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My Tenderloin SF food guide.
Don’t come if you’re an anti-homeless weirdo. This is for good people.
1. Estrellita Snacks
My favorite Salvadoran-Oaxacan restaurant. They have BIRRIA PUPUSA. Their pupusas are all great. I like them more than the well known ones in the Mission. I also like their birria more than anything else in the Mission. Their mole is also better than anything in the Mission (ties with Cocina Mama Cholita, which is my fave otherwise).
2. Hai Ky Mi Gia
They have the best Vietnamese - Teochew noodles, almost 90% the same as Singapore style ‘meepok’ breakfast noodles.
I get house special no 7, with flat egg noodles, soup on the side (dry version), with a side of braised duck, and homemade soy milk.
Homemade soy milk tastes nothing like the yucky western grocery store boxed soy milk
3. Mong Thu
My favorite all around Vietnamese restaurant. I like their banh mi more than Saigon sandwich and I like their soup noodles more than Pho2000.
Their bun mam and bun rieu are very very good and the item no 1 (banh uot cha lua) is great too. They also have a non-tofu vegan banh mi (sells out v early) with vegan aioli etc. excellent Vietnamese coffee. cash only
4. Sai Jai Thai
My favorite all around Thai restaurant in the city. Food is properly spicy, unlike the more famous Thai place that people like around the corner.
Their yum pla dook is excellent. Their best dish is the kor moo yang: Isaan style bbq pork. I never want to share it with anyone, so we get one per person. Which is excessive, but it’s really good.
They also have ‘fried chicken bones’ which SE Asians enjoy. Little morsels of nuggets, bones on.
5. A world of bánh mì
People love saigon sandwich. But it’s not my thing. It is too large and full of stuff and I don’t like the bread.
Instead, I go to Hello Sandwich, Tu Kim, Mong Thu or Bo&Beurre or L&G. All within a few blocks.
6. The Tenderloin has a thriving Yemeni community. Almost all the groceries are run by someone in the community. Increasingly, more restaurants too.
Yemeni Kitchen and Yemeni Kabab are two Yemeni places I would go to for food. Often I just cook this food too but they do good food. I love heavily seasoned rice dishes so mandi and kabsa are what I order. Saltah is also great
7. There’s a circle of halal goodness in the TL. Kinara Fusion Kitchen is where people go on dates / family meals for Pakistani food that is a touch fancier.
They have golgappa (pani puri) shots and desi pizza.
The traditional foods are v good too. For those, there’s also Shalimar and Chutney and Pakwan the corner. I like diff things from each restaurant so I tend to buy one thing from each place and put it together.
8. Baked goods
Not only is the Arsicault in Civic Center much nicer and bigger than the one in the Richmond, they also have Parisian sandwiches. I love the jambon beurre sandwich. And the bacon scone. Their croissants are also the best and my French-raised wife says we can’t ever move beyond a 10 min walk from an Arsicault.
The French Spot has good salmon danish and Paris bakery has N African French baked goods.
9. Not strictly TL, but there’s a Central Asian restaurant called Sofiya along Sutter (border of TL & Nob Hill)? I always loved that place back when it was Halal Dastarkhan. It looks like a greatly expanded menu with more service now. Phenomenal kebabs and plov. And honey cake
10. My favorite all time SF restaurant is in the TL. It’s a little family run Cantonese-Venezuelan spot called Cantoo The Chinese menu is, to me better than Chinatown by a factor of 2, and the Venezuelan stuff is fun fusion too. Empanada. Black beans. The family was born in Venezuela and ran Chinese restaurants there. They speak English, Cantonese, Mandarin and Spanish.
11. My favorite all around non-sushi Japanese spot in the city is also in the area. Taniku is a small izakaya style place with a few starters, bowls, skewers and ramen. Their ramen isn’t as fancy as Mensho down the road but frankly I prefer their flavors and style of food.
They have a scallops and straciatella starter, hojicha panna cotta. I love those. Their skewers are the best without going to Rintaro. I love seafood ramen, esp their scallop miso ramen.
12. My struggle with sushi in San Francisco is it is often too expensive for what it is. Our top end sushi spots charge world class prices but are not world class. A $300 pp sushi meal is in SF not very different from a $50 sushi meal in Singapore. Or Thailand. So I never want to pay that money. (go to San Mateo for expensive sushi, like at Nagai)
Cheerful sushi I can do. Fishmandu in the TL is run by a Nepali couple who trained with a Japanese chef. To me, it’s the best cheapish sushi place
13. As mentioned previously, the TL has a huge Mayan community. Lots of them work in food service. Lots of them eat here after their shifts. So we have late night Yucatán restaurants. Los Yucatecos: Poc chuc and salbutes and panucho and relleno negro. Also El Sabor Yucateco
14. Delicious Sudanese food at Z Zoul cafe on Eddy. I also like Ararat Gyros and Van Ness cafe for wraps.
There’s a cute little sandwich place called Salty’s that has a delicious ‘Cardi B’ latte. A latte with cardamom and brown sugar
15. I rarely do tasting menus. I’m tired of the format. I’m tired of most fine dining concepts. Especially if it’s just generic French or new Californian. No thanks. I’d rather eat my shoe.
But Ox & Tiger is kind of cute. It’s a tiny spot run by a Filipino and Japanese couple. They do everything themselves. It’s very interactive. The food is about their stories. I liked it. At least the food tastes good and they do it with heart. Lots of high end SF spots don’t do well in either.
16. I’ve often been disappointed by Korean food in the city, but lately things have opened up and they are now in my neighborhood as well.
In the TL, Yasijang and Sungho for good quality and interesting Korean.
Further up Polk st I also like Maashita Galbi, and in Fillmore I also like Sikdang woori. These, along with Muguboka, are the main Korean spots I like
17. Often when people ask what they should eat if they’re watching a show in civic center I send them to Chao Pescao. Latin Caribbean food in a pretty setting. Make sure you have plenty of time tho, service can be a little slow.
18. Bar food and pizza
I actually really like the bar food at Shovels, a dive bar in the TL. They have fried cheese curds and also pretty good burgers. I like their burgers more than super duper. They also have vegan versions.
Nearby, outta sight has pizza happy hour and also good sandwiches. I am just very rarely a pizza and sandwich person, but when I feel like it, it’s good
19. There is a bunch of totally illegal street food vendors in the area. Some phenomenal tacos but I couldn’t tell you their opening hours or fixed locations. There was a guy slinging Yucatán street snacks like marquesita. A super tasty egg roll / love letter style snack with cheese AND chocolate. Omg
20. There’s a Mongolian cafe behind the public library now. Dumpling House Asian Cafe (not to be confused with dumpling house). Mongolian fried breads and piroshkis too.
This little neighborhood has so much great food. I live here partly because I don’t know how to live in areas where I have to travel *to* food. I’ve always had great food outside my door and the TL is the only place that really feels like that. Mission, too.
@skinnylatte It’s been a long time since I’ve been in your area, but the last time my sister and I were there, the people at our little boutique hotel near Chinatown were aghast when we said we were going to the TL. They literally acted like we said we were volunteering for human sacrifice. 
@MissConstrue hope you got tasty food!!
@skinnylatte Indeed! And a nightclub full of what I can only assume were vampires. And this coming from the Fairy Gothmother herself. Even I was out-gothed. 
@skinnylatte oof, I wish I weren't so lazy, these all sound amazing!
The city should pay you for doing these, but somehow I doubt you want to do business with them ever again.
@skinnylatte aha, the TL *is* a hotbed of illegal activity just like I was always told!
@dan it’s all tasty
@skinnylatte Mayan food is, literally, one of the finest cuisines in the world. The food in Mérida was much better than most of the food I've had in Paris, Barcelona, or -- sorry about this! -- San Francisco.
(The only city that beat it was Marseilles, France.)
All of it is DELICIOUS!