Citrus Club – Haight Street

The good: The soup. The chicken noodle soup and the shrimp wonton soup on the specials menu. Note: they rotate two “specials” menus, so you’ll have the choice of one of those soups depending on what day you go. Tastes like something your grandmother would cook up on a Sunday afternoon. Big slices of fresh carrot, lots of noodles – rice noodles, not flimsy egg noodles – plus spinach make this soup something I crave when I’m feeling under the weather or if it’s a rainy day in SF (both rare, of course). The spring rolls are a great light appetizer, and the beef and broccoli noodle dish (always on the “specials” menu) is great too. When you go in on a busy night, be sure to write your name up on the clip board that’s in the hallway – that’s how the waitress/hostess handles seating.

The bad: After going here on a weekly basis for about 5 months, I got food poisoning. :( Mas horriblé. Not sure if it was the soup or what (seems strange to get food poisoning from soup, no?) but whatever it was, my dining companion got it as well and it was a nasty experience that I don’t care to recount any further. I haven’t been able to bring myself to return yet, but I can’t say that I won’t ever go back. The place treated me really well for a while and I was pretty attached to it.

The bottom line: The restaurant is cozy, and its inexpensive, really tasty Thai/Vietnamese food. Great place to go with a friend for a casual meal.

The bathroom: Is off to the left of the bar, through one of those hippie-ish beaded curtains. It is a water closet set-up, where the sink is outside of the toilet room. Could be nicer.