Chevre tostada w/ blistered shishito peppers, and pickled cherry tomatoes ($6.)
Broccoli rabe w/ garlic confit, maitake, macadamia butter, shaved truffle ($10.)
Cacao and banana handpie w/ spiced walnuts and lychee “buttercream”($5.)

Every Thursday and Saturday nights, the Lung Shan restaurant on Mission Street in Francisco transforms from an average-seeming Chinese joint and to a pop-up candle-lit restaurant serving up incredibly gourmet dishes at shockingly reasonable prices. It’s called Mission Street Food, and it’s the most exciting restaurant in my neighborhood right now.

More delicious than the daring (and very vegan-friendly) menu, the chefs donate all profits to a different charity — mostly those aimed at feeding every week. Since they started in 2008, they’ve raised nearly $20,000.

They’ve also started serving lunchtime burgers at the deli counter of Duc Loi, a busy Asian market also on Mission Street. They offer beef burgers with Monterey Jack, caramelized onion and caper aioli on a griddled acme bun for $8, and vegan burgers with maitake, shitake, roasted kale, edamame, scallion, sesame seed and fava-chickpea patty. Served with avocado and miso “mayo” on a griddled acme bun for $7. This may seem like a steep price tag for a burger, but they are totally delicious.

The vegan burger.

The idea behind Mission Street Food is to give line chefs, and guest chefs from local restaurants, a chance to experiment with menus and keep up their chops. They serve beer and soju cocktails and charge only $5 for a corkage fee. Every week the menu changes, is often thematic. This coming week is Salvadorian recipes, to benefit Doctors Without Borders in Haiti. What’s not to like?