Lunette Cambodia [San Francisco, Embarcadero]

[Mr_Happy]

I had a late lunch at Lunette Cambodia in the Ferry Building today. Today was their official grand opening. Lunette is a new Cambodian restaurant from chef Nite Yun and a followup to Nyum Bai, her Cambodian restaurant in the Fruitvale BART plaza that closed back in 2022. I really liked Nyum Bai.

More info from Eater SF:

There’s a Major Cambodian Restaurant Slated for the Ferry Building

The opening menu. You order and pay at the counter and get a number.

I had the KFC (Khmer Fried Chicken) ($16)
Salt and Kampot pepper fried chicken
Which was delicious - two large drumettes and two wing pieces that were nicely fried and had a salt and pepper flavoring, along with some lime wedges to squeeze on.

And I also had a bowl of the Kuy Teav Phnom Penh ($21)
Rice noodles, shrimp, pork three ways, crispy garlic cilantro, and scallion in 8-hour pork broth. Made with all the extra love <3
Nyum Bai had a great kuy teav Phnom Penh, a noodle soup dish in pork broth. It’s a dish with Chinese Teochew origins and also known in Vietnam as hu tieu Nam Vang (thanks Google). This bowl was delicious and satisfying, as good as I remember as the one from Nyum Bai. It had crunchy fried pork crackling cubes, ground pork, shrimp, thinly sliced pork, mung bean sprouts, thin rice noodles, and a delicious pork broth that was just a little sweet. It was a great bowl of noodles.

Will be back!

More pics:

[StephanieL]

I’m at the Ferry Building several days a week. I can’t wait to try them once they’ve been open a couple of months and have gotten their sea legs.

[sck]

Was that Nite Yun in the last pic?

Wished she would have picked a easier location to get to…! Ferry Building is a pain in the ass unless one works nearby, and its a mad house on Saturdays.

[Mr_Happy]

@sck

Was that Nite Yun in the last pic?

Yep!

[sck]

Let me preface this by saying that I was the biggest fan of Nyum Bai and had many great meals over the years in Oakland. Every time we went their dishes just had a bit of magic and refinement over other Cambodian restaurants.

We went to Lunette on 7/4. I don’t know if its the B team or other reasons, but the meal was very…ordinary. Seasoning was quite in your face. Even the old reliable kuy teav Phnom Penh was not how it was cooked in Oakland. Same assessment from my wife.

[jiaozi]

This was also my experience

[sck]

When did you eat there?

[jiaozi]

A couple of months after they opened, so quite a while back. The food was good but it didn’t have that something extra to make it great.