Executive chef Joyce Lee pours tea over a fish dish for customer Ava Martinez at B Star Bar.
Chicken and shrimp biryani baked with peas, toasted almonds, egg and cilantro.
On many evenings, getting a table at B Star Bar in San Francisco’s Richmond District can take hours. But at lunchtime, the Burmese-inspired eatery offers plentiful seating and quick service.
Neighborhood resident Brenda Kahler usually dines at the restaurant in the evenings but recently stopped by for lunch. She particularly liked the combination, for $11.50, of a small soup and a tea-leaf salad made with ingredients like peanuts, sesame seeds, tomatoes and tea-leaf dressing.
“I can’t really say there is anything I didn’t like,” says Ms. Kahler, a 34-year-old controller at a consulting firm. “I typically do a sandwich or salad for lunch so B Star is a nice change from the ordinary.”
Other popular items on the menu include chicken and shrimp biryani, a rice dish baked with peas, toasted almonds, egg and cilantro for $12, and meatball jook, a rice porridge with pork and beef meatballs for $10.95.
Joyce Lee, executive chef at B Star and its sister restaurant, Burma Superstar, says she generally serves big portions for dinner. But she likes giving lunchtime diners at B Star—a mix of neighborhood residents and workers from the Richmond and the nearby Presidio—a chance to try several items. So she serves several combination options with a small version of an entree along with a side dish. “Little tastings of the menu are popular,” she says.
B Star Bar is located at 127 Clement St. in San Francisco and is open for lunch Monday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
—Vauhini Vara, Wall Street Journal
