Lunch Spots for SF Professionals

So you’re in Fidi and suddenly realized you’re craving for some Korean food, what do you do?  Without a Korean restaurant in sight, do you just accept your fate?  No worries..  Just head to your friendly neighborhood corner store at 40 Battery St, John’s Snack & Deli.  This is a tiny place that’s small even for a convenient store, let alone one that serves hot food.  With 2 portable stoves, numerous rice cookers, most of the food were prepared at home and heated in the store.  With John manning the register, 3 women including John’s mom work efficiently behind him to get the food ready.

The first time I visited the place, I got the bibimbap.  Since it’s to-go only here and I work at Civic Center, I had to ride the light rail smelling the food the whole way.  I don’t know if hunger threw off my taste buds, but I was thoroughly impressed with the bibimbap.  Since then, I have been wanting to go back to try other goodies.  So I finally made it back last Thursday to get the special, chap chae.  Turns out, their chap chae is so in demand that it was sold out by the time I got there at 12:40.  So I ended up with kim chi soup instead.  I don’t know if it’s because I was there late, but the rice was stale like old leftover.  Maybe they ran out of rice too?  The soup itself tasted great and helped soften the rice, so I was willing to overlook the rice deficiency.  This place definitely delivers on taste. 

So couple tips before you rush to John’s Snack & Deli: 1. Arrive early on Wednesdays and Thursdays if you want chap chae 2.When it’s not busy, John’s mom often hook you up with sample of kim bap.  So time your visits accordingly