Pastores

Where are you Pastores? Need your chilaquiles, badly! Hot doggit, this was a graeat spot for mexican breakfast after a long night of tequilla and late night El Farolito. Go big, go mexican heuvos and anything, no longer. Its a sign of the times, the rest of the world can be healthy or NOT!

Sadly when me and my hubby went by yesterday to get our Chilaquiles fix there was a sign in the door for a change of ownership :(. It was a very sad day indeed. If anyone has information about Erma or what her plans were/​are for the future please post them here.
Seems that the new owners are planning on calling the space «The Cave Grill».

Pastores seemed to be closed for months and then one day the blinds were open. One grandmotherly Mexican woman was in the kitchen. She does it all — takes your order, cooks it, brings you the food, and rings you up. The food (omelettes, sopes, grilled meat, enchiladas, flautas, etc.) isn’t fancy but it’s homemade and satisfying. Breakfast is served till 3 PM and dinner is available from 4 PM on.
* Chilaquiles ($ 10.50): cooked to order steak cut into big pieces with char marks was too salty, the rice had nice flavor (broth?), chips were thick and crispy with a super spicy green salsa, excellent pickled onions & carrots, pinto beans, crumbled Mexican cheese, and crema. It wasn’t as cheesy as I expected. The salsa and pickled veggies were terrific and I think she made them while I was there.
Décor is simple and the tables are a bit sticky.
Cash only.

Saturday lunch; we were there at noon. I skipped my usual enchilada-​with-​mole in favor of flautas, and they were fantastic! Crunchy, lots of white meat chicken and plenty of cheese, and a little green sauce, along with black beans and rice. My friend had chilaquiles and the sauce was too spicy for her, but it was perfect for me.
I don’t mind that this place is CASH ONLY, but I find it very inconvenient that they can’t change a $ 10 bill so we can split the check more easily.
I wouldn’t recommend this for a group bigger than 6 people; it would be too slow!

Loved the chilaquiles!
She fries the tortilla chips fresh, and they’re amazing.
Great pinto beans and buttery rice.
Really friendly small operation.
Coffee wasn’t that good…

simple, fresh food, personable service, and a reasonable price.
we were on a search for some good olé chilaquiles and huevos rancheros… and Unilocal led us to pastores.
the place is cute… felt like i was walking into someone’s kitchen. the chef came over to us and took our order. even in the midst of cooking, he still made an effort to come by and see how we were doing.
so why the 3 stars? well, although the food was yummy… both dishes tasted exactly the same. the chilaquiles was the winner by a small notch. i’m still on the lookout for the best chilaquiles in the city… but this one is probably at the top of my list at this point…
yet i’m still looking for that WOW factor.

Went for lunch with my good friend and her toddler. We ordered the guacamole to start, and it was perfect. Fresh delicious guacamole!!! They asked if we would like our guacamole spicy, the answer was one ‘yes’ and one ‘no’, so they gave us the serranos diced up on the side, which was very thoughtful and the perfect solution. I had three tacos: two al pastor (bbq pork) and one camarones (shrimp). Both were delicious. Baby had rice and beans and Mom had a carne asada burrito.
Everyone was happy and the food was great. Thrilled to have a fantastic little Mexican place in the neighborhood.
Chef and server were both very friendly and helpful.
Pretty soon they’ll have posole…
Next time: chilaquiles or posole???
Nom, nom, nom.

Solid four stars! Good food, great value!
In search of the city’s best chilaquiles, we tried chilaquiles from four different places in one morning. That’s right, we went to Primavera, Mijitas, Nopalito, and Pastores.
Primavera was a favorite, but Pastores had the best overall chilaquiles. Fresh green sauce, great crunch to the chips, perfectly fried egg and served with rice and beans. Can’t beat that! Friendly, homey service and great value. Keep in mind that we tried Pastores at the end of our food tour… so we were pretty full, and still thought Pastores was great.
Try it! You won’t be disappointed.

«This is not a restaurant. This is like your home.»
This is exactly what Irma said and exemplifies the spirit of this place. Irma is like a kind generous Mexican mother and she’s the reason I am writing my first Unilocal review. Her kindness goes way beyond customer service. It was our first visit to her restaurant (first of many, I’m sure) and she gave me a hug on the way out and made me feel like family.
I woke up this morning craving huevos rancheros. Not any huevos, but the BEST huevos rancheros in the city! A quick search on Unilocal and google turned up this tiny restaurant. Google said that it opened at 8am on weekends but it must have been outdated, because when we showed up in the pouring rain, it was closed until 10 am. Then we saw Irma carrying groceries inside and she offered to cook us breakfast.
Irma made us hot chocolate, carefully scalded in the pot, the way my mom would make it when I was a kid post-​tobagganing. She kept our basket full of individually warmed fresh corn tortillas. And yes, the chilaquiles and huevos rancheros were BEST EVER (take it from a connoisseur). It was fun watching her fry the crispy chips and tortillas to order with the perfect amount of salsa verde, crema, and cheese, topped by 2 perfect eggs. It was more authentic than the huevos you see on menus everywhere (including IHOP), more like the huevos I remember in Mexico. The salsa verde was delicious (not bitter, perfect amount of heat) and it was a nice touch to have a bowl of extra sauce to drizzle on everything. It seems superfluous to compliment the rice and beans, but they were so good I had to finish them even though my stomach was already overly full.
I usually wouldn’t want to publicize hidden gems and risk the crowds, but this place is wonderful and Irma is such a kind soul that she inspires my selflessness. Enjoy!

Menu is home-​style Mexican food and I had the chilaquiles with carne asada & it was delicious — definitely going to go back!

This is a mom and pop shop, where they slowly cook your food to order, and the place smells like your grandma’s kitchen.
That is, if your grandma is Mexican.
Upon a friend’s recommendation, I got the chilaquiles with carne asada, and 2 extra eggs. Fantastic! The chips were crunchy and homey tasting, there was a nice layer of sour cream and cheese on top of it, and a huge slab of carne asada yet on top of that whole thing. Coupled with the tomatillo sauce, it was a great, fulfilling meal. Not to mention the rice and beans that were super flavourful too! The rice looked so simple but beat the ones in so many other places.
I also tasted the eggs with chorizo. Very very flavourful and delish. It looked like nothing special, but my taste buds loved it.
While the food was great, the service was a bit «soup nazi» like, and slow most of the time. Considering it’s a family business and there were only 2 old ladies working there when we were there, I can understand that. The only advice I can give: go there at non-​rush hours and bring an empty stomach!

Pastores was the second stop on our fatty, I mean foodie, adventure in the Mission. My friend and I split one of the Mexican Breakfasts. We had one with fried tortillas (basically very brown tortilla chips), over-​hard eggs, rice and beans, and a delicious, delicious green sauce.
The place was empty except for us and they thought we were weird for sharing one meal. They also gave us «ice» water with only one cube of ice in each, haha.
The food, however, was good. The beans were legit, the eggs were, well, eggs, but the green sauce, the «House Sauce», killed it! It was so good we were scooping it with our forks in the end. We might have licked our plates if there were no waiter or cook right there.
CASH ONLY!

My husband loves Mexican food so when it comes to trying new restaurants, he’s always down as long as it’s Mexican food or other Latin foods. Husband knows I like this little area, there’s parking around. Unilocal brought us to this place.
Place is big and clean. Pineapple fresca was yum with the fibers, lol. I had chilaquiles and I think he had huevos rancheros. I took a bite and 2 things I thought of. First, «wow, this is spicy I’m gonna need my Tums» and «this reminds me of Mexico.» The flavor was simple, food fresh and yum. Although the meat was not as tender, but was still yum. I think bay area folks get used to different kind of flavors and we forget how simple food is usually the best.
So yes, I needed Tums after the meal because of the spiciness although my husband thinks he’s Adam from Man v. Food that he can take any kind of spiciness.
I’m gonna come back here.

There’s lots I miss about living in San Francisco. The Mexican guy in the paint store who asked me if I needed anything, and meant it. The Salvadoran guy in Hayes Valley who showed up to our first date in full makeup, and I treated him like a lady. The Colombian scientist who had a way in and out of lab coats. I could go on.
Now, Pastores has none of these things. But hell it’s got the flava!
I lived around the corner from Pastores for three years and in all that time the place NEVER DISAPPOINTED. The chilaquiles are off the chain. The rice. The beans! The mole. The pollo encebollado. This place is one hot tamale (granted I don’t think they have tamales…)
Pastores is run by the abueltia you never had but desperately need. It really is – most times it’s just her, though occasionally she gets help from the family.
It’s abueltia’s kitchen, and abueltia’s rules. She’s going to take her sweet time cooking your food because there’s only one way to do it, and it’s the right way.
So kick back, enjoy your drink, and get high on the fragrant sizzle as your meat hits the pan …
When that plate arrives, you will Latin-​style plotz. That’s how delicious it is! Never fatty or greasy. Fresh goodness from the ringed hands of the patron saint of all that must be eaten.
Insider’s tip: come during off-​hours. You’ll be the only customer and your food will come faster. Plus it’s a nice, quiet spot to space out with your drink and your Latin dreams …

Chilaquiles with fried egg at Pastores Restaurant
Simple. Order and wait. What is that huge plate coming out? Oh crap, should not have eaten those 2 pupusas before coming here. Ok loosen belt and go…
Dish is pretty simple: two sunny side up fried eggs, special chi… ps under that, rice, beans and the SAUCE. The sauce is what makes this dish awesome — its spicy, but also full of flavor that downplays the spice. The eggs and chips go really well together, especially after you get some nice yolk all over them.
Cost was $ 8.50 and its enough for two people. Super full after. Ugh :-)

I should have updated before now, but hey, I’m usually so replete when I get out of here that I neglect to write. And I’m lazy, if verbose when I get going.
Irma is still turning out beautifully prepared plates. It can take a while? Yes, sometimes; she’s the only one cooking, and it *is* worth the wait, every time. Think of how long you can have to wait just to get a table at most of SF’s flossier places. If there was a formula that took into account arrival time, length of wait for food, attentiveness of service, congeniality, food quality, and price, Pastores would slam nearly every expense-​account restaurant in the Bay Area.
Irma’s rice alone is amazing, and I usually order my meals without rice at Mexican restaurants (I’m not hating on the rice — Cuban/​Costa Rican/​Thai/​Chinese/​Japanese/​Burmese/​Indonesian/​Indian, bring it on). Her salsas — always freshly-​made — can be sublime. The beans are tender, with a dusting of grated cotija cheese.
I hadn’t been in to Pastores for several months (the schedule is still somewhat difficult to predict), but when I went in tonight, she hugged me and asked after my brother and parents. That she’s a total sweetheart is wonderful, but to be honest: with her food, she could be a cross between Lucretia Borgia, Cruella DeVille, and Leona Helmsley, and I would still tip heavily.

If a woman could live on chilaquiles and chicken mole alone, then I’d be one superold, happy lady.
Like eating in your Grandma’s kitchen. Grab an agua fresca, bring a newspaper, and settle in.

I live pretty much next door and yet I kept walking by, day after day with out stopping. The place looks like… well, pretty much nothing from the street. You see a long hallway and it appears empty, Pastores really is a hidden gem.
We walked in on Saturday morning, hungry. Struggling with my poor Spanish speaking skills, an older woman taking our order sort of stared, trying to figure out what we were looking for. The décor at Pastores is sparse, a bunch of stockpiled chairs and a few tables, lots of tile and an open kitchen. The walls are bare. There was a TV on and the two older ladies behind the counter were watching the History channel in Spanish– The Joan Rivers Story.
The food arrived in minutes, we both got the Chilaquiles with fried eggs for $ 8. Everything on was my plate was something considered and special. The tomatillo sauce was freshly made (I heard the blender). The rice and beans on the plate are nothing like other restaurants in the Mission — they were not heavy/​greasy, no rice pilaf and none of the heavy melted cheeses you find elsewhere. It was so good it made me want to order one more order.
I will be back for the huevos ranchos next week! So so good

The reviews of this one are pretty much spot on. I think I finally found my favorite version of huevos rancheros in the City. It has a tomatilla ranchero sauce instead of the usual red and is topped with crumbled queso fresco instead of a mound of melted jack cheese. Very nice. And the coffee was a step up from your usual Mexican restaurant. I loved the fact that there are no burritos on the menu — we have Cancun for that.
A simple, pleasant and very clean room and there’s music but not a blaring juke box.

I’m always excited about real sit-​down Mexican restaurants, so when I saw Pastores in the Chronicle’s Bargain Bites list, I had to check it out. Unfortunately the atmosphere is pretty much exactly like a taqueria, right down to the bright fluorescent lights. The only difference is that the friendly owner takes your order at the table. Also, be warned that the menu is quite limited. However, the food is worth it. They claim the food is «Mexico City» style – I’ve never been so I don’t know exactly what that means, but I do know that the enchiladas and fajitas were very simple and very fresh, and they came with some nice creative-​tasting salsas. In fact, the only weak link is the tortillas, which were store-​bought instead of homemade.
Now that I’m reading all the other Unilocal reviews, I’m starting to think I should have come for breakfast and had the chilaquiles. It seems like the kind of place where they’d be awesome. Next time…