Lunch or dinner near the Asian Art Museum?

[blkery]

Hey all,

I have an unplanned trip to SFO over the weekend - could someone please recommend an affordable lunch or dinner near the Asian Art Museum/Civic Center? I'm tempted to get a sausage at Rosamunde's and then walk over, but am not sure if time will allow (and I might be having a Happy Belly Dog the same day!).

Thanks!

[Melanie Wong]

If you're adverse to Asian flavors, then I'd skip the Happy Belly dog. Not worth the trip if you don't like kimchee or Japanese mayonnaise.

[Eugene Park]

If you don't mind walking about 7 city blocks or so (or hailing a cab, or braving MUNI), then Zuni Cafe and Espetus are within easy range of the AAM. I have a client that's a couple short blocks from the Museum, and we walk over to Zuni or Espetus for lunch all the time.

[wolfe]

While certainly chow worthy (Zuni) I wonder if a $15 plus tax and tip hamburger is an affordable lunch.
http://www.zunicafe.com/pdfs/zuni_lun...

[Eugene Park]

True. I zipped thru the OP's post and missed the affordable part of the request.

[siulan_99]

Max's Cafe on Van Ness, right across from McDonalds, near Golden Gate Ave.

[Ruth Lafler]

For inexpensive non-Asian, how about Gyro King?

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Gyro King
25 Grove St, San Francisco, CA 94102

[blkery]

Thanks everybody :) I have creepy food reactions that prohibit alot of Vietnamese and Thai options (and some Chinese and Japanese). I hope I don't sound like an unexplorative racist insulated Eurocentric Eugenist, but are there any good non-Asian venues around as well?

[wally]

I believe that "Asian-inflected" is probably non-asian enough for you.

[Pei]

Are fish n' chips unadventurous enough? Old Chelsea is tiny (read hole in the wall, there are no more than two tables, maybe even just one).

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Old Chelsea
932 Larkin St, San Francisco, CA 94109

[singleguychef]

Like some people mentioned, the museum has a cafe and if you're still hankering for a hot dog, they have a pretty big hot dog on the menu.

If you have the time and don't mind waiting, you might want to check out Brenda's French Soul Food, which is a tiny New Orleans-influenced place that's popular for brunch. It's only open during the day so not good for dinner option. If you decide to check it out for lunch, I would go early to try to get one of the early seatings and then head to the museum for the afternoon. But if you go later to Brenda's, you can expect to wait an hour or more on the weekends.

http://www.frenchsoulfood.com/

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Brenda's French Soul Food
652 Polk St, San Francisco, CA 94102

[Ruth Lafler]

The cafe is okay, but since you mentioned affordable, I'll say that it's expensive for what you get.

I also recommend going up Larkin -- if you're not in the mood for Vietnamese, one of the "hot on chowhound" Thai restaurants -- Lers Ros Thai -- is just up the street.

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Lers Ros Thai
730 Larkin St, San Francisco, CA

[BernalKC]

There are also plenty of Bahn Mi options in the Tenderloin, and no shortage of Chowhound topics covering that ground.

Here is a topic with a link to a google map of Bahn Mi restos: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/585484
And here is a link to the map that, with some luck, will zoom right into the area near the Asian Art Museum: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF...

[Rapini]

There is a very good cafe in the museum itself. Food is good, and there's outside seating available if the weather's nice.

Beyond that, Soluna (across McAllister from the museum) is pretty good; and there's a California Pizza Kitchen at Van Ness and Redwood Alley, if you're so inclined.

The museum faces Larkin Street; if you walk up Larkin, you'll be in the Lttle Saigon district--e.g., Bodega Bistro, Saigon Sandwiches, etc--as well as Larkin Express [burmese], and Cafe Ramind [vaguely Hawaiian, good sadwiches and rice plates

[dordogne]

There is a charming cafe in the Museum that serves tasty, Asian-inflected fare. Cafeteria-style line, but much better than cafeteria-style food.