Where to eat near 8th and Brannan

[chocolatetartguy]

I'll be picking at the Antiquarian Book Fair at the Concourse Exhibition Center - 635 Eighth Street at Brannan. Are their any places to eat very near to there. I've been going to the little not-so-greasy spoon across 7th run by two nice Chinese ladies. They have the usual burger joint fare plus a weekday special rice plate and homemade apple raisin pie.

[spincast]

Taqueria Dos Amigos on Brannan between REI and the Jewelry Center. Good tacos, glass bottle Coke.

[Dave MP]

Yellow Pa Taut is the newish Burmese place by the courthouse.

Good tea leaf and samusa salads, mohinga, etc.

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Yellow Pa Taut
15 Boardman Pl, San Francisco, CA 94103

[ML8000]

There's a hot dog place in Trader Joe's mall/parking lot. Also there's Costco...can't beat the $1.50 dog and coke deal.

Okay, for real food and burger and such there Holy Grill. Drove by it for a couple of years and finally stopped. It was a good burger. Good beef, fair prices. It's on the other side of the Expo Center.

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Holy Grill
659 Townsend St, San Francisco, CA 94103

[pilinut]

Patisserie Philippe for lunch! It's on Townsend between 7th and 8th, so just one block away from you. They may have the best French pastries in town (Philippe trained with Lenotre) and the salads and sandwiches are very good, too.

I was just there for lunch today, and they have two new pastries, Verdon (named for Rene Verdon, JFK's White House Chef) and the Obama! Of course, I had to try th Obama, and I think it's namesake would have approved: chocolate rum cake, coconut mousse, and Italian meringue on top.

[chocolatetartguy]

Excellent suggestion. I'm hoping they will be there Friday afternoon or possibly on the weekend.

[pilinut]

They're closed Sundays, and open until around 5 or 6 pm. Here's the link to their website:

http://patisseriephilippe.com/

Mmmmm. . . . Coffee, pastry, and a beautiful rare book (or 10). . . Sounds like a very nice day. Good luck!

[chocolatetartguy]

Thanks so much for the recommendation. PP will be my go-to eaterie whenever I attend an event at the Concourse.

I arrived late on Saturday afternoon and alas there were no more pastries in the case, except for one large tart. Despite having already eaten two tacos at El Novillo in Fruitvale, I resolved to have lunch and a very pleasant lunch it was.

I actually didn't get what I thought I had ordered. What they brought me was a Chicken Tartine, a heated openfaced chicken breast slice, tomato, mozzarella and pesto sandwich. The cheese was slightly browned, the pesto very garlicky, and the sandwich very tasty. I liked the accompanying salad even better: mixed greens dressed in a sweet vinaigrette. I would buy that dressing by itself. This very satisfying 2nd lunch cost barely over $6.

Since there were no fresh pastries, I bought a bag of palmier. I just opened the bag last night and they were (emphasis on past tense) scrumptious. Light and nicely browned so that the butter and sugar caramelized on the bottom.

Also tempting were a couple of the salads: one of ham, hardboiled egg, potato, chopped cornichon dressed in fresh mayo and a 2nd of garlic sausage and potato dressed in a vinaigrette.

[pilinut]

You are most welcome! I am just sorry you didn't get any pastry. I wonder if Michael Bauer's blog naming them best French patisserie had anything to do with that. (But remember, it was on chowhound before MB got there! And he wrote much more about PP's vienoisserie than pastry.)

I do like the salads there very much. The Chinese Chicken salad is a nice refinement on the usual overly sweetened version, and the Chicken Croissant (NOT the Chicken Arugula, which is too bland) is my favorite sandwich. For dessert, try the unprepossessing-looking apple slice--I'm sure with a handle like chocolatetartguy you will understand why. Enjoy!

[chocolatetartguy]

I think the rub was that it was Valentine's Day. PP seems to be a neighborhood favorite. I saw several young women come by for a sweet macaron treat. And despite the new development, my secret parking space was still open!

Have you tried their soups? The mushroom looked worth a try, but I had already had 2 tacos an hour before ...

[pilinut]

I haven't tried the mushroom soup, but I did have the French onion. I prefer the dark, beef broth version, and thought that the chicken based one at PP was a bit on the acidic side for my taste. (One of the very few things there that I'm not wild about.)

I do like the plain-looking Diamante cookies better than the mariposas (forgot what you call--oh, palmiers). Great texture to go with the buttery flavor.

[chocolatetartguy]

I saw those, but have always loved palmier since my Paw Paw used to buy them for us from a Ctown bakery (Eastern?). I liked everything about the place: the windows, the light, the cute little tables, the clean lines. After the book show I was running short on cash, but wanted to try the double chocolate cookies too. I'm not a macaron man. I tried them at Miette when they used to sell at the Berkeley Farmer's Market, but they didn't do anything for me. I am, after all, chocolatetartguy.

[Chuckles the Clone]

The New Crockery Cafe is a step up from Susie's (which I think is the Chinese-lady place
you're referring to?). The roast turkey sandwich is very nice. It may be closed on weekends.

It looks like things have changed at the restaurant at the Flower Market since I last
ate there but it at least used to be a decent option.

There are a number of base-of-potrero-hill options around 16th and DeHaro (which
due to the non-euclidian nature of the city in that area is not 8 blocks from 8th st).

[Chuckles the Clone]

[You'd think the chow people would have fixed this problem by now...]

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Crockery Cafe
1 Division St, San Francisco, CA

[kc72]

Grab something quick inside Trader Joes?

Henry's Hunan?

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Henry's Hunan Restaurant
1016 Bryant St, San Francisco, CA 94103

[sfwork]

Basil Thai is on Folsom (between 8th and 7th) -- very good Thai last I checked. You can also walk a ways to the Flower Market Cafe for very basic American diner food. And a really good Peruvian place called Mochica on Harrison and 5th.

[psb]

AK Subs has good sandwiches into mid-afternoon.
Mochica didnt do well on price-performance grounds in my reckoning.
I havent had the savory stuff at Patisserie Philippe, but I've had other
good stuff there and the savory stuff looked tempting.

[bbulkow]

I'm a fan of Basil Thai, but it's not your standard lunch-special-thai. I've been there for dinner only, and they do a moderately upscale thai-small-plate-fusion thing. Love the roti bread.

In that nabe:

Schnitzelhaus - looks like they only do lunch on fridays, might be an interesting change.

Catty-corner is India Garden, a perfectly serviceable indian place - rather remember liking it, actually.

I would consider all of these a little far for a working lunch, unless you wanted to stretch your legs.

Henry's might be a little heavy and gloppy, but it's good hunan.

Any word on "little piglet cafe" mid nineth between Harrison and Bryant?

[Mari]

Wow - roti??? That's exciting. Is this like the Thai version?
I was at the Basil Canteen a few weeks ago for dinner and it was quite nice, not your average run of the mill Thai place. We had a delicious appetizer of tapioca dumplings filled with spicy, crispy pork.

[bbulkow]

the roti's pretty good. A multilayer fall-apart-in-your-fingers multilayer pastry thing, perhaps too much butter/oil but CAN YOU HAVE TOO MUCH BUTTER?, and a great dipping sauce that struck me as more malasian (more coconut?) than thai.

Drop by - it's an interesting place. Not an earth-shaker, but a good eat.

[Melanie Wong]

Anyone tried the Cuban sandwich at Little Piglet?
http://littlepigletcafe.wordpress.com/

[realspear]

I really like Basil Thai, one of my favorite sit-down lunch places. Also, it's a bit of a hike, but Miss Saigon, another favorite, isn't much farther.