Mayan Holiday: Poc-Chuc's as Good as Ever

Jen SFO-BCN/Flickr

The eponymous dish: The pork is simultaneously crisp and chewy.

​If you've slept on Poc-Chuc, the pretty Mayan joint on 16th Street, now is as good a time as any to wake up. Three square meals a day aren't always enough to keep an active San Francisco going. If you eat here, one is all you'll need. The almost two-year-old restaurant's namesake is the first dish you should order, an inviting platter of thin-sliced pork, simultaneously crispy and chewy, draped around a mound of lightly dressed cabbage and a steaming expanse of buttery rice ($12 at lunch, $14 at dinner). Drop spoonfuls of smooth, rich black beans on the pork and scoop with the fresh corn tortillas. The appetizers are phenomenal, especially the panuchos (slightly crunchy tortillas layered with shredded turkey, black beans, avocado, and pickled onions), flaky empanadas, and tostadas. A bonus, in the event you're dining alone, or with someone you don't want to talk to: Sweet Mexican cowboy flicks sometimes play on the nice big flatscreen positioned above the doorway.

Poc-Chuc 2886 16th St. (at S. Van Ness), 558-1583