In notoriously expensive San Francisco, a filling lunch for less than $10 is apparently worth waiting for.
Rice Roll Express, a no-frill Chinatown joint that became a TikTok sensation for its freshly made chewy rice noodle rolls — known as cheung fun — is still pulling huge lunchtime crowds, with lines stretching out the door two years after opening.
The star of the show is the restaurant’s namesake Rice Roll Express special: layers of thin steamed rice noodle wrapped around beef, pork, barbecue pork and egg, all for just $9.21.
Its “shrimp feast” is another fan favorite, loaded with fresh shrimp, dried shrimp, egg and scallions, ringing in at $10.78.
The restaurant’s prices are particularly eye-popping in the notoriously expensive Bay Area.
Restaurant menu items in the city averaged $25.51 in September, according to Market Pulse, which tracks prices at local eateries — meaning Rice Roll Express’ signature dish costs less than half that average.
And customers are apparently willing to pay for the savings with their time.
Diners have been spotted waiting roughly 25 minutes for food and then jockeying for precious seats inside, according to a recent lunchtime visit by SFGATE.
The hype was so high that even Mayor Daniel Lurie was swept up in the noodle mania.
“I kept hearing about Rice Roll Express, so when I had some time before an event in Chinatown, I stopped by their spot on Stockton and Pacific,” Mayor Lurie wrote in a Facebook post. “I got the BBQ pork rice roll, with chili oil and lots of their special soy sauce on top, and it was delicious.”
At Rice Roll Express, the noodles are reportedly made with rice soaked overnight and ground before being steamed into delicate sheets.
Once hungry patrons get their hands on a plate, there’s another attraction: a DIY sauce station where you can douse the rolls in house-made chile oil, a special sweetened soy sauce, vinegar and Sriacha.
The secret to the hysteria isn’t marketing genius — it’s raw, unapologetic old-school labor, and owner Tom Zhen took an unusual route to noodle stardom.
Zhen reportedly grew up eating cheung fun in China, and his father previously operated a rice roll restaurant before the family to San Francisco.
He initially went into tech, but ultimately ditched that industry at age 29 to return to his family’s culinary roots and open Rice Roll Express.
Zhen reportedly saw specialized cheung fun shops flourishing in New York City, and figured SF could use one of its own.
Soon after, influencers began flooding social media with videos of the restaurant’s translucent, steamed-and-folded noodles drenched in sauce. The rest is history.
Rice Roll Express is located at 1131 Stockton Street in San Francisco. Just make sure you bring cash — the restaurant doesn’t accept cards, but it does take Venmo and Zelle.
