kampret

whatever you do.. DON'T go to Koi Palace. Like others said, the wait can last up to 2 hours, and they don't honor reservations.

2 times I reserved there, both times we were put on the regular line after I got there. Their food is good... but not THAT good.. it's also expensive.

I personally love R & G lounge. They have good crabs there.

Also if you want to try something unique, go to Thanh Long for their roasted king crabs and garlic noodle. I know it's not chinese (it's Vietnamese) but it's worth a try.

drif

After all this, we went to Tommy Toi's for dinner on our first night in SF.

Tommy's looks like an institution in SF. There are various photos on the wall with famous people and the food was relatively good. We had many of their signature dishes, including a bisque with a puff pastry cover, eye fillet and others. Overall, the place was good, service was good, but I wasn't blown away by their food.

Although not Chinese cuisine, I also went to Boulevard (FANTASTIC) and the sister restaurant down the road (can't remember the name), Michael Mina's on California St which was good, but pricey and Tadich Grill (quite nice and recommended by a SFians).

Thanks for everyone's help.^ SF certainly has some great restaurants.

SFflyer123

I agree with this 100%. It is right on the m oney. Koi palace can be okay if you go in the "off" hours for dim sum, like 2-3pm.

SFflyer123

Good to hear that you were able to try out Tommy's. Sounds like the dinner was okay.

Just to put it in perspective. As a native San Franciscan--born and raised here my entire life--I have never set foot into Tommy's. Nor have most of my friends and colleagues.

And I eat out about 1 to 2 times per week.

rjque

I've also never been, and I have been here for nearly 13 years now. But now I want to go check it out!

nikhizzle

my 2 cents -

for dim sum try yank sing (pricey) or canton dim sum and seafood house (slightly cheaper).

For amazing regional food head to z&y in china town.

kluau88

The sister restaurant would be Prospect.

sfoactuary

I would recommend San Tung in the Richmond district, the chicken wings are legendary.

CApreppie

If you want truly authentic go to Stockton Blvd. in Chinatown and go to one of the dim sum vendors there. They'll slap your dim sum on a plate and you go sit down at the one of the tables. You'll get stuffed for less than $10.00 and the dim sum can be fantastic.

8dimsum

I don't think the dim sum at Koi Palace is worth waiting hours for and the pricing is not reasonable. --In SF there are several dim sum restaurants in the Richmond district area (Clement St) that have under $2/plate dimsum. I prefer Mayflower on Geary St over Tonkiang. Friends will go to the HK Flower Lounge restaurant also on Geary.

Tommy Toy's -- we were dinner guests: OK lots of Chinese antique furnishings. Western style presentation of food...not family style. Tried lunch, OK. Friends like wine pairing with food. Nice atmosphere.

8dimsum

addendum: The under $2/plate dimsum specials are for Monday to Friday excluding holidays. My fav spot no longer will take credit card for payment during the day (after 3 PM, OK) very slim profit margin.

Tommy Toy's is participating in the SF Dine About Town line up of restaurants. Lunch menu.

bacxow

Hello all,

So we will have 24 hours in SF, and we are staying at the Hilton Financial District near Chinatown.

Looking for Authentic Chinese, preferably Cantonese and looking to take up some of your suggestions for one dinner and one dim sum:

For dinner: R & G Lounge
Any alternative suggestions in Chinatown?

For dim sum: Golden Mountain

Criteria:
1) Authentic! ^
2) Atmosphere is irrelevant (I prefer hole in the wall kind of places as long as they serve top notch food ).

If it matters, we grew up in Asia and looking to knock ourselves out with SF's best (within Chinatown at least). We just got back from Vancouver B.C., and meals there were excellent. Hoping SF can beat or match!

Thanks in advance.

Eastbay1K

For R&G Lounge, I'd seriously recommend that you peruse the Chowhound boards regardin what to order. If you don't order correctly, you will have wasted your time (as I once did, where I really didn't have much say in what was ordered).

obscure2k

Jai Yun is interesting and quite different from most Chinese restaurants. Several Flyertalks dined together there a couple of years ago. This was in response to the book "The Last Chinese Chef." We had a great time but there were varying opinions about the food. I really suggest going to Chowhound.com (San Francisco Board) and doing a search for Jai Yun Well worth reading some of the comments.

SFflyer123

I would stick with your two places. They are excellent, especially from where you're staying. When you go to R & G, make sure you order the crab. It is their signature dish, and its' quite good. You may want to get two of the crabs (whole dungeoness crabs) if you've a large party.

I would also advise you not go get your hopes up of SF versus Vancouver. Vancouver has chefs that recently migrated over from Hong Kong, and many of these chefs were pretty high-end guys. The SF experience tends to be Hong kong immigrants from much longer ago, who really were not the Hong kong "elite" chefs.

Vancouver, in my opinion and in the opinion of many others, blows SF out of the water when it comes to Hong kong style chinese food. SF does, however, have a pretty good Shanghai style and northern Beijing style, Taiwanese style, and even Chinese Muslim Xian style food, which I don't know if Vancouver has. So it may be more diverse.

I am from San Francisco and I think SF's Chinese food is fantastic, but when I went to Vancouver, I said to myself: "Wow, the Chinese food here just blows SF's out of the water."