Z & Y to open satellite bistro in Chung King space? [San Francisco]

Chung King, at 606 Jackson St. (known as Jiang Nan in Chinese but served nothing but Cantonese fare), closed several weeks ago, and recently I noticed some very intensive remodeling underway inside.

Today I discovered that a Fictitious Business Statement for “Z & Y Bistro” was filed for that address a month ago. When open, that will make for three Sichuan Restaurants in that block, with another just around the corner on Kearny.

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Good find! Their Inner Richmond location has Beijing specialties on top of the Sichuan specialties. I hope they expand the Sichuan menu, or at least pare down the more standard non-Sichuan stuff

“Yakitori (!?), noodle, small rice bowl and flaming pots.”

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Wow! Talk about burying the lead :wink:

“Published on Aug 31, 2017At Z & Y Bistro, we focus on complete dining experience. We are a new Chinese restaurant located at 606 Jackson Street in San Francisco Chinatown. We serve noodle, rice, yakitori, beer and wine. Come and experience our brand new restaurant!”

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Inner Richmond location?

This one:

Where does the idea this is a branch of Z&Y come from?

In November 2015, Wang became the chef at Chili House, Li Jun Han’s Sichuan restaurant in the Inner Richmond. Han, owner of Z&Y in Chinatown, knew of Wang from their days in Beijing.

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Thanks for the info - interesting article too!

When is this place expected to open?

It opens this Saturday.

The teased “yakitori” , with a wedge of lemon and coarse chili flakes, is perhaps an attempt to expand skewers (Shaokao) to a mainstream audience, using higher quality ingredients and less of that lighter fluid charcoal and msg flavor. Maybe that’s a good thing, but I hope they don’t class up the grilled bread at skewer places, which is already perfect in its marshmallow looking, Maillard reaction prone, delightfulness.

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It’s actually been soft open for a couple weeks already :slight_smile:.

We got the lanzhou style beef ramen soup, fish with green peppercorns, chicken with explosive chili peppers, chilled tofu, and spicy dumplings. The fish was a highlight for me, and the herbaceous nature of the beef noodle soup was very good too.

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Oh! Thanks for the info!

So they are actually doing Japanese and Chinese stuff, it seems Z&Y’s greatest hits. Do you know if the noodles are hand-pulled (I can’t think of a Japanese restaurant that offers ramen with hand pulled noodles).

It’s a little disappointing what they offer only one Chinese noodle soup, and not a spicy one at that. I’d venture that they didn’t even get the “Lanzhou” lamian right; the broth looks a bit too brown and opaque to me.

A true Lanzhou la mian broth should be " ‘one clear, two white, three red, four green, five yellow’, they stand for clear soup,white radish,red chilli oil,green garlik stem, yellow [alkaline] noodles."

Hear it from Lanzhou’s #1 lamian maven, Sunny:

http://sunnylxq2009.blog.sohu.com/117864579.html

I went here for dinner. It’s a “hipper” restaurant than the original Z&Y, with darker lighting, a bar, fancier furniture, and music. Kind of an odd combo of some Z&Y staples, like the chicken with explosive chili pepper, along with yakitori skewers and ramen. They also serve wine, beer, and I think sake.

Had the spicy dumplings ($8.95) which was pork and shrimp wontons in a chili sauce. Pretty good but not particularly remarkable. Also had the chicken liver yakitori ($6.95 for two fairly generous skewers) which was also pretty good. The livers were cooked nicely and still pink and tender in the middle. Also had the fish with green peppercorns ($18.95), and like @anthony I thought this was the highlight of this meal. Tender fish in a mostly clear flavorful broth. The fish filets were infused with the savoriness from the broth and the Sichuan peppercorns gave it a slight numbing effect. Slightly spicy with lots of umami and ma la flavor. Doesn’t say what type of fish it is on the menu. I hadn’t had this dish before at the original Z&Y so I can’t compare. Would definitely get this again.

Pictures:

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