The Check Pleasing Hard Knox Café
A favorite guilty pleasure for Mackie and me on a lazy Saturday afternoon is to watch the food shows on KQED. Lidia’s Italy (and its predecessor, Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen) is a favorite, as is Check, Please! Lidia always makes us ravenous and, if we’re lucky, Check, Please! offers some good suggestions for sating our hunger.
Our best find to date has been the Hard Knox Café.
Just a guess but I'd bet that Hard Knox is the only Vietnamese-owned and operated soul food joint in San Francisco, probably the whole Bay Area. It just goes to show that matching DNA isn’t required to pump out some fine ethnic/regional eats.
The fried chicken at Hard Knox is the best I’ve had. Anywhere. Hands down.
The BBQ spare ribs ain’t bad either. Best I’ve had in the city. Granted, that’s a low bar.
But, I’m getting ahead of myself.
Like La Torta Gorda, I'm determined to eat my way through the entire list of entrees, excepting the veggie. And, like La Torta Gorda, I've tried five of the 13 available selections. Kinda weird.
The fried chicken, three pieces plus your choice of two sides and two corn muffins ($9.00), is my favorite. The chicken is surrounded by a crisp, peppery coating of just the right thickness. It arrives piping hot, too hot to eat. It tempts, teases and tortures while cools. It’s worth the wait. The chicken is tasty, moist but not so much as to make the coating soggy, and a tactile treat.
Mackie also loves the fried chicken (“make sure you tell them it’s not greasy”, she ordered) but abhors dark meat. The usual three-piece assortment at Hard Knox is one white, two dark (one of which is a wing). Here’s an insider tip – if you ask, Hard Knox will swap the two dark pieces for one white at the cost of a buck. Mackie’s happy.
My usual dilemma is the fried chicken versus the BBQ spare ribs. The chicken is off the fowl charts but I’m a huge pork fan. (See Ode to the Pig.)
The spare ribs remind me of pork lollipops, three ribs with an inch of bare bone at the end, accompanied by the usual choice of two sides plus corn muffins ($10.00). Grabbing the bare end like the stick of a lollipop allows for some deeply satisfying rib gnawing without getting your fingers all messy. The sauce is a touch sweet and is sparingly applied so that it complements the meat instead of drowning it.
(Quick rant – what is it with these BBQ shacks that insist in smothering their meat with sauce? Exactly what are they trying to hide??? And, it’s the places with lousy sauce that usually ladle it all over the food!)
When I’m feeling fishy, I have the blackened catfish. It’s a nice, thin filet of catfish with, everyone say it in unison, two sides plus corn muffins ($12.00). The fish is coated with spicy but not overpowering seasonings. The combination of the thin filet and great cooking technique keeps the fish moist without being mushy. As with the fried chicken, it’s a taste and tactile success.
The other entrees I tried at Hard Knox, the ox tails and beef short ribs, were huge disappointments. It wasn’t just that they sucked, which they did, it was that they sucked in the face of high expectations.
The ox tails were an especially bitter blow. During one visit to Hard Knox, a couple of staffers raved about the ox tails. Had to try them the next time I went. Aaaarrrrgggghhhh!!!!
They were awful – drowned in goopy, tasteless, gray gravy that got in the way of everything else. The meat may have been good – or not – I couldn’t tell. Staff recommendations rarely steer you wrong but this one was wwwaaayyy off the mark.
Oh, the ox tails came with, guess what, two sides and corn muffins ($14.00). They’re the most expensive thing on the menu, which added further injury to the insult.
The expectations for the beef short ribs were of my own making – I love short ribs despite the effort required to extract the meat – but the disappointment just as great. And, the problem was the same – an overabundance of crappy gravy dominated the dish.
Ironic, isn’t it? Hard Knox gets the saucing of their BBQ ribs just right but blows it so badly with excessive gravy on two other dishes.
The beef short ribs were accompanied by, you fill in blank…, ($12.00).
About the sides – I’ve tried a bunch of them. The best thing I can say about most of them is that they’re filling.
Corn – too much ancillary water, probably out of a can.
Blackeyed peas and rice – tried a long time ago, not impressed, don’t remember why.
Collard greens – not my favorite under any circumstances, Hard Knox did nothing to change my mind.
Mac and cheese – one of the better ones they have but could be tastier.
Potato salad – stole a few bites from Mackie one day when she had it as a side with the fried chicken breast sandwich (a great alternative to the fried chicken, if you don’t feel like a full meal). It was good. I need to try it again.
Red beans and rice – bland when it comes out of the kitchen but a good carrier for hot sauce. They have Cholula. Use liberally. Very liberally.
Yams – best side in the house. Still, not as good as, say, Boston Market’s.
However, my biggest gripe about Hard Knox is dessert. There’s isn’t any.
How can any self-respecting soul food eatery not serve peach cobbler??? After I’ve eaten my butter and honey smother muffins, loved my chicken or ribs, and had my fill of sides, I get a hankering for peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream. Ah, the perfect way to end the meal. But, nada. Huge bummer.
On to non-food matters.
Good, freshly brewed iced tea; good, fresh lemonade; will mix into an Arnold Palmer. One beer on tap. Brand changes occasionally but always a great value. Bottled beer, wine, large selection of Snapple (yuck!).
Friendly staff, good service. Sometimes a wait. Take out available but some items like the fried chicken don’t travel well even though the staff cuts vapor vents in the containers.
Parking can be a challenge – you may have to hunt a bit. Drop someone off to get your name on the waiting list while you look. While some may find the 3rd Street address scary, it’s in the Dogpatch, not the Bayview so odds are that you and your car will be safe.
Hard Knox is far from perfect but I love the place. The main courses that are good are really good. The sides, while pedestrian, are filling. The vibe is friendly and comfortable. Two people can stuff themselves to the gills for less than $30 including tax and tip. If they’d just start baking some peach cobbler…
Hard Knox Café
2526 3rd Street
between 22nd and 23rd Streets (yes, we have numbered streets that intersect with numbered streets – bizarre)
San Francisco, CA 94107
415-648-3770
Food inspection score: 100
Symbol of Excellence: Yes
Comments