JFG Nation, part of my travel over the past two weeks took me to San Francisco, home of In-N-Out and amazing Mexican food. When I saw that my work would take me to the Tenderloin area, I immediately reached out to a colleague to ask for grubbing recommendations. The response was immediate and singular: Brenda’s French Soul Food, which what I’ll be reviewing today.

I’ll admit I was skeptical – Nawlins cuisine in San Francisco? I was sure hipsters would screw this up. NO I DON’T WANT ANY KOMBUCHA WITH MY GRITS THANK YOU.

It was lucky that we hit Brenda’s French Soul Food early because starting at 11:30am the line started to go out the door. BFSF has been on Eater SF’s 38 Essential Restaurants for a while, and has thousands of reviews on Yelp. You go read those on your own. If you want to learn more about the chefs or the history of this place, Google it – I couldn’t tell you any of that stuff myself. All I know is that my colleague said this place was LEGIT, and I wanted BFSF to prove it. Oh I’ve eaten grits before, Brenda, if that’s your real name. YOU BETTER COME STRONG.

Brenda’s French Soul Food was a quaint place – decent seating area but definitely good for pairs of people.

When I stepped in the door, I saw there was no host/hostess. Just a chalkboard where you wrote you name and the number of people in your party. Then the waiters would come up, review the board, and call out who was going to get a table next.  Cool process, plus I got to use chalk!!!!

By the way, chalk gets everywhere. I immediately regretted my decision to handle chalk.

Just some of the specials of the day at Brenda’s French Soul Food. Bananas Foster French Toast was tempting but I didn’t want to fall into a coma for the rest of the day.

Instead, I began my meal as anyone should – with a big tall glass of Watermlon Sweet Tea. It was SWEEEEET, with good watermelon flavor.

Community coffee with chicory? I KNEW this was a hipster joint!

Brenda’s French Soul Food’s menu has lots of old school favorites – etouffee, poboys, etc. I immediately zoomed in on the house specialities however. I didn’t come to SF to have fried shrimp! Then again I didn’t come to SF to necessarily eat soul food either. Wait, why did I come to SF again?

My order: the crispy pork belly and grits with onion relish/salsa and a poached egg. Let me tell you – this was DAAAAAAAMMMMMNNNNM good. The pork belly was a thick smoky slab of bacon with great saltiness. The pork fat? Expertly rendered that it melted like butter in my mouth. The grits were smooooth and covered in even more cheddar cheese – i always endorse cheese on top of other cheese.

The onion salsa had a bit of a kick and definitely helped cut the richness of both the pork belly and the grits. And the poached egg just ooooooooozed yolk making me forget my name. This dish was RICH RICH RICH. I loved it. I was going to fall into a coma anyways – it was inevitable.

My colleague got the other thing I wanted to try – the grillades and grits. If you don’t know what a grillade is, join the club. Apparently it’s a meat medallion that is pounded flat, dredged in flour and then fried or seared. Then you cover it in gravy. Sounds like heaven.

I really enjoyed this dish, though not as much as the pork belly. That gravy is this dish was spectacular though – nice and meaty with plenty of thick onion-y flavor. The meat itself was as described – basically a flattened steak that was braised in the gravy. It wasn’t as tender as I would’ve expected, and it did feel like I had no idea what meat I was having, but the overall flavor of the gravy was so good I didn’t care.

AND THAT BISCUIT. That was an effing great biscuit. Mixing grits and gravy and then dipping a biscuit in it? You’ve found my weak spot. Please don’t ever expect me to keep your secrets because I will be broken by a biscuit and gravy.

I did cheat and look at the Yelp reviews for Brenda’s French Soul Food – while everyone liked various dishes, it was its fried chicken that got the most hype. I HAD to test this hype. Yes, I ordered fried chicken as a side to my pork belly; wanna fight about it?

The chicken thigh is always my go-to cut….flavorful with lots of good meat. When the thigh came, I noticed the variety of tiny breading crags all over the surface; the sign of great fried chicken. I took a bite…

….ok it was a big bite. EFFING PHENOMENAL. Totally worth it. Good fried chicken needs a crispy but not super-oily skin with lots of crunchy breading crags: check. It needs to still be moist, not dried out: check. It needs to have flavor: double check. The meat was tender and juicy and the breading had an amazing savory salty taste. And good friend chicken needs well rendered fat; there should be no skin flaps left hanging. This was perfectly fried; all the meat and skin slid off the bone into my gullet and down into my belly with little effort.

Verdict? Ok San Francisco, you win this round – your grits and fried chicken game is STRONG. Brenda’s took my expectations and exploded them. Nice job – can’t wait to go back and drown in that French toast. This is a definite revisit next time I’m in the Bay Area.

Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. I also have Google+!! Let’s hang out.

Sincerely,

Junk Food Guy