Inga Donut

Caution fellow Unilocalers. This place sucks in a big way. My colleagues and I came here for lunch the other day… three items for $ 6, two for $ 5, and one for $ 3 (rice is counted as one item)…the rice was soggy and salty, meat was very soft and chewy with an odd consistency. I am NOT one who is looking for a cheap lunch — unfortunately my colleagues had eaten here before and seem to like their food. I cannot understand what the draw is — other than the price. In life, you get what you pay for… at this place, you get very little satisfaction but lots of indigestion after dining here.
Here’s a tip off BEFORE you decide to go here for a ‘dine-​in’ experience. They serve customers who dine-​in on paper plates (very very cheap and flimsy paper plates — no Chinet here) and you will get a cheap (very cheap) plastic fork! OMG If they will not spend a little money to make a good impression with customers at the point where customers are getting the food, I shudder to think wtf is going on in the kitchen with quality control, and what corners are being cut to save money on ingredients. Am I getting served expired meat that the butcher a Safeway marks down to nothing when the meat reaches a suspicious color just to move it along? I hope not and I do not know. I wanted to go and see the condition on their restroom, but I couldn’t stomach the thought of what I may have found there — heck I’m still trying to shake the images on the public restrooms in Cancun Mexico — and that was 20 years ago!
What I do know is this: I guarantee that you will never see my ass eating in this place again in this lifetime or in the afterlife time.
Go to Trader Joes instead and avoid the inevitable disappointment and gastrointestinal pain and suffering.

Of all the times I have been to Inga Donut over the years, I think I have seen the gentleman owner greet me with a smile only once, which is fine since I don’t come here for the warm welcomes. Inga Donut serves pretty good Chinese food at a great price. You can order one item for $ 2.75, two items for $ 4.75, or three items for $ 5.50 which is an excellent value these days. I usually order the meatballs, chow mein, and egg rolls to go. This place is quite popular with postal employees and hospital workers during lunch time. Kudos to Inga Donut for their many years of dedicated service to the Nob Hill community.

So last Thursday we treated the office with some donuts from this place after all the ranting and raving from some of the workers. Well, I was really hoping to bite into a rich, glazed donut only to be disappointed. The oversized donuts did not impress me as they were poor in flavor and hardly discernable from a regular donut you can get at any corner donut place. I wonder if the oversize is meant to distract you from the taste. Had it been a truly good tasting donut I would have welcomed the oversize but in this case it just grossed me out. So I thought maybe the one I chose was not the best and pinched two or three more just to make sure I wasn’t being judgmental on one item alone. I simply gave up after tasting the others. I am giving this place two stars because at least their marketing is working since they do sell out to the masses but let us not be confused with the masses’ rants and raves because if you’re expecting an authentically glazed donut, don’t go out of your way to fight the masses here. For the quality and price of a donut you’ll be getting here just stop by your local donut shop and save yourself some cash and time. I would pay five bucks for a truly wholesome donut that would stimulate the taste buds.

This place has to be a front for something else. I went in at 630 on a Sunday evening, and half of the food trays were empty. What was there looked days old, but I tried anyways.
What else was strange was that it’s a doughnut shop but there was literally one doughnut. One!
About 3am the next morning confirmed my feelings that I should have just passed on the food.
Below mediocre, do your insides a favor and go anywhere else

FYI, UPDATE: Also, I’m a bit biased because I saw the owner lady help out an asian man before. This meek looking dude who I suspect works next door, was being physically beaten in BROAD DAYLIGHT on the streets by a drunkard (who was also yelling racial slurs), coming from the bar down the corner. That tiny lady, smaller than my baby brother, with an afro is BOSS when no one came out to help the guy. She was waving a broomstick and yelling she is going to call the police until he left. Thanks to her, all her regulars inside the store came to help. Ma’am, for being a bad ass mother fucker and an outrageously good human being (I would give you 7 ratings if i can).
Let me say I am a foodie, meaning I like my range of hole in the walls, mom and pop shops, and restaurants where I might have to actually try to wear a dress and cross my legs.
Inga Donut’s is a small diner-​ish, mom and pop place. The lady who manages and cooks is one of the sweetest people ever! She speaks half English and Canto and just engages everyone that comes in. I love their egg rolls and wonton soup here. I don’t know what one of the Unilocalers say they use MSG because they don’t (I am actually mildly reactive to MSG, so I know when places include them in their food.) The food here is cheap and arguably pretty damn good quality. The lady is super nice, I’ve asked to get a box of chow mein with seafood instead of the standard pork and vegetables and she charged me $ 5 for a whole box (which is same as if you get from the buffet table). I also got chicken noodle soup and beef noodle soup, both were freshly made. Other dishes I recommend are chow mein, meatballs, spicy chicken (pretty darn spicy!), and eggs rolls (my go-​to). Their food doesn’t have as much grease as Panda Express, PF changs, or the places in polk street which I like. The place also has a lot of regulars. Maybe because I grew up in the neighborhood and this dig has been here forever… but coming here for wonton soup when I am in the city reminds me of my childhood/​adolescence. They also have donuts and breakfast which are dirt cheap, are the best hang-​over remedies.

I ate here for $ 4.50, and that is pretty awesome. For less than McDonalds you can have some good Chinese home cooking, and a donut. They also have super cheap breakfast foods, I think you can order that all day. Lots of old Asian dudes chatting in Asian, old school booths, buffet style seating. I pay in cash, its a mom and pops style shop. I will be back fa sho.

I really haven’t hit the Chinese Food here. I walk in, I take a look, and I just don’t think it looks that tasty. It’s cheap. But hey, we’re on Nob Hill. That said — I haven’t tried it. I’m not sure, it may be really tasty.
Why I come here is that they have breakfast food in the morning. It is cheap, and it is right up the street. When I want to grab some take-​out eggs, meat, (McDonald’s-style) hash brown, and toast to bring back home on a «recovery-​oriented» Saturday or Sunday morning I come here. $ 5 gets you all of the above — with both sausage and a big slice of ham. Are these types of food welcome on a «recovery-​oriented» morning? Yes. Yes they are.
Wake up, drop off dry-​cleaning, grab a newspaper. Drop by Inga Donut, get some breakfast for $ 5. Eat breakfast in bed, read the newspaper, realize that all of my Minnesota sports teams suck, fall back asleep for a few hours. Wake-​up again ready to face the world. All up the block, and cheap.

They had four donuts to choose from. Not four types, four donuts. Literally. The coffee wasn’t good enough to call crappy and it was scolding hot. I will be back tomorrow.

Decided to come here after seeing it more or less everyday on my walk home. This place sells homestyle chinese food and donuts. I only tried the chinese food. The quality is not great but just like the previous reviewer said, this is the type of stuff a chinese mother would make not at all like Panda Express/​Pei Wei food. That being said, the meat will have chewy parts and still have pieces of tendon and fat connected. It is not an all-​white meat or carefully prepared to remove all non-​meat parts. The options are limited and vary from day to day– chicken/​pork/​beef made different ways/​flavors: fried, braised, sweet/​sour, dry and wet stir fried with vegetables; a few vegetarian options: carrots, zucchini, onion, eggplant; and fried rice/​noodles. It is very inexpensive about $ 2.50−5 dollars depending on how many items you purchase and you get a lot of okay tasting food. For about $ 4 – 6 you can get a very generous portion. Would I come back here??? Probably not unless I was in a rush to eat something quick and pre-​made. There are many other great sit down options here on Nob Hill for hot Chinese food.

If you want Americanized Chinese food. go to panda express. I work at the near by hospital and for $ 5, I can be stuffed for lunch. I am Chinese and the food seems normal to me, although they don’t offer your normal Chinese menu… I think their entrees taste like something my mom would make. It is a break from the sweet and sour stuff I get at panda express or at other restaurants.
There is a saying in Chinese that says something like «you get what you pay for» so if I pay $ 5 for lunch… I think the food is good for what I get for that price.

These people have been serving this community before Unilocal was even created. Although they won’t serve some PF Chang’s style food or treat you like you would at Gary Danko. They, by far, are very much a part of nob hill. In fact, this place has likely been open before many of you were born. That includes myself.
This place serves a demographic that is steadfast to San Francisco. It’s a mom and pop shop that, what I’ve heard, has not changed it’s prices for around twenty years. I’ve never become sick from eating their food, and they give you much more than what you pay for.
Criticisms are ostensibly ignoring the fact that this place is literally an icon of the neighborhood. Not everything has to be constructed to be a restoration hardware esque place with tiny portions where thought is placed more in the placement of food, than the actual food itself.
I’d give this place 5-​stars because of it’s mill’s-style utilitarian nature, and it’s historical background in the neighborhood.

«Hello my friend» thats what I say to mama san. Shes the owner doin her thang in the kitchen with her lil PERMED FRO. $ 1.25 for a good size cup of coffee thats brewed fresh. They have a small selection of donuts thats fresh in the morning but I would prolly think twice about getting them in the afternoon just because they been sittin there all day in that dingy donut case. (im scanlezzz, oh well) What I really suggest people order there is the chicken noodle soup (soup on the side though) the noodles are like thin chow mein udon type noodles and the chicken is sauteed and marinated and spiced up just right, if you get the soup on the side u have an option to eat the dish like a dry noodle type thing or add the soup and slurp away.
Mama does catering also, I’ve ordered the chowmein and fried chicken from her before and its bomb for the price. *wink

Inga Donuts is the signage. inside it’s all chinese food and one shelf of donuts
eats: chocolate maple bar with filling + chocolate glazed =3.00
–dense, very sweet
–not much selection late afternoon
–kind of pricey
2.5 stars

Let me start by clarifying most of the ignorant reviews. I guarantee you that this place does not use MSG. The lady hates unhealthy cooking and she only uses some kind of chicken flavor powder without msg. There are no bugs or cockroaches as this place is kept tidy and clean, back upped by their score of 90+. They sell pretty good donuts but it’s only one batch in the morning so if you want fresh crispy donuts, go early. For the really low prices, you really can’t expect them to have the tastiest food but the ingredients they use are not poor and unhealthy. It’s simply homemade-​style food. The best they have are the chow mein, fried chicken, egg rolls, meatballs. Others are decent but if you can be open minded and considerate, you’ll enjoy it. Remember the food taste the best around noon because they are freshly made. You get what you pay for, its cheap, give it a try. Its healthy food I promise.

Got PF Changs last night, which made us think, should’ve gotten Inga Donut! The Chinese food is just traditional homestyle take-​out. Those who say it’s bad probably were looking for Panda Express. Donuts are freshly fried and tasty. Can’t really beat the prices either. You can eat about 10 meals there for each PF Changs outing, though, of course, without the pizazz. No complaints.

Don’t eat here — got takeout from here as I was walking home and felt really sick after eating the $ 5 takeout. Also it’s pretty awkward when you walk in, there’s like 8 old dudes that just hang out and stare at you when you walk in.

Don’t eat here!!! I saw baby cocaroaches on the wall, and Ray shit on the floor. Ewwwww Unless u eat bizzare foods

I“m sad about missing the boat on being a guy, only because I can’t be a tranny and call myself Inga Donut.
Inga Donut doesn’t have donuts and it hasn’t at least in the 15 years I’ve known of it; it has chinese steam table food.
I used to come here because I liked their teryaki chicken thighs and their lightly cooked broccoli. But there is such a disparity between the portions the lady serves (generous) and the portions the man serves (stingy) that going there can be too much of a letdown. Inga has its devoted regulars though yes it does. It’s inexpensive and fairly healthy food in a mellow setting (if you like soda pop refrigerator cases, steam tables and plastic benches.) Downtown, people!
Personally I’m glad funky places like Inga Donut exist.

Ah, fair Inga Donut, how you tempt me with your Swedish movie vixen name, how you nauseate me with your dried up, stale donuts and suspect imitation of carnival style Chinese cuisine…
MSG!!!

how can a take out Chinese restaurant that sells donuts make food (using this term very loosely) that tastes worse than the hospital cafeteria food across the street?
come here and find out!
after two bites I threw it away.