Looks great! I’ll be curious to hear about your lunch.
The Mumu Hot Pot chain says that it is opening soon on Bay Street in Emeryville -
1 Like
Thank you! I’ve edited their mention under dongbei, hunan, and local chains to say: “Special Noodles in Fremont, Milpitas, Pleasanton, Richmond Annex/99 Ranch, and San Jose and Pan Fried Dumplings (Newark), are part of the Four Sisters Group (四姐).”
Lunch at Special Noodle in Richmond was ok. They have a strange ordering system, a single smart pad for the table, and you have to tab and scroll to see the items. The three of us had fish noodle soup.
The noodles were very long! We made a mess of things at first, spilling a lot of the noodles on the table. If you visit, bring tongs or scissors.
Beef wrap, thinly sliced beef and greens wrapped in scallion pancake.
And kung pao chicken. This was more sugary than I prefer.
$64 before T&T, which seems pricey, but everything’s expensive now.
7 Likes
Was the noodle made of fish, or was the noodle made of wheat but the broth fish based?
They were thick wheat noodles in both the fish soup and the kung pao chicken. I think we had a choice of substituting rice noodles. The soup presentation was fun. They poured some broth into the big bowl, then added slices of raw fish, then more broth, the fish balls, cooked noodles, and greens.
1 Like
I was thinking about that fish soup all afternoon, and I was sad that I can’t make the fish broth at home. Then I remembered, I can! I had a big halibut carcass in the freezer (just $1.50 for a couple of pounds from Tokyo Fish), and now the stock is starting to simmer.
4 Likes
A few openings:
- Dumpling Bistro (San Francisco Inner Richmond) XLB, SJB …
- Yuanbao Jiaozi expands from SF Sunset to Burlingame. They have a house special uni and pork dumpling.
- Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodle now has an Elk Grove location.
In my discussion of local chains in the last post, I forgot to mention the very prolific Hunan-focussed restaurant group that started out with defunct Shao Mountain many years back-- Ping’s Bistro (Fremont #1 and Fremont #2 and San Mateo ) & Hunan Impression (San Jose) & more casual Hunan Mifen (Lawrence Sunnyvale, Newark, San Mateo, San Jose, El Camino Real Sunnyvale ). I seem to recall them being affiliated with Sichuan/Chongqing focused Shang Cafe (Fremont , San Jose ).
3 Likes
The Fresno Bee reports that Hunan Chinese Restaurant has closed. The restaurant was over 30 years old, and was for many years helmed by acclaimed chef Zhongyi Liu before he moved back to the SFBA to open Royal Feast.
Closures
- Dumpling Club in SF
- Heypot in San Jose
Openings
- Oodle Yunnan Rice Noodle (SF Outer Richmond)
- 88 Bao Bao (Concord) expands to a new location next to the Trader Joe’s
- Aint Common (Fremont) Taiwanese bento + some Korean items
- Dynasty Dumpling (SF Pac Heights)
- Special Noodles (Newark) had been the 4 Sister’s group’s “Pan Fried Dumplings” and its name is now aligned with the rest of their local chain.
- Mala Town (Union City) malatang
- Kitayama Yoichi (Fremont) Taiwanese
- Neighborhood Kitchen (Cupertino) some eclectic soups, which name drop Suzhou, Beijing, Henan, and Longjiang but also tom yum and tonkotsu. Breakfast includes soy milk, dan bing, jian bing, roujiamo, youtiao, and a pork shao bing.
- Imperial Treasure (Palo Alto) in the former Peking Duck spot
5 Likes
Once again, thank you for keeping this going! Didnt know about Imperial Treasure in Palo Alto, about 10 min from my house. Looks very interesting…
1 Like
Let us know how it is—- with a voluminous menu, fancy decor, and lack of website/social media (at least in English), it’s certainly an anomaly for 2023.
1 Like
Under-the-radar neighborhood restaurant Pearl House in Albany closed a couple of months ago. It was the site of an impromptu Chowdown a few years ago. It’s been replaced by Kuriya Japanese Kitchen.
1 Like
Closures
- Spicy Empire (San Mateo) has closed. According to their Yelp page they split from the original owners in Jan. 2020. I hadn’t realized that they’d been split for so long from Chef Yiwen “Truman” Du and Jenny Wu’s restaurant group.
- Grand Hot Pot Lounge (Inner Richmond) closes. Sister restaurants, SF Chinatown’s Hunan House and Pacifica’s Grand Hotpot, remain.
- Heypot (San Jose)
Openings
- More Than Bento (Milpitas) Taiwanese bento
- Octable (Livermore) Taiwanese
2 Likes
The short-lived sister restaurant to SF Chinatown’s Z&Y Restaurant, “Z&Y Bistro,” closed during the pandemic and recently re-opened as Z&Y Peking Duck. Confusingly, they retain the same yelp page, which has some tardy owner responses, but no new reviews yet.
Closures
- iPot Plus (Millbrae)
- Woodhouse BBQ (Union City)
Openings
I’ll post about six or so openings before the new year.
3 Likes
Only a few days to go, and there have been 96 additions and 49 closures on this list in 2023. Dumpling-focused restaurants are a big force this year. For region-specific restaurants, Yunnan is becoming a leader.
Closures
- Chili House, sister to Z&Y temporarily closed in late October due to water damage (from a dwelling fire above it). Astrid Kane has some details from October. Mario Cortes wrote about the closure earlier this week in an article about the opening of Z&Y Peking Duck.
Openings
- Dainty Cuisine (Cupertino) in 99 Ranch food court, their HungryPanda description mentions steamplate rice dishes, Northeastern stewed dishes, dumplings, buns, wraps, roujiamo, noodles. The restaurant’s symbol is a winking dumpling. Defunct San Jose restaurant Dainty Dumpling also had a winking dumpling symbol— any relationship or cultural reference I’m missing?
- Tasty Szechuan (Concord) sister restaurant to Hayward location, Yelp page says they are helmed by a “Master Chef level 3 from Sichuan China”
- Jun Bistro (Milpitas) self-described as a “Yunnan-inspired California Bistro.” The 油浸菌子Wild Mushrooms Conserva sounds interesting.
- Dumpling and Noodle House (Concord) at first glance, the familiar trend of XLB, SJB, jiaozi, string beans, etc. Yet they also have homemade Sichuan sausage, “Sichuan fried rice,” and rice noodle (mixian, 米线;) with chicken soup in clay pot.
- Ten Seconds Rice Noodle (Fremont) another SFBA location of international Yunnan restaurant
- Dumpling Hours (Oakland) sister of Walnut Creek and Brentwood restaurant
2 Likes
A few more 2023 openings:
- Hua Qian Dai Grilled Fish (Cupertino) according to the corporate webpage, a Henan-based international chain founded in 2012. I believe that makes it the SFBA’s first Henan restaurant. Are these the founders’ take on Sichuan/Chongqing dishes, or do these grilled fish dishes and/or seasonings have a longer history in Henan? The webpage says, “in order to adapt to wider regional characteristics and more complex taste needs, Mr. Ping Quanlai led the R&D team to personally go to Guizhou, Sichuan, Henan and other origins… to form a taste advantage over roadside stores.”
- Dumpling Kitchen Express (Castro Valley) SF-based dumpling/Shanghai chain expands to another location
- Happiness Hot Pot (Fremont)
- More Than Bento (Milpitas) Taiwanese bento + braised dishes
- Grand Hot Pot Lounge (SF Inner Richmond) was erroneously reported as closed a few messages back. It has sister restaurants, SF Chinatown’s Hunan House and Pacifica’s Grand Hotpot.
Closures
- Warming Rice Noodle (Milpitas) Harbin-based international chain, Wumingyuan Mi Fen (无名缘米粉) in what was their first US location
- Menkee Wonton (SF Outer Sunset), after decades, this restaurant with Teochew dishes closes
- Cozy Wok (Oakland) vegetarian Chinese ghost-kitchen
- 110 Shabu Shabu (Dublin)
3 Likes
