Mission Bowling Club (SF)

A couple months ago, CT and I decided to plan a trip to San Francisco over Memorial Day weekend. She had never been before so we made sure to hit up all of the tourist sites. Of course, there was plenty of eating to do too. Join us as we recap our wonderful time on the West coast.

After lunch at Swan and an afternoon tour of Alcatraz, we headed back to meet up with CT’s Uncle and Aunt. They are investors in a new bowling alley/restaurant/bar called Mission Bowling Club. It is located, if you can guess, in the Mission district of San Francisco. We learned the Mission is quite an up and coming neighborhood ala Williamsburg about 10 years ago. Basically, it was very similar to Brooklyn Bowl. Hip bowling alley + upscale food and drinks.

The chef is actually one of the partners from Mission Chinese Food, which is one of the hottest restaurants in SF and just opened in NYC too. However, here the menu leans towards American comfort food.

NOTE: We didn’t get any special treatment or discounts other than possibly had an easier time getting a lane time since they only have six lanes.

There was a large group of us, so we got a couple of appetizers to share.

Fried Chicken with ranch dip ($8). Interestingly presented on what we learned was scrap bowling alley wood. This was pretty remarkable fried chicken. Perfectly seasoned and fried. Crunchy on the outside and juicy on the inside. The ranch dip was nice and cooling. A little thick, but that’s how I could tell it was made in-house.

The menu is constantly evolving, so AN was excited to see pork belly on the menu for the first time. Crispy Pork Belly ($10) with avocado, hominy, and cabbage. This was AWESOME! Crispy skin wrapped with tender meat and melt in your mouth fat. It was quite luscious so I am glad it was being shared. Way too much for one person.

CT got the Mission Burger ($15). “Aged and granulated patty with Monterey Jack, grilled onion, caper aioli.” I read that the Chef brought this burger over from this other restaurant due to popular demand. It was really good. The meat had a ton of flavor. Too bad it was served with potato sticks instead of proper French fries.

CT says: I liked the “fries” – there were like the potato sticks I used to eat out of a canister as a child. Not quite fries, but crunchy and delicious. And no… it wasn’t my two very strong cocktails impairing my judgement.

I had the Jerk Pork Shoulder Sandwich ($11). “Figwood smoked pork with grapefruit & jicama salad.” This was also pretty amazing. It had a ton of smoke flavor that could put most BBQ restaurants to shame. The meat was super tender so the awkwardly shaped pieces bit through without the whole sandwich falling apart. The salad was pretty unexpected and unusual topping that worked well combining the crisp jicama and sharp tang of the grapefruit.

After we were done, we hit the lanes. Don’t ask how I did, haha.

All in all, Mission Bowling Club has very good food for a restaurant let alone a bowling alley. They also have quite a good cocktail program with most being in the $10 range. Everything was done really well. People say San Francisco is an expensive city, but I found it a lot more reasonable than NYC prices.