Regional Chinese roundup 3.0 (SF Bay Area)- November 2019 - April 2021 archive

Shanghai Dumpling King on Monterey Blvd. closing til April 28.
Which kind of surprises me since it feels like the majority of their business is take out\delivery.

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The following are temporarily closed according to Yelp (this is certainly an underestimate, and others are mentioned above too)

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Three SF specific sources for Chinese delivery/takeout:

Nextdish, which I’ll personally vouch for, makes food in its own commercial commissary and also has partner restaurants. It serves a geographic “V” with Millbrae and Alamo at the top, and Los Gatos at the bottom, and doesn’t appear to deliver to SF, Oakland, Berkeley. Their food travels well, has large portions, and I found some dishes to be full-flavored, but more lighter feeling/home-style than I expect from restaurants.

As of today, Yelp reports 39 places temporarily closed:

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Another 15 temporary closures:

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An 8-minute segment from “Check, Please! Bay Area” including Chef Liu of Royal Feast in MIllbrae, though it is now temporarily closed:

  • Chef Christopher Yang’s Hén-zhì has Friday picks ups in Dogpatch and some East Bay offerings too
  • @theluketsai’s frozen dumplings list mentioned an SF-delivery-based location of Liang’s, which is known for their Taiwanese offerings in So-Cal, Cupertino, and formerly Milpitas
  • Brandon Jiu is keeping busy with Mamahuhu ( his take on Chinese American cuisine, SF delivery/pickup), Jui’s Ho Ho (pre-order pickup of pantry items, Jiu’s Xinjiang Lamb Rack, lap cheong, etc. in Chinatown)
  • People on the Peninsula, South Bay, and East Bay south of Hayward have access to meal delivery services Saltalk and Next Dish, which also serves the Tri-Valley Area.
  • The Spicier the Better, a new Sichuan restaurant operating at 3944 Geary, is available on the Chinese delivery Ricepo app for delivery and pickup.
  • The Chowbus app has a few restaurants I don’t believe are on the major apps.
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Last week got fantastic takeout from Royal Feast in Millbrae.

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We’ve ordered Hén-zhì, and can recommend. Chef Chris delivered our meal and emailed over reheating/prep. instructions afterwards. Easy prep., and we had plenty of food for days.

This week, we tried out Tacos Sincero (pick-up). The pickup location is pretty close to Soba Ichi, where we also did a pickup. Of the dishes we ordered, other than the 5 Spice Pomegranate Grilled Chicken Torta (which he makes as close to your pickup time as possible), most of the dishes we ordered could be classified as Chinese (i.e., mushroom mapo tofu, cold noodles with peanut sauce, spicy marinated eggplant, chipotle stir fried long beans, etc.)

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What kind of takeout do they offer, the regular menu?

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  • Momo Chang wrote in the SF Chronicle about the effects of the Covid-19 epidemic on the local malatang boom.

  • Z One Kitchen (San Bruno) is one of those rare post-Covid openings. If I communicated correctly with a woman inside, the chef is from Shaanxi (the restaurant name suggests Qishan food) and it’s their first restaurant. Dish names aren’t translated to English on the website, but ordering for pickup is otherwise in English. Cash only at the moment.

  • Taiwan chain Hanlin Tea Room, which closed their SF location last year, opened a few months back in the former Qin-Tang Charm spot in Cupertino.

  • Spicy Heaven (San Mateo) and Boiling Point (Cupertino) have closed as per yelp

  • Shanghai Flavor Shop (Cupertino) has closed as per yelp. For years, they were the only game in town for pleat-side down soup-filled sheng jian bao.

  • Shao Shan farm in Bolinas, which distributes their CSA to Mister Jiu’s, the inner sunset, and point Reyes station, has gotten some press recently, on the “What is Chop Suey Anyway” episode of Padma Lakshmi‘s “Taste America” series and Cathy Erway’s article on Chinese American farmers [ed. Erway’s article is from 2019]. Other locals of note in those great pieces too (see also last year’s profile by Leena Trivedi-Grenier).

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A few more I forgot to post:

Any news on Dumpling Home at 298 Gough St.? I noticed them in ABC licenses earlier the year, but only recently was a (mostly empty) yelp page created.

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Based on their yelp pages, the following 25 restaurants do not appear to be open at the moment (ed. I called all, and either they picked up and said they’ll open soon, or they didn’t pick up). Please let us know if/when these places open:

Disconnected phones:

  • Chang Luong (Berkeley) Shandong 山东 / 山東 - disconnected phone
  • Mk Noodle (Dublin) Shanxi 山西 disconnected phone
  • Palace Of Spices (San Francisco) Indian / Desi Chinese — Disconnected phone and website down

Melanie Wong reported on Chowhound that Pan Kee Food, the frozen dumpling/bun specialist in Foster City, has closed. Their full menu parent business, Famous Dumpling House in San Jose, is still open.

Perhaps this explains their absence on @theluketsai’s frozen dumpling list.

I had no idea there’s a Chiu Chow restaurant in Milpitas! I will try to call them up and see if they do takeout. Happy to give it a try.

EDIT: how’s this place different from Golden Island? Golden Island I have been a number of times. Are they still run by the same people?

@sck, yes, please let us know if they are doing takeout! The Chinese name 金岛潮州菜, suggests a connection to the former Golden Island, but I don’t know whether the chef, owner, etc. overlap.

The following are currently closed but scheduled to open on a date specified on their yelp pages. In line with points Momo Chang made in her malatang article, hot pot restaurants have different challenges than full service restaurants and lots have been closed. Between these soon to open and the list above of unknown status, about half of unopen restaurants on the Regional list are hotpot! Consumer demand to eat that style of cuisine at home is the obvious issue. Another issue may be supply issues, which Momo points have been a challenge for a malatang restaurant, and may also extend to hot pot restaurants, especially with parent companies in China.

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Just want to toss it in here that Hing Lung opened a branch in South San Francisco named Hing Lung Cafe. Not sure if I should post it somewhere else since I usually put a new topic on it. In any case, it was take out only and the food was comparable to the San Bruno location. I will say though, take out just… isn’t the same as eating there alas.

I also wonder if I can ever criticize a Chinese restaurant or would you be extradited to a dark whole if you visit China…

Anywho, glad to see some new openings as the closing of other restaurants are getting more depressing.

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Hi I was looking through this list and out of all the dumpling places that sell frozen ones does anyone know who sells in bulk or wholesale to restaurants? TIA!

yes, I know that this video originates from Southern California but it’s a good survey of a regional cuisine -

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Thanks! When I get a chance, I’ll pop a link of the video into the original post (plus links to Clarissa Wei’s et al.’s work on Goldthread).

While I’m writing, @theluketsai at Eater reports that China Live is getting into the Ghost Kitchen game. I was at first surprised they’d attempt Sheng Jian Bao without specialized equipment, but I suspect the specialized equipment has more to do with producing large quantifies than quality (e.g., Dunlop has a cast iron skillet version for home cooks).

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