Muffins Muffins is a tiny hole in the wall on 2nd between Mission and Howard.  You have probably walked by it a thousand times… in fact it took me about a year before I went in for the first time (for their fro-yo).  Today I ordered the Vientmase sandwich with chicken.  The woman who works there is friendly and pleasant, and a few people came in and out while I was waiting.  They are CASH ONLY!

Sorry the photo quality is bad today – I used my iPhone for this one.  I would usually wait until I have my nice camera with me but I felt like this sandwich deserved to be Fryhole’d.

This sandwich was excellent!  You can’t tell from the pic but it’s actually a pretty big sandwich.  There is a lot of chicken on it and the chicken is mostly white meat which is nice – the only difference between this sandwich and other vietnamese sandwiches I’ve had is this place added mayo (see it near the top).  I’m not a huge mayo freak but on this sandwich it worked because it was put on sparingly.  The carrots could have been a tad more pickled (or maybe just a little more fish sauce) but overall there was the perfect amount of sweet (sauce on chicken), fresh (mint) and heat (jalapenos).

I’m giving my sandy 4 fries!  The only thing holding it back from 5 fries is as I mentioned, it could’ve been a little pickley-er, and also the bread was a just a toasted soft roll, not french bread as in the traditional vietnamese sandwich (I like my french bread on the softer side tho, not the rock hard stuff).  I probably would’ve skipped the mayo too.

123 2nd Street
(between Minna St & Mission St)
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 882-7355

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The line was terribly long and out the door.  People were standing around on the street waiting for their food.  The place is as small as a freaking closet.  There isn’t a clear menu on the wall either – I couldn’t remember the name of the sandwich I picked out on the website so I described it to the woman working there and she knew immediately which one it was – but she actually put my order in wrong anyway.  What I wanted was the King Koopa Sandwich – which is filled with meatballs, mozzarella sticks, jalapeno poppers and marinara sauce… what I got was the Super Mario Sandwich – which has meatballs and mozzarella sticks.

We waited a long time for our food to come out.  Apparently they were slammed and they even had one of their employees (who was there picking up food) log in to help take orders and work.  We waited a longass time for our food…. it was ok though, because we just snagged one of the very few tables outside after a really annoying family left.

Sidenote: Don’t you hate it when you go to a restaurant and you’re in close proximity to a table where everyone is complaining about something (really loud, then they complain to the people at the restaurant)?  Apparently they ordered a sandwich without the Dirty Sauce (which is standard on all sandwiches.  What they didn’t know is that the dirty sauce (a garlic aioli) is actually baked into the bread.  When their sandwiches came out they then decided that they wanted the dirty sauce after all and complained that they didn’t get any on their sandwiches.  They caused a scene, holding up the line inside and even made the cook come out, who had to explain that the sauce was baked into the bread but that they actually ordered their sandwiches without it anyway.  UGHHH.  People like this annoy the hell out of me.  Shut the EFF up already and eat your gddamn sandwich! OOohhh they were makin me so mad!

Ok, so here come our sandwiches.  The anticipation was killing me so bad that it made me forget that I ordered the most fattening greasy sandwich ever… I didn’t care… I just wanted stuff those meatballs and those crispy jalapeno poppers and mozz sticks right into my little fryhole….

When the sandwich came, IT WAS MISSING THE POPPERS!!  Take a good look… I just died… ohhh the poppers were the only thing I was truly looking forward to, but I didn’t have the patience to go back and order another one (or the gall to complain about it… at least the mozz sticks were there).

THE TASTE: I was sadly disappointed.  The hype about the mozz sticks and poppers definitely got me extra excited about this sandwich, and it ended up being a lukewarm mushy mess.  I gather that the mozzarella sticks were pre-fried in bulk because they were FAR from crispy and the cheese inside was not warm… with each bite the mozz stick just mushed along with the meatballs, you couldn’t really taste either of them separately – it was just a big mushy mess (and there’s nothing worse than eating something that’s supposed to be crispy and hot and sinking your teeth into a soggy mush instead).  The marinara sauce was not bad and the bread was pretty good, but overall what I thought would be a party in my mouth turned out to be a total buzzkill!

If you go to Ike’s Place, I recommend looking at the menu on their website at www.ilikeikesplace.com because it’s kind of difficult deciding what to get on the spot when your’e there.  The menu online is also huge and overwhelming – unless you know specifically which sandwich you want, you probably won’t find it on the wall at the actual location because the entire selection is not posted anywhere big and bold…. just an fyi.

Lastly, and this is very important info: THEY DO NOT SERVE FRENCH FRIES ON THE WEEKEND!  My little fried heart nearly stopped beating when I waited in line for the 2nd time because I forgot to order fries, and when I finally made it to the cashier 15 minutes later, she said they don’t serve fries on the weekend. Just shoot me why don’tcha! UGHHHH!!!!

Sorry Ike’s Place, you only get 3 fries.  It was good but not great.  If I return, I will probably try something way way different, and come during the week so I can have french fries.

3506 16th St
San Francisco, CA 94114
(415) 553-6888
www.ilikeikesplace.com

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oooh the mystery’s killing me!

Voila!

The first bite. It was ok. Honestly, at first bite I was expecting to sink my teeth into a juicy chicken patty smothered in buffalo sauce and blue cheese.  It was really dry and there was hardly any sauce on it… WTF.  I was deteremined to try to like it, so I took a few more bites…

This is what happened after I took a few bites out of each of the sandwiches.  You can obviously tell that there was an excess of bread.  It’s not that these sandwiches were that good that I even ate this much… I was freakin starving!

One of my worst pet peeves is ordering sandwiches with an excess of bread… not enough meat or cheese or whatever’s supposed to be inside, and the Mini Buffalo Ranch Chicken Sandwich was definitely a victim of too much bread (and dry).  Disappointing…

Jack In The Box
1257 Park St
Alameda, CA 94501
(510) 522-8865
www.jackinthebox.com

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Here you have it! The Portico Meatball Sandwich.  It wasn’t bad!  The bread was soft (just a normal soft roll), and the meatballs were hot and there was alot of cheese inside.  If the sandwich had just a tad more sauce it would’ve been perfect, but overall it was good, and I would probably get it again.

Portico
245 Market St
(between Drumm St & Main St)
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 777-9950

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The inside of the restaurant is a giant u-shaped bar.  Not a drinking bar… but a food bar – like in real diners.  There were pretty many people there too – I got there around noon.  Everyone inside was talking to each other and there was an Asian woman taking orders and another woman cooking.  It was pretty cozy inside and I felt right at home.  The place had a nice campy feel – kind of like a jersey diner meets a California chinese restaurant meets diner food… I loved it, and I didn’t mind being alone!

I ordered grilled cheese and fries.  I actually ordered hot ham and cheese but I don’t think she heard me say ham because I got only cheese.  It was ok though because it was a bangin sandy.

This was the best grilled cheese sandwich I’ve ever had.  Seriously… it was so cheesy and with every bite warm cheddar came stringing out… amazing!  I ordered it on wheat which was good but I think it would be even better on sourdough.  The fries were really good too – full of potato and fried perfectly… not too crisp, not too undercooked.  …I almost licked the plate clean!

Pretty Lady Restaurant
1733 Peralta St
Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 832-1213

[ratings]

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I ordered the Meatball Sandwich.  I also arrived at an off-peak lunch hour so there was no line which was nice.  The sandwich was ready in about 5 minutes, during which I had time to pick out a bag of chips and grab a soda.  I will blog about the chips in another entry, as they were 5 fries themself!

Ok so here’s the sandy:

It looks like any old meatball sandwich.  Actually, the meatballs were small, and you could tell there was more bread or filler in the mix than beef (or it was just shredded up ALOT) because the consistency gave the meatballs that softer, “smooth” kind of bite vs. meaty/chunky kind.  Actually, they look frozen, like the cafeteria kind… (they’re probably from costco) – I hope I never find out the truth!

Anyway, I thought the sandwich was amazing.  The combination of the softish meatballs (which were very flavorful btw) with the really good marinara sauce on the toasted soft roll was to die for.  The roll was kind of sweet, and they toasted it just enough so that the outside layer had a little crunch, but soft enough that it was easy to bite into and chew.  The marinara sauce was on the sweeter side and there was the perfect balance of tomato and spices.

Another thing, it’s very rare to find a good sandwich that is heated up so much that the cheese is actually soft enough to ooze out.  This sandwich was perfect and the mozzarella was melted perfectly and strings of cheese did ooze out when I got near the “inside” of the sandwich.  It was awesome. This meatball sandwich was heated perfectly and you could even see the steam waffing out of it up til the last bite.

Overall, this sandwich rocked and I really can’t think of anything that would make it better.  I finished it pretty quickly, as it was so good that I couldn’t resist slowing down for fear it would cool off too much… i didn’t even get around to drinking my soda or eating my chips, it was THAT good.

…this sandy was HISTORY!

Here’s a shot of the cool wall of toasters:

…and lastly a shot from outside.

The Toaster Oven
145 2nd St
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 243-0222
www.thetoasteroven.com

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I’m definitely a corn-ie and will rarely refuse anything with corn in it.  The Cream of Corn soup is pureed very finely (there are no whole pieces of corn in it).  They use alot of butter also so it is buttery and corn-y with a smooth n silky texture, yum!  (I actually went to Zebulon two days in a row to get this soup).

The sandwich on the other hand was just good.  Nothing spectacular about it.  My general complaint with most hot sandwiches is that they could be hotter (don’t just toast the bread and broil the cheese down, heat up the meat too, geez!), and this sandwich was no exception.  The sweet potato fries were excellent as usual – sweet, crispy and chock full of yam.  The sweet potato fries are magnet that keeps pulling me back to Zebulon, I could eat them everyday and every night for the rest of my life.

Overall, a good lunch.

Zebulon
83 Natoma Street
(between 2nd St & James Lick Fwy)
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 975-5705
www.zebulonsf.com (this place is now closed)

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I was telling my friend about how disappointed I was in T-Rex’s fried chicken sandwich and she told me about Bakesale Betty’s fried chicken sandwich. I decided to go there immediately the following weekend to try this thing out myself.

I live in Oakland and I don’t really do anything over here in the East Bay so I was excited to try out something new. Bakesale Betty’s is in the Temescal area of Oakland, kind of near Rockridge I think… Anyhow, the place had a line outside that went down the street, AND it was raining. I waited in line, and it reminded me of the line outside Tartine in SF on a weekend (kind of looked like Tartine too).

Once I got inside it looked like a deli on the righthand side with a whole bunch of pastries and muffins. Everyone was yelling their orders and when it was my turn I said I wanted a fried chicken sandwich ($7.00) and along the back wall was the “fried chicken sandwich station”. It was seriously a factory line of fried chicken sandwiches, and someone bagged one up and handed it to me. There were no chairs left inside so we went outside and sat down at the dryest ironing board table we could find.

Here she is, the fried chicken sandwich. Intially when I opened the paper and saw it, I was surprised at how much slaw there was in there… I’m not a huge slaw person. Slaw aside, I picked it up and took a bite. The abundance of slaw is probably my only complaint becauase it was really wet and greasy – otherwise, this is the best gdamn chicken sandwich I’ve ever had. I seriously wanted to scream out to the world to eat one. The bread was soft and buttery, the chicken was tender, moist and juicy and the breading around it was buttery, crunchy and salty. The slaw had a freshness about it – the vinegary kind, not the sweet kind with a little bit of pepper… It was really, really good.

I ended up getting one of the sandwiches that was premade in the pile of chicken sandwiches when i went in — I imagine if I got a fresh from the fryer sandwich where the breading was hot and crunchy it would be 2349328947572x’s better, but I wasn’t so lucky. So yes, the sandwich was still amazing even though the chicken was cold.

This sandwich is also not small. It took me a while to eat and I chewed each bite to its death before swallowing.

Lastly, a shot of yours truly, in the midst of consumption. This was the best chicken sandwich I have ever had.

Bakesale Betty’s
5098 Telegraph Ave
(between 49th St & 51st St)
Oakland, CA 94609
(510) 985-1213

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There was a sign next to the sandwich counter saying that the ingredients that they use to make the sandwiches are if possible, local, organic and sustainable – there was also composting and recycling.  This was a nice bonus to my visit because it’s always nice to know that companies are being socially and environmentally responsible.  Anyway…

Please take a good look at the photo above and note the following:

• The bread is nicely toasted
• There is a generous amount of ham
• *2* slices of melted cheese (above and below the ham)

This sandwich was very good.  I ate all of it, and the cheese (jack) and the toast were nice and warm = perfect.

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…Yes, I appreciate that Sellers Markets is eco friendly and sustainable and composts and recycles and uses spudware and biodegradable cups, etc (who doesn’t in SF these days tho?) but I am not going to use all of that as an excuse to give my hot ham and cheese sandy a better fry rating than it deserves (2 fries).

Ooooh I’m a little bitter…. and also frustrated because I went to Seller’s Market about a year ago when it opened to try the Hot Ham and Cheese and it was exactly the same. Today I was so hungry that i decided to give them another go… but my experience has turned out to be equally as disappointing. I will never order this sandwich again from this place! Oh and FYI, for some reason all of this (below) plus a soda cost me $11.18 big ones… go figure!

In this instance, do not judge a book by its cover.

Sellers Markets
595 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
(415) 227-9850
www.sellersmarkets.com

Viewer Rating: [ratings]

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