Tempting Five-Buck Bites at Noodle Theory's New Happy Hour

T. Palmer

Kim chee mini-burger and sweet potato shoestrings.

​The S.F. location of Noodle Theory (3242 Scott at Chestnut) just launched a mini menu of $5 appetizers for its weekday happy hour, 4:30-7 p.m.(closed Tuesdays). We were definitely hungry when we heard about it. The apps sounded so good we made the trek over several hills to what for us is the other side of town. Luckily, it was all worth circling surrounding blocks for parking.

A hamburger dressed with kimchi on a rosemary roll and served with shoestring sweet potato fries was big enough for two of us to have a couple of good, juicy, zingy bites. A bowl of little shrimp and jalapeño slices were fried to a pleasing crispness, with extra credit for the inclusion of bacon bits in the tempura batter. Two soft corn tacos, brightened with Asian slaw, could barely contain their heaps of fluffy ahi tuna. 

T. Palmer

Bacon-tempura shrimp and jalapeño

​We bypassed the half-order happy hour special of noodles with ground Niman Ranch pork and spicy bean sauce only because we'd had it before and knew how good it was. We also held the garlic chicken wings and watermelon salad in favor of a whole, non-happy hour portion of the salad, presented with crumbles of feta, pine nuts, and a dollop of chili sesame oil ($9).

The $5 price also extends to a newly created white-wine soju sangria with Asian pear, lychee, and orange, in which the whole lychee becomes the equivalent of the mezcal worm. Singha and Lost Coast Great White beers are $3.