In San Francisco, there are, ostensibly, two Chinatowns in one. In this neighborhood, tourists flock to trinket shops and chop suey houses, snapping photos of erhu players performing on street corners. Meanwhile, generations of residents have tirelessly worked to turn it into a true cultural and commercial hub for the Chinese community. Established in the 1850s, the neighborhood has survived systemic discrimination, fires, earthquakes and crisis after crisis. Over time, multiple waves of immigration have shifted the demographics of the neighborhood, layering it with cultural influences from diverse regions of mainland China, as well as Hong Kong. Unsurprisingly, one can taste all of those shifts in the restaurants here: chow mein and chop suey from the oldest of the old school institutions, tingly and hot noodles from Sichuan, and ambitious and youthful approaches to Chinese cuisine from a new generation of restaurateurs. In a scene this complicated, it can be hard to suss out the true diamonds, but here are 15 of my favorites in our historic Chinatown. Restaurants with an asterisks are also on the Top Restaurants list.
For more inspiration on stellar Chinese food, see my picks for the best Chinese restaurants across the Bay Area.
Check the boxes to filter by dining features or click on the images to get info on each restaurant.
A reliable source of Shanghainese comfort food, like braised pork shank and rice cakes.
Named after Shanghai's iconic waterfront on the Huangpu River, Bund Shanghai is all about the cuisine of China's biggest city. Centerpiece dishes, like enormous and juicy lion's head meatballs and fatty braised pork shank, appear with a red tint from being cooked in a mixture of rice wine, sugar and soy sauce. The technique grants meats a distinct, heavily caramelized flavor. Chewy oval rice cakes, stir-fried in a wok with vegetables and pork, have a slight crispiness to them to go along with their gooey interiors. Try the exquisite pairing of rice cakes with Dungeness crab when in season.
Credit cards accepted • Soft drinks
There's lots of local love for Capital's salt-and-pepper chicken wings and traditional Cantonese dishes.
Sure, Capital's crisp salt-and-pepper chicken wings, fried with thin slices of jalapeño, should be on every San Franciscan's bucket list. (A note for when we can have parties again: They make for a very welcome potluck item.) But the menu's broad selection of Cantonese specialties, overlooked by many, is worth highlighting. One of the most memorable is the egg tofu with spicy ground pork. In this dish, thick rounds of smooth and soft egg tofu are deep-fried and topped with saucy pork and chopped bell peppers.
Credit cards accepted • Beer and wine
415-397-6269 • http://ordercapitalca.com/ • Order online
An ambitious emporium offers next-level Chinese dishes and goods.
China Live is a multistory culinary wonderland with a fine dining restaurant, "Bladerunner"-esque cocktail bar, a retail section and a 120-seat, high-ceilinged casual eatery featuring different styles of cooking. Of course, you can't just go in and gawk anymore. But in the pandemic age, China Live has maintained its multifaceted spirit, with a robust online retail store stocked with titanium woks and jars of XO sauce as well as its more popular dishes. Definitely try the crunchy and indulgent fried scallion breads, which are rolled up like cinnamon buns, as well as the jiggly, tingly mapo tofu.
Credit cards accepted • Full bar
415-788-8188 • https://chinalivesf.com/ • Order online
Super spicy noodles with a Sichuanese tint are this shop's specialty.
Opened by Z&Y alums Jenny Wu and Truman Du, this is a noodle restaurant through and through, with a variety of strands to fit any situation. Its namesake, written on the menu as "Chongqing hot numbing spicy noodles," is a great place to start. Its broth gets a kick from Sichuan pepper powder and bright red chile oil, and a splash of sesame oil gives it an earthy aroma. Another worthy option is the tan tan noodle soup: Ground pork and sesame paste give it a heartier and richer taste.
Credit cards accepted • Soft drinks
415-983-0888 • www.chongqingxiaomian-sf.com
11 Walter U Lum Pl., San Francisco
This homestyle Vietnamese restaurant serves soul-satisfying food in huge portions.
Golden Star, a favorite of Financial District workers in particular, is straightforward and no-nonsense, with an enviable spot on Walter U. Lum Place overlooking verdant Portsmouth Square. On nice days, I like to grab some takeout and set up in the park, where I can listen in as neighborhood elders argue over card games and gossip. The menu here is typical Vietnamese food: pho, rice vermicelli salads, rice plates and grilled meats. The bun cha gio, or rice vermicelli salad with spring rolls, comes with plenty of crisp bean sprouts, lettuce and carrot and daikon pickles, and the accompanying nuoc cham strikes a good balance between sweet and salty. The spring rolls, made with rice paper, blister in the fryer and have an irresistible and airy crunch.
Chinatown's favorite dim sum takeaway spot always generates huge lines.
Yes, there's always a line here, and yes, you might get yelled at by the aunties behind the counter, but we all deal with this for good reason. Good Mong Kok Bakery has the best takeaway dim sum in Chinatown; that said, few of the sit-down places can really compete, either. Come here to get your plump siu mai, long ropes of steamed rice rolls, softball-size char siu bao, and har gow stuffed with big pieces of shrimp. Like Golden Star, the bakery is very close to Portsmouth Square, which is a great place to eat your dim sum al fresco.
Juicy Cantonese barbecue made the slow and steady way.
If you're looking to get the meat sweats, Hing Lung has got you covered. The shop's crisp-skinned and succulent Peking duck and roast pork represent old-school Cantonese barbecue at the top of its game. Each of the meats is great eaten on its own, though using them to enhance homemade fried rice and congee is the way to go if you've got leftovers. During the pandemic, the shop jumped onto the delivery apps under the name Go Duck Yourself, and is now offering rice plates with the roasted meats served alongside garlicky greens and jus. Even through third-party sites, the shop will customize your order to your specs. (Want only the fattiest pork? They can do that!)
Credit cards accepted • Soft drinks
415-397-5521 • www.instagram.com/hing_lung_co._sf/
This landmark restaurant has been serving Shanghainese regional dishes since 1988.
In normal times, House of Nanking was known as a place where you couldn't actually order your food; though in fine dining, that's just called a tasting menu. Here, owners Lily and Peter Fang, along with daughter Kathy, present a take on Shanghainese food that you won't find anywhere else (with the exception of Fang, its sister restaurant). Egg rolls filled with pork confit are tender and rich, paired with a refreshing basil and sweet chile sauce. And the classic sesame chicken, while fried, tastes a little more nutritious with the addition of glazed sweet potato.
Credit cards accepted • Soft drinks
415-421-1429 • https://www.houseofnankingsf.com/ • Order online
Mister Jiu's is one of the Bay Area's Chinese American pioneers, pushing boundaries with its new wave cuisine.
There are all kinds of activities afoot at Mister Jiu's these days. Chef Brandon Jew has been offering excellent set menus for two — think Peking duck, char siu and wok-fried vegetables — for takeout. Its new retail concept, Jiu's Ho Ho, includes not only components like a char siu kit and bottled cocktails but local produce, wine and pastries made by friends of the restaurant. Don't miss the bags of frozen dumplings, which are just as easy to cook up as the ones you get at the grocery store (but much juicier and full of local ingredients).
Credit cards accepted • Full bar
415-857-9688 • www.misterjius.com • Order online
This Cantonese powerhouse cranks out beautiful battered crabs.
In regular times, you go to R&G Lounge for special occasions: to celebrate important events and show beloved visitors a true slice of San Francisco food. So, naturally, one must order the seafood showstoppers at this restaurant, which is filled with enough tanks to make you think you'd stepped into an aquarium. They're a guarantee of freshness, so you can't go wrong with the seafood. That might mean a towering pile of battered and fried Dungeness crab, its delicately sweet flesh seasoned with salt and pepper, or black cod marinated and baked until its flesh becomes as tender as room-temperature butter. It’s available for takeout and delivery.
Credit cards accepted • Full bar
415-982-7877 • https://rnglounge.com/ • Order online
Since 1908, Sam Wo has been a cornerstone of Chinatown and of San Francisco's culture as a whole.
At more than a century old, Sam Wo is one of the oldest restaurants in the city, having opened just two years after the great San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. In 2015, the Cantonese noodle house relocated just a few blocks away from its original site. What remains consistent is that it's an institution popular with both locals and tourists, the latter of whom often come hungry for a taste of chow mein. I would say pass on the chow mein but do get the tender and toothsome steamed rice rolls with char siu, which the kitchen will kindly cut into bite-size pieces for you, and the generously portioned and comforting rice porridge with a fried doughnut on the side.
Credit cards accepted • Soft drinks
415-989-8898 • https://samworestaurant.com/
Tender brisket and slurpable wontons crown the noodle soups at this tiny eatery.
When I dream about wonton noodle soup, the version I see comes from Yin Du. The restaurant produces a damn good bowl of soup, piled high with roast duck, wontons, greens and bouncy yellow noodles. I confess that before Yin Du, I never thought to eat wonton noodle soup with brisket, but that's the move here. The tender beef brisket melts in your mouth, infusing each bite with a deep, savory flavor. It makes the soup that much more intense to eat. I'd also recommend a side of slow-cooked beef tendon, which you can throw into your soup to give it an even silkier texture as you slurp.
415-834-9388 • www.yinduwonton.com
This Chinatown diner is the best place to get Cantonese-style calamari at midnight.
Yuet Lee is a San Francisco classic. The Hong Kong-style restaurant is simultaneously a dive and a celebrity haunt: The facade is papered with reviews and photos of the original owner, Sam Yu, posing with Jackie Chan, Emeril Lagasse and Jacques Pepin. City Supervisor Aaron Peskin, a longtime Yuet Lee fanboy, pushed for its establishment as an official legacy business last year, confirming its impact as a municipal cultural institution and ensuring its longevity for decades to come. Here, prawns are stir-fried till crunchy and flavored with finely minced fried garlic, their heads bursting with savory flavor. For folks needing a post-drink pick-me-up, the salt-and-pepper calamari — crunchy, light and tinged with the ineffable flavor of wok hei — is unforgettable.
Credit cards accepted • Beer and wine
415-982-6020 • www.sanfranciscoyuetlee.com
A Sichuanese pioneer where aromatic and chile-laden dishes take the stage.
During normal times, the wait to get into Chinatown's premier Sichuan restaurant hovered at an hour. Both locals and tourists are keyed into chef Li Jun Han's spicy and numbing style of cooking, which can leave your lips buzzing as if you'd just played a harmonica for an hour. Try the Dungeness crab (when in season) stir-fried with crumbly salted egg yolks or doused in the house spicy sauce with dried Sichuan chile peppers. Tender fish boiled in a mighty and clear peppercorn broth is also an essential centerpiece to any meal here, and a side of scallion pancakes or sesame-flavored shredded bamboo-shoot salad can help temper its piquancy. All of it is available for takeout and delivery.
Credit cards accepted • Beer and wine
415-981-8988 • www.zandyrestaurant.com • Order online
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