Rice Paper Scissors

This is the best Vietnamese food I’ve had outside of Vietnam. And you don’t even have to leave San Francisco. Excellent Hanoi-​style phở and delicious banh mi.

Great phở, breakfast banhmi and cookies. These girls are sassy!

I normally don’t eat meat. Hanoi-​Style Beef Phở (with chicken broth) is supper good… Both noodle and beef are good!

I’ve been at this pop-​up restaurant twice. I thought the first visit was a fluke so I gave them a second try. I’d really hope to like them as they are a local business one block away from where I live. I love Mojo café and the bike shop. I’m a frequent customer there. I think the reason this pop-​up get so much traffic is because people love hanging out at Mojo.
My wife ordered the shaking tofu. The dish came out with some seasoned rice, 3 pieces of 1 inch tofu cubes, a few pieces of imitation meat and a few mushrooms. The price was something over $ 10. In my humble opinion, serving 3 pieces of tofu in a dish called «shaking tofu» and charging what they charge is unacceptable. Additionally, imitation meat? Who wants to eat that? Please at least list it in the description.
I ordered the wonton noodle soup in both of my visits. The noodle was overcooked. The broth was bland. The wontons themselves were quite alright.
In our second visit, they also lost our order. 40 minutes later waiting hungry, my wife asked for the status of our order. This isn’t a big deal. I’m sure it can happen once in a while at most restaurants. I’d still give a one star even without this mishap.

HOW DISAPPOINTING. There is nothing worse for me in the restaurant industry than inconsistency. Today my office (per MY REQUEST because I have eaten here and liked it) got sandwiches and soups delivered. My sandwich was soggy, (ick) the pork had no flavor and was fatty, and to call it a Bahn Mi and not include much of anything inside (maybe one sliver of daikon and a sprig of cilantro) is a total let down. I couldn’t even eat the half of the half. RPS, what is going on? Is it because you had to make a bulk amount? I can’t figure it out. The chatter around the office is that the soup was mediocre, and the salad was good, but they forgot to include the dressing, so who knows how they may have turned out. NO THANK YOU. A total let down and an expensive one at that, to have to serve the entire office.

NOTE: This review is for their new permanent (?) location at the Brick and Mortar Music Hall in the Duboce Triangle.
Phở is such a huge mixture of flavors and ingredients that it’s easy for a chef to cut costs and use subpar elements. The customer usually can’t tell, since Phở seems remarkably similar no matter where you go. However when I tried the Phở variant Bun Bo Hue (Spicy lemongrass soup with beef shank and bork hock) at Rice Paper Scissors I knew that every ingredient in the mix was quality.
There are cute little tables to eat at outside (but beware the strong SF Homeless presence if that sort of thing makes you uncomfortable) and when I approached the order window in the back of the music venue, the owner, Valerie, was extremely friendly and welcomed me in. She is one of those treasures of San Francisco — not only does she run an amazing little restaurant, you can get inside her head at
where she documents her attempt to live in every neighborhood in the city.
I ordered the Kumquat Ginger beer as well and that was delicious, and reminded me slightly of Kombucha without the sourness.
The presentation of the Bun Bo Hue was perfect, and while it arrived dangerously under-​spiced, it also came with ample spicy elements that I was encouraged to add by in order to make it taste how I wanted. The highlight of the meal was the house made chili sauce. I couldn’t get enough of it. The sweet paired with the salty, the spicy paired with the smooth, it was a winner.
Overall an excellent dining experience. Couldn’t recommend them more highly. Cash only.

Tonight I came to try out rice paper scissors at dear mom in the mission. I primarily wanted to try the phở but ended up trying nothing. It was a pretty lame experience. Here is why I give them 1 star:
1. We needed to wait 15 min for someone to come and bus the table. We piled all the dishes up ourselves to try and help out because they looked busy.
2. The hours for their pop-​up were advertised from 4−11pm. I got there at 6 and all the phở was completely out. They had a seasonal tapioca noodle soup and it was the only soup they had left. I was looking forward to phở so I thought «why not, I’ll order this seasonal soup.»
3. I sat and waited for my soup for over an hour. At which point, I got up, went up to the counter and asked about my order. They’d lost my ticket. And hadn’t even started on my order yet.
4. I watched the woman who ordered in line leave because she had already eaten.
5. I waited another 30 min, walked back to the counter, and asked for all my money back. I couldn’t wait any longer. No one apologized. My money was just shoved back into my hand.
And then I drove 5 min down the road to Phở 2000 in the tenderloin. And it was delicious. For $ 13 (what they wanted to charge me for a single order of their seasonal soup) I got phở, spring rolls, and shared a Vietnamese pancake, all in under 20 min.

Time: 7:38pm
Purpose: Eat real festival JLS 2013
Staff: 3 – 4 mid 20’s girls college type. Friendly and eager to say hi right away.
Cleanliness: Didn’t like siraraccha sauce on its side with gnats flying nearby.
Eats: Ham sui gok 2pcs-​$ 5 its really nothing special as most of its customers are non Asian descent having it for the first time. My coworker whose family runs a business specializes in these sells them for $.75 a piece. During potluck at work her family makes about 75 – 80 of these suckers. Basically its just a glob of sweet glutenous (sweet rice) fill with chop mince meat then fried.
Products: At this booth location only, ham sui gok and spring rolls wrap in rice noodle two choices pork or chicken 4pcs per order $ 5.
Expectations: First timers that tries it will flip for these items. All I hear is hella good, omg its good, you must this and that from young teeny boppers that are blinded by actual Chinatown offerings. My coworker said ABC’s that don’t have these available were they lived will flock to this booth like it’s the last place for ricerolls. It’s true though as we’re consuming our gok’s what was really interesting is older elder asians take a look mumble a few words and walks away. They’re probably thinking are you crazy 4pcs/​$ 5 were as I can make them myself or get them cheaper. I respect those mama’s and papa’s though, hitting every trashcan on site for recyclables. While we spend our hard earn money they quietly collects theirs.
Final Thoughts: It’s something that is relatively cheap and fast to make provided that you have everything ready to go. I can do the same cilantro, grilled chicken or pork, a package of rice noodle. Its like this it occur to me that it’s actually one roll cut into 4’s with sizes ranging from an M-​80 firecracker 1 ¼in tallx¾ circumference not including the filling yet. Everyone thinks it’s a deal do the math and figure out what exactly you’re getting. I probably wouldn’t try it again unless it’s on someone else expense.

I had the Beef Phở to go. It was pretty good, I just wish they had more beef pieces in it. It came with the flat noodle instead of the usual thin noodles which was cool. I know phở is hard to pack to go, so sorry for the trouble.

I’ve seen Rice Paper Scissors at different venues and conventions yet never thought the food looked good enough for the price. This past Friday they were serving food at an after party event. Semi-​buzzed and starving, I tried some of their food.
The dishes they had were chicken with red rice, pastries pies, beef phở rolls, and snickerdoodles. Dishes ranged from $ 3 – 10. The presentation wasn’t that appealing but the food looked good enough. I tried the beef phở rolls and a mushroom pie.
The beef phở rolls was a good idea in concept. Yet I found it really weird how they call it beef phở when there’s no beef broth or anything else that tastes like beef broth. It tastes everything like beef phở, but without the broth. I wasn’t a huge fan of it mostly because they called it phở. The concept seems like it would really work if they made the dish into something like a Shanghai dumpling where the broth could be contained. If they called it something else and lowered the price ($ 7) it would’ve been a better deal.
The mushroom pie ($ 6) was much better. The filling was super mushroomy in flavor. I was very pleased with this dish and very buzzed.
_​_​_​_​
Something is just slightly missing in terms of price, presentation, and flavor. Get some pies if you can.

So I’m waiting on a typical 54 degree foggy night on Divisidero waiting to go into the Independent to see Dave Chappelle perform, when I’m approached by a friendly girl asking if my friend and I would like to order a Vietnamese banh mi sandwich from their pop up store across the street. As we’re chatting I realized she looked familiar and I asked her if she had ever been in a Youtube spot with Eddie Huang when he visited SF on a foodie tour, and it turns out I was right. Once she introduced herself as Valerie, I remember I had enjoyed that episode for the realness of the two girls who just loved the natural goodness of fresh foods with simple preparation, and sharing the entire experience with friends. At that point I was sold and asked her if we could try the Vegetarian «Smoked Duck» sandwich.
Unfortunately when she came back and told us the sandwiches were all gone, she more than made up for it by giving us a Vegetarian «Smoked Duck» rice bowl on the house at no charge, garnished with daikon, cucumbers, cilantro and baby carrots. The soy/​wheat-​based duck tasted delish and unlike normal «fake» meats that I find too salty or soggy. Suddenly, waiting on the street on a typical cold and foggy SF night wasn’t so bad after all. I’ll look forward to going back to visit Valerie at her pop-​up and trying all the other items on her menu.

Despite its tiny menu and only a few places to sit, I thoroughly enjoyed my food at the ROCK PAPER SCISSORS Mojo Café Pop-​up. We dined on four dishes: PHO CUON (Beef Phở Rolls), GA ROTI (Five-​spice Roasted Chicken & Red Rice), PHO GA (Chicken Phở) and GRILLED PORK BAHN MI (Vietnamese Sandwich). The the dishes were flavorful, the service was friendly and fast and overall its exactly what I was looking for! Will definitely go back to try more!

Growing up, my mom told me that if I wanted a guy to marry me, I would need to learn how to cook and clean. Sinchy.
I put an egg in the microwave. When my mom caught wind of it, she quickly opened the microwave door. The egg exploded all over her. She grounded me.
I tried to run the dishwasher and flooded the kitchen with foam. My mom didn’t find my foam party amusing and took away my allowance for 2 months.
After countless hours of watching Yan Can Cook and TLC’s Clean Sweep, I’m proud to say that I can cook a meal without giving anyone food poisoning and can make the porcelain throne as shiny as Mr. Clean’s bald head.
Mr. NSS and I were talking one day and the topic of kids came up. I may not be old-​fashioned when it comes to dating (what 90 day rule?), but I do have old-​fashioned beliefs like providing my future kids with a home cooked meal every day. I asked if he could cook and his response: «Yah, I put Egg Beaters in the microwave.» Let’s just say, that conversation didn’t go very well.
When I was reading Eater SF, I came across an article that in honor of the Lunar New Year, Rice Paper Scissors (Vietnamese Street Food Pop Up) was throwing a «Potsticker Party» which included a dumpling making instruction. I thought it would be a perfect daytime activity so I bought us tickets. Plus, Mr. NSS would know how to make dumplings in addition to his culinary masterpiece of microwaved Egg Beaters.
The Potsticker Party was held at the Good Eggs HQ in Potrero Hill on Sunday, February 17^th from 4 pm — 7 pm:
. Tickets were $ 40 per a person and the party/​class size was about 30 people.
Upon arrival, there was complimentary food and booze provided. Talk about my kind of class to attend. So we wouldn’t get hungry while making the dumplings, they offered Com Tam Ga Nuong, Vietnamese Broken Rice with Grilled Chicken and Zongzi, Chinese Tamale. Although more on the Asian fusion side, both were equally delicious. I was all over that Com Tam since I’ve been craving it for months and haven’t found any restaurants in SF that serves it
.
For the dumpling making instruction, we were given house made dough and two fillings: a pork filling for the potsticker and a vegetarian kabocha filling for the dumpling
. We sat in communal picnic tables in groups of four while Valerie and Katie (the two awesomely friendly ladies of Rice Paper Scissors) went around explaining how to wrap the dumplings. I’ve wrapped wontons before with grocery bought wrappers but after this class, I had a new-​found respect for dumpling makers. This sh*t ain’t easy. Take a look:
. I guess our future kids will be eating lots of microwaved Egg Beaters when I’m sick and can’t cook. =X
After spending a good 90 minutes rolling, stuffing, and folding, we got to taste our creations. I absolutely loved the pork filling for the potsticker; it had tons of fragrant ginger essence
. The kabocha filling was deliciously savory and sweet
. As a takeaway, we were able to take some of the freshly made dumplings home along with step-​by-​step instructions so we can replicate it at home.
My only gripes were I wish there was more specific instructions on rolling out the dough and there were more rolling pins available. All the dumplings were super doughy and thick, so emphasis that we had to roll out the wrappers super thin would have made a world of a difference. Also, one rolling pin for a group of four was not enough and slowed down the process.
All in all, this was a well-​organized and super fun event. I highly recommend it for a daytime date and can’t wait for their next event.
There’s nothing like massaging and pounding out dough together. Get your mind out of the gutter, you pervs!

Good try, but not at all authentic.
I love Mojo Café. It’s my neighborhood café and I frequent it. I experienced Rice Paper Scissors on one of their pop ups on Thursday.
I’ll have to admit I have really high standards for Vietnamese food, being Vietnamese.
I’m not a big fan of how Vietnamese food has just become just a popular type of food, but since most people haven’t had authentic vietnamese dishes, so they don’t know any better.
I had a few bites of the Pork Banh Mi. The vegetables weren’t pickled long enough and had little flavors in it all together. Pretty bland in comparison to what a good Banh Mi should be.
The Phở lacks the herby smell and was completely off in taste.
I guess it’s ok to eat this for meaningless munch food. But don’t base your Vietnamese standards off of this place.
Also, just because they’re served by asian people, doesn’t mean they’re Vietnamese.

After reading a number of positive articles as well as several mixed reviews I finally decided to check these girls out at their weekly pop up at the Mojo Bicycle Café. The location of the pop up itself is pretty ridiculous; part café, part bar, part bicycle repair shop. It pretty much epitomizes the hipsterdom of SF. You really want to hate it, but at the same time secretly love it.
I ordered the pork belly Bánh mì. «Caramelized pork belly and housemade chicken pâté and mayo, with daikon pickles, cucumbers, jalapenos, and cilantro.» which turned out to be delicious. When paired with a good draft Belgian beer I really couldn’t find much to complain about. Give these girls a chance.
Yum.

Eating porridge in an alley? Grabbing utensils and condiments off of an ironing board? Tiny little stools?
Wheee! I love the ghetto-​fab throwback to Southeast Asia!
The food is pretty good too.
[[ Vietnamese Rice Porridge ]] — comes with chicken and a slow cooked egg — so flavorful!
[[ Banh Mi ]] — with egg — although I was sad that they didn’t have a pâté version of this that day, I was very pleased with the flavors and the bread — soft, maybe a little chewy on the inside, but a firm texture on the outside — and it’s homebaked! (One of the few places in SF that doesn’t just buy their bread off of Acme!)
[[ Beef Phở Roll ]] — Slightly oiled rice paper wrapped around deep-​fried beef. Although it wasn’t quite «phở”-like, I enjoyed the taste of it.

Rice et al. had at least 6 viet/​asian cuties at this booths selling their daikon cake food.
locale: SF street food fest 2012(8/18)
eats: daikon cake (3, small)
–daikon deep fried with bean sprouts placed on top.
–top too crispy, prefer unfried «radish cake» (steamed) at cantonese tea houses…
foodnotes:
–rice … here with whole foods as a winner in some food category.
–really fast service with so many servers…

Came with my sister and her friends to check out this pop up café we saw on Anthony Bourdain Layover.
The set up was super cute! Small tables and little stools/​crates aligned on some dingy dirty alley (this one was behind Four Barrel.)
I had the Vietnamese Rice Porridge –Pouched chicken and a slow cooked egg. Im not a real fan of porridge but this was good. So flavorful!
My sis had the Banh Mi Op La– an opened faced bahn mi with a scallion omelet, herbs, and nuoc cham (fish lime sauce). And this was MY FAVORITE! The bread is so soft and crunchy and the omelet was delish!
We also tried the homemade yogurt with peaches (SOOOOO GOOD) and the Vietnamese iced coffee, which was $ 3 for a tiny cup.
Overall this place is pretty solid! Definitely worth checking if you can find it! Hope to check it out again soon!

Banh Mi — thats what I had. They had two options when I found them: pork belly with chicken pâté and a fake «duck» made of some kinda dolphin safe gluten. Not eating of the former I found myself ordering the latter. My problem here: I don’t like duck in the real sense… or in the fake sense.
I started with an order of spring rolls, which were really nice and fresh. Not sure what was in there but it had a lot of fresh flavors. The sandwich came next, it was a fatty one (like a big thick piece of bread stuffed with goodies). I got it sans mayo (or whatever vegan alternative they had). Just straight up. It looked a little crazy, and I thought there was too much bread. But the bread was toasted perfectly and was soft and flakey. The sandwich smushed down into the perfect bite and texture. Even with that veggie duck that I hate so much. It was a tasty $ 8 sandwich. Wasn’t dry at all (even with the lack of mayo).
I cant say I’d do it again… least not for fake duck. I’d do it for tofu or any other kinda meat that’s not swine in nature. But lets be honest… thats never gonna happen.

DJTINACHRISTINA and I wandered down here to fulfill 2 very different goals for the evening. Mine? Seeing Bourdain. Hers? Meeting a local celebrity blogger.
Basically, after a drink at Shotwells and some unsuccessful Bourdain stalking, I decided to throw caution to the wind and order a pork belly sandwich. Pork belly is my Achilles heel. (I may have already said this about artisan bread… but lucky for me, humans have 2 Achilles heels!)
Anyway– FORTY MINUTES AFTER ORDERING I got my sandwich. WTH. Wow. But luckily, as we were waiting, Bourdain showed up and Tina met her blogger buddy.
The sandwich was mediocre. You can get better at Saigon for cheaper. I mean, it was good, and fresh, but… not amazing by any means. Spicy, porky, but the chicken pâté was off, and the bread lacked. What exactly, I don’t know but it made me a sad panda.