Portico Restaurant (Mission Street) in San Francisco, California: A Restaurant Review

I found the best inexpensive lunch buffet in San Francisco! Well, I suppose if you work downtown you've already known about this for a long time, but Portico was a pleasant surprise for me as I was killing some time in the afternoon waiting on a bus near the Transbay Terminal.

In fact, this place almost makes me wish I had a job in the Financial District just so I could eat lunch here every day. The buffet is a flat $6.50 per pound and includes grilled salmon, lasagna, turkey, and roast chicken breast as well as some hot sides such as roasted potatoes with onions and seasoned green beans. There's also an even bigger cold salad bar. I'm not sure how they get away with letting you take up to a pound of cooked salmon for under $7 when the grocery store near where I live is asking $14 per pound for it raw right now, but hey, I'll take it. I'm sure it's not fresh caught Alaskan wild whatever but it also doesn't taste like it came from a can, reasonably appetizing stuff. The lasagna and chicken also get a modest thumbs up while the turkey was a bit dry and could have used some gravy or similar option.

The main draw is the buffet, but you also have the option of pizza slices and sandwiches. Portico is actually a small downtown chain and has other locations around the Financial District, which seem to be more known for their pizza. At this location, slices run from about $3.50 to $4.00, but nothing about them is particularly high quality to justify the price. It tastes like the usual doughy crust all the low-end pizza slice places usually use, and it's pretty greasy stuff to boot. The size of each slice is fairly hefty, however. You can also apparently get a half or whole rotisserie chicken, though I didn't sample this particular item.

The interior is pretty decent, with a lot more space than the usual downtown San Francisco eatery. The decor and seating is about as basic as it gets, but it works, and even during the lunch crunch they never seem to be overly packed.

The one major downside - this place is in a totally non-residential area and thus entirely thrives off the 9 to 5 working crowd. So they aren't open at all on weekends. They are open from 10 to 7 on weekdays, but from what I understand the buffet is lacking in items or gone outright after 4 p.m. or so.

The food is nothing earth-shaking, but $6 for a hearty scoop of grilled salmon, steamed green beans and roast potatoes in downtown San Francisco isn't anything to sneeze at. Or on. Thank goodness for sneeze guards.