Tommy's Joynt

Cathedral Hill, San Francisco Bay Area · Sandwiches · $$

Hofbrau service, where you queue at a carving counter and a man in a paper hat slices your meat to order, was once all over San Francisco and is now essentially down to this corner at Geary and Van Ness. Tommy’s has run it since 1947 from a building painted top to bottom in murals, holding the line on large portions at small prices. The buffalo stew is the order nowhere else in the city can offer you.