland. The reason for 3 stars was because the dude behind the counter (bald headed /​manager type) was rude. From the moment we walked in (when it’s slow and there aren’t any customers) dude yelled from across the room «close the door!» Okay sorry. Oh did I mention he was having a full blown convo on the phone before greeting us or asking us if we needed help? Well anyways, I’d recommend the cheesesteak maybe hold off on the fries and take it to go.

Came here before a show at the Independent. Got the mushroom cheesesteak and it was fast, hot and tasty — they’ve got a few good beers on tap too so that was great. Their seasoned fries are pretty good too!

Great beer on tap for cheap (ish) and the best veggie SEITAN sandwich in SF.
Mushroom Seitan and spicy cherry pepper seitan are great!
Always VERY friendly and great service here. Jay’s, Little Star and The Page Bar make Divisadero a destination for us.
The best veggie sandwiches here, yes, the atmosphere is cold, but the food makes up for it.
Still, they should darken it up, less «hot dog on a stick» décor and advertise the great SEITAN they have.
We crave this place all the time, nothing else like it!
I know it changes but for the last year, Almanac IPA and Deschutes Fresh Squeezed as cheap as it gets.

Stopped in for a quick dinner with the boyfriend. The décor is odd – strangely depressing, considering the bright cartoon murals on the walls. I don’t know if it was cafeteria lighting or a dark curse, but while it smells great in there, the mood reeks. The guy behind the counter was very curt – I know it wasn’t just me, because he was the same with the guy in front of me. He barely acknowledged me when I approached the counter, just waited for me to blurt out my order. Alright, no need for niceties, maybe the cheesesteaks are that good.
I ordered Jay’s Favorite Cheesesteak, and my boyfriend asked for a regular cheesesteak over fries, without the bun. Maybe that’s blasphemous, I don’t know. Jake’s will put a cheesesteak on a salad, these guys can put it on a plate of fries, right? No, confusion.
Well anyway, we got our food piping hot. Melted the roof of my mouth, I was so eager to gobble it up. It was ok. Not great. But so few things in this world are. It was a sandwich. My BF said it was bland.
Was it bad? No way. Would I eat here again? No way.

Had a mix up with Grub Hub. Ordered from the wrong location and it came up as a pick up order instead of delivery. My mistake, accidents happen. I had no car available to me to pick up my order and wasn’t about to take an hour long bus ride to pick it up as it was already close to midnight at this point. I explain my situation to them and the guy on the phone tell’s me I’m «Messed up,» and then hangs up on me before I can say anything back. Its probably best he did because I was ready to cuss him out for being such a rude dick. You have to work really hard for me to get upset enough to leave a bad review. I HATE leaving bad reviews. I think it’s bad karma. I would have just let it go but on top of that they would not refund my order and charged me for food I never ate! So I’d say they deserve this one. Luckily Grubhub did issue me a refund because they’re awesome. Screw this place!

I really tried to give this place a chance. I’ve been here a bunch of times. The cheesesteaks are good — if you get them plain. No lettuce or it will be soggy.
DO NOT order a burger, whatever you do. I’ve never been so embarrassed. I brought a friend from out of town here, and it was all bad. The burger was so disgusting. It was dry and obviously frozen. The bun was BURNT.
The fries cost $ 4.95 each for garlic, curly, or seasoned. The fries were definitely frozen, and pretty much tasted like they were from Jack in the Box. The garlic on the frozen fries seemed like garlic powder.
It was like snack bar food…
Beer for $ 5 puts you into a $ 20 meal. Now I know why there was nobody in here. It’s just not worth it. There’s just too many better places to go. Can’t believe we paid that much for such terrible food. Never again.

Philly Cheesesteaks don’t have lettuce on them and it really should never be an option. For shame!

This is not a cheesesteak. Raised in the shadow of Philadelphia, I’m well within my right to claim that this place is not legit. They put on some sort of Mexican spices that make it taste more like a taco than a cheese steak. Not ok. Avoid this place if you want a cheese steak. BUT – go to this place of you want a taco steak.

The service is great, BEST garlic fries anywhere! Best part was when I was given more fries for free because he thought he hadn’t made enough!

My wife and I had only previously dined in at Jay’s since we live on the same block, and everything is decent, but last night we ordered delivery. Although the food was fine, the delivery guy, wearing full bicycle gear like he was in a bike race, was UNBELIEVABLY rude.
As soon as I opened the door to get the food, the look on the guy’s face seemed like repulsion. I thought I was imagining things, but when i asked him «is this everything?» he didn’t respond, so I asked him again, and he continued to ignore me; he wouldn’t even look me in the eye. As he turned his back on me, I gave a hollow «thanks» but was taken aback by his horrible attitude. I immediately told my wife what happened, but we realized the delivery guy was still outside our window, and was commenting on our conversation.
I can’t be certain what was the underlying problem with that guy, but he clearly had zero customer service skills, and doesn’t deserve a job that involves customer-​facing.

This place is hit or miss. Either it’s really good, or it’s really just meh. I guess the line cook turnover is the reason. The owner could be a little more friendlier to his customers. Smile. Say «hello, welcome to jay’s», or something.

Waited 25 minutes for the wrong order. They weren’t even busy. Dudes behind the counter were constantly asking customers what they ordered while cooking, so no wonder they got it wrong. We weren’t the only ones.
Cheesesteak is fine, but not great. It’s served on baguette, not a soft hoagie, and you’ll have to ask them to leave off the lettuce and tomato if you want an authentic cheesesteak. Who puts pickles on a cheesesteak? No wiz cheese. Like I said; fine, not great.
I’m listening to the dude in charge argue with a customer about their order right now. They’re drunk, otherwise they’d probably be pissed.
If you’re drunk and/​or really, really want a cheesesteak, go here. I guess. Otherwise, go elsewhere. This place is kind of a joke.
PS: While we were sitting (and I was writing this review), the dude in charge came over, apologized, and offered us a free cheesesteak to go. That’s classy. Didn’t have to do that. 1 star turns into 3 stars.

I really love Jay’s. Whenever I’m in SF (which isn’t often these days) I make a point to eat here. Delicious, vegan cheesesteaks. Seriously so damn good. My entire family is vegetarian and we all love this spot.

Incredibly, I’ve never been to this place in the few years I’ve lived in the neighborhood. I knew they had seitan cheesesteaks AND french fries, yet something prevented me from trying it out.
That something was stupidity. For a very reasonable price, I recently tried their original seitan cheesesteak and an order of the seasoned fries. It was delicious and easily enough food for two people. The seitan was shredded and grilled to perfection and you really can’t go wrong with seasoned fries.
Since they don’t have vegan cheese (or mayo), you’ll have to go out without if you’re of the vegan persuasion. But even with all the lettuce, tomato, pickles, and seitan piled on the sandwich, it was relatively easy to add my own cheese and mayo on the sandwich when I got home.
Now that I know this wonderful option is a couple blocks away, I’ll definitely be stopping by on the regular.

Really, really bad. The meat on the cheesesteak tasted like it had previously been frozen or something. Super mushy, no flavor at all, even looked kind of off color. If you get everything on it, it comes with shredded lettuce and mustard. Two things that should never be put on a cheesesteak. The seasoned fries were decent but would never come back here. Sorry, Jay!

The customer service I received from these 2 guys was horrible!!! They obviously don’t care about the growth of there Mon and pop shop…
I will not go back based on that alone…
The food was okay…

i was beyond underwhelmed. My usual place doesn’t deliver via
and I was craving a cheesesteak. I figured since they’ve been around forever that they must be somewhat decent. The meat was beyond bland, it was definitely under-​seasoned. The lettuce was warm and squishy. In retrospect I should have ordered it without. Come to think of it why would they even offer lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and mayo in the first place? This was an unglorified ground beef sandwich. If it wasn’t for the delicious jalapeño poppers, it would have been 1 star. But it’s hard to screw that up.
I’ll be sticking with the Cheese Steak Shop for sure. Hey, start delivering guys.

This was the absolute worst cheesesteak I’ve ever had. I ordered the original and it wasn’t even made with steak… it was ground beef. And it came with pickles and lettuce? It was more like an under seasoned ground beef sandwich. We also ordered the chicken cheesesteak and that was inedible as well. This was my first time and last time ordering from this restaurant. Maybe they should just stick to vegan food.

Do not order from these guys. First they didn’t have what we wanted and the alternative we agreed on wasn’t what arrived at my door. OK, everyone makes mistakes but when we complained they refused to do anything, no refund, nothing.
In other words, they will screw up and when they do it’s your problem, not theirs. This is SF, we have good food here. When you can get good food why go somewhere that sucks?