[SF] private dinner for 30 people? (possibly chinese banquet style)

felice, wow, Boulettes Larder is indeed a dream option!
beautifully decorated, and with a view onto The Bay Lights, as they mention.
But sounds like it is slightly too small for us, they say it is for groups up to 24.
http://www.bouletteslarder.com/events.html

It’s the Year of the Rooster, and R&G makes whole fried chicken with sticky rice stuffing that has to be ordered in advance anyway. R&G came to mind because your family is staying in walking distance around Yerba Buena. If you have ten rooms at the same hotel and its food and beverage service is satisfactory for your crowd, the meetings manager will probably discuss better group room rates and a no-rent party room.

Hi Lethe2020, thanks for the links!

The “private dining rooms” link from Eater was incomplete, I think you meant this one:


Most of the places in both links are too small and/or outdoors (probably not great in July for the older folks). But these seem like possibilities, in case anyone has a comment:

  • Piperade (seats 30, $1500 minimum)
  • The Progress (seats 36, $2500 minimum)
  • Uva Enoteca (seats 30, $1200-1400 minimum)

Hi BoneAppetite, the fried chicken with sticky rice stuffing at R&G sounds great! Yes, R&G seems a very good option as it is close enough for some to walk.

But I’m also curious generally about the chinese banquet scene in SF, so would like to hear any other comments.

And certainly we are considering doing a meal at the hotel, certainly would be very convenient. But their menus, while not bad, aren’t very inspiring and not great value-for-money. Perhaps it is negotiable though, I have no experience with this?

My Christmas party for work has been at R&G for the last few years. We get the upstairs room that has two big tables. The food is great! Love the crab! Last year my boss ordered extra crab because everyone ate so much. My two complaints are 1) It feels a little rushed. I know they’re trying to turn tables. This is a party for a restaurant staff, so we know turning tables, but they are REALLY fast. 2) There was only one server assigned to our group of almost 30 to take drink orders. As I said, this is a restaurant staff, so your drinking habits may not be the same. But they really needed another person. Otherwise, I recommend it.

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It’s been too long since the last banquet of the sort you are arranging to suggest any other Cantonese room. As for hotel negotiations, someone else has always looked after them. Weekends are probably relatively quiet for Yerba Buena hotels built for convention and business trade, so that path could be budget-friendly for your family.

The Peterson Room & Garden at the Asian Art Museum is a nice space for 30 seated diners. You can have food prepared by the museum’s Cafe Asia or have it catered. The dotcom boom has spurred a robust catering industry hereabouts. I can personally recommend a Malaysian or a Peruvian option.

http://rentals.asianart.org/weddings-private-events/

M.Y. China has a room for up to 64 diners. I don’t think there is a fee, just a minimum commitment. . Perhaps you could snag it for a smaller group on a Monday night.

http://www.tastemychina.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/myc_infopack.pdf

thanks Souperman!
Peterson Room at Asian Art Museum is a great idea, I will check into it.

And thanks for the link to the M.Y. China event infopack, it isn’t evident on their website.
Do you have any comment on M.Y. China’s food?

followup on R&G Lounge as a banquet venue:
unfortunately they have no elevator to the upstairs private rooms, which probably rules it out due to some of our elderly guests.

M.Y. China does a good job with their noodle and dumpling dishes. I’ve only had one wok dish there, which wasn’t very impressive.

Just remembered this is even closer to Yerba Buena area:

http://fangrestaurant.com/private-events.html

I haven’t thought of it for a while, but what about the venerable Canton Tea House (or whatever they call it nowadays) at 3rd& Folsom?

http://www.cantonsf.com/

Maybe give Teo a call? Teochew food 3 blocks away. I know they have a private room. I don’t know how big it is. If it is not big enough, the restaurant itself is big enough that they can easily assemble an area for you and its not crowded. Comfortable seating. Street level. 3 blocks away.

thanks BoneAppetite, Souperman, and sck for the suggestions of Fang, Canton Tea House, and Teo.
I had come across Fang, and it seemed a good candidate, but the yelp reviews seem mixed. Anyone able to vouch for the food/setting/service there?
I will also follow up on CTH and Teo; same question though, anyone have experience with dining there?
thanks!

something I came across that might be useful to others:
OpenTable has a listing for “San Francisco Bay Area Private Dining”; you can do some crude filtering by event size, neighborhood, cuisine, price. The handy thing is that when you click through to an individual restaurant page, it shows the different rooms and their capacities.

https://www.opentable.com/info/banquets.aspx

Some data points:

At the end of the day, your family’s company will eclipse the venue and menu.

Heard back from the Asian Art Museum about The Peterson Room & Garden. The rental fee is $3500, events can run from 5:30-10 pm (setup and breakdown from 4-11 pm); access to a gallery floor is an extra $2000 (includes up to 2 docents for tours). Only two authorized caterers (McCalls, and the museum’s Cafe Asia, which in fact is run by McCalls).

Would be a wonderful venue, but out of our league.

Whoa! Strictly for corporate outreach, I imagine.

I’ve been to events where they had noshes and drinks from third party vendors on the second floor outside the Samsung Gallery, so I thought they;d be more flexible regarding catering.

I think for other spaces they have a longer list of approved caterers, but Peterson Room seems to be more limited.
It was a great suggestion though!