I’ll consider any cuisine, but Mexican is of less interest unless there’s something exceptional. (I eat a lot of Mexican food and would prefer something different.)
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There are many good Chinese restaurants in Millbrae, along El Camino Real. I seem to recall a particularly spicy meal at one place (don’t remember which) following a post-Thanksgiving flight from the East Coast.
Isla Restaurant on San Mateo Avenue in San Bruno, just north of ECR. Filipino place that’s a favorite of our Ilocano son-in-law’s family.
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Mazra (San Bruno, Mediterranean)
Ben Tre (South SF, Vietnamese)
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A long while ago, fetched a dear old friend from East Coast and headed straight here:
http://www.mayflower-seafood.com/HKFL/index.htm
If memory serves, dim sum and lobster noodles to choke two [almost, no – we exaggerate] were the order.
I think the restaurant closed beginning of this year
Bad news. Thank you.
And our bad for not “drilling down”. Besides the view of SFO operations and the cooking, we remember the parking challenge, though we seemed to enjoy good luck defying statistical science.
Maybe, as we on another occasion hosted another out of towner with heart set on Harbor Village in Embarcadero Four (our most frequent meal venue among all our far flung meeting points to that point), only to find it was done for and demolition was already underway, we understood how hard the business.
As we walked to Plan B (R&G and suitable substitute, given subsequent meet-ups), after a minute’s silence, he pronounced: “Guess all the kids finished medical school.” We’re not the type to argue with such an insight, but yes, making a living for the family and making its life better is hard work.
+1
Crispy cauliflower is a must get.
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Thanks for the replies so far. It will be almost a month before I’m there, so I have plenty of time to decide.
Isla sounds like a good option. I had Filipino food from Mama Go’s at the airport back in the summer while waiting for my flight and enjoyed that. Filipino food isn’t available to me locally, so that works in Isla’s favor, too.
Chinese is sort of my fail-safe option. There’s almost always somewhere with good Chinese food. It’s just a matter of sifting through the (usually) many, many Chinese restaurants to find the better ones.
It doesn’t look like there’s much highly regarded Burmese food in that area. Luckily, I’ll be farther north for one of my meals. I’ve only had Burmese food once (from My Burma in Davis back in the summer.) It was good, but I think I can do better in San Francisco. I probably should have posted about that trip. I had quite a bit of food in Davis and San Francisco I enjoyed, but the details have begun to fade from memory. Maybe I’ll post anyway.
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Mazra.
New England Lobster Company.
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Oh yeah, how could I forget this place.
Great crab nachos. The housemade chips take it over the top.
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I might give Mazra a try. I really like the way meats are handled in Arabic cuisine. Not as fond of a lot of the accompaniments. I had food from the Church Street location of Beit Rima last time I was in San Francisco. Looks like Mazra has some accompaniment choices that might appeal to me more than Beit Rima’s. My main problem is that I don’t like the yogurt based sauces nor tahini. Don’t like baba ganoush. Pita bread doesn’t thrill me, but I’ll eat it. Beit Rima’s pita was probably the best I’ve had. And fried cauliflower doesn’t lure me. Cauliflower is just about my most disliked vegetable.
It looks like there are Burmese possibilities in Burlingame-- Yangon and Mingalaba. I’m wondering how those compare with Burmese restaurants in Inner Richmond-- Burma Superstar, Mandalay, or Burmese Kitchen. Also noticed Millbrae has a Malaysian restaurant IPOH Garden Malaysian Cuisine, but there’s no beef rendang on the menu there, and that’s my favorite thing to order.
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The Millbrae BART station is a short walk from El Camino. If there’s a restaurant to your liking in that neighborhood, you don’t have to drive there from the airport.
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For when you get to the SF Burmese portion of the trip, Burmese Kitchen on Geary btw 2nd/3rd is the best in my opinion. The most “legit” Burmese in the area without any Thai or Chinese dishes watering it down. Items you can’t get anywhere else, like Fish and Sour Leaf Soup, an excellent Pork with Pickled Mango, Tamarind Leaf Salad. I’m a fan as you can tell.
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That’s the second strong recommendation of Burmese Kitchen that I’ve gotten. Thanks.
Curious, how do you compare Burmese Kitchen to the non-SF Burmese restaurants?
I like Burmese and I am in that neighborhood some time, so I need to stop by at some point. I was wondering about it when I drove by a few weeks ago.
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Only slightly off-topic as it’s a go-to when flying out of SFO.
Darby Dan’s on Airport Blvd South has amazing sandwiches - I always stop to buy there instead of airport/airline food. It’s easy access if travelling TO the airport (from the city) - less convenient in the other direction.
If available, Crab Salad on a Dutch Crunch is my #1 - but it’s still a great lunch destination.
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Sandwiches? There’s Little Lucca in South City, close to the airport. Excellent sandwiches, regular feeds two. Haven’t been in a while.
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