All Season Restaurant

I wanted to like this restaurant, for nostalgia sake at least, because it inhabits the old Yet Wah location in Diamond Heights where I'd eaten many a great Chinese meal. The staff was welcoming, it was loaded with Chinese families, always a good sign, but nothing good came from the kitchen.

The won ton soup looked good, vegetables were not overcooked, but something was missing in the broth. It was so bland we had to add soy sauce and chili paste just to give it some flavor, any flavor at all. If broth is going to be the largest component of the soup, it should taste like something.

Chinese Chicken Salad as you can see was mostly lettuce and fried mung bean noodle, with very little chicken and a lackluster dressing. In fairness, no one has ever been able to surpass the Yet Wah chicken salad with plum sauce salad dressing and chopped peanuts. Every other I've tried has been a disappointment, but this was an abysmal failure.

 

Now we're getting somewhere, the Sweet & Sour Pork was well prepared with decent chunks of pork fried in a batter. It was all pork,  no signs of pineapple, bell pepper, or onion, but perhaps that is not traditional, although it seems usual in most other Chinese restaurants. No points off for lack of vegetables, but the sauce was again very bland.

Finally, a good, well seasoned dish that I could return for or recommend, if only everything else was better. However, the Walnut Prawns did live up to expectations and were as good as any others I have eaten. For a restaurant with "season" in its name, this place lacked seasoning in all but one of the four dishes we tried. I hear the dim sum is very good,  but this restaurant is overpriced for its sub par to average food, so I'm in no hurry to give it a try.

5238 Diamond Heights Bl
San Francisco, CA 94131
(415) 282-8883

Yank Sing

Visiting Hang Ah reminded me of what a good restaurant Yank Sing happens to be. Although I’ve had excellent dim sum in other, cheaper restaurants over the years, none has been quite as enjoyable as Yank Sing. The serving is relaxed, not frenetic or boisterous. There’s a quiet elegance to the restaurant and that makes it my first choice for recommendations. I need to revisit a few other restaurants specializing in Chinese small plate dining to determine who has the best variety and price, but Yank Sing is worth its generally higher prices for a memorable, low key, dining atmosphere and the high quality of its food.

Ha Gow is almost always the first dim sum I select from the cart. Yank Sing makes it easy to order because the shrimp is always plump, plentiful and very fresh. How can something made with so few ingredients  taste so good? It was surprising to see a salad on the carts one afternoon so my dining companion and I decided to try it. Nice for the crunch factor, but not for a second go round. Considering the myriad  of dumplings available, those with fresh vegetables are another favorite, as was the pea tendril sample in this last photo. It looks like a pot sticker, but it was steamed.

  

Eggrolls don’t really thrill me anymore, they seem greasier than need be, but these were decent, as were the pork and cabbage filled Pot Stickers. The Phoenix Shrimp were encased in a shrimp mousse and deep fried. A nice little surprise, since I had not seen those before. The sweet chili sauce was a nice addition to the plate and worked well with the shrimp.

  

These chicken and vegetable dumplings were a generous size and provided a nice change from shrimp and pork, although I forgot to ask their official name. Something I had not tried before was the Pork Rice Noodle, a nice little package of pork, green onion and rice noodle sitting in a very flavorful sauce. I have since tried the Beef Rice Noodle at Yank Sing and liked it just as well. This last dumpling, the Mandarin with Chives was made with shrimp, garlic, cilantro and chives; another great little dumpling with good flavor, even better when dipped in soy sauce and chili oil.

 

This Shanghai Dumpling came as a complete shock; it was filled with hot broth as well as pork, ginger and green onion. This “soup dumpling” traditionally called a Xiao Long Bao originated in Shanghai, and was made by placing the meat filling in aspic, that melts when the dumpling is steamed.  What an entertainment. These may have been skipped for years, because they looked flat and only partially filled, but I’ll be ordering them from now on. Add the fried taro, in the next photo, to that order. There’s something about the pasty texture of taro root that really appeals to me. I liked this one, but really prefer the fried taro that is wrapped around a filling of ground pork. They’re heavy , so you definitely want to split an order of these. One is plenty.

Here’s a full admission, I very well may be addicted to Egg Custard Tarts. I cannot sit down to dim sum and leave without having one order, sometimes two if we’re sharing. I think they are the perfect sweet ending to a dim sum lunch and would not turn them down if they were served all by their lonesome. The custard is really egg rich and the dough is flakey and light.

http://www.yanksing.com/our-cuisine/index.html

101 Spear St San Francisco CA 415 781-1111 Open daily 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Hang Ah

You can hang ME, better yet shoot me, if I ever go back to this Chinatown institution. My niece was in town and wanted dim sum on a Sunday night. I racked my brain trying to think of a place that served dim sum in the evenings. Perhaps I would have been better served to use the Yellow Pages. In any case, my all time favorite, Canton Teahouse has been closed for years, so I remembered a small hole in the wall, off the beaten path type place and once I figured out the name, gave them a call and they confirmed that they served dim sum all day. I asked if a reservation would be necessary and the woman on the other end of the line seemed amused as she said “no problem”. There were five people there when we arrived.

 

My heart sank as I looked at the dim sum menu (it was already beating irregularly from the garish and bright paint on the walls), with not more that ten items on it. There were some standards like the Siu Mai pictured above, and Ha Gow, my favorite dim sum dumpling made of shrimp steamed in a rice wrapper, but the selection was dismal. Still we went ahead and ordered some, supplementing it with an order of steamed rice and Chicken in Black Bean Sauce. The only condiments were chili oil and an inky black soy sauce. They did not look right. The pepper flakes looked black and gummy in the oil and there were no black beans, nor was there the scent of garlic. The opacity of the soy sauce immediately put me off of using it at all. The Ha Gow was bad and tasted as though it had been washed in some kind of disinfectant. I didn’t bother with a photo. The Sui Mai was okay, but nothing without some condiments on it.

 

There were no baked pork buns, only Char Siu Bao. Okay, I can live with that, but the dough was a bit off in flavor and my niece wouldn’t even touch them based on looks alone. The filling was actually good, but the dough made the whole item sub par. I was wondering if things could get worse.

  

I was hoping the one bright spot would be their foil wrapped chicken, a delicacy I remembered loving as a child. I haven’t seen it on a menu in many years. After trying one, I carefully thought about what might make this item appeal to a child. Oh yes, it came to me. It would be similar to opening a box of Cracker Jack and looking for the small prize, tearing open the paper envelope and finding something wonderful inside. The expectation was where the thrill came. The chicken was a thigh joint with bone, that had been marinated in Chinese 5 Spice and that inky soy sauce. Come to think of it, I never found a great prize in Cracker Jack either.

That leaves us with the Chicken in black Bean Sauce. I used the photo to fill the spot where I would normally place a shot of the restaurant itself, but it was hard enough to sit there and eat, so I wasn’t about to remind myself of it later with a photograph. The chicken was okay and had every ingredient required of that dish, but it had an uncharacteristic sweetness and was too salty. I now have to wonder not only why I thought it was a good restaurant at one time, but also how it could possibly remain in business for 80 years. I now have a renewed respect for Yank Sing in San Francisco and Golden Unicorn in New York City.

1 Pagoda Place San Francisco, CA 94108 (415) 982-5686

Eliza's

I wanted to like this restaurant because I liked the modern interior , bad artwork excluded, and my husband had eaten lunch there and liked it. It's within a neighborhood we can walk to and we could build up quite an appetite getting there. We're also lifelong fans of Chinese American food and there are no Chinese restaurants in our immediate neighborhood. Eliza's had all the appearances of a restaurant that might go the distance to bring inventive fare to its patrons. It just fell short, but not on the first plate that arrived on the table.

The dumplings were far from ordinary, because first and foremost they were vegetarian. The fried garlic garnish added not only an enhancement to the taste, but also acted as a textural contrast, pleasing to the palate. The addition of a sizable portion of bok choy was much more than I would have expected. 

These delightful dumplings were then bathed in a flavorful, light broth. For a simple appetizer, these were executed with a light hand, by someone clearly in touch with the cuisine, who wasn't timid about putting their personal stamp on the finished dish. It was impressive and set a positive tone for the rest of the meal. Unfortunately it also raised the bar of our expectations.

Next up was the Lemon Chicken, a dish both of us had eaten on many an occasion. Its appearance was flat, and so was its sauce. There was no eye appeal and the color was off putting, like they may have added food coloring to liven it up. It was cooked well, but the sauce was really too sweet and lacked a fresh lemon flavor. It's thickeners, along with the sweetness made it seem more like a lemon curd ready to be added to a dessert, not a sauce appropriate for poultry.

The Mongolian Lamb was a bit better, but not a memorable version. It was overpowered by the green onions, and for my taste, was stretched too far with vegetables. There just wasn't enough meat. The sauce was alright, but I didn't think it was very complex nor exceptional in any way.

Our last disappointment was the fried rice. Our traditional choice would have been BBQ Pork fried rice, but the pork in this rice dish was shredded, probably braised and not flavorful on it's own. The onions, peas and carrots may be compulsory in fried rice, but they didn't bring much to the table either. We would have been better off with steamed rice. A lower expectation may have been met with steamed rice.

I don't know if we'll return to Eliza's, but should that happen, we will not be ordering any of our last three items. There are too many other Chinese restaurants in San Francisco to settle on one just for its convenient location. Lackluster service added to the picture I've drawn. As I looked around the dining room I noticed that linens were stacked on the bar, also on a stool, and a box was carelessly left in the dining room. That didn't make a good impression either. It reminded me of a hole in the wall, mom and pop place that belonged more fittingly in an edgy location where the chaos would actually have been part of the appeal.

2877 California St. (bet. Broderick & Divisadero Sts.)
San Francisco, CA 94115
415-621-4819

San Wang

 

After all the times I've been to San Wang, It seems impossible to not have a photo of the restaurant itself, but there you have it, no photo. Until one is shot, the kim chee will have to do. For me, the two will forever be linked, because I have never sat down at San Wang without the waiter placing a bowl of it on the table in front of me. I love this fermented, spicy cabbage, and am pleased to receive it, but still have not figured out a link between this Korean condiment and a Chinese restaurant. I'm certain there's a good story there.

After years ordering the Walnut Prawns, I have never tired of it, perhaps because the walnuts are always sugar glazed to order and they give off a fragrant, nutty aroma when they are still hot. Or perhaps it's because I just love the fried, shoe string, potato basket it has been served in. Wait just a minute, what happened to the potato basket? When I inquired, the waiter told me I just needed to specify that I wanted it the next time. A slip up like that could keep me from returning. Since when does one have to specifically ask for an integral part of well known recipe? I know times are lean, but this was like ordering a "taco" sans the tortilla. If the battered fried prawns weren't so beautifully cooked and tasted less divine, I may just take this off my list of items to order. Since another of my favorite dishes, a plump, fried oyster extravaganza, covered in a complex sauce, that was filled with julienned vegetables is no longer available, my list is short enough. Okay, I'll ask for the potato basket next time. The trauma of not finding one on my plate during this order will keep it ever fresh in my memory.

Needing a replacement for the fried oysters, I perused the seafood section of the menu and found "Dry Fried Squid". It was quite good, battered and mixed with mushrooms, red peppers, green onions and lots of garlic. I had no expectations about it, so these turned out to be a very satisfying surprise. Sometimes you just have to try something new without giving the waiter the 3rd degree about how it is made, unless you have some type of food allergy.

 

Mu Shu Shrimp was new to me. Mu shu is on just about every Chinese menu in the city, but always in the form of pork and sometimes chicken. This combination was every bit as good as pork. There were shredded green onions and hoisin sauce to spread on the pancakes. My idea is to use up the entire amount of hoisin sauce on all the pancakes. It's sweet/savory taste really adds to the experience of eating mu shu.

San Wang is known for its hand made noodles. If you've ever seen a video on noodle making, you know how labor intensive it happens to be. I have to really admire the fact that this San Wang Soup Noodles was only selling for $6.95. It made for an extremely filling one dish meal.

San Wang Menu from allmenus.com

1680 Post St (in Japan Town) San Francisco CA 94115 (415) 921-1453

Kingdom of Dumplings

Could there be a smaller restaurant in San Francisco? If there were more than ten tables, it would be a surprise to me, but hole-in-the-wall or not, this restaurant had more things on the menu that I had never seen before, so it was a pleasure to try something new. Ambiance aside, this was a great "little" find in a city teaming with restaurants.

When ordering a cucumber salad, you might expect a cold dish of sliced raw cucumbers with a dressing of some sort. You might never expect a sauteed dish piled high with cucumbers that were cooked with garlic and dressed with soy sauce and rice wine.  It never occurred to me and that made this dish all the more exciting. Seeing cucumber served that way encouraged thought of other uses for cooked cucumbers.

The processed lamb meat on the platter in the photo above was another matter entirely. With the exception of sandwiches, I had never before seen lamb served cold. This wasn't just sliced lamb served cold, it was a processed lamb product and although it was unusual, it did taste good. Just don't tell me what "parts" were used in the processing, I don't want to know. Something like a lunch meat in texture, it combined well with the green onion pancake we had also ordered. The green onion pancake was the only thing that arrived as we had expected, but it was better than most, since it was thicker.

  

As restaurant "namesake", we had hoped the dumplings would be good and they did not disappoint us. We started with the pork and chive dumplings, then finished up with the lamb and Chinese vegetable dumpling seen cut in half in the above photo. I have no idea what the mystery vegetable was, but will attest to the fact that these were my favorite of the 2 selections we had made. I believe the dumplings were all made by hand, because of the thickness of the dough. They were very filling and had we known that they came 12 to an order and that they were so big, we would have ordered less. The Shanghai Donut in the last photo was our dessert. How this black bean "bun" became a "donut" is anyone's guess. It was a sweet finish to a sweet new experience in Chinese dining.

There is no website for this restaurant, but from Menu Pages I've  linked the Kingdom of Dumpling Menu.

1713 Taraval St San Francisco CA 94116 (415) 566-6143

Old Mandarin Islamic Restaurant

There is something to be said about a Chinese menu that does not include pork, and that something would be lamb. As a lamb aficionado, I was more than delighted to try Old Mandarin Islamic Restaurant and it did not disappoint in the flavor department on several of the items we tried, but the restaurant itself is very small and not only dated and worn, but kitchy in an odd and distracting fashion. Did I really need Mickey Mouse peering over my shoulder during the dining experience, or his endorsement of this restaurant?

The Peking Beef Pancakes were a very pleasant way to start this culinary journey and they are memorable. Very flaky pancakes swaddle the spicy beef filling and these surpass in flavor similar meat filled offerings from Indian restaurants using lamb. These would be easy to order again and again.

No pork in the pot stickers but they were nicely cooked. Although they could have used a stronger flavor, the lamb was a nice substitute. I also wished the condiment selection was a bit broader. I think Old Mandarin's pot stickers could easily be improved, but since I do not know how to cook Chinese dishes, I'm not the one to make suggestions (like more use of garlic and ginger).

It's not easy to order a meal in any Chinese restaurant without including fried rice and Old Mandarin would have made that impossible, since they offered their version of fried rice with lamb as well as others with chicken, beef and seafood. To round out the meal we decided on the sauteed Lamb with Green Onions, a house specialty.

The rice was light and fluffy and as fried rice goes, a very good one with the richness added to it by the lamb and the requisite eggs, green onions, peas and carrots. The sauteed lamb was good, but not memorable as far as enhanced or complex flavor goes. It was lamb, pure and simple, but that in itself can be good. Still I'd come back to try a few other items on the menu that looked quite unique and more complex than what we ordered for this particular meal; for instance, one of the Hot Pots.

3132 Vicente St( between 42nd Ave & 43rd Ave)

San Francisco, CA 94116

(415) 564-3481Mon, Wed, Fri-Sun 11:30 a.m. - 9:30 p.m.
Tue, Thu 5:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m