Darren’s Cafe

Despite their sign saying they close at 3:30pm on Saturday, we got there at 3:09pm and they refused to serve us saying they were closed. That’s too bad because we walked quite a ways to get here. But I’m sure if David Kim (the name on their business card) knew this was happening, he’d do something about it.
So don’t come, they may just feel like not being open.
Instead, go to Hollywood Café a block away at 530 North Point. It’s really good food (4.5 Unilocal stars) and they’re open when they say they’re open.

Wow is all I can say! Although this is a TINY dining room, they serve up a hearty, delicious breakfast VERY FAST at an excellent price! We walked a short block to the Café from our hotel room. It took MAYBE 10 minutes tops from the time we walked in until we received our breakfast. PERFECT EGGS, over medium. Crispy home fried potatoes. Excellent coffee. We were very happy with our breakfast at Darren’s and plan to go there again next time we travel to SF.

On my recent vacation to San Francisco I came across this place by accident and I loved it! The service was fast and the food was great.

We came here New Years Day and were surprised at how fast the food came and how quick they turn the tables. The food was great and the service was even better.
It’s a small place that packs a nice punch. Will totally come here again.

Rude staff, horrible first impression! We wanted to sit at a table away from the door since it was cold outside. There were 3 other tables however they rudely informed us our party was «not big enough» (4 people at a 5 or 6 top). There was no one else waiting for a table, no wait list, no line. Then she said «you gonna eat here or what?». As a Bay Area local, I would like to inform visitors there are PLENTY of other places to eat in the area with friendly staff. Avoid this place.

I was expecting Vietnamese dishes only so I was a bit surprised that it is actually very eclectic cuisine. You’ll find on the menu lots of breakfast foods like omelettes and french toast but also burgers, salads and Vietnamese entrees.
My party had the seafood phở, charbroiled beef vermicelli bowl and grilled tiger prawns (6). I asked for salads on the side instead of rice.
Everything was very good. I wish there had been more than 6 prawns as they tasted great! Also, it was nice to be away from Fisherman’s Wharf’s craziness.
We were able to be seated and served pretty much immediately for lunch during Christmas Holidays.
The only point I would improve is probably the service… The staff wasn’t super friendly & seemed to be in a rush to get our order. The restaurant wasn’t packed either.
Anyway, it was still a good experience with fresh foods, I do recommend trying out this place!

This is the go-​to lunch spot for employees and merchants in Fisherman’s Wharf and Darren’s does the trick. This is a family run operation that specializes in Vietnamese cuisine and standard diner fare. I had the turkey melt and side salad, both satisfied my hunger but I wish they used real Swiss instead of processed cheese. My sister ventured from her usual shrimp vermicelli and had the combo fried rice. A well calculated risk since the rice was flavorful and did not disappoint. The turnover here is speedy and service is excellent. Prices are very reasonable for such a touristy location. Two lunch meals with tax and tip was around $ 25.

they are like the soup nazi from seinfeld. If you ask them to pour the soup in to another bowl. so you can share with the team. — NO.
can you help pour it — NO.
your bill is 9.90. We cant take credit card less than 10 $. Ok. charge for 10 $. — NO. you have to buy water or something. (finally agreed to charge for 990)
Soups are good.
pad thai is good,
fried rice is not that great.
service is obviously notorious.
decent place, if they up the service.

Title: we wanted something quick, easy and good… we found it.
A great little diner right across from the Fisherman’s Wharf. This little place serves Vietnamese cuisine and plenty of egg dishes …
We started with egg rolls and spring rolls…
Spring Rolls were great (pork)
Egg Rolle had shrimp
we settled for Phở… and was not disappointed (delighted more like it)
The wait staff was quick, attentive, and friendly.
The cooks were fast… real fast… we did not wait long for our food…
was not that expensive.
Would I recommend this place for a quick bite to eat… yeah, this place is the spot…

If you crave some really great phở, you must stop by Darren’s Café. What’s great about this place is that it offers both American and Asian food.
Our first day trip to SF was so cold that we needed hot soup and delicious food.
What we ordered:
Pork roll (***) — Pork flavor was great but had too much of noodles inside.
Charbroiled pork vermicelli (****)
Beef and beef meat ball phở (****) — broth was very tasty but the brisket wasn’t that good.
Extra bowl of broth cost $ 5, way too pricy. Normally other place will charge $ 1 or 2 for an extra broth but we thought that was rip off.
Service (***) — waitress asked us if we were done when we were middle of eating. We felt like we were rushed to finish our entrees.

In San Francisco for the day and needed to grab a quick bite. The Mrs and I agreed a burger and fries was just the thing we were after. However, no fast food allowed. What we wanted was a real diner experience. A mom and pop type of place.
Of course I checked my handy Unilocal App and found Darren’s close by.
Our first impressions of the eatery were quite positive: clean exterior, indoor and outdoor seating, great view of the busy surroundings. Looked like a «locals» type of place. And as we entered the positives continued. We were quickly greeted and shown to a nice clean table and our drink orders taken.
Looking at the menu we found the standard domestic diner fare along with some Asian offerings.
We stuck to what we had originally planned to grub on (bacon cheeseburger for me, roast beef sandwich for her) and passed on the Asian cuisine for this trip.
Our drinks showed up quickly and our food orders taken.
Ten minutes later the food arrives. My burger was served hot and the substantial meat patty cooked a perfect «medium». Overall a great burger, I would order that again. The Mrs reported her sandwich was very flavorful and not at all dry. We agreed the thick steak fries were top notch.
While we were enjoying our meals, it became quite apparent that we may have missed the boat on what should have been ordered as almost everyone who came in ordered the Phở. Again and again, steaming bowls of delicious smelling broth made their way to table after table. We took an oath that our next trip here will include orders of Phở.
So, Darren’s was a big hit! The fantastic service, great food at reasonable prices, and comfortable surroundings puts this place high on our list of go-​to local joints.

Great find all the way! Before braving Fisherman’s Wharf with my beautiful wife on a weekend in SF went looking for lunch and this place was just awesome.
The menu had EVERYTHING. Pancakes for breakfast, burgers, Thai, etc. I had a Vietnamese pork sandwich that had the best sauce and the pork was sliced to the perfect thickness. Big fries. My wife had a Thai teriyaki chicken plate that was just piled with food. They even had beer, so I had a Heineken to wash it down.
The service was as good as the food, everyone was happily willing to get us whatever we needed and were all extremely friendly. Relatively small place but did not have anyone bumping into us. Was not a fancy-​shmancy place, very low key. Cheap eats and great food that was simple and very well done.

I have low expectations for a place that does Vietnamese food and brunch at the same time, but I ordered a beef noodle soup for takeout (with my guilty pleasure of spring rolls on the side) and was pretty pleased with the quality of food.
Could have had more meat in my soup though. Spring rolls are bomb dot com here, and the next time I have a Friday hangover and need a bowl of soup to help me get through my 8 to 5, I’ll stop by and order phở again.

Traveling with 2 kids can sometimes alter your plans. And, when I say «sometimes alter your plans,» I mean «you better have Option 1, 2, 3, 4 and the „LOL, riiiiiiiiiiiiight“ option» ready! Well, we used our LOL option, because the kids woke up late and there was no way were going to wait in an hour-​plus line at one of our original options.
We stumbled across Darren’s as we were about to go to Appleby’s. We looked up Unilocal and lo and behold, 4 stars! But, wait, it says it’s Vietnamese and Breakfast & Brunch. Is there bacon and eggs wrapped in my spring roll? Or a Banh Mi made with a bagel? Or maybe a Oatmeal made with phở broth (EWWW!)? What the hell, let’s check it out.
Well, thankfully, it’s just a diner with both a breakfast menu and a Vietnamese menu. I went against my better judgement and ordered the American-​style breakfast. So, did the rest of the family. We got a Denver Omelet with Country Potatoes, a California Omelet with Hash Browns, and a Pancake breakfast with bacon and eggs. It’s a sad meal when the best part of it was the english muffin that came with it. The eggs in the omelet weren’t cooked thru, the pancake was so tough, I had a hard time cutting it up with a fork, and the country potatoes had some weird seasoning (maybe it was just my nose, but it sort of tasted like nuoc mam!).
However, I will say that the service was super fast and super-​duper friendly! Both the guys and girls that worked there always seemed to be smiling. Unfortunately, no amount of smiles will get me to come back here. Next time, we’ll keep on walking down to Appleby’s. Either that, or set the alarm clock super early, so we can go to Option 1, 2, 3 or 4!!!

Nice breakfast find! The place around the corner had a huge line, so we ventured down the street and was pleasantly surprised. It was a bit chilly, so they fired up the heater so we could sit outside.
Coffee and eggs were fresh and tasty! Hash browns crispy and delicious as well.
Great start to the day.

FIRST AND FOREMOST:
Ain’t fancy, but it’s good.
THAT SAID:
It’s a hidden gem at Pier 39. No tourist façade, no corny SF design motifs, no chowder in sourdough bowls. What they do have is a diverse menu of tasty, well-​prepared, reasonably-​priced meals. The diverse part is that they’re ½ Main St. diner and ½ Vietnamese kitchen.
BETTER STILL:
They have the only phở in the neighborhood – and it’s very good. In fact, the head chef/​owner (Steve, I think, or Dave … an Asian guy) overheard my order and commented that the combination of flavors (seafood phở, add BBQ pork) seemed unusual but would be pretty tasty. That led to a whole conversation about how carefully they prepare their broth and ingredients. He clearly takes care and has a great deal of pride.
IN BRIEF:
This part of town is dominated by restaurants that over charge and under deliver. Darren’s is a terrific exception. Whether you want a stack of pancakes, a decent burger or a steamy bowl of phở, you can get it, and all at a decent price.

1. good food
2. quick service
3. veg fried rice is really tasty
4. good portions
bad:
1. fried has egg which is not listed in the menu.
2. patio seating is almost on the road and the hop-​on-​off buses stop right there leaving a big cloud of smoke

I was in DTSF meeting up with some friends for lunch. Little did I know that this spot was literally right next to Fisherman’s Wharf — super touristy and probably really expensive.
Well what do ya know, I was right. I was a bit surprised at first when I saw the menu — it’s like a combo of a diner and vietnamese food!!! Pretty interesting and I loved all the options! It was kind of funny for my friend, she had no idea what to order because she wanted whatever their specialty was and apparently its their vietnamese food.
I ordered the Q4 (phở) which was the Spicy Satay Beef noodle soup. I really liked how spicy it was initially, but after awhile it got too much to handle that I felt like I was going to get a sore throat ._​_​_​.” And it was a bit disgusting that the jalapenos that came out with the hoisin sauce and bean sprouts were old… Pretty gross.
When the bill came out, I didn’t realize how expensive the meals were here… It was a bit ridiculous. And it sort of sucks that there’s only one size for every soup dish because I know at other vietnamese places the phở bowl sizes vary with the pricing.
I don’t think I’d come here again because it was also an additional $ 5 to park, so good luck finding street metered parking =(

My family came here visiting views and we feel hungry and we found restaurant and we have snack this restaurant didn’t allow we eat snack in the restaurant if we still in here eat snack we cannot stay in this restaurant!!! what wrong this restaurant that really sucks!!! What hell going on!
By the way I saw another person also ate snack! Why is we can’t!!! Shit foolish restaurant!

Every time we pass by Darren’s Café during our trips to San Francisco there is a line of people waiting and this time we decided to try the breakfast. It was a chilly morning but we took a table outside and they turned on one of the hanging heaters for us. The service was quick and the waitress was very nice. I had 2 scrambled eggs w/​hash browns and wheat toast, nothing exciting but it was fresh, good and hot. Hubby had scrambled eggs w/​chorizo, mushroom, onion, bell pepper and tomato.
The food was good and we will definitely be back on our next trip to San Francisco!

En route pour le Hollywood Café, nous avons été surpris par la file d’attente et avons renoncé à y prendre notre petit déjeuner ce matin là. Au coin de la rue, nous avons poussé la porte du Darren’s Café, malgré la devanture peu engageante. Nous avons été très agréablement surpris par notre petit déjeuner complet, très bon, très bien cuisiné et servi par un personnel très sympathique. Seul point négatif mais qu’on oublie très vite: le lieu est assez impersonnel.