san francisco

[stuart954]

i will be staying at the westin st francis for a few days looking for the best places to dine love ethnic low key restaurants

[annachan]

I don't know of too many places by the St. Francis....are you able to travel to other neighborhoods?

[stuart954]

I don't know of too many places by the St. Francis....are you able to travel to other neighborhoods?

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sure

[ingridsf]

Clement Street in the Inner Richmond neighborhood is a treasure trove of terrific low-cost restaurants that represent a broad range of Asian cuisines. A couple of my favorites are:

Burma SuperStar on Clement between 4th and 5th Avenues. The ginger salad, the tea salad, the noodles, and curries are all fabulous.

Minh's Garden on Clement between 3rd and 4th Avenues is Vietnamese. I particularly like the hot and sour soup with prawns, the imperial rolls, coconut curry chicken, and best of all, the rice noodle bowl with bbq'd park with imperial roll.

I feel like I should name places in the Mission for Latin food but my brain's squishy right now. But if you go out for lunch with others and have the time, I heartily recommend Cha Cha Cha on Haight St at Shrader for small-plate stuff. They've got prawns in a Cajun cream sauce, jerked chicken, mussels, plantains with black beans and crema, fried new potatoes with aioli, mushrooms sauteed with shallots and Sherry... Basically, I like everything. But I don't care for it in the evening when it gets packed and loud. At lunch it's festive but not over the top.

You can have a great meal at all these places for very little money. I'm sure others will have tons of other recs. Good luck!

[annachan]

Here are several casual, low price and low key places:

Golden Mandalay on California and 6th Ave in the Richmond area has great Southeast Asian food. Really good samosas, satays, tea salad, and entrees like smoked duck, rainbow chicken and rangoon beef.

Hard Knox Cafe has great soul food on 3rd St by 22nd St, not far from the ballpark. I absolutely love the fried chicken and catfish. The corn muffins are served piping hot, some of the best I've ever had.

Tangarine at the corner of 16th and Sanchez serves great brunch and dinner. The menu is Pan-Asian/Asian fusion. For brunch, we really like the zucchini latke, Thai chicken sandwich and the many different omelets. For dinner, the appetizers such as the chicken cake and corn fritters really shine. I love just getting several appetizers and making a meal out of them, like tapas.

Los Flamingos on Noe and Henry has really good Cuban and Mexican food. I love the fried pork and plantain. Cafe Cubano and guacamole was great also.

Old Mandarin Islamic on Vicente and 42nd has great Northern Chinese food. You'll find many specialties like dumplings, cold dishes and warm pot.

On the Bridge in Japantown has surprisingly good Japanese curries and pastas. I love the build-your-own curry it which you choose the ingredients and the heat of the sauce and the chicken and mushroom pasta with a sprinkling of nori.

There are some other great places in the city, but many of them are loud and crowded.

Wherever you end up dining at, hope you enjoy your meals.

[Carolyn Tillie]

But if you go out for lunch with others and have the time, I heartily recommend Cha Cha Cha on Haight St at Shrader for small-plate stuff.  They've got prawns in a Cajun cream sauce, jerked chicken, mussels, plantains with black beans and crema, fried new potatoes with aioli, mushrooms sauteed with shallots and Sherry... Basically, I like everything.  But I don't care for it in the evening when it gets packed and loud.  At lunch it's festive but not over the top.

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I've never been to Cha Cha Cha, but whenever my friends Amy & Liz go, they bring me their leftoevers. I heartily recommend the spinach and bacon salad, whatever it is with shredded pork and tortillas, the black beans and dirty rice, and the ceviche.

I guess I should actually eat the food at the restaurant some time!

[ingridsf]

But if you go out for lunch with others and have the time, I heartily recommend Cha Cha Cha on Haight St at Shrader for small-plate stuff.  They've got prawns in a Cajun cream sauce, jerked chicken, mussels, plantains with black beans and crema, fried new potatoes with aioli, mushrooms sauteed with shallots and Sherry... Basically, I like everything.  But I don't care for it in the evening when it gets packed and loud.  At lunch it's festive but not over the top.

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I've never been to Cha Cha Cha, but whenever my friends Amy & Liz go, they bring me their leftoevers. I heartily recommend the spinach and bacon salad, whatever it is with shredded pork and tortillas, the black beans and dirty rice, and the ceviche.

I guess I should actually eat the food at the restaurant some time!

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Do it! Take the plunge! I almost forgot the fried calamai and the chicken paillards in mustard sauce. We really need an emoticon that's a drooling smiley face.

The aioli with the new potatoes is spiked with pasilla. They're better than Thirsty Bear's, in my opinion.

It's my mom's favorite SF restaurant. We had a fantastic lunch for three where we were stuffed and he bill was around fifty bucks.