In August, my niece is celebrating her first birthday in the Bay Area. My Vietnamese inlaws will be up here from SoCal and we’re looking to get some catered food, including a small whole roasted pig. My understanding is that the Vietnamese style I’m looking for is also common in Cantonese cuisine, so that could be fine. Ideally looking for somewhere in Oakland/San Leandro area…but willing to travel further if needed, including into SF. Would rather not travel as far as San Jose, though I imagine it’s available there.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions, esp. tried & true ones.
Hing Lung Company appears to only be in SF Chinatown unless I’m missing something. Looks really good though and I’m wondering if it’d be better than my east bay options. Worth driving across bridge for it?
Thanks again, I’ll report back (bday isn’t until end of August).
If there are other options folks know of, let me know.
I really like Hing Lung (actually the filipino in-laws like it even more and get most of the food). The two brothers who run the place are super nice and staff are friendly. Happy they made it thru the pandemic
Their pork belly roast is worth getting
Headed there right now, frequent pickup on my bicycle. And if u r in that area, picking up foccacia from Liguria bakery is worth it, along with pork chop over fried rice @ VIP cafe
Today I went to Oakland Chinatown to check out a few places and inquire about suckling pigs. All three establishments I went to were able to give me an approximate price. Gum Kuo was a bit more expensive than Sun Hing, and they were both substantially more expensive than Big Dish Restaurant.
I got a 1/4 pound of pork belly from each restaurant tonight and we did a blind(ish) taste test to see which was our favorite.
In the picture, Gum Kuo is on the bottom, Sun Hing is middle and Big Dish is at the top
We liked Sun Hing the best. Flavor of the meat was deeper and a bit more spiced and it wasn’t overly salty. Big Dish and Gum Kuo both were too salty and lacked other flavor.
All places said they need about 5-7 days advance notice about suckling pigs. So I’ll be going back in August and will report back after the whole experience is over!
Wanted to report back, since the bday celebration was last week!
We tasted roast pork from three places in Oakland Chinatown and liked Sun Hing the best, so we chose them for our whole suckling pig.
We were very pleased. We served it as part of a Vietnamese 1st birthday celebration (the sticky rice and colorful rice balls w/ mung bean surrounding the pig in the picture were homemade – happy to share the recipes I used if anyone wants. Both were fairly easy!).
I ordered the pig 8 days in advance, and paid a deposit in cash. The whole pig was $240. We didn’t weigh it, but I specified 10-15 lbs, and that seemed about right.
The pig had a perfect crispy skin, and juicy meat. It was definitely on the saltier side, but I think that’s fairly typical for the dish. Would definitely order from here again in the future for this type of special order.
