One of SF’s best breakfast spots operates out of a warehouse

For at least a decade, I’ve been searching for a San Francisco breakfast burrito that rivals the ones my aunt makes. It’s tough because the love and care with which she serves them to my cousin and me can’t be replicated. Still, I frequently long for steamy soft-scrambled eggs, salty bacon, and crunchy browned potatoes wrapped in a warm flour tortilla. And it’s pretty much impossible to travel 178 miles to her home in the Central Valley for breakfast.

So when I discovered the Deli Lama, a hidden breakfast and lunch spot on the edge of Bayview-Hunters Point, I was eager to try the breakfast burrito because the Instagram pictures looked very similar to the delicious burritos my aunt has been feeding me since I was a kid.

When I walked into the Deli Lama at 150 Toland St., #7, I first noticed the industrial-sized containers of Tapatio hot sauce behind the counter, which is the brand my aunt always uses. This was a strong indication that I would finally put an end to my search for the best breakfast burrito in San Francisco. I scanned the menu while I waited to order, but I already knew what I was going for — the breakfast burrito with bacon.

The Deli Lama hides in a part of San Francisco known for warehouses and the sounds of buzzsaws and clanking metal. Just off Bayshore Boulevard, it’s in an area of the city that used to be called Butchertown. The eatery is no different from the other businesses operating in the forgotten space between Potrero Hill and the Bayview. It too is run out of a warehouse. It even has one of those roll-up garage doors that make a racket when sliding up and down. The sheet-metal building features two hand-painted signs above the front door that read “Cheesesteaks” and “Burgers” — the only thing distinguishing Deli Lama from the five auto body shops operating in the same building.

It could not be more out of place.

Jimmy Zarur has been the owner of this affordable, hidden-away eatery since 2009. Zarur, who is Palestinian American, was born in San Francisco but grew up in a Daly City household with great cooks, especially his mother and grandmother, who made his favorite musakhan — chicken quarters marinated in sumac, allspice, coriander and cinnamon, slow roasted with caramelized onions and toasted pine nuts.

He attended culinary school in 2002 and held jobs at different restaurants around the Bay Area for years, such as Thirsty Bear Brewing Co. and Sens. He tried to run his own restaurant for the first time in 2006, similarly serving American breakfast and lunch food in Burlingame, but the business didn’t last.

When Zarur lost his corporate cooking job at the beginning of the pandemic, he didn’t know where to turn. He applied to 20 different jobs “up and down California,” but of course, no one was hiring. Zarur was desperate to find a job. He had a wife and two kids to help support. Naturally, he wanted to stay in restaurants, but the pandemic was especially tough for the service industry, and he couldn’t dodge the troubles.

He was lost, until his cousin, Hanna Sahourieh, helped him return to the kitchen again.

Toward the end of the summer of 2020, Zarur called his cousin for advice on his next career move. At the time, Sahourieh owned the original iteration of the Deli Lama, which he opened in 2009. 

To his surprise, his cousin had an immediate solution. “Why don’t you buy my place?” asked Sahourieh, who happened to be looking to get out of the restaurant business at that time.

Zarur never expected to own his own restaurant again, but since entrepreneurship was in his blood, as he put it, he was ready to give it another go.

“He did me a huge, huge solid. A huge favor,” Zarur, 45, told SFGATE.

Today, the Deli Lama is succeeding in a remote part of the city, in the shadows of brick and steel, offering some of San Francisco’s most delicious breakfast food.

Despite the location, Zarur says he gets a lot of people walking through his door, from tech workers to city and county employees, as well as police officers and firefighters. With a restaurant in such an industrial place, Zarur relies heavily on his regulars. That might be why he hasn’t changed the core menu at all since he took over. Every now and then, he adds creative specials — for example, a soon-to-come Cubano to fill the pork gap in the menu. He also added catering in 2021. But other than that, Zarur hasn’t felt the need to alter anything.

“Some people have been coming here for like 10 years,” he said. “They kind of just want what they want.”

What they want is a hearty and affordable breakfast option, like the standout breakfast burrito ($10) — a torpedo-shaped behemoth just as large as any burrito you’ll find at a San Francisco taqueria. When it arrived, the forearm-sized burrito was stuffed with three eggs scrambled to perfection, with ample browning from the grill. The chopped bacon was crispy and tender, with little bits of flavorful fat hiding between the layers of egg and melted cheese. The tater tots were what really made this burrito stand out. With each bite, I could see a glimmer of golden crunch. A dash or two of Tapatio added some zing to the already perfect combination of flavors and textures.

There are other options, too. The breakfast sandwich ($9) comes with two scrambled eggs, American cheese, and the choice of bacon, ham, sausage, turkey sausage or chorizo (steak and hot links cost extra). His French toast “2x2x2” special, which includes a French toast recipe that Zarur has been perfecting for years, as well as two eggs and two pieces of bacon or sausage, is also popular. He said some of his customers call it the best French toast “on this side of the city.” For his two most popular lunch items, the hamburger ($9.50) and cheesesteak ($11), Zarur grinds and shaves the Angus beef in-house.

Zarur’s dedication to tasty, affordable and hearty foods is what keeps people coming back to the Deli Lama. He enjoys feeding the PG&E workers in their neon green vests just as much as the tech employees in their Patagonia vests. The satisfying meals he makes feed an entire working population of the city that is often overlooked. And now, that includes me, someone who’s finally found a breakfast burrito that tastes like home.

The Deli Lama, 150 Toland St. #7, San Francisco. Open Monday through Friday, 5:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. (breakfast served until 10:30 a.m. only), closed on weekends.