Yamo.

Yamo

Yamo is a Burmese counter on 18th Street, run by a mother and daughter. The tea leaf salad and the house noodles were $8 each in March 2025. Eater counted twenty years of feeding the Mission's skateboarders when it wrote the room up in 2019.

Why go

Two people run the whole thing. Cesar Hernandez and MacKenzie Chung Fegan are the San Francisco Chronicle's critics. They watched the pair work several plates, the phone, the bags and the wok flame at once.1 The house noodles are garlic lo mein with whatever meat you pick, and their simplicity is the whole trick.

Matt Tillquist, on Eater SF's Mission map, sets out the skate etiquette. Order to go. Leave the counter seat for a skater. Shake the container before you open it.2

Rachel Aronow is chef de cuisine at Nisei. She eats here alone and told the San Francisco Standard she comes for the family dynamics behind the counter as much as the food.3

The two desks disagree about that stool. Tillquist says leave it for a skater; Hernandez and Fegan say waiting for one is worth it for the view of the room working.1 Julia Chen of The Infatuation reckons ten dollars covers a garlic noodle dinner.6

Order this / avoid

• Order: the house noodles, with the meat you want on them.
• Order: the tea leaf salad beside them.
• Order: the pork potstickers if you are two.
• Avoid: the evening rush unless you are ready to wait on the sidewalk.

What locals & experts say

• Cesar Hernandez and MacKenzie Chung Fegan, San Francisco Chronicle, March 2025: the tea leaf salad is special for its acidity, savoriness and crunchiness.1
• Dianne de Guzman, Eater SF: it might be the best bang for your buck of any restaurant in the city.5
• Will Kamensky, The Infatuation, September 2019, 7.9, on the House Noodles: $8 for a bowl of garlicky, salty stir-fried lo mein noodles you'll become more attached to than your AirPods.4

Good to know

• Getting in: no bookings. Most people take it away, and you can call ahead.
• Paying: cash.
• Closed: Sunday.
• Where: 3406 18th Street, in the Mission.

Verdict

could-visit — This is the best cheap lunch in the Mission and I would not change a thing about it.