Rice Paper Scissors

I’m so sad to hear that this is the last week for this pop-​up. I just started working in the area and it’s so close by. The flavor of the yellow chicken curry is what I want my yellow curry to taste like. I’ll be back later this week to get my fill before I have to find somewhere else to go.

Why do I love this store — I really don’t know. I just do. Every time I come in here (which is usually at least once every two weeks), I end up leaving with something random. One time I left with a nail polish, another time I left with bar tools. The time after that I left with flavored peanut butter. Random you say? Exactly. This place is perfectly random — offering a variety of various goods made by both local and non-​local artists.
Definitely worth stopping in to check out the goods — I know at some point I’m going to end up leaving with some of their jewelry/​watches/​sunglasses. They’ve always peaked my interest, but I’ve yet to leave with one of these items. Alas, there’s always next time… ;)

This review is actually for their food cart, and not the B&M.
3 – 3.5 stars. We tried their Beef Phở Rolls at the Eat Real Festival (2015) in Oakland, and they were good but it was a small portion (2 tiny rolls cut in half/​4 pieces total) for $ 5. I liked that the phở noodle part was soft and fluffy, but the dish needed more substance for the price.

Fantastic steak banh mi. Very different from banh mis I’ve had in Vietnam or even other places in the city. It is BIG so at $ 9 it’s almost a deal compared to most sandwiches in the city lately. And the steak was a good medium rare. I look forward to coming back to try to the phở.
Also lots of room to roll your bike in, if that’s your thing.

this asian hipster vietnamese sandwich place did live up to my expectations, for the most part… I had the steak Bhah Minh, nice flavors, decent size, but 3 small slices of steak doesn’t make it a steak sandwich. after about 3 bites, it became more like an avocado and lettuce sandwich… which meant shortly after paying you forget what you paid $ 10 for…:(
But with rent skyrocket high in the Mission these days, i imagine it’s not easy to keep a business going without charging more… so what we are left with is high price vietnamese street food… that’s the kind of postmodern city we live in…

Enjoyed it and even though I got delivery, they called to let me know there was a change in one item to my order and asked how I’d like to handle. Great customer service!
I ordered phở. The broth and meat were great. They included jalapeño, lime, and per my request sriracha and hoisin (not sure those come standard). Also– the ginger molasses cookie was soft and flavorful. Yum! Would order it again.

I am attempting to not be negative.
Just so happens that Im from the city and have had the opportunity to grow up eating soups of all kinds and cultures. Phở is one of my favorite comfort foods out there. So… I ordered Phở.
1.Spent half my lunch break waiting for the PHO (???)
The Phở was sugar water. I don’t mean the robust tingle of cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, anise or any other special herbs different family recipes consist of.
Almost all authentic Vietnamese places offer sugar as a side condiments but PLEASE give us the option of eating sugar soup.
2.Small ass portions
3.Expensive…
4.Hipster crowd…(Can’t seem to get away from them.)
Just there to drool over the half dressed staff.
Girl at the counter was really nice but looked like they could have used another hand. Seeing that they are charging a pretty penny for not much food and its a pop up and they are probably killing it for minimum rent working out of two venues.
The meat was good. However there was only four slivers of it.
5. Spent $ 15 bux on half a bowl of sugar phở and had to go but lunch after somewhere else. Kind of a bummer. I was looking forward to having a good soup place near work. Prime location, huge space and yet they are totally working the «New Mission» angle. Hence why unfortunately us locals don’t want to hang out in the beloved Mission District anymore.
To Management: You have the opportunity to have something amazing. Please step it up. Not impressed. Maybe the «New MIssion Crowd» doesnt know the difference but the locals do. Keep it real and step it up. We live in a beautiful, flavorful and amazing foodie city. We have the honor of eating local and some of the best organic farm fresh seasonal produce in Norcal. There is no reason to be slackin on the mackin.
P. S. I dont want to be a hater. Maybe I caught you on a bad day. Good luck

Tasty dishes; but, small portions. I had ordered to-​go. The girl didn’t give me a fork, I had to eat with my hands, as my lunch was only for 30 minutes.

I had a roasted pork bun mi. Delish. It had pâté, pickled veggies, and nicely charred pork. The ice coffee was not as milky or sweet as I’ve had at a typical Vietnamese place. It is really cool they have found use for an otherwise unused space during the day. Except it has that vague barfy, spilled beer smell of a club.

We came after watched the Restaurant Startup show. First all, we thought it was not opened because the door looks like to a bar, not this restaurant. After we walked in, because it has a host area, we thought there will be host to seat us. After waiting for few mins, we realized that it’s fast casual style that you need to go order at the counter. They don’t have the beef roll which featured on TV so we ordered phở and hickey rice, which were the only two options besides sandwich. Good were good but kind of boring. The rice chicken only has rice and chicken, no real vegetable or something besides cilantro which looks like for decoration. The full is just noodle and beef. Again, no vegetables besides tony onion which looks like is part of the broth. Friend chicken is juicy, and the beef in phở was tender. However, didn’t feel like it’s a completed dish.

Rice Paper Scissors is my favorite local lunch spot. I consider it a blessing to live on the same block as this place.
The food is always on point. I think it’s awesome that, depending on the day/​time of year, some of the dishes will feature different ingredients that are in season. It’s always a delicious surprise! The bahn mis are classic, the salads are a tasty and healthy option, and the chicken curry rice bowl is my go-​to. To drink, get the smoked plum tea if you’re feeling adventurous or a Vietnamese iced coffee if you need a pick-​me-​up.
Not only is the food crazy-​good, the owners Valerie and Katie are some of the coolest cats around. If you’re feeling sociable, they’re always down to strike up a conversation while you wait for you food.
Seriously, I don’t need to tell you any more. Just go eat here.

I’m giving you 3 stars for your delicious phở and friendly staff. It’s a delight to walk by your establishment everyday and be greeted so kindly. That phở is pretty insane and I wish I could eat it every day. The banh mi is pretty tasty too but it’s hard for me to stray from the phở. You must keep the phở on the menu daily. It is a very sad day when I arrive and I must choose something from the menu.
I did eat sitting in the mini chairs outside one time and I must say I was a little concerned about my food being so close to Mission Street.

I saw these cool girls on restaurant start up the TV show and decided to give them a try. A couple of my friends have told me about this place before.
I was pretty impressed with the food. But the service was awesome. I actually got to speak to the owners .
Looking forward to going here again next week when I drop off my friend roca to work.
I had the curry chicken. My friend had the beef phở. I wish I was hungry enough to order the bahn mi too.

Full disclosure: I went on New Years day and pretty much felt like crap… no sleep… walked 3 miles to get there… starving… so I was not exactly ready for what this place is.
What is it? It’s not reeeally a restaurant. It’s a music venue that serves food during the day (from what I could gather). The tables are piecemeal, and they have those tiny chairs.
I was sat outside (brrr), crouched over this table watching food come sporadically to the tables around me; never at the same time, mind you. They had ran out of everything except for two things. Again — fair enough — it was new years day, and I’m sure everyone working there probably felt the same as I did.
Everyone was pretty nice who worked there. I think they were more aware of what a sh*t show it is than any of us because they have to deal with it in it’s entirety. Why was it so bad? I’m not really sure how it got to be such a mess. You order from the counter and get a number; not a bad method — quite common. But I’m telling you — the table behind me. one person is done with their food before another gets theirs (that’s what happened with me, too).
The banh mi breakfast sandwich was a’ight… my phở was pretty good… luke warm, but pretty good (though I was praying that they buy good meat because the broth wasn’t warm enough to finish cooking it).
It was NOT worth the $ 30 it cost me — I tell you that much. I really didn’t want to pay the $ 3 per coffee that didn’t come until we were leaving (only because I asked a 3^rd time about it and got lucky enough to find a server who followed up). But — if you’re not in a rush, or hung over, or you catch it before a rush, it’d prolly be worth a try. Though I’m not going there again.

Phở is probably one of my top 5 favorite things to eat and it’s genius that Rice Paper Scissors put it in an easy to eat roll! I tried a phở roll at Eat Real Fest this year and was a fan. It tasted phở stuffed in a spring roll paper! The meat was flavorful but the rice roll needed some flavor, which I guess is where they’re fish sauce comes in.
Overall, I did like this dish, but nothing can beat a big bowl of noodles and broth!

Special announcement.
This put them on the «must go now» list:
These put them on the «you must go now» list: Rolls were incredible. Perfect balance of chicken, corn, eggplant and teriyaki. All wrapped up in a delicious noodle.
Pair them with a Goi Ga banh mi. Poached chicken, chicken liver pâté and cabbage slaw. So much awesome flavor you don’t need the mayo.
But you do need an adventurous dining companion to share both. Everyone however should get a sweet Smoked Plum tea especially if it’s a warm Indian summer day.
Continue the summer trend with tropical shirt Friday. Wear one and you’ll get a free Jell-​O shot. Just one of the endearing aspects of this entrepreneurial owner team.
They more than earn a special five stars.

If you’re on this end of the Mission and in a pinch (or just extremely hungover), RPS will get the job done. It’s not the best of the best, but it’s decent.
Phở, banh mi, and friendly staff (seriously, they’re sweet)
Bun bo hue wasn’t spicy enough for me, but that’s ok. Regular beef phở is a little off to me, like the broth was on the sweeter side. They are quite generous with the meat in their phở. The meat in their banh mi is hard to eat though. The chunks are so big!
I do want to try their pâté chaud. I just wish they had consistent weekend hours though! I think they’re only open every other weekend?
P. S. I know the little red stool chair things are their thing. but they’re not comfy.

Just ordered a chicken Bahn mi at the Sunday brunch. The chicken was refrigerator cold and the bun was cold, not toasted.
The girl at the counter said «it’s supposed to be like that» blah, if your looking for a proper Bahn mi go elsewhere.
Folks working there are very nice.

Went here for brunch today, and got there shortly after opening, around 11:10. Was fairly empty at the time, with one or two groups ahead of us. Thankfully, the ‘rush’ came after us, as they were fairly slow with the food, with maybe 2 people in the kitchen, one woman taking orders, and one woman delivering food to tables. Very casual place, which is actually a concert venue, and nice and chill, so decent ambiance, which is good, as there’s a bit of a wait for the food.
Also, the menus at the restaurant only list the food items by name, whereas on the website, there’s info on ingredients and whatnot, which is quite useful. Thankfully I had looked online beforehand. Odd that it’s this way though, with less info when you really need it. So look at their site before going.
Four of us, and we ordered each of the appetizers, and a few different entrees:
— daikon cakes: these came out looking like very large blocks of tofu roughly, with little bits of sausage inside and on top. texturally, very potato-​ey and a little gooey, a bit sweet, but mostly savory. tasty. good for sharing.
— mushroom pâté chaud: a small pie, maybe 4″ in diameter, almost like a chicken pot pie, but with a mushroom pâté in the middle, which was quite tasty. wanted to try the chicken liver one but ended up ordering this instead.
— salt and pepper tofu: the low point of the meal. basically fried tofu, not very flavorful, and then little bits of salt and pepper sprinkled throughout, largely just sitting on the bowl. not that much either. very tasty, but doesn’t adhere well to the tofu, and not much of it. lots of the tofu, so great for sharing that way, but no one was very enthusiastic about it.
— beef phở rolls: beef wrapped in sheets of rice noodle. simple and self-​explanatory, but tasty, and served with a soy-​like sauce. great for sharing.
— Phở Bo (beef Phở): typical beef phở roughly, with a good broth, and 5 – 6 slices of actually pretty lean beef it seemed. Interesting thing was mostly that the noodles were quite wide, maybe ¹⁄₃ inch or so. not used to that. quite a lot of noodles too. good but not remarkable.
— Ma Po Scramble: scrambled eggs with tofu and a little bit of pork, served with lightly charred broccoli (pan-​fried?) and toast. broccoli was tasty, toast was a bit odd, and eggs seemed okay. no high praise or love for it in particular.
— Grilled Steak Bahn Mi: fairly juicy and drippy steak bahn mi, which I did not try, but got high praise from my friend who got it. nice mix of veggies and meat.
Overall, decent experience, but would be pretty bad getting there much later. Not cheap for what it is, but there’s much worse. Spent about $ 20/​head with one entrée and one appetizer per person. Don’t think I’d return.

Rice Paper Scissors doesn’t have a sign outside, just an hanging pic of a red stool on it. outside this corner premise are small tables with small red stools. no doubt venue is someone’s else’s (name on building:
short menu (banh mi, phở, pies). mysterisous ambience, comfy vibes.
eats: pâté chaud (6)
-«hand held pie with ground chicken, liver, mushroom»
buttery, flaky texture with yummy ingredients inside
pricey but deliz
3.5 stars
takeouts:
–would come back but for the parking issue.
–prciey yes, quality ingredients, no msg/​aftertaste sensed.