Restaurant Review: China Express Chinese Food and Donuts San Francisco, CA

China Express Chinese Food and Donuts
2790 Mission Street (an approximate guess as I can't find a listing)
San Francisco, CA
phone # unlisted

* Eat-in or take-out
* Cash only
* Very limited parking on street
* Across the street from the 24th Street BART station

China Express is a hard place to pin down. It's easy to find - right across from you as you exit the Mission & 24th Street BART Station - but for some reason I can't find them listed anywhere. Maybe it just opened recently. Anyway, it's a fairly standard Chinese food/donut place that you find commonly in downtown San Francisco and towards the Tenderloin area, but I haven't seen a whole lot in the Mission outside of this one.

The coffee is, as to be expected, Peerless drip stuff. Cheap, moderately strong and effective. The donuts are the same generic kind that are made at some unholy central industrial pastry factory somewhere, possibly underground and manned by dwarves, and the price and selection is just the same as pretty much every other little donut joint out there. So that's pretty much what to expect for breakfast.

Lunch is a better proposal. You get a big heaping plate of either chow mein or rice, and one entree, for only $3.80. I think that's about the lowest price I've seen on Chinese food yet in the city, and while the quality is on the expected greasy/salty side, it's still better than McDonalds and at almost half the price of a combo meal to boot. As far as beverages go, it's the usual cooler of sodas and juices and what not, but they keep it behind the register so you have to kind of point out what you want sometimes (probably totally my fault, I speak in a way that even native-born Americans have trouble understanding quite often).

Interior is reasonably clean, considering the rather run-down intersection it is at, and tends to support my hypothesis that this place just opened up not too long ago. Service is the usual brusque but efficient style you will undoubtedly expect if you've ever frequented a big city Chinese fast food eatery at any point in your life. Pretty good amount of seating too, the place is reasonably spacious by neighborhood standard.