Sabra Grill

Sabra is a locally owned full kosher restaurant.
It’s kind of a odd location, just inside Chinatown on the second floor above some chintzy souvenir place. The narrow stairs up are easy to miss.
I kind of like the décor, blue and white paint with art work on the walls, some more interesting then others. There is exactly one window seat with an indifferent view of the second story across the street.
The food here is nothing short of spectacular. If you are a vegetarian the hummus/​baba ganoush platters with pita and falafel are superb. comes with pickels, eggplant, and a spicy relish/​chutney.
The meat dishes are likewise superb, with the kabobs being a standout but be warned that this is a slow food place. Food is cooked to order and if you are planning to hit this place on a an hour lunch there is real risk of you not making it back to work in time.
Also know that all menu items may be more expensive then what you may be used to. Part of this is due to pure kosher typically costing more and partly due to the sheer quality of the food… hmm, well both of those reasons are kinda the same thing.
They are in the process of revamping the menu a bit-​there is a new cook/​chef with some desire to spice things up a bit. What this means to you practical terms is that some menu items may not always have exactly what is described, such as the veg combo platter substituting potato salad for a greek style leafy salad, or not depending on who is cooking.
I recommend verifying what may (or may not be) on the plate upon ordering.
If kosher food is important to you this is a must do in SF.
Also one of the best Mediterranean food places in the city and is a good example of the eclectic restaurant scene with it’s wonky location.

Amazing, warm and friendly service. The owner/​waiter was super inviting, helped with menu choices and really made us feel welcome.
The food was out of this world! Well seasoned and PERFECTLY cooked, paired well with accompaniments and good to the last bite! Portions were plentiful and even enough to take home!

Delicious Mediterranean food! Also great service and authentic taste. Great if your looking for a change in cuisine to the usual sushi, burgers…, or if you keep kosher. I got the chicken shawarma and my wife got the hummus with ground beef they were both amazing, especially with the warm pita and pickles on the side.
Definitely recommend this place, but you should go in knowing the prices are on the higher side which is necessary due to it being San Francisco and the kashrut certification. The restaurant was packed with tons of people, which wasn’t surprising because the food was great. You definitely won’t leave hungry.

I have never been to a Kosher restaurant, but this place was highly recommended by a friend who has been here many times. She is Jewish, and says that many Jewish people in San Francisco come there.
It is not an esthetically pleasing spot, but I didn’t care about that so much. I was getting take-​out. It is up a steep staircase right inside Chinatown’s gate, and is bare bones in the décor and ambience department. It looks like a food-​truck with hand-​written menu on a whiteboard and very basic old-​school tables/​chairs, etc.
A really nice man (the supervisor) took my order. I was expecting AMAZING, but came home to find there was no hummus on my «plate» (it stated there would be hummus) and quite bland everything else. I got a chicken skewer that came with white rice, white pita bread, cabbage and green lettuce salad. It was $ 23 which I assume is because it’s expensive to have food qualified as Kosher.
I will try this again for falafal and schwarma and only at lunch where prices are considerably less.

The best kosher food in San Francisco, I love this place, the service good the owner and his son make the different, remained me israel

Came in due to a friends recommendation and wow were they right! I enjoyed the food (you have to get the hummus) and the ambiance was quite nice. Would recommend and will be going back next time I am in SF!

One word– Delicious! Scrumptious! Yummy! Oh wait– that was three!!! All I can say is that if you are looking for some amazing Kosher food there is no other place to go in San Francisco!!! After eating here for the first time I decided to order lunch of my office and Sabra did not disappoint! Thanks so much to Joe for putting the order together and thinking of a few things that I hadn’t. He’s the best. When you are there don’t forget to try the beef kabobs– amazing and huge portions.

It’s not often that you walk into a restaurant and you’re welcomed as though you’ve come home.
But at Sabra Grill that warm and welcoming feeling invites you every time.
The service is impeccable and the food is delicious. It’s in a prime location with the friendliest smiles from staff. The menu has a variety of middle eastern dishes. Great lamb shishlik! Enjoy!

Food here was delicious! Are here with a friend, and both of us come from families that make incredible middle eastern food, and this place was among the best middle eastern food I’ve had in a restaurant, the babaganoush with hummus was yummy and we loved the fresh pita bread. The salad had a pleasant light dressing and the beef skewer and falafel was too notch. We were helped by joe, the owners son, who was really great, and the rest of the staff was really friendly as well!

A french restaurant nearby was recommended to me, but it was closed, so I was on the search for something else, and I stumbled by this place. It doesn’t stand out, and seems out of place, it’s on the second floor of a building in Chinatown, just behind the Dragon’s Gate. It’s very small, and I imagine, probably always nearly empty, but I figured why not, I was tired of walking and hungry.
The prices were fair, most dinners were in The mid-​$ 20’s, and the owners were very friendly. I settled on the beef kabob, and they brought me some pickles to start, which I found odd, but they were very tasty. Then out came the pita, I couldn’t tell if it was home made, or store bought, but it was warm and soft, and fairly good.
Then came the meal. I asked to hold the cabbage salad, because I don’t care for cabbage, so it came with 2 large kabobs, about a third of a dinner plate of white rice, and a salad of mostly cucumbers and tomatoes, with a little bit of iceberg lettuce mixed in. The salad was a bit bland, but after a long warm day, it was refreshing and welcome. The rice was not overdone, and plain, I prefer it that way. The kabobs themselves had a fair amount of spice, and saltier than I prefer, but all in all, it was very good. If you don’t care for salty foods, I’d probably stick to the vegetarian selections.
The meal itself was easily enough to feed two hungry people, and the owner gave me some odd looks as I ate all of it. It seemed as if he’s never seen anyone eat so much, but I was very hungry after a very long day of walking all over the city.
I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat here, but if ever I’m in the vicinity again, I would probably stop in.

Was there for dinner. Had very good matzoh ball soup with there signature hamburger. Was pleasantly surprised at how good the food was. Service was good. I would recommend.

We are visiting from out of town. The food was pretty good but the service needs a lot of assistance. So if you are looking for a place to eat good food and have the time to wait, this is the place

Ordered a combination salad plate. The Falafel tasted like it had been fried in oil that had cooked lamb. The French fries soggy and cold. I was Sick the rest of the day, I will Never go back!
–Judith W

A friend wouldn’t let this place go, so we went after dinner, you know for second dinner. As such i only had a small plate of hummus and falafel. Both of which, OMG good.
The menu looked really good. I’m not a kosher eater, but appreciate good food blessed or not.
The only downside was the weird vibe my friends and i got from other patrons. Like literally stink eye. One lady turned around in her chair a dozen or so times to just stair at us. We weren’t being loud or weird, she was just not down with us enjoying tasty food as far as I could tell. Was tempted to chuck a falafel at her, but that seemed rude.
Beyond that though, this little kosher gem in little tokyo of all places was quite nice. Never hurts to know a good kosher place nearby.

I’m not Jewish; but, this place serves some of the best Falafel in San Francisco. And, after trying several places nearby, without a doubt the best Falafel in a several block radius.
What I really like about them, is that the Falafel are always fried fresh, and are nice and hot and crispy when you bite into them. Another unique thing they have is their pita bread. It’s thicker than any other pita bread I have ever been served (probably at least twice as thick, and it has air bubbles inside like you’d find in an English Muffin, only it’s much thinner than that). As a result, the pita is always very pliable, tasty, and chewy. Best yet, it’s always served warm. The Falafel Pita is $ 9.95, and totally worth it; especially when compared to the Falafel served at the other restaurants nearby.
Most places in San Francisco use a much thinner pita, almost all serve it cold, and when it’s served dry it just crumbles into a mess, and the ingredients fall out on to your plate.
A real treat here is the Lamb Shishlik. Again, each skewer is grilled to order. Without a doubt some of the very best tasting Lamb Shishlik I have ever had. It’s delicious.
The only major miss so far that I have eaten here is the Chicken & Onion Shawarma. To me, it just tasted awful. I think it might have something to do with being cooked on the same grill as the Lamb.
Other than that, everything I have tried has been real good, and worth eating again. The humus and the rice are also good.
A lot of people complain about the prices here. Yes, it’s more expensive because everything has to be certified as being Kosher. However, if you stick to the lunch specials that they have posted next to the entrance on the street (which run from 12pm to 4pm), the prices are pretty fair for the flavor of the food they serve (around $ 10-​$ 16 for lunch without drinks).
Since they are Jewish, it’s closed on Saturday; but, open on Sundays. If you weren’t specifically looking for it, you would easily miss the entrance on the street level. If you start at the Chinatown Gate at Grant and Bush, it’s about 50 feet up Grant Street on the left hand side (West Side of Grant St). The restaurant is up on the 2^nd floor with a long flight of stairs and no elevator.

Just had the best falafel!!! Very friendly great food, great place for lunch or dinner!!!
Will come here again and again!!! Thx

Great food and atmosphere for Israeli/​middle eastern cuisine. The lamb, the hummus and the falafel were delicious. Would recommend anyone that looking for great authentic food.

Only kosher restaurant around so did not really have any other places to eat or compare.
Food good
Service friendly
Reasonable in price
Middle Eastern food
Ate here three times.
Enjoy

Achtung: Erst wird man übersehen, dann lässt man einen ewig — fast eine Stunde — warten. Dann kommt das falsche Essen. Dies ist ungenießbar, das Fleisch ist halb roh und sehnig, der Preis ist völlig überzogen (z.B. Hamburger 24 $) und die Rechnung ist auch noch falsch. Ich verstehe nicht, wie dieses Restaurant sich halten kann. Dabei hatte ich mich über ein koscheres Restaurant in SF gefreut …

I was excited to stumble upon a real live Kosher restaurant while on vacation in San Francisco. As someone who lives in a city without any Kosher meat restaurants, I was enthusiastic to grab a swharma to go to eat while walking through town.
The staff was friendly but this was by far the slowest shwarma I have ever had in my life. It was hard to get someone’s attention to order, and then I waited. And waited. And the chef stopped cooking. And I didn’t have my food. Then the waitress told him that he forgot to make mine. So he started cooking. And it took a while.
I ended up waiting about a half hour for a shwarma to go. It was okay, not as good as the Israeli stuff, but were I to go back to San Francisco I might skip stopping in.

The worst experience ever. It’s 2014 sabra grill it’s ok if a non Jewish woman walks in to eat. They ignored me for 10 min gave the worst service and the food was something I wouldn’t even give to my dog. Very bad.
We are all the same Jewish non Jewish.
Sad:(