Restaurant Review: Rainbow Pizza & Deli, San Francisco, CA

Rainbow Pizza & Deli
1083 Market Street
San Francisco, CA
415-621-3376

* Eat-in or take-out (limited seating)
* Cash only
* Limited metered parking on street

The Rainbow Pizza & Deli Experience, as it happened to yours truly -

Working away in the Civic Center, I develop a craving for some pizza around lunchtime. I know Galacxy Pizza is nearby and pretty good, but I decide to be Adventurous and try something new. I must have walked past Rainbow Pizza a million times before and never stopped in, it's very convenient to where I'm at, so that winds up being today's experiment.

Entering I find a tiny joint that sells the expected pizza and sandwiches, but apparently also doubles as a convenience store doing trade in cigarettes and lotto tickets. Usually this is not a good sign at an eatery, but I press on, because the menu promises pizza prices *just slightly* cheaper than the local standards ($1.80 for a slice of cheese versus $2.00 everywhere else, and a corresponding twenty-cent drop for toppings and combo pizzas). The proprietor is having a non-stop rapid-fire conversation on his Lobot phone in Hindi or some sort of Arabic language or something (sorry, I am Honky Man, I do not know) but takes my order and gets the pizza slices in the oven without missing a beat. I pay for the four-something meal with a ten and he hands me back ... some coins and then starts walking towards the back of the shop. "Um, hey .... I gave you a ten." The man relinquishes the five without complaint, but also does not apologize, keeping up his loud monolouge not only through this but through the next five customers that walk in while I'm eating and is still going strong when I leave the restaurant. Anyway, takes about five or six minutes for my pizza to toast up. There's only two tables in the joint, the second of which is occupied by some kids shortly after I enter, so everyone else is SOL unless they're heading back to their office I guess (there isn't much of anywhere to eat outside near here).