Wow! That is some region!
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Hanlin in SF Chinatown has been replaced by Capputea Restaurant, another business with Taiwanese food (and, of course, hot pot)
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Eater reports that Crooked City Cider Taproom is partnering with James Yu from Great China. No word yet on what to expect.
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Dim Sum Corner, a new spot in SF Chinatownâs historical Cathay House building, has Shanxi scissor-cut noodles and a variety of dim sum distributed from the Koi Palace commercial kitchen, as I learned today.
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- Supreme Pot (Daly City) hotpot and skewers
Also, driving by too quickly for better info, I noticed a black sign on the south side of Taraval and somewhere between 22nd and 20th saying âdumpling specialist.â Any idea what this is?
Cupertinoâs Spicy Station has opened an outpost in Fremont called Yummy Crab. Yelp classified them as Cajun/ Creole and Chinese. What is that?
Crawfish hot pot?
Pic from Yelp.
Shang Cafe opens a branch in Cupertino. Howâs their food in Fremont?
BestNoodle opens in Milpitas.
It sounds different than the âAsian Cajunâ served at Rockinâ Crawfish and Queenâs Seafood in Oakland:
About seven years ago, the âAsian Cajunâ phenomenon moved west, when a Vietnamese couple from Arlington, Texas, opened the Boiling Crab restaurant in Orange Countyâs Little Saigon. Within weeks, the nautical-themed seafood shack was wildly popular, and a crop of SoCal competitors soon sprouted up. One of these, a Westminster spot called the Rockinâ Crawfish, opened a second branch in Oakland last year.
âThis is the first uniquely Vietnamese-American style of restaurant,â Vietnamese food writer Andrea Nguyen told me. âItâs not pho and itâs not banh mi . The new generation has created something all their own.â
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Huh, thereâs a place in Cupertino called Crab Lover and one of the yelp photos has a page thatâs visually identical to Yummy Crabâs, and has Sichuan dishes, dry pot, and Wuhan duck. Itâs been open in 2017, which means it has eluded our list for 2 years! I know that crawfish has been a trend at Chinese restaurants for a few years, in particular at dry pot places, and when I have a chance, I may see if this is a broader category for which there are multiple restaurants weâve not identified. Also on that note, Iâve been thinking about, and will soon ask for community feedback on, how this list should grow in light of the growing number of restaurants that donât fit into a clear regional category, and in a different way than employing chefs from two regions (e.g., Sichuan + Shanghai) or Chinaâs greatest hits style menus.
Yummy Crabâs crawfish offerings look like viet-cajun, with the exception of 13-spice crawfish, which Iâve seen at a few places, including on a sign in Z&Yâs window (I tried ordering it, but they said it wasnât available). Sidney C. H. Cheung has an academic essay on Chinese crawfish called âFrom Cajun Crayfish to Spicy Little Lobster: A Tale of Local Culinary Politics in a Third-Tier City in Chinaâ, readable on p. 209 of this pdf, that discusses "Xuyi Thirteen Fragrance Little Lobsterâ, which originated in Jiangsu, with mala influences from Sichuan. That book also has a chapter on how Shanxi noodles went from being an obscure regional dish before the 90s, to acclaim throughout China and the world. TLDR for nowâŠ
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Arzu Uyghur Cuisine (Newark) appears to be the first local Uyghur place to have house-made bread, the kind with the stamp patter in the center, and also the only current one to use fresh dough for the samsa. Yelp photos also show a whole roasted lamb.
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The Duo Entourage (Burlingame) has âpan-asiaâ offerings, with a good representation of Taiwanese dishes.
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Halal Chinese Indian Fusion (SF Tenderloin) Desi-Chinese from the ownerâs of Gorkha Kitchen in the Inner Sunset according to Hoodlineâs âVeteran Hoodline Tipster Al M.â (does Al post here? Heâs the bread and butter of Hoodline, even the main course given their current AI bend).
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Closed
- South Legend Fusion (Milpitas) Sichuan
- Xiang Xiang (Cupertino) Shanxi
Open
- Xiang Home Kitchen 柶æč (Milpitas), presumably Hunan in the former CBI space
- China Taste (Oakland Chinatown) opens in former Spices III space (Spices III moved across the street). Cantonese. Chinese name refers to Huadu district of Guangzhou if Iâm not mistaken. Interesting because it seems uncommon for a Sichuan restaurant to be replaced with a Cantonese restaurant these days! Yelpers mention two dishes with âhand-pulled noodlesâ, but no mention on menu and that label is often misused. TBCâŠ
Halal Chinese Indian Fusion --new in the Tenderloin, er, Union Square area.
No, it is NOT a delivery only restaurant. Donât know how that got embedded in the link. Has momos!
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A yelp page opened for Dumpling Specialist. Small menu of soups and xiaochi, which according to Hoodline is a venture of Rebecca Yu, owner of recently closed Shanghainese Dumpling Kitchen.
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Ding! Itâs been in the works for a year and a half, which is probably par for the course when it comes to change in use.
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- Dalian Club House (Pleasanton) in Pacific Pearl mall, same as Yummy Chengdu, Mumu Pot. and Beijing Chef, has what look like translucent XLB, seam side down SJB, dumplings, noodles. No menu posted yet. Business owner posted some nice interior shots, edison bulbs and wood.
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This seems to be a good place to ask this. A neighborhood Cantonese place has gone through many owners and styles (most recently, quite good on a few dishes). But when I went by the other day, it was closed, and the sign had changedâitâs apparently becoming a Vietnamese restaurant. But all the signs are still in Chinese. Iâm wondering what the characters in this sign say.
Its just the Chinese name of the restaurant. Perhaps opened by Vietnamese who are ethnic Chinese.
- Linâs Noodle & Skewers Bar (San Ramon), in the former Yiping space, has closed.
- A few places have reported that Dumpling Kitchen on Taraval has re-opened under new ownership. Thereâs now a window where you see them make dumplings. Notably, unlike previous owners, their sheng Jian bao appear to be the less leavened, pleat side down variety that were only available in Sunnyvaleâs Shanghai Flavor Shop a few years back, but all the rage at the newer Shanghainese places.
- Joanna Della Penna at Berkeleyside reports that Easterly Hunan Cuisine will open in Berkeley in May. She doesnât know yet whether theyâre affiliated with Santa Claraâs Easterly (also a Hunan restaurant).
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There has, in fact, been a liquor license transfer at Dumpling Kitchen to new owners under the same DBA name. To clear up any possible confusion, the ORIGINAL Dumpling KItchen moved and is now Dumpling Specialist.
âPleated side downâ now seems to be the de facto default style of SJB in Shanghai According to Shanghaiâs most famous food critic Shen Hongfei (æČćźé) it is a style imported from Suzhou.
Iâm so glad weâre moving away from the âno one will notice these are just pan-fried (possibly frozen) baoziâ school of thought 
For more info on SJB styles, see also Christopher St. Cavish guide.
Regarding my comment that Linâs Noodle & Skewers Bar (San Ramon), in the former Yiping space, had closed, I just read in the çœè°·çŸéŁććŽć€©ć SFhappyeaters Facebook Group that I-Shanghai Delight is opening their third location in that spot. If true, thatâs huge news for the northern part of the 680 corridor, which is generally not competitive with the rest of the Bay Area.
Ditto folks who say âsheng jian bao are a fried version of xiao long bao.â
Below is a link to my own gallery of the âreal dealâ from the streets of Shanghai (I couldnât get the site to embed the slideshow) For the record, my favorites are from a place called "Xiao Xian, " slightly larger and slightly less wabi sabi than the famous Xiao Yang chainâs, but just as tasty.
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- Easterly has opened [edit: see HO thread] on Center St. in Berkeley with a legit looking Hunan menu (and page of âAsian fusionâ Chinese American stuff too). Menu symbol matches Easterly in Santa Clara (I thought there was supposed to be an Easterly in Fremont last year, but that I donât believe that materialized). Anyone working/studenting at Cal is spoiledâ- within walking distance are Shandong / Chinese Korean / all around star Great China, bubble tea and Chinese desserts galore and an 85 degrees and Shen Kee. Shilhlin Taiwan Street Snacks, wide torn noodles at Imperial Tea House, Chengdu Style, shaokao at a few places, various Hong Kong cafes, etc. Berkeley would be one heck of a food crawl, adding some digestion time hiking across Calâs campus and a movie at the Pacific Film Archive.
