{"id":482158,"date":"2026-10-02T00:26:37","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T00:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/482158\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T00:26:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T00:26:37","slug":"the-best-things-eater-sfs-editor-ate-in-september","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/482158\/","title":{"rendered":"The best things Eater SF\u2019s editor ate in September"},"content":{"rendered":"

It can be tough to decide where to dine out in a metropolitan area like the Bay that\u2019s filled to the brim with excellent eats. Dining Reports<\/a> are just one way to get the word out on the restaurants I\u2019m eating at, but the Best Dishes<\/a> column is where I break down the singular dishes that stood out, were maybe inadvertently left out of a report, or just haven\u2019t (yet) found their way into coverage \u2014 until now. This month\u2019s selections feature dumplings, pastries, and a low-key banh mi from the East Bay.<\/p>\n

Do you remember your first soup dumpling? I sure do. I also remember the day I first tried Mini Potstickers<\/a>. You see, soup dumpling lovers level up when they taste their first sheng jian bao: essentially a dumpling in a thicker, leavened wrapper that\u2019s pan-griddled \u2018til crispy on the bottom. Sheng jian bao fans reach enlightenment when they discover that the best way to consume this symphony of textures and mouthfuls of flavor is in mini form. Simply put, it\u2019s a better eating experience when you can pop the whole thing into your mouth and feel the elastic wrapper burst, yielding to a boatload of liquified pork stock that makes the corners of your mouth stick together. As far as I know, this Outer Sunset shop is the only place in the city making them this way, which isn\u2019t all that surprising; folding these top-knot dumplings is a labor of love, imagine doing so when they\u2019re the size of a silver dollar. Mini Potstickers<\/a>, 2045 Irving St, San Francisco<\/p>\n

\u2014 Nat Belkov, deputy brand director of Eater<\/p>\n

I wrote about the summer scaries<\/a> the other week and savoring the last bits of summer, and I managed to follow through with plans to make it to Tomato Days at Blooms End<\/a> (the bakery\u2019s tomato-themed weekend). While I do like to peruse the pastries inside the wagon, my plans necessitated a preorder, in which I did an early pickup of this five-pack of treats (and a surprise pint of cherry tomatoes from Tenfold Farmstand). I whisked the box away to a meetup with friends, where we meticulously cut up each pastry to sample across the selections. The box featured both sweet and savory bites, but I found myself really liking the most is the tomato jam and cream cheese pinwheel. Tomato jam is underrated in my estimation, and to have that against cream cheese and flaky croissant dough really made the whole item sing. We were all wowed at the use of tomatoes across each item, so who knows \u2014 maybe this friend group will have a new summer pastry tradition, for as long as baker Mary Denham keeps up the annual tomato bake. Blooms End<\/a>, 5300 Red Hill Road, Petaluma \u2014 Dianne de Guzman, Eater SF editor<\/p>\n

Breakfast banh mi at Banh Mi Ba Le<\/p>\n

If I\u2019m in El Cerrito and in need of a quick fix for lunch, one of the places I tend to head to is Banh Mi Ba Le. A cash-only Vietnamese spot in a tiny strip mall, Banh Mi Ba Le is the spot for (as you may have guessed) banh mis. The go-to is the #1, a ham and head cheese number, but in re-scouring reviews on a recent visit, I was intrigued by the idea of going simpler with an off-menu egg and pate banh mi. I asked at the counter if they still make it, and indeed they do, and I was rewarded with soft scrambled egg inside a crunchy baguette, a smear of pate on the bread, pickled carrots and daikon, crisp cucumber, and heat from slices of jalape\u00f1o. It is my ideal of a breakfast sandwich, because generally vegetables don\u2019t figure into American breakfasts at all, which is a deep, solemn tragedy. (I\u2019m sorry, potatoes don\u2019t count.) If you drop in, don\u2019t stop at the menu; be sure to check the chip selection and the fridges for bun cha, papaya salad, desserts, and drinks. Banh Mi Ba Le, 10174 San Pablo Ave, El Cerrito \u2014 DdG<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It can be tough to decide where to dine out in a metropolitan area like the Bay that\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[23392,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-482158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-best-dishes","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}