{"id":425985,"date":"2026-08-07T01:58:35","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T01:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/425985\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T01:58:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T01:58:35","slug":"fat-cat-x-the-mantis-is-serving-up-the-most-exciting-vietnamese-food-in-sf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/425985\/","title":{"rendered":"Fat Cat x The Mantis Is Serving Up the Most Exciting Vietnamese Food in SF"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ThreeThe Vietnamese-inspired dishes at Fat Cat x The Mantis are at once deeply nostalgic and like nothiing you\u2019ve ever tasted.<\/p>\n

The Midnight Diners<\/a> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and graphic novelist Thien Pham<\/a>. Follow them each week as they explore the hot pot restaurants, taco carts and 24-hour casino buffets that make up the Bay Area\u2019s after-hours dining scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fat Cat<\/a> x The Mantis<\/a> sounds like one of those deep-cut comic book crossovers \u2014 a collector\u2019s edition for anyone who\u2019s ever wondered how two of their favorite super-villains might fare against each other in an intergalactic fist fight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a food lover in San Francisco, however, the real Fat Cat x The Mantis is something even better, and perhaps just as surprising: a wildly creative Vietnamese American restaurant<\/a> (The Mantis) that shares a space in Bernal Heights with one of the city\u2019s friendliest and most accessible new wine bars (Fat Cat).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a roommate situation that came about in part because of mundane San Francisco reasons (i.e. \u201cit\u2019s so damn expensive out here<\/a>\u201d). But the collaboration really works. The restaurant is serving some of the most thrilling, delicious Vietnamese food we\u2019ve had in SF, and makes for one of the city\u2019s most enjoyable late-night (ish) dining experiences.<\/p>\n

To be clear, the wine bar isn\u2019t necessarily oriented for the extreme night owl: The kitchen closes at 10 p.m., and servers usually put out a last call for food orders at around 9:30. Still, the bar itself is open until 11 on weekends, and during our visit, plenty of diners were still polishing off the last bites of their dessert at well past 10.<\/p>\n

\"Neon-litThe wine bar is open until 11 p.m. on weekends, though the kitchen usually stops taking orders after 9:30.<\/p>\n

The moment we pull up on a recent Friday night, we get a clear sense of the aesthetic. Unlike the bulk of the city\u2019s trendy bars, Fat Cat eschews dim mood lighting in favor of a cheerfully bright, pink-and-mint-green living room vibe. A bandana mounted on the wall depicts a skateboarding, rice-paddy-hat-wearing granny pulling an ollie. The chopstick caddy on our table features a photo of Tuan An, aka \u201cthe Vietnamese Boy George<\/a>,\u201d the flamboyantly coiffed icon from the \u201980s and \u201990s heyday of the Vietnamese New Wave<\/a> music scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The food straddles a similar line between nostalgia and envelope-pushing. We\u2019d been fans of chef Kevin Tang\u2019s inventive Vietnamese American cooking since his days at Viridian<\/a> in Oakland. At first glance, the menu at The Mantis doesn\u2019t read as especially Vietnamese. The dishes all sound like something you might find at a French wine bistro, with one or two Vietnamese ingredients added to every dish. There\u2019s p\u00e2t\u00e9, oysters on the half shell, a crudo, a big platter of steak frites.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

All it took was our first slurp of a Miyagi oyster, though, for us to be astounded by just how distinctly Vietnamese \u2014 and also how new and unexpected \u2014 the food tasted. Each oyster came topped with a tangle of crispy fried shallots, a shiso leaf, diced pluot and, most amazing, a dab of green mu\u1ed1i \u1edbt xanh \u2014 a zippy, salsa-like sauce made by blending green chilies, lime leaves and sweet condensed milk that Vietnamese restaurants often serve with grilled seafood. Paired with the briny salinity of the raw oysters, the combination of flavors and textures were a delightful shock to our taste buds.<\/p>\n

Dish after dish elicited a similar reaction. Ricotta and b\u00fan ri\u00eau tomato jam (!) spread on good sourdough. Confit chicken and taro croquettes topped with slivers of fish sauce\u2013laced green mango, served over a smear of calamansi-chili aioli. (That one was like a Viet-coded take on dim sum taro dumplings. Or, as the table next to ours enthused, \u201clike an egg roll and a crab cake had a son.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a plate of fried eggplant came with butterbean miso, whipped tofu, Sungold tomatoes, Thai basil and lemongrass chili jam, according to the menu description. Just reading the list of ingredients set our heads to spinning. But once we bit in, we were sold. The eggplant was astonishingly crunchy on the outside, soft and creamy on the inside. Taken all together, the sweetness of the tomatoes, the creaminess of the tofu, and the subtle heat of the chili jam made for the perfect bite. We immediately declared the dish our favorite.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Our favorite, that is, until the server brought out the steak frites. This is the chef\u2019s take on b\u00f2 kho, or Vietnamese-style beef stew: thick slices of medium-rare strip loin drenched in a pool of velvety beef gravy that was so addictively savory, it begged for a big bowl of white rice (which our server was happy to supply). The dish is emblematic of the cooking at The Mantis \u2014 at once deeply nostalgic and like nothing you\u2019ve had before. We couldn\u2019t stop thinking about it \u2014\u00a0and that\u2019s even before accounting for the side of extra-crispy, extra-fluffy double-fried Kennebec potato fries, which were amazing in their own right.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Service, meanwhile, was universally warm and enthusiastic. Never before have we received so much affirmation for ordering a Diet Coke \u2014 the ideal beverage to pair with Vietnamese food, we posited. (\u201cFucking bomb!\u201d our server agreed.) On the night of our visit, the bar was packed from end to end, with diners and bar patrons spread out between the bar counter and the cluster of leather banquettes in the back. (There\u2019d been a two-hour wait to get a seat a couple hours before we arrived, our server told us.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

The crowd skews a little bit young and maybe half Asian, and everyone\u2019s a little smooshed together so it\u2019s easy to wind up striking up conversations with your neighbors. Like us, the group of twenty- or thirty-somethings at the table next to ours had ordered nearly everything on the menu, so we spent the evening exchanging rave reviews and, at the end, a round of high fives. We\u2019d been on something of a journey together, it felt like. And we couldn\u2019t wait to do it again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fat Cat x The Mantis<\/a> is open for dinner service Friday to Monday 5\u201310 p.m. at 3215 Mission St. in San Francisco. Last call for food orders is typically at around 9:30 p.m. The wine bar itself is open until 11 p.m. on weekends, and serves hot dogs and cheese plates when The Mantis isn\u2019t open. On Sundays and Mondays, The Mantis also offers a $75 tasting menu option. Walk-ins only.<\/p>\n