Located in San Francisco’s Richmond district, Han Il Kwan Korean Restaurant features delightful, affordable Korean food. Their weekday lunch specials are notably great! Usually, at Korean restaurants, their main dishes are around $15 and are too big for one person. At Han Il Kwan, the lunch specials are perfectly proportioned for one person. You and a friend can always order 2 lunch specials to share, to get variety. I like variety. Maybe that’s why I love Korean food and those delicious side dishes.

Their lunch specials are served Monday to Friday from 11am to 3pm. The choices are Bul Go Gi (broiled, marinated sliced rib eye steak), Kal Bi (broiled, marinated short ribs), Pork BBQ, Broiled Chicken, Pan Fried Combination Seafood and Vegetables (spicy), and Pan Fried Sauteed Squid (spicy). All of these entrees come with 10 little side dishes of vegetables. What I also love about Han Il Kwan is that they also include a mildly spicy soup, mung bean pancakes (yum!), and shik-hye (cold, refreshing rice drink). I absolutely love shik-hye and will go to the ends of the earth to get fresh shik-hye. Not too many Bay Area Korean restaurants serve this yummy rice drink.

Pork BBQ

Their Broiled Chicken lacks flavor so I recommend trying the Pork BBQ, Bul Go Gi, or Kal Bi, which you cannot go wrong with. All of the lunch specials are fairly affordable ranging from $6.95 - $8.95. Please note that during weekday lunch, they usually have a large tour group that eats there, in a separate room. There are always open tables though, and the service is efficient. Besides the lunch specials, there are items on the menu that you can BBQ at your table.

Han Il Kwan is located on 1802 Balboa Street, San Francisco, CA 94121. (415)752-4447

Irving Cafe and Deli is my favorite cafe for Vietnamese sandwiches and tapioca desserts. There are many other cafes that try to do what they do, that is to make yummy Vietnamese sandwiches, but they don’t come close. I have been coming here for over 15 years for their sandwiches and noodle plates. I usually get their BBQ chicken sandwich, which cost $4 now due to inflation but is still cheap in the world of sandwiches. What you’ll get is a crispy French roll filled with warm BBQ chicken, a slice of cucumber, and shredded carrots, finished with their special sauce and mayonnaise. Heavenly!

Irving Cafe and Deli also has pork, pate, sardine (yum!), among other flavors. If you don’t feel like a sandwich, you can get a cold noodle plate, spring rolls, or their yummy tapioca desserts displayed in their fridge. Today I tried the young coconut pandan dun dan, which is a coconut flavored cold custard. Delicious! When you’re on Irving Street in San Francisco, check out Irving Cafe and Deli for an inexpensive, yet deliciously satisfying meal. Note: It’s a teeny tiny cafe so most people buy to go.

Bombay Garden in Santa Clara is hands down my favorite Indian restaurant. It is a little drive but believe me, it’s worth it! On weekends, they have a wonderful buffet lunch with 35 - 40 items. For a period of time, my husband and I went to Bombay Garden’s Indian buffet once a week for 6 weeks straight.I like the buffet because it lets me try out different entrees that I normally wouldn’t be able to if I ordered off a menu. Fresh naan bread is brought to your table with unlimited refills. Fountain drinks are included in the price as well as all you can drink chai, my favorite tea.

The buffet is set up in 3 sections. One section is for salads, fruits, and sauces. The main section is for Northern Indian food which includes basmati rice pilaf, Tandori chicken, egg curry, lamb sausage, dal makhani (lentil soup), chicken masala, saag paneer (yogurt based, spinach dish with paneer cheese), etc. My favorite dish in this section is navratan korma which is a yellow, cream based, vegetable dish. Everyone that I’ve told, who has tried it, loves it.In the third section they have Southern Indian food is which mainly fried dishes with some soups. My favorite dessert is here. It’s called kheer, which is a yummy rice pudding. Mmmmm…. Then they have a mango ice cream machine.

The buffet price used to be under $10. Can you believe that? Now it is around $12 a person which is still affordable. Bombay Garden has many locations around the Bay Area, basically one restaurant on every bay - North Bay, Peninsula, South Bay, and East Bay. I have tried the San Mateo location, but was disappointed. Santa Clara is the one to go to.