GrubGirl.

I wrote about Old Mandarin Islamic previously and was not so impressed with it as a place for dirt cheap bargain bites – the bites that manage to not surpass the $5 per entree ceiling.

After some heavy persuading by Ms. Stein, who was looking for some reminders of her time spent teaching in China (read: she’s been there, I haven’t, this was going to make for a fun visit), we ventured off to the boonies (40-something street and Vicente) to get some Saturday brunch. I was going to call this post “My Asian Muslim Restaurant” but decided against it…those of you that keep up with Bay Area news may get what I’m referring to.

T-28 Bakery & Cafe
1757 Taraval Street
at 28th Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94101
(415) 682-8200

I went there with EC after playing some volleyball Friday night. It was billowing fog again…not your typical summer evening, unless you’re in San Francisco.

This place is way out in the Outer Sunset, serves a mainly Asian-American crowd, and serves Hong Kong-ish style or Malaysian-type Chinese food. That is, there are elements of a Western twist on the menu, like the Fried Spam Macaroni, or the Fried Ham and Cheese Roll.

Tomorrow I get to dine out with some friends that are fairly new to San Francisco. Fairly new equals lived in the city less than 3 years. We’re going to Shalimar on Polk, a place that in my circles, is known for wonderful Indian and Pakistani food and value. That is, my South Asian friends love to come here.
To share other grub-worthy Indian food cheap eats with my friends, I started thinking what other places that I took for granted in San Francisco:

• Naan-n-Curry (though unfortunately they’ve had to increase their prices while seemingly decreasing their portion sizes)

(415) 564-3481
Continuing on the Chronicle’s bargain bites path, I went with a couple friends to check out this restaurant. Did it really qualify for cheap eats, by San Francisco Chinese food standards? We went for a Saturday lunch, it was a nice day, and so we drove way out there to Vicente and the 40s.

First observations:

• No one else was there. It was high noon. Where were the diners? Hmmm.