DragonEats

Fast. (SF)Cheap. Delicious. These are the three words necessary to explain DragonEats.
It’s a very popular spot for the SoMa crowd near the area, mainly because of the three things I have mentioned above. You may see the line out the door, but they are so incredibly efficient here that even when I was out the door it still only took a total of 15 minutes to wait in line, order food, wait for food, get food, and leave. When you’re inside, it’s probably close to 5 – 10 minutes. I don’t know what kind of magic they use, but this place is a well-​oiled machine.
Sandwiches are decently-​sized. They’re not huge, but they’re not tiny — it’s basically a «healthy» portion of sandwich, I guess. Not that I’m the person to ask for healthy, because tasty is better than healthy to me any day. Bread is crunchy on the outside, sandwiches are filled up on the inside. They scoop out the bread in the middle to stuff it with more non-​bread stuff. I’ve had the pork and the garlic butter chicken, and I think the pork is my favorite, but I’d definitely eat either one.
Yes, you can definitely get cheaper banh mi at a Vietnamese restaurant somewhere in the middle of the city or in Little Saigon in San Jose, but this is my favorite lunch option on Fridays because no other place has banh mi of this deliciousness. I’ve never had a bad sandwich here, and somehow, I feel like it’s healthier. It could also be wishful thinking, though. Plus, the carrots here are really good. Like, really weirdly good. Maybe I just like pickled carrots.
Anyway, worth the short wait if you’re in SoMa and you need some lunch.

On a wet drizzly day around 11:30 am, I enjoyed the cilantro chicken stock soup and five spice chicken sandwich. I had to remove the jalapeño because it was too hot for me. Sandwich was the perfect compliment to the soup. Filled me up and got me refueled. Now ready to tackle my afternoon work.
Sandwich $ 6.50
Chicken broth soup $ 3.25

Yummy sandwiches and bowls — very fast service — always a line but it moves fast. Get there before then run of their popular stuff

Small & cozy spot with authentic banhmi. It reminded me a lot of what I had in Vietnam.
I went with the pork banhmi and it was fantastic. I want to try the duck next time.
These are decent sized sandwiches that’s perfect for a lunch. Bread was nicely done and the fillings were exactly what you expect from a legit Vietnamese sandwich shop.
They also have a bowl option for the sandwiches. But why would you want to skip the bread? Get those sit-​ups in. #iworkouttoeat

Great Vietnamese sandwiches at an amazing price point! I thought the garlic butter chicken was fantastic. It’s pretty fast to make and pretty filling by itself. The ingredients taste pretty fresh too.

Affordable, fast, delicious. I tried the fresh rolls with tofu first-​minty, fresh, tasty protein, great peanut sauce (they also have fish sauce and sriracha as an option). So yummy. The second time round, I was so tempted to order the fresh rolls again, doubting that an option could possibly be better. But in interests of variety, I tried the tofu banh mi. Warm, crusty baguette, flavorful protein, crispy, fresh veggies; it exceeded my expectations. Mmm. If you’re of the late-​to-​the-​party class that has doesn’t regularly eat Vietnamese food, I recommend the banh mi as a sort of bunny slope, as it’s essentially a better version of a classic sandwich. Love how this place has vegan, gluten free, and low carb options, all without overpricing their food, a problem found in 70% of SF restaurants.

I’ve only had the banh-​my here, but it by far the best banh-​my I’ve ever had.
In particular I’d recommend the duck banh-​my and the five spice chicken banh-​my, they are both fantastic. For some reason they don’t put the duck BM on the board, but it’s on the printed menu.
The line can be a bit long, but it moves quickly. And if you avoid the rush at noon it’ll be very fast.

Really not feeling this place. I will be straightforward and say my biggest peeve about this place is the cost. Yes everything on the menu is $ 6, but from a value and substitutions perspective, it is quite outrageous.
Banh Mi typically runs for $ 2 – 4 each. Quality obviously varies but I find actually correlates little with price. While Dragoneats serves up delicious food, and a bigger/​healthier banh mi than usual, the justification for double the price (and recently raised in ¹⁄₂₀₁₆) is just not there for me.
The bowl is even less substantial than the sandwich.
Don’t come hungry, unless you plan on expense-​ing your meal. In that case call me up too.

Ordered a garlic butter chicken banh mi and chicken soup with ginger, kale and lime. Loved the sandwich, which had super fresh veggies and soft bread with a perfectly crunchy crust.
They only serve lunch and the lines get very long right after noon but they move through the orders quickly, and it’s worth the wait! The five spice chicken see me to be the most popular – excited to try that one or the duck next time!

Don’t show up hungry, otherwise you’ll end up ordering everything on the menu.
I showed up hungry and ended up ordering:
— 5-​spice Chicken Banh Mi
— Shrimp Fresh Roll
— Shrimp Papaya Green Salad
Was tempted to order the Vietnamese Iced coffee, but thankfully the cashier already swiped my credit card.
Food tasted great! That’s all I gotta say about that.
You can certainly find a better value in the South Bay, but this place is definitely worth the trip if you’re in the city.

As lunch places go in FiDi, this is a very solid choice. I read a bunch of reviews on this place and decided I was going to come here to try the Five Spice Chicken Banh Mi. My sandwich was between $ 7-​$ 8 and a good portion for me for lunch. It wasn’t so big to make me lethargic from food coma, but it wasn’t small enough to leave me still hungry after eating the whole thing. Also, I came at about noon and the line wasn’t too bad and moved pretty quickly.
This place is also rated one of the best places to get banh mi in FiDi, which is why I came to check it out. I would say based on the few places I’ve tried (disclaimer), that’s true — based on the price and quality. Bun Mee is a little more expensive and the other place I like is Café Dolci. I’ve also heard good things about the quality of the vietnamese coffee — they have Café Du Monde all over the place. If you like Café Du Monde coffee, you’re in for a treat.
The ratio of meat to bread was good. The five spice chicken is very flavorful, and they didn’t overload on veggies. They also put pâté in the sandwich, which made it extra delicious. The jalapenos were cut thin, so it wasn’t overly spicy. Overall a pretty good banh mi sandwich. I’d like to come back and try some of the other items here, like the Roasted Pork and Roasted Duck banh mi sandwiches.

Go here for lunch.
Get the Five Spice Chicken Banh My.
Order a Vietnamese Iced Coffee.
You will become a happy person.
Happy people are good.

The co-​worker and I usually venture out to try something different at least a couple of times a week and when we came across DragonEats we had no idea what we were in store for. We have walked by this place a couple of times not having a clue that food was served here. From the outside it looks like a swanky coffee and pastry shop.
So when we walked by the other day at lunch time and we saw the line out the door we knew we had stumbled upon something other than another artisan hipster coffee spot in the SOMA. We decided to let the crowd die down and come back after 1 pm and when we got back there were only a handful of people left inside.
We ordered a Garlic butter chicken and a Pork meatball Bahn My’s (which the very pleasant counter person stated that were his personal favorites) and awaited our number to be called. We grabbed a couple of glasses of their cucumber infused ice water that is free of charge and quite refreshing and took a seat. When our order came up we popped open the wrappers and traded halves of each of our sandwiches so we could both experience the way of the Dragon.
The smells these sammie’s were emitting were intoxicating. The contrasting green and orange colors from the shredded carrots and the cilantro and jalapeños was very appeasing to the eye. The crust and crunch on the bread was perfect and my goodness the chicken and pork were seasoned to perfection. All of this for $ 6 each?!?
What’s the catch? There’s not one from what I can see as we have since come back and tried the 5 spice chicken and the Roasted pork. They were also good but I think I will go back to our original choices when we first ventured in but I also won’t hesitate to try other options on the menu such as the Fresh Rolls and Bowls.
Great friendly service, cool atmosphere and a tremendous value in this area of the FiDi /​SOMA. We shall return!

Met up with a group of friends here for lunch one day & had high hopes based off the reviews… but honestly, I think it was just OK.
As expected for anywhere in FIDI — there was a lunch rush — but it wasn’t too bad. I think we waited maybe 5 – 10 minutes and we ordered. I got the duck banh mi based off of the raving reviews & you wait for your number to be called. It doesn’t take too long for them to make — about 10 minutes — depending on how many people are there I guess.
There’s not much or a sitting area so we just decided to go to a communal sitting area nearby to enjoy our sandwiches. I was expected a lot more flavor in he duck and veggies — but it was lacking in everything. There wasn’t enough duck, there wasn’t enough veggies & there wasn’t enough flavor. I was disappointed right when I unraveled the paper — it was flat looking & a bit bland.
I wouldn’t opt to come here on my own again — but wouldn’t mind if a friend chose this place.

DragonEats is a great place to stop and get some solid Vietnamese food.
I have tried several of the choices and the chicken and porch options both bun mi and bowls were very good.
Price is also nice!
Dont miss it…

A nice little hidden spot on the border of FiDi. Perfect for a cheap, fast lunch (everything is made to go but they do have some indoor seating). I’ve only had the fresh bowl and will try the bun mi eventually. 5 spice chicken is better than the pork, but they’re both good.
The size of the container is deceiving, as it looks big but it’s only about half full… Decent amount of meat but I feel like they skimp out on the noodles and add lots of lettuce instead. Overall it’s tasty but I usually have to eat something in addition because I’m still hungry.
Would give it 3 stars since portions are so small but 1 extra star for cleanliness and price. $ 6?! Sure why not.

Stumbled upon this Viet sandwich banh mi place when we were walking through the City. Wasn’t going to stop but smelled really good and went in. Glad we did.
I got the four spice chicken banh mi sandwich for $ 6. Decently priced for the size. The bread was made fresh.
I did like their POS — they used Clover and you sign on a tablet. Like you’d expect in SF. Service was friendly and sandwiches came out quick though we were there at 11am on a weekday so wasn’t really peak hrs.

I crave banh mi on a regular basis, and DragonEats is my go to spot in the area. They have a great roasted pork «banh-​my» packed with pickled daikon/​carrots, cilantro, chiles, and pâté… all at the awesome price of only $ 6.
They also serve a solid papaya salad and make a delicious nuoc cham (dressing/​sauce) to go with it.

Ein kurioser Laden! Man sieht Mittags schon von Weitem die Schlange der Menschen. Auch hier hätte ich mich unter normalen Umständen nie angestellt. Aber es geht wirklich schnell!
Man bestellt an der Theke, bekommt eine Nummer und ca. 5 Minuten später kann man sein Essen an der Küchenausgabe abholen. Der Großteil der Gäste nimmt das Essen mit, denn der Laden hat ungefähr nur 10 Sitzplätze auf 15 Quadratmetern. Das Essen gibt es auch nur in Take-​away Verpackungen. Hier ist alles runter-​optimiert auf das Nötigste und auf einen schnellen Lunch ausgerichtet. Dennoch sind die Jungs nett und witzig drauf — immer ein Lächeln auf den Lippen auch wenn der Laden aus allen Nähten platzt!
Aber das Wichtigste: Das vietnamesische Essen ist super frisch und lecker. Es gibt Classcis wie Sommerollen, Bowls mit Reisnudeln, Salat und Schrimps, eine Tagessuppe (gestern Chicken Brooth) und ein Tagesdessert. Die Preise sind sehr human — alle Gerichte kosten 6 Dollar. Ich hatte Salat und eine Bowl und war dann für 12 Dollar satt. Dafür bekommt man andernorts einen feuchten Händedruck.
Kann man durchaus empfehlen! Es gibt aktuell 2 Filialen in San Francisco.

Decent banh mi for a good price (in SF at least). The roasted pork banh mi was smaller than the average, but the pork was pretty flavorful! It was a filling enough sandwich but I probably could have eaten more with it and still not be stuffed so maybe get two things if you’re feeling really hungry. I also came here for lunch and it was PACKED! It’s a pretty small place with one counter where the food is coming out so everyone was crowded around that area. They also just called out numbers for orders that were ready, but the guy was definitely not loud enough for us to hear because we were standing at the edge of the mob.
Overall, I would come here again for lunch for the decent prices and how close it is to my office, but the banh mi was pretty average! Also, my friend got a fresh bowl and she said it barely had any noodles in it so –1!

Concise menu offering enough variety for everyone
Flavors are present and delightful
Portions are fair in comparison to price
Overall Thoughts
Food is fresh, vibrant, and satisfying