San Francisco is house to one of many greatest Chinese language populations within the nation, so naturally, the Chinese language restaurant scene is wide-ranging. Whereas many spots are concentrated in Chinatown, you possibly can feast on dim sum, sweat over a fiery Sichuan clay pot, and put down steamers of soup dumplings all throughout town. On this information, you will discover the very best Chinese language eating places on the town. There are Cantonese establishments, fancy tasting menus, halal Chinese language spots, and a lot extra.

In the event you’re on the lookout for the best dumplings or dim sum, we’ve got guides for these, too.

THE SPOTS

Dumpling House (and its sister restaurant Dumpling Story) takes gold—it’s our highest-rated dumpling restaurant. At this walk-in-only Hayes Valley spot, you will witness hand-folded wrapper and filling mastery. The xiao lengthy bao skins are translucent sufficient to see the pork-y soup, and green-tinted vegetable dumplings are pleated to seem like sleeping hedgehogs. The non-dumpling dishes are additionally champions, just like the sticky-sweet rooster wings and springy dan dan noodles. Order the entire menu, and put together to hitch the sidewalk filled with shengjiabao lovers whilst you look ahead to a desk.

You’re coming to Yuanbao Jiaozi to interrupt your private report for the variety of dumplings with pudgy creases eaten in a single sitting. They make up many of the menu at this informal Sundown restaurant, and are folded up and dropped in effervescent vats of water for you after you order. The fabulous dumplings are available in units of fourteen, with fillings like pork and napa cabbage, rooster and corn, or mushroom and fish. You’re going to need extra later, so cease by the fridge within the nook to seize pre-made dumplings for house.  

You’re at Hon’s Wun-Tun Home in Chinatown for one cause and one cause solely—scrumptious wonton soup. They’ve been a fixture in Chinatown for greater than 4 a long time, and the house has barely modified over time. The inside is straightforward and tiny (there’s just some tables laid out on utilitarian brick-colored tile) and repair is a bit on the curt aspect, however we by no means thoughts since you’ll be out and in having consumed life-giving soup in 20 minutes flat. The wontons are generously crammed with pork and shrimp, and the supremely slurpable broth is filled with stringy noodles. There’s a spread of meat choices in your soup, however we just like the semi-sweet BBQ pork and the fall-apart beef brisket the very best.

R&G Lounge has seen extra birthdays, marriage ceremony banquets, and commencement celebrations than all of the for-hire clowns in California mixed. The multi-level seafood establishment, established 1985, remains to be the place to mark a grand event—that’s as a result of the Cantonese seafood, noodle, and rice dishes are as unbelievable (and massive portioned) as ever. Pack a dozen or extra of your favourite folks round a spherical desk and fill each inch of it with salt and pepper crab, candy glazed sea bass, and salted fish fried rice (plus rounds of just-sweet-enough lychee martinis). 

This small, always-packed Chinatown restaurant gives regional Chinese language noodles galore. It’s additionally the place we prefer to park ourselves on informal weeknights to get a steam facial over a bowl of dan dan noodles. The broth is nutty and wealthy, there’s an overabundance of wheat noodles, and all of it leaves a tingly, numbing sensation in your mouth that by some means doesn’t overpower. On days if you actually wish to keep underneath the covers, order a wonton-packed soup with rooster broth, spicy and numbing Chongqing noodles, or spicy beef soup all the best way. 

Eating places within the SF Dim Sum Universe vary in value factors. They embrace every part from fancy Harborview to bakeries like Good Mong Kok the place full meals hover round $7. Dragon Beaux is the pleased center we all the time prioritize. Experiencing the great ambiance received’t put you in bank card debt, and the house offers the royal therapy: purple cubicles are flanked by gold pillars, intricate carved panels separate two eating rooms, and colourful beet and kale xiao lengthy bao and charcoal sponge cake rolls go the additional mile within the presentation division. This place works equally nicely for dinner with the mother and father and group bonding with coworkers. 

Yank Sing is town’s most well-known dim sum spot—it’s been round since 1958 and is understood to attract enormous crowds, particularly on the bigger Spear Avenue location contained in the Rincon Heart. And whereas they’re arguably not the very best dim sum spot within the metropolis, Yank Sing remains to be a basic we love, and coming right here at the very least as soon as is a quintessential eating expertise. As soon as inside, metallic push carts with bamboo steamers will zoom previous you, and also you’ll have your choose of every part from phenomenal kurobuta pork and Napa cabbage dumplings and steamed BBQ pork buns to scallop siu mai. Get one in all every part and don’t maintain again.

Mouth-numbing wizardry through fiery flavors goes down at Z&Y in Chinatown. These Sichuan dishes demand your consideration. Specialties embrace fish filet soaked in scorching chili oil, mapo tofu with lip-tingling spice, and clay pots crammed with chilis and an aquarium’s price of shellfish. We by no means depart with out that mapo tofu and a bowl of scorching and bitter soup. The comfortable house is málà heaven for anybody who loves a superb mouth burn. And because the menu is a brief novel (it might take weekly visits for a yr to strive each dish), you’ll be again.

A quintessential San Francisco expertise: consuming the rooster wings from San Tung within the Sundown. They’re transformative—battered, deep-fried, and coated in a spicy-sweet glaze that’s thicker than maple syrup. Get able to lick the bones clear and wipe craggly fried bits off your lips. Everybody ought to come up towards this life-altering dish at the very least as soon as, in addition to their black bean sauce-covered housemade noodles and fried scallops. There’s all the time a line at this Northern Chinese language spot, so scribble your title on the whiteboard and wait your flip exterior. 

That is no-nonsense dim sum. The menu at Hong Kong Lounge within the Richmond covers every part you can presumably need if you get up with an intense yearning for issues from a steamer. Plus, you may get out and in for lower than $20 per particular person when you’re with a bunch. The pink-walled Cantonese spot is all the time filled with teams spinning lazy susans filled with siu mai, candy baked pork buns, and fried sticky rice. If there’s a crowd huddled within the entryway (there in all probability might be on weekends), issues will transfer effectively and that hankering for bao might be happy promptly. 

The Cantonese seafood basic has been round because the ’70s, and has drawn in everybody from Jackie Chan and Jacques Pépin to Man Fieri and Joey Chestnut (their photographs are taped up on the partitions). It’s additionally the neighborhood go-to for an off-the-cuff night time crammed with glorious steamed fish, salt and pepper prawns, and sautéed crab. The showstopper is the clams with a candy, gravy-like pepper and black bean sauce that balances out the brininess of the clams. Since Yuet Lee is rarely too packed—stroll in with buddies and spend a couple of hours dissecting the drama of the day over tea, chow enjoyable, and fish cake-topped tofu. 

Dinner at Empress By Boon looks like a marriage reception and an evening at a high-stakes membership in a single. The Chinatown restaurant is house to sweeping views of Coit Tower, a stunning wood-carved pergola, and a marble bar the place you’ll see your reflection. On prime of this, the seasonally altering Cantonese meals on the $108 prix fixe menu is luxurious on a platter (or extra exactly, on a sequence of small plates). Feast on issues like jasmine-infused quick rib bao, sea prawn rolls, and a roasted duck that’s fatty bliss. Empress By Boon has a gown code, so lose the shorts and t-shirts earlier than heading up the elevator.

San Francisco’s Home of Pancakes (no, not the worldwide one) is a Chinese language restaurant in Parkside the place every part on the menu is $10.95 or much less—so a meal here’s a financially accountable selection. Come for the eponymous pancakes alone. Out of the 11 on the menu, the meat roll pancake is the winner. It’s a squishy but crispy scallion pancake crammed with hoisin and thick beef slices. Until you’re planning an all-pancake weight-reduction plan for dinner (not a nasty thought), add their stable dumplings, hand-pulled noodles, and grilled skewers to the order.

Discovering halal Chinese language meals is a problem in SF, except you go to Outdated Mandarin Islamic. On the Outer Sundown spot, the whole menu of Northern Chinese language dishes is halal, and lamb is the show-stopping meat. It’s served folded into dumplings, in rib kind, or stir-fried with water chestnuts, onion, and what tastes like a bucketload of cumin that fills the bare-bones house with a sweet-earthy perfume. The group dinner transfer on gray nights is an order of noodles topped with smoky fried bean paste, hearty soups, and Beijing-style scorching pot.

This can be a uncommon San Francisco restaurant specializing in Hakka meals, and the family-style parts the Outer Richmond spot is rolling out are the equal of a cosy sweater. There are basil-heavy clams in a barely thickened sauce, and easy however downright satisfying wonton soup in clear broth. Nothing says “I don’t wish to share this enormous pile of unbelievable meat” just like the sliced pork stomach slabs served over fermented greens. We additionally love Hakka for its giant banquet tables and fast service, making it the reply to relax weeknight meals with a bunch. 

At this tiny, takeout-only bakery in Chinatown, you’ll should sacrifice treasured minutes of your life—the road is fixed. However it is best to, as a result of Good Mong Kok is dim sum glory. For starters, it prices lower than $10 to fill a bag or field with sufficient meals to feed the Brady Bunch. Every little thing is nicely ready, and generously portioned, too—you’ll discover town’s greatest baked char siu bao right here, ready to be snatched up. Extra non-negotiables are the pineapple buns and meaty siu mai which can be past textbook perfection. Possibly simply order one in all every part.

VIP Espresso & Cake Store is a Chinatown cha chaan teng (Hong Kong-style cafe) with Jurassic-sized parts. You may devour meals that would feed a linebacker 3 times over, and nurse a cup of unbelievable scorching milk tea alongside each day regulars who’re right here to catch up over lunch. Are these dishes the very best belongings you’ll eat all yr? No, but it surely doesn’t matter because the cafeteria-like place is a citadel of consolation. Take note of the case filled with egg tarts and pineapple buns with crumbly toppings. 

Henry’s Hunan has been round in some kind or one other since 1974, and we’ll gladly proceed to devour their Hunan specialties nicely into the subsequent few a long time. The Noe Valley restaurant nails the artwork of the candy and spicy gradual burn. Diners who greet employees by title sit up on the bar and dig into platters of bouncy shrimp, scallops, and rooster coated in chili flakes, whereas households and buddies at larger tables go round umami-soaked stir-fries in scorching bean sauce. Subsequent time you’re in want of a filling dinner that requires little effort aside from placing on footwear, that is the place to go. 

Mister Jiu’s wants no introduction. Right here’s one anyway: the upscale restaurant opened in 2016, wowing diners with conventional Chinese language dishes remixed with Californian takes, like dutch crunch pork buns and uni cheong enjoyable. They’ve since ditched the a la carte format in favor of a $125, five-course tasting menu that is solely out there within the eating room with the golden lotus chandeliers. We favor to take a seat on the bar, the place they’re nonetheless serving our favourite dishes from the unique a la carte menu (it is a greater worth), just like the seasonal cheong enjoyable, puffy sourdough scallion pancakes, and an entire Peking duck with peanut butter hoisin. 

You go to this Korean Chinese language spot within the Outer Mission for the spicy uncooked crab: six small crab halves sitting beneath a huge mound of greens coated in chili sauce. Placed on a plastic glove, squeeze out the translucent, gelatinous-looking meat onto the snacking seaweed and rice that goes with it—and put together for the purple sauce to go flying. However don’t draw back from their different specialties. There’s an amazing Hong Kong-style chow mein, a unbelievable seafood jjamppong, an onion-heavy jajangmyeon, and a few of the plumpest double-fried rooster wings round. Even with a wait, this place is precisely what a notch-above-casual weeknight dinner needs to be. 

Regardless of its prime location on one in all Chinatown’s major drags, it’s straightforward to cruise previous the doorway to this Cantonese place. However stroll up the steps and into their homey, merely adorned house (assume white partitions with purple lanterns and watercolor work) and put together for a large meal of Hong Kong-style clay pots. The menu is lengthy and has some heavy hitters all through (just like the ginger crab), however sticking to the clay pot dishes is your finest guess. Get the eggplant with garlic and ginger, or the dried bean curd with duck for a saucy delight. We advocate you pull up with the whole group chat and order prefer it’s your final meal—it’s straightforward when many of the clay pots run underneath $15.