Ultra-expensive California city has a secret $19 steak — here’s the trick to getting it

In one of America’s priciest food cities, a full-on fine-dining experience is quietly serving a bavette steak, handmade pasta, and clam frites for fast-food-level prices — if you can actually find it.

Tucked away inside the City College of San Francisco’s Ocean Avenue campus is Chef’s Table, a student-run restaurant that feels more like a high-end tasting room than a classroom.

The catch? It’s intentionally hidden, tightly scheduled and occasionally chaotic.

Shutterstock / amine chakour

Getting there is half the battle.

The restaurant sits inside the Statler Wing of Smith Hall on Cloud Circle, alongside other campus food operations that collectively serve up to 450 people a day.

“The nightmare of this restaurant is how do you find us? We don’t have sidewalk or street access,” dining room instructor Christopher Johnson told SFGate. “There’s very little signage. There’s no parking. We’re in the far reaches of the galaxy.”

Despite the maze-like location, diners still show up for what might be one of the biggest bargains in San Francisco dining.

Chef’s Table operates only four days a week, and only for about 90 minutes per service.

While the menu leans upscale, but the pricing doesn’t.

Starters typically run $4 to $11, salads $12 to $14, and most entrées land between $12 and $19, with almost nothing exceeding $14 — except standout items like a $19 bavette steak, served with pomme puree, artichokes and mushroom chimichurri.

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On any given day, guests might find ricotta agnolotti, clam frites or bread from the in-house pastry program sent out to tables.

The concept is simple: The restaurant isn’t profit-driven. It’s a training ground.

“We do not make a profit,” Jennifer Rudd, the department’s chair, told SFGate. “Every ingredient that comes through the door serves the education and training of our students.”

That setup allows the program to source quality ingredients from producers like Star Route Farms, Stemple Creek Ranch, Greenleaf Produce and Equator Coffee, while still serving dishes at prices that feel decades out of date for San Francisco.

“My teaching style is giving people the space to make mistakes and learn from them.” Instagram/@ccsfculinaryarts

The culinary program behind it is no small operation. Founded in 1936, City College of San Francisco’s hospitality department is the oldest two-year collegiate program of its kind in the country.

Its alumni have gone on to kitchens at such renowned restaurant including B. Patisserie, Nopa, Liholiho Yacht Club, Dalida, Californios and Rich Table.

But inside Chef’s Table, prestige takes a back seat to pressure.

Students rotate through real restaurant roles, handling real mistakes in real time, from misrouted tickets to delayed deliveries.

Leading the kitchen training is chef instructor Malik Francis, a former biochemist who holds a Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from UC Berkeley and has worked in restaurants including Spruce, Benu, Ayala and Burdell.

“My teaching style is giving people the space to make mistakes and learn from them,” he told SFGate. “If they really take the time to own what they’re learning and share the knowledge, they’ll get more out of it.”