Underground Grill Kings in SF, which had re-opened after years shut down, has closed
News
The GoFundMe partnership of Save Our Chinatowns and Good Good Eatz continues, and sponsors now get a digital copy of the “Have You Eaten Yet?” zine. Great cause and the zine is a good read, with lots of interesting stories and food tips too. Support them here.
Omar Mamoon also wrote about a bunch of places to celebrate Lunar New Year. His is one of a few new articles you should check out on Resy’s Chinatown USA series
Melissa Hung has a powerhouse of an article in the Chronicle on SF’s banquet culture. See also April Chan’s 2019 article.
Momo Chang, whose writing goes beyond her food beat writing I often link here, was one of four contributors to a nuanced investigation of crime in Oakland Chinatown.
Sheila Tran on SFWeekly has a thorough story on ghost kitchens, including an interview with the owner of San Jose’s Kusan Uyghur, whose food is available in SF through a ghost kitchen model.
Bon Voyage at 584 Valencia St. in SF, which has been in stasis since last March, is becoming “Bao Dumpling and Chinese Cuisine”. The liquor license still belongs to the Bon Vivants Hospitality group.
To be more specific, Zhong Shen Hakka is closing March 15 (in case you want to get your last orders in!) I’ve never been there, but planning to do a takeout (based on melanie’s stellar review on chowhound)
Tried Din Ding Dumpling House (Union City), pretty good. Prices a little high (or I’m getting old). XLB very juicy, skins very thin, uses cups to prevent tearing. Got some kind of shrimp/pumpkin shu mai with good taste and larger size than I’m used to. Arguably dumplings aren’t so great 20 minutes from home, although these kept decent temperature in the box and didn’t dry out, they were starting to verge on cold. Got a spicy cumin noodle dish that was pretty great - the “filling” (meat) part was lots of tenacious oil that spread well through the noodles. Noodles themselves did feel hand pulled, had nice Q, and no obvious end :-). And they give you spicy appetizer (a mix of potatoes, peanuts, peppers) even for take-out.
Look of the restaurant is more “high end” than the others in that complex, nice wood tables and separators. Would have enjoyed sitting, they had people eating inside (not my cup of tea yet). Pickup area was separated by a very good barrier. Website is also very nice, seemed well organized. Menu is broad enough without attempting to cover all the bases. The popular place in that little complex was H K Top, with a whole bunch of people waiting for their take out orders — that or they are very disorganized and can’t figure out how to fill an order — didn’t hang around to find out.
Overall, though, not worth the drive for me. Chef Zhao in PA near the freeway has XLB that aren’t as soupy, but do have better taste (more punchy ginger and onion), and CZ has the bottom-cooked dumplings (SJB) which I am quite partial to. The Dumbarton adds $6 to the price and that tips it over the edge a bit— but if it was in my part of town, it would be an instant addition to standard rotation.
There’s a new place in Newark called Pan Fried Dumplings, at Newark Ave, that I intend to try in the next few days - this was somewhat of a warmup. It’s much closer to my house (probably 5 or 6 minutes each way) but still has the $6 dumbarton tax, so … we’ll see. I do really love a good pan fried dumpling (anyone who has been to Yangs in Shanghai for the Real Deal has been chasing that dough/crisp/meat/soup nirvana…)
The space which was formerly R’ Noodle at 930 Webster St. in Oakland Chinatown, the liuzhou snail noodle soup house which closed recently, has been transformed into R’ Noodle and Bakery which has cookies, buns and soup dumplings (listed as 4 soup dumplings for $3.25) for takeout. No reviews on yelp yet and I didn’t have time to get the soup dumplings. 4 for $3.25? Is that possible? Are the;y frozen or prepared? There was also some signage referring to Panda Bakery with a QR code.
The recently opened R’ Noodle and Bakery which had taken over the former space of R’ Noodle at 930 Webster St. in Oakland, the liuzhou snail noodle soup specialist, has been temporarily closed according to a notice dated March 26, 2021 posted on its door.
Finally had pan fried dumplings as good as i remember from shanghai, at… pan fried dumplings, newark (i assume the sunnyvale location is just as good). good soup, good filling, not too thick skin, perfect crispy bottom. Easy reach from west bay although 6 buck tax across the dumbarton. sells frozen too. Other dishes average.
R’ Noodle and Bakery at 930 Webster St. in Oakland Chinatown has reopened after a temporary closure by Alameda County. After talking to a woman who works there, it was my impression that some version of the original R’ Noodle or its menu items (snail noodle soup?) will reappear soon.
I ordered 4 Shanghai soup dumplings ($3.25) and 3 Cilantro Dumplings ($3.25) on a Sunday afternoon. It took a few minutes to prepare the order and I took them across the street to eat on a bench next to the fountain in the Pacific Renaissance Plaza.
The order came with a small cup of black vinegar dipping sauce with some slivers of ginger at the bottom. The soup dumplings (on the left in the last photo) were barely warm, the wrapper was doughy, the filling a tasty ground pork, and there was no juice inside. Was it worth $3.25? Yes, for the convenience, price and I probably caught them at a bad time. The 3 cilantro dumplings had shrimp and specks of cilantro inside Worth it? Yeah.
Here are 4 pictures with more to follow. Maybe they will have the snail noodle soup soon to offer. They have a wide selection of cookies, cakes and frozen dumplings and tamales for sale
Lol. I passed by it on De Anza a week or two ago. Thought I hadn’t seen it there before. Took a picture and wanted to look it up after. Promptly forgot about it afterwards.
There are a couple of interesting looking public lectures tomorrow and Friday (April 22nd and 23rd) at the Modern Chinese Foodways conference. If you miss that and have a few hundred hours on your hands, the breadth and quality of the linked pages on their resources page is jaw dropping.
