Nopalito Restaurant Review, San Francisco

Reviewer: Foodnut.com Nopalito 306 Broderick Street (Near Oak) San Francisco, CA 94117 415-437-0303 Nopalito Website

Nopalito is a new San Francisco restaurant serving authentic traditional Mexican cuisine from the popular restaurant Nopa folks. It is located across the street from the San Francisco DMV, next to upscale grocery store Falletti’s Plaza. They use local, sustainable, and organic ingredients and have some small plates as well as some more expensive big plates. The place was still very new when we visited them for dinner. Lots of Hispanic cooks were cooking the cuisine. This is a place for a quick bite, not much lingering.

Decor, Vibe – Modern clear interior with lots of green. Big communal table, counter seating. Locals, families, folks of all ages were dining. No reservations means a line in the evening. They have outdoor seating on the patio when weather is good.

Menu Pictures

Note: Click on ANY picture to zoom in.

Click any picture to zoom in

Picks:

Totopos con Chile ($4) were hot tortilla chips with chile de arbol, crema and lime. Crispy, a little bit of spice, and tasty. Nice crema dip.

Quesadilla Enchilada con Chicharron ($9) with deep fried corn tortilla, crispy pork belly, gujillo salsa, jack cheese, onions, cilantro was delicious but artery clogging. Good flavor on the pork.

Carnitas ($14) was a long braised pork, orange bay leaf, cinnamon and beer with cabbage salad, picked jalapenios, tomatillo salsa on the side. Excellent pork, but as you can see, lots of grease too. They should think about cutting out more of the fat. Nice balance when placed in tortilla with some of the zesty salad. Extra tortillas were $0.30 each.

Panucho de Pollo al Pibil ($4) Black bean stuffed tortilla, citrus-achiote chicken, pickled red onion and habanero salsa had good bang for the buck. Lots of chicken and very pungent flavored onions. Tortilla got soggy fast, so eat it quick.

Organic Almond Horchata ($3.95) was very good. Heavy cinamon flavor. Too much ice though.

OK:

None

Pans:

Hibiscus Blood Orange ($3.25) was too bland. Not much flavor to it at all.

Freebies

They start you off with some complimentary deep fried chick peas and finished us off with a free Mexican cookie. Service was fine but we got asked too many times how we were doing. Nopalito serves up decent Mexican food at reasonable prices. The food was tasty and a nice extension of affordable restaurants in the city.
If you are looking to eat healthy, pick carefully. Their Chicken Mole looks good and is not deep fried. Desserts will be added soon. Several beer selections as well as 3 wine from $7 a glass, $28 a bottle.

Next door is Delessio Market at 302 Broderick.  They sell some very good Panini Sandwiches made with lots of high quality organic ingredients.  The Lamb ($8.95) was delicious as was the Cuban ($7.50). Beautiful desserts and cakes. Delessio has a location near Flax on 1695 Market St.

Also at:

1224 9th Avenue
San Francisco, CA

Restaurant Map: