Allen T.'s Profile

Darren's serves up surprisingly good Vietnamese and american breakfast right in the heart of Fisherman's wharf. I live just a couple blocks from Darrens and I regularly go for the pho ga (aha chicken noodle soup). Their BBQ chicken is outstanding, and is great over rice (with fish sauce) or in their BBQ chicken noodle soup.  My favorite soup is the BBQ chicken with egg noodles (instead of rice noodles).

The american breakfast is pretty good too - if you're really hungry, try the chicken fried steak with eggs.

The service is very friendly, and the food comes out super quickly. It's also very reassuring to see that they have an open kitchen, and you can watch your food being cooked.

The only drawbacks are that the place often gets crowded during lunch, especially during tourist season, and they're not open for dinner. (I'd definitely make Darren's my regular breakfast, lunch, AND dinner spot if they were open past 5pm)

DeLise is named after Dennis and Eloise, the super friendly couple that run this delicious dessert cafe.  They make fantastic ice creams and sorbets in the store, and are happy to give out samples. Their pastries are delicious - be sure to try the mini cupcakes and the brownies, and wash it down with a french press four barrel coffee.

Tanguito is  the best place to eat the wharf, and I've been a regular customer for a couple years since I live in the area.  I take all my friends here, and everyone has always loved it.

The paella is fantastic, the rice is cooked perfectly, and has generous portions of calamari, mussels, imitation crab, and other seafood. (the exact mixture of seafood seems to vary depending on what they have fresh). The paella is delicious and very filling, but it does take a long while (sometimes almost 30 minutes) for them to cook it.

Another outstanding item is their beef short ribs. They go great with the paella, and are grilled to perfection.

The burger, empanadas, and the chroipan are awesome!  Everything is outstanding. The crepes are great too! Best of all, the owners are super friendly.

If you have a dog, Tanguito's patio is very dog friendly too!

Since everything is cooked up fresh, you might have to wait a long time for the food. They do take phone orders, so you can call ahead and place your order to shorten the wait.

The Codmother is run by a friendly British lady who was was homesick for authentic fish and chips made from codfish. She makes delicious fish and chips using the freshest sustainably caught Alaskan cod.

The cod is fried up light, flaky, and fluffy, and goes great with a bit of vinegar. The only thing that could make it more authentic would be if the entire serving was wrapped up in newspaper, however the Codmother says that they stopped doing that in England at least a decade ago.

The codmother also makes some delicious fish tacos, with her own homemade baja sause.

The Codmother also takes really good care of her regulars, and she's super friendly and talkative. Highly recommended!

Tony's Pizza Napoletana is one of the very best things about living in North Beach. The pizza, the staff, the bar, and Tony himself are all 5 stars!

The Margherita pizza is a must have, but since they're limited to only 73 a day, you need get in early to make sure you can still order one. Tony's Margherita is so good that he even won the pizza world cup in Naples!

A must have appetizer is the Meatball Gigante! It's a giant meatball as big as a softball, covered in marinara sause. The Meatball Gigante is so awesome, that I dream about it.  Sometimes when I close my eyes, I can still see, and even smell a Gigante Meatball right in front of me.

Other fantastic choices are the New Yorker (classic sausage, peperoni, and garlic) and the very special Pizza Romana, which is 3 pizzas in one!

The Sicilian Style pizzas are also magnificent. I know I'm going to go to hell for saying this, but Tony's Sicilian is even better than Golden Boy. I feel terrible for saying that, but it's true.

I'm so happy that I live within walking distance of Tony's. I go there every week!

Most mornings, I fall out of bed and stumble into Cafe Francisco looking for coffee and food. I'm  really grumpy before I get my coffee, but the fine folks at Cafe Francisco are always friendly and quick.  

Their breakfast bagels are pretty tasty, and their coffee has plenty of caffeine. I usually have several cups (free refills!) every morning.  

Cafe Francisco is a good place to work, they have free wifi, and the booths are nice and big. However, only the tables by the front have power. The tables outside on the sidewalk are great on sunny days.

Their sandwiches are pretty good too, the roast beef is highly recommended.

So much food, for so little money! Unlike most Japanese restaurants, Miyabi Sushi serves up tons of food at an affordable price.

The udon soups are excellent lunch values guaranteed to fill you up, and are served with a small salad, making it a healthy meal.

The Miyabi Lunch Special is awesome if you're hungry, or if you're like me and just like to eat a lot.  It's chicken teriyaki, with a California roll, shrimp and vegetable tempura, steamed veggies, croquette (fried mashed potatoes), tsukemono (pickled veggies), with a bowl of rice, a bowl of miso soup, and a bowl of salad. All for $10!!! So awesome!!

The staff is very friendly, and best of all, they're in North Beach!

It was so long ago, it might have just been a dream. I wanted some tacos, and this awesome hipster girl took me to the El Tonayense taco truck on Harrison and 22nd. She tried every taco truck and taqueria in the Mission, and she said this was the best one.

When we got there, I was shocked to see that not only did they have patio seating, they even had a perfect 100% score from the city health department!

Taco Truck Girl explained to me that taco trucks are superior to taquerias because the meat is fresher. They grill each taco to order, making the meat nice and crispy. The tripitas (aka tripe, cow stomach) tacos were awesome! They were crispy like hash browns, but made out of tripe! So heavenly and delicious, I could live on tripitas tacos!!

The lengua (cow tongue) and cabeza (cow cheeks) tacos are awesome too! The perfect compliment to these awesome tacos is a bottle of  Mexican coke,  served in a real glass bottle, sweetened with real sugar.

And after introducing me to the best taco truck ever, taco truck girl disappeared, never to be seen again. Did she even exist, or did I imagine the whole thing while in a drunken hangover? I guess I'll never know, but thank you Taco Truck Girl, for showing me El Tonayense on 22nd and Harrison, the best taco truck in world.

Citizen Chain is a super friendly neighborhood bike shop in North Beach. They specialize in old vintage bikes and do an amazing job restoring neglected beaters to their former glory. They also have a nice selection of new bikes for commuters and for people who want to ride around for fun.

Dallas (the owner) and Henry (the mechanic) are really knowledgeable about bikes and are very chatty and friendly. There's never any pressure to buy anything, and they're not snobby at all. In fact, the older and more beat up your ride is, the more they'll love it.

Henry did a great job truing some wheels for me, and did a nice job tuning my road bike. I've also bought a bunch of parts from them, and they encouraged me to take a bunch of their bikes out for test rides around North Beach, just for fun.

Citizen Chain is a fantastic neighborhood bike shop, run by really friendly guys who know a lot about bikes.

Focus. Determination. Always finish what you start. You can do it.

2 hours, and 5 courses into the meal, I was ready to explode.  My belt was unbuckled, my gut distended, and the main course still had not even come out yet!  I had already come this far, and there's no way I'm doggie bagging it home.

Downing a giant serving of the City's best calamari as an appetizer prior to a huge 7 course Osso Bucco might have been too ambitious, but the food was so good! And there's so much of it.

The food is outstanding, and if you're determined enough, and wash it down with plenty of vino, you might be able to finish it! The Osso Bucco is melt-in-your-mouth delicious!