Lily, San Francisco

Reviewer: Foodnut.com Lily 225 Clement St San Francisco, CA 94118 415-742-5285 Lily Website

Why did we dine here? – Lily is a Modern Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco is inner Richmond District. Sort of a neighborhood joint kicked up a notch. The Chef Rob Lam used to run restaurant Butterfly on the waterfront. There are a ton of VERY good restaurant options nearby including Burma superstar, Chapeau!, Wako, and Mamahuhu. Traditional Vietnamese restaurants are a block away. We have been here 3 times for lunch during the Pandemic, last visit Spring 2024.

During the Covid 19 Pandemic in 2021, we visited them for indoor dining. We were trying to support local restaurants, so they can survive. All will get a 4 star review for being open.

Safety Pluses – Online menu, Delivery services available, online ordering, outdoor dining.
Minuses –

Insider Tip – Eat Family style to share the fun. Hit nearby Arsicault Bakery for killer bakery items.

Cuisine – Modern Vietnamese
Location – Inner Richmond District San Francisco
Opened – 2020

Service – Service was fine for the small restaurant. Pricing was inline with sit down restaurants of this caliber. Yes, you can get a $10 pho noodle from cheap Vietnamese spots. Automatic 20% service charge.

Verdict – Lily serves up very good inventive Vietnamese dishes in a nice atmosphere. Prices are not cheap, food is very good, but not great. Give it a try if you like Asian Food. The place is very accessible for non Asian dining pros.
If you like Lily, check out Bodega, SF, Gao Viet in San Mateo or SF and our favorite Traditional Vietnamese spot, Pho Hanoi in San Jose.

Is this restaurant worth a 5 minute drive? Yes. 30 minute? Maybe. 1 Hour? No

Lily Signature Dishes – Roast Beef Sandwich, Shaking Beef Salad

Lily’s Menu is fairly wide ranging with several options for vegetarians – gluten free. Cocktails too!

Website Lily Menu

Lily Food Picks:

Bun Cha Hanoi BBQ Sakura Farms Heritage Pork Noodle Bowl gf ($24) Grilled Meatball, Belly and Shoulder, Banh Hoi Noodles, Cucumbers and Pickles, Nuoc Cham was a very well done modern version of a Vietnamese dish. Several different types of meat, peppers, lots of pickled carrots and radishes. One level below down of San Jose’s Pho Hanoi. 8/10

Goi Ga Mango Chicken and Rice Paper Salad gf/v ($16) Four Sisters Farms Spinach, House Made Tomato Sambal, Toasted Dry Shrimp, Nuoc Cham was ordered for a vegan. Did the job, lots of fresh greens along with some rice elements. 7.5/10

Pho Bo Vietnamese Pho Dip Roast Beef Sandwich ($26) Five Spice Roasted Beef, Pate, Shallot Aioli, Basil and Cilantro, Cucumbers and Pickles, Pho Au Ju was huge with a ton of meat. Very well done, especially with the flavorful broth that we drank rather than dipped. At $26 this was an expensive lunch, they need to reduce the amount of meat and drop the price to $16. 8/10

Turmeric fried fish noodle bowl – Banh Hoi Rice Noodles, Dill and Onions,
Fermented Shrimp Pineapple Sauce, Shrimp Chips – ($24 gf) is a a modern rice bowl with several pieces of lightly fried fish on top of fish chips. Noodles lined the bottom along with some dill. Comes with a nice sauce in a bowl. 8/10

#1 Vietnamese BBQ Broken Rice Plate ($29) COM TAM DAC BIET gf
Sakura Farms Grilled Pork, Lemongrass Chicken, Blue Shrimp, Duck Spring Roll, Fried Egg has a little of everything and is one of their popular dishes.  8/10

Garlic noodles – Marin Root Farms Bok Choy, Shitake Mushrooms, Peppers, Toasted Garlic and Shallots ($24) it’s not the fat noodles that you normally think of, this again is a modern noodle dish with curly rice noodles. You can add protein (Chicken +$6, Shrimp +$7) to this otherwise it’s vegan. 8/10

Pans:
Glass Ha long ice green tea ($7) was just OK. 6.5/10

Do you agree with our review? Have you found other similar restaurants that are better?

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