Old Jerusalem Restaurant

Here we are at Old Jerusalem Restaurant! It's near the wig store, on the Bernal Heights stretch of Mission, near Cesar Chavez and that terrible lilac mega- Walgreens! The outside looks like this, kinda unassuming. 

Here's Dan perusing the menu, looking kinda Milhouse Van Houten aka like a nerd. Our friend Julia dined with us as well.

The interior of the restaurant's been classed up a bit since my last visit. It's a long, somewhat narrow restaurant with scenes of Old Jerusalem painted on the walls. I think they are open all day. A lot of families come here to eat; there's not a ton of Middle Eastern food in this area.

We are so hungry! Here come the free stuff! Freshly toasted pita, a garlicky tahini dip, an onion relish, olives and pickled radishes! All these things are fresh and really good.

This is the (blurry) vegetarian combo platter for $11. It has: hummus, baba ghanouj, Isreali salad, fuul, falafel, and fried eggplants and cauliflower. A+! I ate a lot of Middle Eastern food in Brooklyn, but honestly Old Jerusalem blows them all away. All the dips are so creamy too.

Here is the other thing we ordered, lamb with hummus, around $12. Normally I don't eat lamb, because of the baby lambs and also it's often kinda gamey and bad, but this was really good! There are buttery pine nuts, cilantro, etc.

I felt we had to order these, the stuffed falafel at $1.25 each. This is the best falafel ever, stuffed with onions and maybe more pine nuts? So creamy, so crunchy. Not like the gritty, tasteless falafel so often found. Another good thing to order is a strong black tea with fresh mint, but we were too cheap.

All in all, this was a very reasonably priced meal. The two entrees plus the falafel were shared among three people, and we had food left over. All the portions are huge, so it's fun to go with a group of people and eat family-style. Or you could just be a cheapskate and split the vegetarian platter. Also, you could easily forgo the meat if you're bringing some of your vegan friends along! They will be happy! Especially if they have been eating at Maoz or some other crappy place. 

2976 Mission St
(between 25th St & 26th St)
San Francisco, CA 94110