It’s not much to look at, just a slightly dingy one-room restaurant on a still-gritty Tenderloin corner. Inside are a few tables, a mural of a beach scene and a front counter manned by a chef who doesn’t speak much English. It can take a while to get your food, and dishes are sometimes brought to the table in parts, with little explanation for what to do with, say, a tiny cup of fish sauce or dried chile.

In other words, Tender Loving Food is the kind of no-frills operation that really gets a certain type of culinary adventure-seeker going, provided the food is good enough. And the restaurant’s fragrant Burmese noodle soups, crisp samosas and funky salads make up for what it lacks in ambience and service — especially considering that the portions are huge and hardly anything costs more than $10.

Tender Loving Food, the name a riff of sorts on the Tenderloin, is the latest from chef William Lue, who has been a restaurateur in the Bay Area for many years and owns the much-beloved Grocery Cafe in Oakland and the Refined Palate in Orinda.

Lue has been a longtime staple in the San Francisco restaurant scene not only for his Burmese food, which uses ingredients not often seen in California, but also for his unique approach to helping those lower on the career ladder. He emigrated from Burma as a teenager in 1969 and quickly became involved in the Bay Area restaurant industry. Nearly 50 years later, remembering what it was like to start out, he mentors younger immigrant chefs, helping them learn the business and even selling them a restaurant — he has opened more than 20 — when he feels they’re ready.

“My chefs have been here (in the U.S.) for a few years. They belong here. Their kids are here. So why not stay here?” Lue says.

This one, his latest, is in its infancy. Right now it’s mostly a lunch spot. Lue says 80 percent of his business is takeout and catering, but midday does bring both Burmese people and tech workers to the Formica tables. The menu now offers a short list of Burmese classics. There’s the ubiquitous tea leaf salad, this one with more funky depths than most, and another salad that doesn’t skimp on the grated ginger.

Burmese soups make an excellent lunch, their coconut-milk-enhanced broth rich but not coma-inducing, and here are two options. Mohinga (catfish stew with round rice noodles) is more spicy than fishy, and the ohno khao swe (chicken soup with soft wheat noodles) has nuance and dimension not often seen in chicken broth.

Rounding out the menu are a few entrees like the mango pork, made with tart mango chutney, and rich oxtail kabocha with warming spices like cloves and cinnamon — both with impressive depth of flavor but somewhat overcooked meat.

Lue has big plans for the space, though: He wants to continue his exploration of hyper-regional Burmese food. He already works with farms to grow Burmese ingredients like roselle leaves that are hard to find otherwise, and many of his restaurants sell to-go condiments like balachaung, a spicy, umami-rich blend of fermented fish and chiles, and pickled mustard greens.

Tender Loving Food’s cook, who goes by Chicken, is from the Karen state in Myanmar (formerly Burma), which is in the southeast and shares a border and much of its cuisine with Thailand. Lue hopes to offer some Karen dishes starting in July.. He’s also working with the city to bring in young people from the Tenderloin to train them in the restaurant business — and expand the restaurant’s manpower to offer delivery.

By July, Lue also hopes to have a second Tenderloin restaurant open in the former Burmese Kitchen space on Larkin Street, that one focusing on the food of the Shan state, near China. And after that restaurant gets to a point when his chefs are ready to go out on their own? He might take a break.

“My chefs are all working for me together. When the business is built up, they will take over. And I’ll retire, I guess,” he says.

Leaving a new generation to explore the diversity of Burmese food in his wake.

Anna Roth is a freelance writer in San Francisco. E-mail: food@sfchronicle.com Twitter: annaroth

What to order: Mohinga ($8), ohno khao swe ($8), samosas ($5), ginger salad ($7/9).

Where: Tender Loving Food, 393 Eddy St. (at Leavenworth Street), San Francisco, no phone. www.tenderlovingfood.com

When: 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Mon.-Sat.