Clement Street in the Richmond district was one of the places I went for a fix for Cantonese/Hong Kong home style cooking. This past Saturday I met a old friend for a Saturday lunch. We parked in front of a Asian Supermarket and said we should find something close. To our surprise we had to walk two block west and finally three block east before we found something. My friend could not eat spicy so we were limited non-spicy food. We finally ate at D&A picking 3 dishes for 24.
But we saw at least four closed eatries and two bakery closed. Is rent going up or business is bad. I plan to go again to walk Clement to see what has closed.
In the past year or so many icons have closed, Four Seas, Empress of China and Ming’s not always the best but the were the staples I grew up on.
Whenever we’re in the SFBA we have dim sum at House of Banquet on Clement at 11th and I seem to notice a lot of dim sum spots don’t have any or many customers there. I’ll be interested in any comments about your observation.
I am not looking at dim sum places but places with homey Cantonese, like clay pots rice, plate rices and etc. Recently I have passed on dim sum because I find it too rich and fating. Maybe I too old school. But I will take a walk along Clement in a week or two.
It the ingredients that are too rick, Like shrimp, fatty pork not items I can eat now. So dim sum in not on my menu. Last year while visiting China I eat so much with family I now need to skip dim sum for at least six months to recover.
Our favorite is China First, 336 Clement (near 4th avenue). We were here a few months ago – I hope it is NOT one of the ones that has closed! Good clay pots, also good jook.
Well not sure about China First, did not walk that far up Clement. We stop a block away but will do my walk in a week or two. D&A is the block before. Between 8th and 4th there were at least five shops that closed.
There was also a fire on clement around 5/6 that took out at least 3 places, sometime in the last month. One pace was just for dim sum, one was a BBQ place, and the other, I don’t recall…maybe that’s some of what you saw?
I was going to recommend Taishan Cafe for claypots (and my favorite black bean snails) on Clement btwn 45th and 46th, but I’m seriously bummed to learn that it closed, according to Yelp…
Update:
From what I’ve been able to gather, they’ve opened a new place on Clement called “The Claypot House”, btwn 11th and 12th Ave. Has anyone been, and if so, what’s the verdict?
Went to China First for a birthday dinner last night, a party of 8 adults + 2 small children. First visit for me, pretty good. The only dish I’d say was a definite miss was the pumpkin/spare rib clay pot - the kabocha was chalky and undercooked.
We also got:
Peking duck - somehow, I’ve never ordered peking duck before. I enjoyed, though aficionados might have thought the meat/skin ratio was too high
Salt/pepper pork chops
Sauteed eggplant with other veggies
Steamed egg with salted egg and century egg
Pea shoots with garlic
Crispy noodles with seafood (for the kids)
Fried wonton (for the kids - the one I ate was a bit over-fried but OK)
