UPDATED: April 24, 2008

After reading great things about Brenda’s French Soul Food on GrubGirl and Food for the Thoughtless, Odd name notwithstanding, Mackie and I tried it, liked it and went back again. And again. It’s not really French and it’s not really soul food. I guess you can argue that New Orleans cookery has its roots in both although it’s distinct from them.

The chicken, sausage and okra gumbo (cup for $3.50) is consistently excellent. The broth is thinner than what is found in most gumbos. This is a good thing – no thickeners in evidence. The chunks of chicken and sausage are tasty while the okra exhibits not a whit of the sliminess that often debases this temperamental vegetable. Some spiciness is evident in the gumbo but we liberally apply Crystal Hot Sauce to ramp it up. I thought detected a hint of vinegar as well, lending a nice twist to the dish.

We've tried a variety of mains.

The red beans and rice with andouille daily special ($10.00) included gooey beans, fluffy white rice, part of an andouille link, sliced longitudinally. Spicy but, again, I amped it up with Crystal. The dish was very good but I was a bit surprised by the mushiness of the beans – I’m used to them being firmer in New Orleans-style red beans and rice – and the portion of andouille was stingy given the price.

The grillades and grits ($9.75) are a classic example of taking a cheap cut of meat and turning it into something special. The rich Creole gravy was a tasty complement to both the beef (tender enough to cut with a fork) and grits. It was so filling that I barely touched the eggs that came with it. Get the homemade bisquit so you can slather it with butter and homemade jam.

Beignets are the star at Brenda's.

Neither Mackie nor I are big fans of cooked apples but the Granny Smith apple beignets ($5.00) sure sure tasty. Other bloggers have noted (complained?) that Brenda’s beignets are smaller than the real deal. I’ve not had beignets in NOLA so I can’t say for sure but the serving of three placed before Mackie sated her appetite and left enough for me to get in trouble for taking too many nibbles. (Mackie gets grumpy when I get gluttonous.) Hot, sweet, crisp and chewy at the same time, the beignets were a flavorful exception to our “no cooked apples” rule. The menu says they're "oozing with cinnamon honey butter." The sweet and cinnamon were in full force. The butter not so much, which was a good thing — buttery doesn't sound like a flavor that would go well with the filling.

The plain beignets ($4.00), well, who knew that fried dough could taste so good. When there on not a lot of ingredients to hide behind, the kitchen had better be on point. Brenda's is.

I succumbed to peer pressure (see comments, below) to try the crawfish and went for the beignet flight (not sure, maybe $6.00). The flight's cool because it's like having a three-course meal — plain as the appetizer, crawfish as the main and apple plus chocolate for dessert (bonus! two desserts!). The chocolate's filling is nice, bittersweet Ghirardelli. The crawfish stuffing includes cheddar and scallions while the outside is dusted with cayenne. Tasty!

The only downside of the beignets is that, excepting the crawfish, they're liberally dusted with powdered sugar. When you're done eating them, you'll look like you've been partying with Steve-O!

My sampling of the chicken and andouille jambalaya special ($10.00) was a mixed bag. While it was tasty, filled with chunks of chicken and sausage, and the portion filling, I found it a bit dry and lacking sufficient spice for my taste (somewhat mitigated my by liberal application of Crystal hot sauce). The side salad's dressing was extremely salty and used way too liberally, macerating many of the greens. However, the real source of my disappointment was expectations. Based on other meals I'd had Brenda's, I looked forward to a truly special jambalaya. Theirs didn't come close to my jambalaya gold standard — the smooth-roasted duck jambalaya that formerly graced the menu at The Bell Tower. (Aside to Barbie, please, please, please bring it back!)

The one poor dish we've experienced at Brenda's was the Croque Monsieur ($8.50) Mackie ordered on our most recent visit. The ham looked like sliced deli ham and the fries were soggy. Lesson learned — when the chef's from NOLA, stick to NOLA-style dishes. 

For beverages, Brenda’s has great regular iced tea ($2.00) and a unique sweet watermelon iced tea ($2.25), with a flavor reminiscent of watermelon agua fresca.

Brenda seems like she can get just a bit touchy if you slight her cooking, as evidenced by this exchange, overheard after we asked our waiter about the contents of a container on our table:

Waiter: What's the red jelly on the tables?

Brenda: There's no jelly on the tables

Waiter: Then what's the red stuff in the white jar?

Brenda: That's strawberry JAM.

Waiter: Jelly, jam, I don't know the difference.

Our waiter assured us that the jelly, er, jam is made on the premises.

One word of caution — Brenda's is not for claustrophobics. The room is small, the tables are small and they are tightly packed. If cramped spaces give you panic attacks, take an Ativan before you go.

Brenda's is tough to spot as you drive along Polk. Look for the sign for the H&H Laundromat — Brenda's is next door.

At the end of our first trip, a sour note occurred when we went back to the car. We parked on a side street off of Polk and fed all the coins we had into the meter. It only gave us 30 minutes so we crossed our fingers. As we entered the alley after eating, a meter man was walking toward us. Sure enough, a $40 parking ticket for an expired meter. Turned a reasonably priced meal into an expensive one.

I give a whole-hearted endorsement to Brenda’s French Soul Food. Just bring a pocketful of change (metered parking is $1.50 per hour) when you go so as not to incur the wrath of our eagle-eyed (at least in that neighborhood) DPT.

Brenda’s French Soul Food
652 Polk Street
between Turk Street and Eddy Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
415-345-8100
Map
Web site
Food inspection score: 86
Symbol of Excellence: No