Pluto’s
627 Irving Street (@ 8th Ave.)
Inner Sunset, SF
415.773.8867
3258 Scott Street (b/t Chestnut & Lombard)
415.775.8867
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For the uninitiated, the Pluto’s experience can be a little confusing at first. An unfortunate space theme dominates the restaurant, but the food is quality at a fair price. I am not one for a lot of cutesy dish titles, but the food is so solid that I overlook the tired Jetson story. In fact, I am embarrassed to admit, I look past the spacey theme so often that I am closing in on 30-some meals at Pluto’s (join the frequent eater club and get one free meal for every 10!).
Pluto’s is not a hip place for scenesters. The crowd is mostly an attractive fleece-wearing one of 20-40 year olds and UCSF students. The set-up involves waiting on line, though it moves pretty quickly.
First, pick up a punch card. Next, start deciding—do you want a salad, or do you want to move directly to the meat and poultry area, which usually has a shorter line? Salads are extremely popular at Pluto’s. The Caesar is serviceable but the dressing is just not that zesty. I am a die-hard farmer’s greens side salad man ($3.65). In fact, since I started getting salads at Pluto’s I have given up on buying lettuce and making them at home for myself—it’s so much easier and cheaper to have them be my greens provider.
The farmer’s greens always has a very tasty mix of greens (endive, frisee, green lettuce, etc.) and is doled out generously, so generously that I had the main salad ($4.50) only once and it was just too big. With any size salad you get to pick out 7 Crunchy Fixings, which are infinitely better than the usual crap the corporate cafeteria is pushing (no Bac-o-Bits or nasty-pants whole red beans staring at you here). Sautéed mushrooms and fresh beets are staples, but they also offer grilled fennel, caramelized red onions, jicama, roasted red peppers, corn, tomatoes, walnuts, Parmesan cheese, homemade croutons, etc. The selection is rather extensive and you can’t really go wrong (I usually have them hit me up twice with mushrooms, which they cook up with some sort of sherry that makes ‘em taste nice…real nice). The YHM (yogurt honey mustard) and the balsamic dressings are quite tasty, not too heavy. I usually opt for the YHM. The servers don’t go too crazy with the wrist either, so all you "on the side" types can take it easy.
The final salad choice is meat or no meat: herb roasted Sonoma turkey (white or dark), grilled herbed chicken breast or grilled marinated flank steak. Add $1.00 to the small salad price or a whopping $0.75 more if you go with the main salad. Be a sport and opt to stick some of the flesh on your salad if you are a carnivore. The turkey is a great option; it’s usually moist and a nice compliment to the farmer’s green salad, extra-clean tasting and very fresh. Chicken breast is usually too dry, they go a little crazy with the grill; I think they are too afraid of the famous chicken bacteria that scares the living shit out of everyone who cooks. Steak is very solid and tasty, if you like red meat.
Sandwiches have always been good and all are under $5.00. Same options as those that go atop the salads, plus low fat chicken sausage that is okay but not worth going back for. Pluto’s dresses the sandwiches quite nicely with plum tomatoes, caramelized onions, mixed greens; they even offer Sierra Nevada honey mustard and light garlic mayo—nice gourmet touches you wouldn’t expect for the price.
If you want to do a Thanksgiving-style deal, you can order a whole mess of turkey on your plate ($3.50) and go nuts with the sides. The mashed potatoes ($1.45) are a staple and you can choose between turkey or beef gravy. Pluto’s offers a whole range of other vegetable sides, including mushrooms, sautéed vegetables and carrots. Everything is $1.45, tasty and easy on the oils.
If you are feeling ready for the fryer, have garlic potato rings at $1.60 with a shit-ton of garlic on them (get ready for some halitosis and perhaps a little indigestion). I prefer the onion rings for the same price, primarily because of the spicy BBQ sauce they come with. The BBQ wings are pretty average as far as wings go and certainly big, some a little too big, with un-notable sauce.
Dessert is limited to items like brownies, carmalitas, lemon bars; these hand-held treats, though, are as good as anything from Tart to Tart (a bakery/café a few doors down on Irving). $1.65 a pop for the desserts.
Pluto’s has two locations, one in the Inner Sunset and one in the Marina. I have never been to the one in the Marina because…well, I’m not in the Marina very often and I find it especially easy to scorn the Marina and its residents. But the fact of the matter is that the Marina’s current dominion over San Francisco (witness: Blondie’s) is so total that there probably is not much difference between the two Pluto’s locations.
Enough with my socioeconomic pontification. Go to Pluto’s if you are hungry—you can’t beat $6 for a good, healthy meal.
-Chris Cordani
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