Hidden in San Francisco’s quiet Sunnyside neighborhood is a white tablecloth restaurant serving fine dining dishes like bavette steak with pomme puree and clam frites in sake-laced dashi — and almost nothing costs more than $14. It’s open four days a week but only for about 90 minutes each day. Reservations are recommended, but the majority of its diners walk in. Intrigued?
There’s a catch. In exchange for this organic lunch menu thoughtfully crafted by a chef who trained in the kitchens of Benu, Spruce and Oakland’s Burdell, the young staff asks for your patience and forgiveness, because service can be spotty — and for very good reason. This is a laboratory for the future culinary leaders of San Francisco.
Chef’s Table is at the City College of San Francisco’s Ocean Avenue campus and is run by the instructors and students of the Culinary Arts and Hospitality Studies Department. Founded in 1936, it is the oldest two-year collegiate hospitality program in the country and has graduated some of the biggest names in San Francisco food, from Belinda Leong of B. Patisserie to Jeff Hanak of Nopa and Liholiho Yacht Club. Students in the program have gone on to work at Dalida, Californios and Rich Table.
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City College of San Francisco chef instructor David Ashin gives instruction to a student during Chef’s Table lunch service on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
Nonalcoholic orange and hibiscus buck beverages are served at Chef’s Table during lunch service at City College of San Francisco, on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
It can be a bit tricky to find Chef’s Table, which is hidden inside the Statler Wing of Smith Hall, on Cloud Circle, alongside a cafeteria and a quick-service eatery. All together, the three restaurants serve up to 450 people daily.
“The nightmare of this restaurant is how do you find us? We don’t have sidewalk or street access,” dining room instructor Christopher Johnson told SFGATE. “There’s very little signage. There’s no parking. We’re in the far reaches of the galaxy.”
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Luckily, we found Chef’s Table with little effort on Tuesday, when the restaurant held its first service of the semester. It was the first time Johnson and chef instructor Malik Francis, both Bay Area restaurant veterans, were running the restaurant with this current cohort of about 20 students.
A few things went wrong, as they often do in restaurants. A server mixed up his table numbers. A diner never received a dessert menu. And a Monday fish order wasn’t delivered until the start of service. But rather than spinning out of control, these students, some of whom had never worked in hospitality before, were firing on all cylinders, making and presenting high-quality, impressive food to actual paying customers.
Chef instructor Malik Francis, center left, addresses City College of San Francisco students ahead of Chef’s Table lunch service on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
It’s the way third-semester student Meredith Nover, who left a career in tech for this program, prefers it. When she’s not at CCSF, she’s working as the grill cook at Melissa Perello’s Michelin-recommended Frances in the Castro. She knows what restaurants are like.
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“What stands out to me is the intensity of the production here,” Nover said. “City College kind of takes it to another level. A sense of time management and urgency definitely comes from this program. It helps me get used to being under that pressure.”
While students study everything from fine dining theory to cost control in the classroom, Chef’s Table and the other eatery concepts are their laboratories for testing their skills in real time — and that includes getting it wrong sometimes, according to Francis.
“My teaching style is giving people the space to make mistakes and learn from them,” he said. “If they really take the time to own what they’re learning and share the knowledge, they’ll get more out of it.”
Chef instructor Malik Francis, right, speaks with City College of San Francisco student Bianca Cardenas during Chef’s Table lunch service on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
A student server writes down an order during lunch service at City College of San Francisco’s student-run Chef’s Table on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
Francis has a fascinating background. He holds a Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from UC Berkeley; worked as a biochemist before publishing musings on the science of egg noodles; and ultimately “chose happiness instead of taking a job at a biotech company.”
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While the current menu of starters ($4-$11), salads ($12-$14), and sandwiches and entrees ($12-$19) was largely crafted by him and informed by his experiences working in the kitchens of Spruce, Benu, Ayala and Burdell, Francis believes in doling out assignments with simple guidelines to ensure students take “extreme ownership” of the learning process.
It’s certainly working for Kristi Lin, who was in the corner of the small open kitchen on Tuesday, laser-focused on making the day’s ricotta agnolotti. Francis gave Lin a French Laundry egg pasta recipe and showed her how to make dough, but she had to make the preserved lemon ricotta filling herself. To enhance many of the dough’s chemical and physical characteristics, including color and hydration, she vacuum-sealed the dough ball before rolling it out, a tip from Francis.
Ricotta agnolotti is served at Chef’s Table during lunch service at City College of San Francisco, on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
Golden as the sun and dressed with sauteed brassicas, the delicate, pinched pasta was bursting with flavor and easily one of the best things we ate that afternoon. “I’ve never hand-made pasta before,” said Lin, who came to CCSF after studying biology at San Francisco State University. “Food has always been an interest of mine, but I never saw it as an opportunity until I started learning about this program.”
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The dish cost $14 — half of what it would fetch at a typical San Francisco Italian restaurant. Another stunner and steal: the 5-ounce bavette steak ($19), which came sliced in tender, medium-rare medallions and served on a bed of pomme puree, with artichokes and pickled mushroom chimichurri. Clam frites ($11) took a while to arrive but delivered in every way. Showered in shallots and chilis, the clams nested on boldly chunky fries hiding a rich broth.
Ask for extra bread for dipping. The pastry program bakes several kinds daily, and they’re served tableside from a basket. All impressed us.
Bavette steak with artichokes is served at Chef’s Table during lunch service at City College of San Francisco, on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
A grilled cheese, with caramelized onions and mushrooms, is served at Chef’s Table during lunch service at City College of San Francisco, on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
For those wondering how the prices are so reasonable, it’s because the restaurant only has to cover its costs. CCSF allows all three food concepts to price their food below market value — a cup of the cafeteria’s warm oatmeal is only $1 — as a service to the students, faculty and staff who make up the majority of their customers. They also get neighborhood locals and the occasional tourist.
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“We do not make a profit,” Jennifer Rudd, the department’s chair, told SFGATE. “Every ingredient that comes through the door serves the education and training of our students.”
The fact that they source local and organic products from independent producers and growers, such as Star Route Farms, Stemple Creek Ranch, Greenleaf Produce and Equator Coffee, is a reflection of relationships built over time.
“Purveyor relationships are often forged through our network of instructors and industry connections, including our many alumni,” Rudd said. “We do work with vendors to get good pricing, mainly based on the volume of our business.”
Diners give their orders to a student server during lunch service at City College of San Francisco’s student-run Chef’s Table on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
As service came to a close on Tuesday, chefs and students gathered around Leila Asfour, who was frying up potato puffs made from seasoned mashed potatoes. No one had ordered the $3 side dish, so this was the kitchen’s opportunity to taste the impressively light, crispy nuggets together. Third-semester student Bianca Cardenas likened them to a fancy tater tot from heaven. Everyone, including this food editor, nodded in agreement as we crunched.
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As expeditor that day, the link between the back of the house and service staff, Cardenas never lost her cool. She figured out the table number snafu and educated her fellow student with patience. Her part-time job at PLS on Post, where she does everything from barista and bartender to server and dishwasher, certainly informs her schoolwork.
“It’s pretty chaotic in the sense that our [PLS] staff is very limited, so we have to pick up a lot of things. I always have to be on top of everything that’s going on.”
Third-semester student Bianca Cardenas, right, reviews the ticket orders in the kitchen window for Chef’s Table at City College of San Francisco during lunch service on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
On of multiple dessert options is served at Chef’s Table during lunch service at City College of San Francisco, on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
She thrives in the chaos, and even hopes to open her own spot one day, where she can “present beautiful food and create community.” I have no doubt that she will.
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She feels grateful for the instructors at CCSF for instilling in her not only structure and creativity but also confidence. “They put a fire under us that makes us reflect and say, ‘OK, I’m awesome,’” she said. “‘I can do this.’”
Chef’s Table, CCSF, 50 Frida Kahlo Way, Statler Wing, Smith Hall, Cloud Circle, San Francisco. Open Monday through Thursday, 11:15 a.m.-12:30 p.m., closed Friday through Sunday. Spring service runs through May 14 and resumes fall semester. Check website for schedule changes.