Israeli Restaurant Near Me by Chinatown's Gate: Sabra Grill's Upstairs Kosher Room

Sabra Grill is up a flight of stairs at 419 Grant Avenue, a few steps inside the Dragon's Gate where Grant meets Bush Street, and it is easy to walk past if you are looking at the lanterns instead of the second-floor windows. The kosher dining room serves Israeli and Mediterranean plates Sunday through Thursday from noon to 8 pm and closes Friday and Saturday. For an israeli restaurant near me close to Union Square, this is the old-guard choice.

The owner is Eitan Hilleli, an Israeli transplant who lives in Foster City and has run the restaurant for nearly three decades. The website says Sabra Grill has served since 1996, while the Jewish News of Northern California, the Bay Area's Jewish weekly, dated the opening to 1997. Over the years his nephew, his son and his daughter have all helped run the room, and the paper described it as a place known mostly by word of mouth.

For a long stretch it was a stop for kosher tour groups visiting San Francisco, and the paper reported that Israeli tour groups even held afternoon Mincha prayers in the dining room. A 2021 story in the same paper called it once the city's only kosher restaurant and warned that it was in danger of closing during the pandemic. It survived, and in August 2025 Hilleli, then 66, told the paper he was looking for a buyer who would keep it kosher.

The kitchen is certified by the Vaad HaKashrus of Northern California, and the restaurant's kashrut page says a supervisor is on site full time. That certification explains the calendar: lunch and dinner Sunday through Thursday, noon to 8 pm, and on Friday and Saturday the doors stay shut. For Shabbat, the restaurant runs a separate take-out menu, so observant visitors can collect meals before sundown on Friday.

Google Maps still lists the restaurant with the same noon-to-8 hours, and diners were posting reviews there through August 2026. Because Hilleli has been open about wanting to sell, especially if you are bringing a tour party, since the upstairs room is small and the staff is a family operation rather than a large brigade.

The menu on the restaurant's website lists a Mezze Platter for $13.00, the easiest way to sample the dips, and an Israeli Chopped Salad of finely diced cucumber and tomato for $13.99. The hummus comes two ways worth ordering: topped with fire-roasted eggplant for $14.99, or with chicken schnitzel for $17.00. Pick the schnitzel version if you want a cutlet and hummus on the same plate, the most Israeli lunch on the menu.

For a full meal, the rice bowls are the backbone. The Crispy Chicken Schnitzel Rice Bowl costs $16.97 and the Beef Kefta Kabob Rice Bowl, ground spiced beef grilled on skewers, costs $20.12. Add an order of Crispy Potato Cigars for $11.99 to share. These are the fried, cigar-shaped pastries Israelis know as sigarim, here with a potato filling. The Chocolate Babka Cake at $7 is the dessert, a slice of the braided Jewish sweet bread.

Here is the honest note on price. A Google review from August 2026 grumbled that a chicken cutlet cost as much as a rib steak at other restaurants and put the bill at $60 to $70 per person. Kosher meat costs more, and supervision adds overhead, so this is not a budget lunch. Keep it in check by sharing a mezze platter and ordering one rice bowl each instead of separate entrees.

The dining room is small and casual, a plain upstairs space rather than a design project, and its history with kosher tour groups means it can handle a larger party if you call ahead. You can eat in or take out, and the restaurant also delivers through DoorDash and Postmates for hotels around Union Square, which is handy for kosher-keeping guests staying downtown.

Parking is the hard part. The restaurant's own location page warns that metered spots in the area fill fast and points drivers to the garage at 444 Stockton Street, a short uphill walk away. The same page says Montgomery Street BART is about a 10-minute walk, which is the easier way in from the East Bay or the airport. Cable cars on Powell Street are a few blocks west.

Walk down the stairs and through the Dragon's Gate at Grant and Bush, the green-tiled entrance to Chinatown, then keep north on Grant into the shops and bakeries. Two blocks up, Old St. Mary's Cathedral stands at 660 California Street at the corner of Grant, the red-brick church that dates to 1854 and survived the 1906 earthquake shell. Its clock tower makes a good meeting point for a group.

Heading the other way works too. Grant Avenue runs south from the gate toward Union Square in about three blocks, so a lunch here slots neatly between a morning of shopping around the square and an afternoon in Chinatown. If you are traveling with someone who keeps kosher and staying at one of the Union Square hotels, this sit-down kosher meal is a short walk from your room, and the stairs are the only real obstacle.

If Sabra Grill is closed, it is probably Friday or Saturday. On a weekday, Sababa at 329 Kearny Street, a few blocks east in the Financial District, serves Israeli pita and bowls from 11 am to 7 pm, Monday to Friday. Out in the Richmond, Hummus Bodega at 5549 Geary Boulevard is another kosher option and stays open until 5 pm on Fridays.

Address: Sabra Grill, 419 Grant Avenue, 2nd floor, San Francisco, CA 94108, at the Chinatown gate near Bush Street. Hours: Sunday to Thursday noon to 8 pm; closed Friday and Saturday. Certified kosher by the Vaad HaKashrus of Northern California with a full-time supervisor. Dine in, take out, or order delivery. Ask Karpo in the Karpo APP for a Chinatown walk that starts after lunch here.