NICE PLACES IN CHINATOWN REVISITED

Four years ago I detailed several places in Chinatown where snacks, pastries, and dim sum items could be found, along with milk tea and nice eaties. Regular readers know that I have been a bachelor now for several years and usually dine out, because I no longer have anyone to eat with or for whom to cook, and that supper surrounded by nobody at all is rather uninspiring.
Unless one has had a few drinks and prepares oneself a late night snack with lots of chilies. Which can be fun, as well as educational.
It's not really social, though.

A while back someone asked if everything on the list was the same. No, it isn't. A number of places have changed hands or closed, like with several other businesses in the neighborhood, some of which had been there for generations. Chinatown is not the same.


The ABC大餐廳 closed nearly a year ago. Blossom Bakery ("Fortune Bakery", 幸福餅家) has changed ownership and slipped downhill, the milk tea is poor. Dick Lee (得利點心) has a for rent sign on the shutters.

[Respectively: 650 Jackson Street, 133 Waverly Place, and 716 Jackson Street.]

iCafe San Francisco appears to have been sold and is now called Tea Bear Cafe (熊茶館). I haven't tried it yet.

[57 Walter U. Lum Place.]

Maggie's Cafe is now affiliated with the restaurant next door, which may have changed hands.

[848 Grant Avenue.]

The New Anna Bakery (安娜閣) has become Sam Wo's new location after a hiatus of a few years since the closing of the old place on Washington.

[715 Clay Street]

New Fortune on Stockton (富祥點心) got sold very recently and serves plate lunches and a selection of noodles, I haven't been there yet.
Their gai bau and pork siu mai were delicious.

[815 Stockton Street.]

I haven't been to Sweet Mart (好好味) since they palmed off a thoroughly miserable beverage as HK milk tea (warm milk and a green tea bag!), and that location may be rented to a new owner soon.

[727 Washington Street.]

Wa Li Bakery and Cafe (華麗餠家) is now Little Swan (小天鵝), and entirely new. Great cakes and pastries in the window.

[1249 Stockton Street.]


. . . . .


I still go the Washington Bakery (華盛頓茶餐廳) for early dinner, and also the AA on Stockton (永興餅家茶餐廳) for truly delicious egg tarts and charsiu turnovers, Yummy Fastfood (金華點心快餐) for the soup and three dishes (三餸一湯), and the New Hollywood (荷里活茶餐廳) for lo po beng (老婆餅) or porkchops.

華盛頓茶餐廳
WASHINGTON BAKERY AND RESTAURANT
733 Washington Street
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-397-3232
舊金山，華盛頓街733號。

永興餅家茶餐廳
AA BAKERY & CAFE
1068 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-981-0123
舊金山，市德頓街1068號。

金華點心快餐
YUMMY DIM SUM & FAST FOOD
930 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-308-3819, 415-828-0856, 415-986-2783
舊金山，市德頓街930號。

荷里活茶餐廳
NEW HOLLYWOOD BAKERY & RESTAURANT
652 Pacific Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94133.
415-397-9919
舊金山，柏思域街652號。


Yummy Bakery (人仁西餅麵包) on Jackson is still thriving, good for a quick teatime snack.

人仁西餅麵包
YUMMY BAKERY
607 Jackson Street
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-989-8388
舊金山，昃臣街607號。



The Utopia Cafe (蔘滿意粥) at 139 Waverly Place, which wasn't on that list, had excellent jook and the best yautiu. They also specialized in claypot dishes, which were very good indeed. But they are now called something else in Chinese (牛麵王), appear to be new people entirely, and the present focus is on beef noodle soup.

Across the street The Boiling Shrimp is a very nice place.
Chachanteng style, but with a smaller menu.
I thoroughly enjoy going there.

浩味茶餐廳
THE BOILING SHRIMP
150 Waverly Place
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-658-7168
舊金山，天后廟街150號。



There are four places I have not been to in a few years. Not because they've changed or gone downhill, but purely because I myself am a bit peculiar about certain things. At one of them the waitress, a very nice woman, seemed to be interested in me, and at another restaurant wanted to set me up with her friend. Now, while I speak Cantonese sort of well, I do not think in that language, and I really doubt that I would be ideal for someone who did. Especially if they could not do so in English. There would be too many expectational differences, and as a presentable white dude I am deceptive; what you think you see is not entirely what you get.
That right there is a flaw in the ointment.

At a third restaurant, the attractive young lady who worked there all the way through school has left. First they had an uncle replace her, then some country cousin. It just wasn't the same.

At the fourth place I just stopped going for a while, and that became a habit. But their food never ceased being wonderful, and they will be a great place to start going back to eventually. Perhaps with someone.

Just like the third one I mentioned.

And maybe the first two.




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