San Francisco Trip Part 1 - Thai Temple Brunch

It's been a while since we had a vacation by ourselves. Luckily we found some cheap tickets for after Christmas and decided to visit my cousin and his wife in San Francisco. I was researching for places to visit, things to do there and came across this site: http://www.timeout.com/san-francisco/things-to-do/the-49-best-things-to-do-in-san-francisco

We picked out a few we wanted to do during our 5 day trip:
#1.Walk across the Golden Gate Bridge
#2. Forage for fresh produce at the Ferry Building
#11. Trade tokens for Thai brunch
#13. Explore the country’s largest Chinatown
#17. Discover the secrets of sourdough

This is #11. Trade tokens for Thai brunch.

This small Thai Buddhist temple is a Berkeley mainstay, not only for practicing Thai American Buddhists and curious UC students, but also for anyone with a few bucks and an appetite. Every Sunday, the temple hosts a communal-style Thai brunch, serving up dishes like pad thai, beef noodle soup, mango with sticky rice and coconut pancakes and pudding to anyone who makes a donation; dollars are traded for tokens, which can then be exchanged for food. The weekly meal brings all types of residents and visitors together. While it's definitely the temple's most well-known contribution to the community, it's certainly not the only one; the venue hosts regular cultural events and serves both as Berkeley's official Thai Cultural Center and a Thai school for Bay area youth.

Knowing me, I have to Yelp it first, and it has raving good reviews on Yelp, so we gotta check it out!
http://www.yelp.com/biz/wat-mongkolratanaram-berkeley

Wat Mongkolratanaram
4.0 star rating
673 reviews Details
Thai, Buddhist Temples

So it's a hosted at a Thai temple in quiet neighborhood in Berkeley every Sunday from 10 am - 1 pm.
It's a token system, first you exchange money for tokens, $1 = 1 token.

Token Booth

Dessert section

Seating area.

Main Dishes. There are two lines, one for meat and one for vegetarian.

Another dessert area. Mango Sticky Rice.

Waiting in line for my noodle soup.

Meat combo.

Papaya Salad

Vegetarian combo

Mango and pudding with sticky rice

Noodle Soup

Thai Coffee

The food was delicious!  We couldn't try everything there this time, there were so many options!

I definitely recommend to visit here to try some delicious and cheap Thai food, and it's for a good cause!

We exchanged $40 between the two of us and had plenty leftovers so we bought some spring rolls, couple more desserts to bring home. And of course, you can donate the rest of it to the temple or save it for your next visit!