Lots of activity over the past few months. Also, moving Taiwanese to a separate roundup is long overdue. Please let me know if you’d like to lead that effort!
Must Be Dumpling (Pacifica) menu looks inspired by Dumpling Home/Dumpling Hours, but since XLB don’t look handmade, it doesn’t appear related.
Northern Chinese BBQ at corner of Folsom & 9th St in SF SoMa. Looked open a few days ago, Google says it’s temporarily closed.
Super Potato (Milpitas) in the former Chef Chengdu location. Northeastern snacks and noodles from a chain based in Liaoning province.
Szechuan Garden (Concord) replaces the well liked Burmese restaurant Aung Maylika
Yum Dragon (FiDi) Sichuan/Chongqing in the International Food Court along Kearny
Local chain/sister restaurant openings
Darda Express (Sunnyvale) though described on their website as “Szechuan” , the menu has no pork and is presumably an extension of the Muslim/Northern Chinese Darda Seafood Restaurant in Milpitas. How are the cuttlefish dumplings at either place?
Home Eat San Jose location opens soon after the recent Fremont opening. The Cupertino & Sunnyvale chain, from their website , “Established in 2015, Home Eat (previous name - Fashion Wok) has evolved from original, Taiwanese style, boutique small hot pots, to a large-scale integrated full service restaurant that combines Sichuan, Hunan, Taiwan, and independently developed fusion dishes.” A Santa Clara location is forthcoming.
Qing Shu Malatang and Nai Brother Fish (Cupertino) Nai Brother Fish specializes in Sichuan style sauerkraut fish. They have US locations in NYC, Long Island, and also Bellevue, WA. This Cupertino location continues the partnership with malatang-oriented Qing Shu, which began in Fremont a while back. Doordash indicates this partnership extends to Qing Shu’s SF Inner Sunset location as well.
Szechuan Restaurant (San Ramon) reopens after a stint as a Japanese restaurant
Paik’s Noodles (Dublin) the Korean Chinese chain’s Dublin location is under new ownership
Closures
China Lounge Restaurant & Bar (Pleasanton) Sichuan/Chongqinq. Allen Shi founded this restaurant alongside Pleasant Hill’s Sichuan Fortune House. He is currently with meal delivery service chefus, and had previously been at Nextdish, a similar venture, .
Kitayama Yoichi (Fremont) Taiwanese/bento is now an Izakaya place
Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot (SF Union Square). Still plenty of other locations-- snacks & tea aside, was Little Sheep the SFBA’s first international Chinese chain/franchise?
Mingle’s Mango (Fremont ) specialty XLB, hand-pulled noodles. Once had a San Jose location.
Shanghai Dumpling Shop (Millbrae) has closed after 24 years. Most commonly known for their XLB, which at one point were arguably best in the SFBA, they had red braised and other Shanghainese dishes that don’t show up at the current wave of dumpling places. Chowhounds said they were the original owners of SF’s Shanghai Dumpling King, and they had owned defunct Xiao Long Bao Kitchen in South San Francisco, the first local place to have an extra large XLB.
Noodleosophy (Cupertino), leaving their San Mateo , and Millbrae in the Social Eatery food court ) locations
New China Cuisine Express (Pleasanton) a sign says, “Shandong steamed rolls, steamed buns, meat buns, vegetable buns, soy milk, various side dishes, braised and stir-fried are freshly made every day. Wholesale and retail of various soy products and various homemade frozen dumplings. Individuals, groups and churches are welcome to order.”
Momo Noodle (SF SoMa) the food truck has landed a permanent spot at the Ikea adjacent Saluhall
Lucky Dumpling (Miplitas) The Chinese name is 泰和山东水饺二部 (Taihe Shandong Dumpling Part II), which I think would be the sequel to Happy Family Gourmet/Shandong Deluxe on Taraval.
Noodleosophy closed their original location in San Mateo . They had a Cupertino location and currently are open in Millbrae in the Social Eatery food court ) choice of protein, dry or soup, on wide hand-ripped noodles or pulled noodles. Liang pi too.
I-Shanghai Delight’s San Ramon location is listed as temporarily closed on Google and permanently closed on Yelp. It would be a shame for the 680 corridor to lose them-- they still have their original, Fremont, location and the old town Sacramento location is open too (it had been closed at some point IIRC).
MLBB Hot Pot (Milpitas)
Reopened
Simmer Huang’s Newark location is apparently re-opened.
Xiang House (Bayview) mixed, in the ghost kitchen on Charter Oak. I’ll report on their jian bing next time I’m in the area.
Reopenings
Brochette Dumpling (Park Merced) is a rebranding of Mom Dumpling, which I understood was started by former Dumpling Home employees
China Lounge (San Ramon) is the new location of the former Pleasanton restaurant, which was also helmed since 2018 by Mr. Jian Li, a master chef specializing in Sichuan cuising
Din Ding Dumpling (Fremont) re-opens at the long-awaited new location
Home Eat (Santa Clara) adds to a San Jose, Fremont, Cupertino, and Sunnyvale locations, from their website , “Established in 2015, Home Eat (previous name - Fashion Wok) has evolved from original, Taiwanese style, boutique small hot pots, to a large-scale integrated full service restaurant that combines Sichuan, Hunan, Taiwan, and independently developed fusion dishes.” A Santa Clara location is forthcoming.
Long Men Bay Hotpot (San Jose) Sichuan hot pot, has a Newark location as well
Dumpling and Dough (San Carlos) menu mentions some Beijing items. A Yelper says the owner owns Redwood City’s Redwood Bistro, which at one point at least had a chef from Leshan, Sichuan
Paik’s Noodles (Fresno) Korean-Chinese. I believe this is the first overseas-based Chinese restaurant to open in Fresno. Relatively close to Spicy J’s and J Pot Mini Hot Pot & Bar.
Dumpling U (Stockton) Yelp page says it’s a Shanghai-based chain that opened a Sacramento location in 2022 (I suspect this refers to Dumpling Yo! on Florin Rd)
88 Bao Bao prolific NorCal chain opens their Merced location. Plenty of interesting locally owned places in Central Valley, of course, but I’d be curious to see an exhaustive list of satellite-SFBA restaurants in the Central Valley (La Taqueria, Vientiane, Huang Lan…)
SFBA Openings
Dragon Gate Bar & Grille (Taiwanese) has re-opened in Jack London Square, woot!
Dumpling Day (Richmond Annex) in the Pacific East Mall
MY Dumpling (San Mateo) The capitalized “MY” is interesting and distinguishes it from the defunct Milpitas sentence-case “My Dumpling” and Martin Yan’s abbreviated “M.Y. China”
Mian Taste, an extension of San Gabriel Valley-based Mian recently opened in Santa Clara. Mian has several locations in SoCal (and also Honolulu and Houston; formerly Vegas) and is the causal sister of Chef Tony Xu‘s reknowned Chengdu Taste. Sweets/drinks aside, am I right that this is the first San Gabriel Valley restaurant to land here since Boiling Point and Liang’s years before that?
QQ Noodle’s Milpitas location closed, leaving only the Cupertino location. QQ Noodle, which once had a Fremont location, served Shaanxi dishes before the Shaanxi craze hit SF in the mid-2010s.
