Taishan Cafe

Walked by here yesterday and noticed that the awning was ripped out and it looked like people were moving the furniture out. They are closed. Don’t know if this location will have another restaurant or not.

its a good place for claypots. but it always looks so empty i’m not sure whether its still open or closed down.
i’m not entirely sure if this is authentic taishan cuisine or not, cause my dad says he’s never heard of the names for some of the dishes on the menu, and he’s taishanese.

Man, talk about pressure. I had not reviewed the Cabrillo Street location of Taishan Café, but when I sat down and looked at the in-​restaurant menu there was my gleaming testimony (
) printed right there on the menu. Sure, many months ago Lolia S. had informed me that an excerpt from my Unilocal review of Taishan’s Clement Street location had appeared on a take-​out menu she had received in her mailbox, but I had no idea it was also reprinted on the laminated menus used inside the restaurant.
My family dined here for the first time on New Year’s night 2010 at a family banquet. We had two big banquet tables inside the restaurant. My siblings did all of the ordering as I just sat back and enjoyed the family’s company. We had an immaculate two hour feast that most of the family members (even the kids) raved about afterward. The restaurant’s owner and the waitress were very patient in allowing our big group to arrive and settle in slowly.
Our meal began with a complimentary chilled Chicken Feet Over Pickled Vegetables (
). I loved the salty flavor of the crunchy chicken feet which had good contrast to the tartness of the pickled daikon and carrots.
We were served a complimentary house soup as well. The bowl I got (
) didn’t have all of the ingredients which included white beans, lotus root, chicken parts and pork. The soup was delicious and perfectly seasoned.
Five Spice Duck (
) was our first main dish. If you’ve read any of my past reviews of Chinese restaurants you probably can guess that I loved the duck. Although the flavor of the five spice powder was not very evident the tenderness of the meat, the smooth texture of the duck skin and the slight sweetness in the gravy made this a hit for me.
The Whole Steamed Chicken (
) was excellent and just cooked enough so no redness appeared in the drumstick’s bone marrow. I particularly liked the hint of scallions and green onion on the surface of the chicken skin. The meat was soft and silky with excellent flavor.
The Home Made Lamb Stew Clay Pot was such a hit I didn’t get a chance to capture a photo of it. The chunks of lamb meat were fall-​off-​the-​bone tender. The lamb is stewed with dried bean curd sheets and citrus peel and served over Napa cabbage inside the clay pot. I loved the flavor of this dish and probably ate this selection the most.
The Pork Spareribs with Black Bean Sauce steamed in lotus leaf (
) could have been a bit more tender in my opinion, but the family loved it and ate most of it. Its flavor was almost as good as something I’d have at home.
The stir fried Choy Sum in Garlic (
) was nice and tender with lots of garlic cloves visible. I don’t eat whole cloves of garlic, but I love its flavor.
We had the Pipa Tofu with Abalone Sauce (
) which was plated around a crown of steamed broccoli. The tofu was crispy on the outside and hot and silky on the inside.
Sauteed Green Beans with White Onion and Garlic was very good too. I liked the simple crunchiness of the fresh green beans.
The Salted Fish with Pork Patty Clay Pot Rice (
) was a huge hit. Eat this one carefully because the small bones from the salted fish can be fairly difficult to detect, and trust me, you wouldn’t want to choke on one. The pork patty had coarsely-​chopped pork that had very nice flavor, but the hit of the clay pot rice as it often is is the crispy sheets of crackling rice on the sides of the clay pot. So good!
Our meal ended with complimentary servings of warm tapioca in a light coconut-​based «pudding» (
). I’m not a big fan of coconuts so the three spoonfuls that I did consume can be considered a stamp of my approval. The tapioca «pudding» was not very sweet. I actually liked that.
Contrary to rumors the restaurant has not changed ownership, but this location may be closing in the near future so that the restaurant’s owners can concentrate on the original restaurant on Clement Street. Regardless of the location I will return to Taishan Café for its delicious homestyle cooking.

For the past few years, Christmas Day usually a pretty easy day for us. After the kids wake us to open presents, we’ll head out to see a movie around mid-​day, then come back and have dinner at home.
My mother realized that my brother and I had no plans for dinner with our in-​laws, and asked if we wanted to get together for dinner. Although most, if not all, Chinese businesses are open on Christmas Day, restaurants are pretty busy, and you’ll need to make some sort of reservations. My brother called this place to see if a table was available for 10, and sure enough they accommodated us.
I haven’t been here since it first opened many years ago, but I do remember coming out full and happy. Although I’ve been eating very well that week and pretty full, I was looking forward to dinner.
We started out with the complementary pickled chicken feet with picked vegetables. As we were gnawing away at the feet, the our soup arrived. We ordered their West Lake soup. Very refreshing and full of tofu, which my youngest liked.
I can’t remember the order of how the rest of the food came out, but here’s the other dishes we ordered:
–Fried String beans with garlic: fresh and crispy on the inside, with a nice garlic taste.
–Claypot tofu with salted fish and tofu: The ultimate in comfort food, especially with white rice. My youngest’s eyes lit up when this dish arrived.
–Steamed Tofu squares with pork and oyster sauce: Special request form my youngest. Another perfect dish that goes with rice.
–Claypot steamed/​roasted white rice: A large claypot of rice cooked with 5 spice and topped with green onions. Went perfect with our dishes. I especially liked scraping the browned rice crust along the edges of the pot.
–Taishan Duck: Very flavorful with the hoisin-​based marinade. Meaty, but there were some nice pieces of crispy skin.
–Ong Choy: wok cooked greens with tofu paste. Fresh and crunchy, with the nice pungent tofu after taste.
–Garlic chicken: Fried bite sized pieces of chicken with bone, with minced garlic mixed in.
My mother order a double order of everything. Needless to say, were were pretty full, and there were leftovers to take home. Nothing like a good dinner to bring everyone together and spend the holiday together.
NOTE: I heard that this Christmas Day dinner was to be the last dinner to be served by the present owners. New owners will take it over. Same menu? Same quality? Stay tuned!
UPDATE: Still same owners, but may close this location (update by Wilhelm Y).

Been there about 3 times. The last time we had 10+ people and ate:
claypot rice: lop mei, salted cihcken, sparerib with lop mei
jeet gwa with vermicelli, fried noodles
free: chicken feet, soup
All so yummy! And doesn’t get overly packed there so there are always seats. And further out in the Richmond so easier to find parking.

Ok so i try to be adventurous, I had read about this place in the paper and wanted to give it a try. We were going to do Shanghai Dumpling which is always a winner, but I insisted we try something different. So Taishan it was. The inside décor is awesome and gives you a real homey SF chinese restaurant feel. The waitress was soo nice, super nice, the menu was interesting and unique. I let my mandarin speaking boyfriend order for us and hoped for the best. The free soup was good, big chunks of tofu, veggies, and chicken on the bone. Then it went down hill… The Lotus leaf was filled with what i believe is eel? which was so hard to freaking eat because of all the little bones and vertebrae. I mean I usually like eel, but this was too hard to eat and just kinda gross. Next was the clay pot rice dish with frog legs. I remember eating frog legs while on vacation in the Midwest, the legs were fried and really did taste like chicken. Not these frog legs, maybe i am a big baby but they were really slimy and tasted in between fish and chicken and made me feel so dirty inside. I got all hot and my heart starting beating really fast, yes I was being a big baby, but it was gross. I guess I am not as adventurous as I thought. sigh… We barley ate any of it, instead I had cereal and my boyfriend had a sandwich.

Came here for the first time with my coworkers. There were seven of us and we ended up ordering five rice clay pots and a tofu dish, which was way too much food. We actually asked the waitress how many clay pots we’d need and she told us it would depend on how much we can eat but that each pot would yield about two bowls of rice. So imagine when the food came and each pot was enough for four servings! The rice was good and had nice crispy, burnt bottoms. Warning: not recommended for those with weak teeth/​jaws because your mouth will get tired quickly!
Anyway, we got one rice clay pot with frog legs, one with baby shrimp and pork, one with salted fish and pork, one with mixed cured meats, and one with the yellow eel. The ratio of toppings to rice wasn’t really balanced as there was a lot more rice than meat. Everything kind of tasted the same so it’s definitely better to order one or two rice clay pots and some entrees to go with it.
The Pei Pa Tofu dish we got was really yummy so I would definitely love to come back and try more of the Toishanese dishes. Just gotta remember to order less rice pots next time, lol.

Not a bad place to go to if you are craving for a warm, not so bland, semi-​oily bowl of tasty rice. I usually (okay, ALWAYS) order the pork stomach., plate of vegetables and of course, a claypot of rice. (2 ppl around 40.00 more or less)
Instead of their complimentary soup, I decided to order their other popular black pepper with pig stomach soup. It was a cold and rainy day so I was hoping it will warm me up. Yup, it did they job and more… within 2 mins after drinking the yummy soup, I had to run outside to cool off.
HINT HINT: There’s 2 locations. Clement and Cabrillo. (I found out that the Cabrillo one has complimentary desserts (usually Taro Sago… Yum yum) The one on Clement doesn’t. So drive the extra blocks to Cabrillo. You will thank me later (unless they run out).

I have high standards for Chinese food so I believe there are no really great authentic Chinese restaurants in SF. It’s probably because the non-​English speaking Chinese immigrants who come here are not cooks back in China, HK, or Taiwan, but opt to open a Chinese restaurant because it is one the more easily accessible means of making money. As a result, you get Americanized sugar glazed Chinese food or some sub par byproduct.
With that said, Taishan’s claypot is actually not so bad. The food is good for SF standards.
THE PROBLEM: staff will try to add an extra $ 2 – 4 dollars to your final bill and then deny the fact. Cumulatively, they can make a few hundred extra bucks at the end of the week.
TIP: Check your bill carefully before you pay and contest every billing discrepancy. They will put up a fight and blatantly lie by pretending you ordered a more expensive dish or falsely state that the price is actually more expensive. Concomitantly, they will pretend to speak «bad English» and «bad Mandarin» in hopes that you’ll get frustrated with the increasingly horrible communication barrier and let the billing error go. Luckily I am fluent in both and I don’t like getting lied to.
I told them their practice would be bad for business and violates California truth in advertising laws.

So I’m back in San Francisco for Christmas week and my buddy Wilhelm Y (SF Unilocaler) takes me to this restaurant because he knows I miss good Chinese food. I don’t think I would ever find myself at a restaurant like this on my own because I think you’d have to know what traditional Chinese foods are in order to know what to get so while he spoke to the waitress in Cantonese I looked around and noticed I was one of the few Caucasian chickies inside this place.
We had a couple of clay pot rice dishes, and they were truly delicious like nothing I had ever had before. One had Chinese sausages, chicken and lean pork and the other had a chopped up pork mixture and salty preserved fish. The nice flavors of the ingredients all steamed together inside the pots helped to flavor the rice. It was a new taste sensation for me, and I think I really like this place.
I ordered an orange juice and it was real orange juice! I definitely don’t think I can find food like this in Temecula. I wanted tofu, but he told me next time so I think there’s a good chance we’ll be back!

Oh my, I was confused by two!
There’s another Taishan Café in the inner Richmond — I went there since I could not remember how to get heree! Either way, having had tried both places, I much prefer this Taishan café. Its been a long while since, but I still have fond memories of the fried tofu and claypot… mmm…
This place is cheap and def worth coming if you’re craving clay pots. Décor is nothing to brag about — and yikes having carpet wasn’t a good choice for this place. Either way — you will def get the bang for the buck. Can’t go wrong with the food…

Wow, I feel so glad knowing I finally went to Taishan Café after eyeing the location for the past couple of months… it’s stuck in a rather weird spot of Outer Richmond, but I like how the place is a little isolated, away from the hustle-​bustle of Clement or Chinatown.
I was hesitant in going here because I was afraid that my hopes would be crushed; the signs outside of the restaurant advertise that they have «Taishanese home cooking» and whenever I passed by the restaurant, I would feel homesick. I really miss my parents’ cooking.
So last night, I finally went to Taishan Café. I think the waiter knew that I was also Taishanese but I was too shy to speak in Taishanese to him. Still, I was very happy to see how full the menu was with authentic, Taishanese dishes. So many choices! I wish I could have read some of the Chinese characters, because reading the descriptions in English make the entrees sound less tasty than they really are (damn getting lost in translation).
My friend Mellie P. and I decided to try out the «Fuzzy Melon with Fan See and Dried Shrimp» and «Salt-​and-​pepper Frog Legs». Yes, frog legs (I LOVE FROG LEGS!). Dinner came with the soup of the day (or, as the waiter said «Day of the Soup»…), which was very comforting to have… reminded me of my father’s cooking. The meal also came with a small «appetizer» of cold chicken feet (Mm!).
When the entrees finally arrived… ah! I felt so happy and felt like I was definitely going back to my «roots». Very savory and tasty frog legs; don’t think I’ve seen any other Chinese restaurants in SF that serve frog legs (at least, other places don’t have the listing in their menus because they fear of alienating/​grossing out tourists… ugh). The fuzzy melon was light yet savory. The whole time in the background, the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics was playing (Go! China Pride! Haha…).
Our waiter was very nice, although a few times we did have to flag him down to get his attention (he was the only waiter). The clientele was mostly locals… a lot of older Taishanese and Cantonese people. I felt like I was at home, but I also felt like I was a foreigner, if that makes any sense.
The meal ended with a yummy, sweet taro porridge with small clear tapioca. In the end, the bill was pretty good for two people… around $ 20. The frog legs cost a little more than the Fuzzy Melon, but they were well worth it.
Another big plus about Taishan Café: they have a score of 100 from the Health Inspector, which I feel like is a big deal for the Chinese restaurants in the city… my friend Mellie P. said that even the bathrooms were rather clean for a Chinese restaurant. Surprising!
Anyway, I know this review is really long, but I hope it helps some people. By the way, if you’re new to Taishanese food or you are not familiar with many of the dishes, Taishan Café displays a lot of nice detailed pictures of a few of their dishes along the wall.
I highly recommend Taishan Café for good, authentic Taishanese homecooking!

Took a few family/​relatives and other friends here on a few other occasions and they have all fallen in love with the place. Their signature dish is the clay pot rice. For those who have never had clay pot rice before, since the clay pot retains heat for awhile, the rice on the wall of the clay pot continues to cook after the pot is served and turns into crispy brown rice. All clay pot rice dishes are served with flavorful meats and they are simply delicious. Not to mention their chili infused soy sauce to go with the rice! They are truly divine, for only about $ 6.95 for the cheapest pot, enough for two.
All the dishes they offer there are traditional village food from Toishan (which is a small region in China, near Hong Kong, where a lot of the San Francisco Chinese immigrated from). I love their fresh clams with black bean sauce (fat and juicy!), salted string beans, and fuzzy melon with dried shrimp and fun see (just like how my mom made it when I was young). My other Chinese friends commented too about how all dishes here were made like how mom/​grandma made it. Delicious!
Last but not least, I love their homemade free soup that they offer. They are always delicious and taste like home made.
All in all, it’s a great place — we will be going back many times with our family and friends for sure!

This place gives you a feeling of good home cooking, just like how mom makes it. The staff was warm and friendly, I felt like I was their guest and not just some customer. It’s not like a fancy restaurant, but it’s just feels very homey and comfortable.
We ordered two small clay pot rices (spareribs with preserved meats and lamb stew). Both were excellent and full of flavor and had delicious crispy rice that results from the hot sides of the pot. I love the chili soy sauce they give you to dab over the rice. We also ordered black bean clams, pig intenstines with jalapeño, and string beans. They were all very tasty.
As my first time trying Taishan cuisine, I found it very good and we will definitely be back.

Do you know how hard it is these days finding a good Chinese place for brunch in SF? If you want good claypot rice… look no further.
It doesn’t take them too long to turn the orders around. They perfected the method to make the crispy skin from the rice at the bottom of the pot. The string beans and stir fried yam leaves are also two great veggie dishes. Could be less oily but this is Chinese food.

Chalk this up as one of those other restaurants that scream…“Only come with Mommy”…
She’s been here a couple times and it apparently seems she has made friends with the waiter there. So needless to say, the service was outstanding.
This place has changed hands many times and was always dreary on the outside but Taishan seems to have hit the mark finally with this location. We came on a weekday around 630pm and it was us and one other table but once an hour hit, the place had a few large tables come in. The restaurant isn’t too big so it filled up quite quickly.
Most people come here for the Claypot Rice and many of their abundant unique dishes from the Taishan region but looking at some of the other tables, it seems like some of their regular dishes looked pretty good too!
The waiter kept getting us more soup. We finished up one tureen of soup (good for 8 bowls or so) and throughout dinner, he kept asking if we wanted more so we ended up with 4 tureens by the time dinner was done. We had a party of 4 with 1 more person joining us toward the end of dinner so you can do the math and imagine how many bowls of soup each of us had.
ALL FREE and ALL GOOD…
Not sure if it would be quite so good if I ever came here without my mom but I am not about to start finding out.

I literally live right around the corner from this place and still it took me 6 months to finally get to eat here because I am always going to hunan #2. I also cringed several times while walking by this place because a quick glance at their menu frightened me a bit. Stomachs and intestines and what not. So I wasn’t in a hurry to try this place.
But the day came where I was ready and in we went. It is your typical asian restaurant, nothing fancy but nice. The guy that owns this place is really fantastic. Very nice, came right up and asked us if we needed help with the menu (am I that white?) and offered many recommendations.
Had the kids along and was pleasantly surprised to see they also have «normal chinese» food for them like sesame chicken, sweet and sour pork, etc. so that was nice.
The owner recommended the clay pots and I have to say, they were beyond amazing! The flavors they created in those things were so vibrant and alive I didn’t know what to do with myself. So I ate and kept on eating. Seriously, there is this one clay pot that just has rice and onions in it but however they make it or however they spice it, it can bring sunshine to your mind.
All in all a great place to come. They make you feel like family and they have some of the best flavored chinese food I have ever had. Highly recommended.

I came here because my friend was craving like a lunatic for Pig Stomach. I would of been happy to eat near my house but he insisted that we drive 40 minutes, took us 2 hours! The storm of the century with down powerlines and flooded streets uprooted trees was what we travelled through to get to this place.
Then after surviving this ordeal the place was closed. The owner, Henry, saw us standing outside soaking wet and cold and unlocked the doors and warmly invited us in. He was eating breakfast when we interupted his meal. He welcomed us to sit down and he placed 2 bowls in front of us and shared what he was eating from a larger bowl that he was serving from. This concoction was hot and fresh vegetables and meats with lots of spices. He treated us like the way a loving family member would when you come from the cold unexpectedly. We ordered the Taishan Special Pig Stomach and a few clay pots. I could not believe how tasteful every dish was. On taste alone I give this restuarant a 10. On presentation I give it a 10. There was a woman who came over to our table, I think she was the waitress, I’m not sure because she was checking if we needed anything and we enjoyed chatted with her too. Henry the owner came over and chatted with us and checked to see if we had everything we needed too. I was so impressed with the food and with the owner’s personal touches that I reserved my wife’s surprise birthday party for 2 banquet tables there. A majority of the guest dislike Chinese food. They told me they didn’t really care for it. However when the night was over they each said that they never ate Chinese food that tasted this good before. Henry greeted each and everyone of my guest personally and made them all feel welcomed. The place was packed with people waiting at the door and the place became short handed with the staff. However, the staff continued to be very curteous as they rushed about servicing our needs as well as all the other tables. I think this place is a great bargain for freshly made ingredients made the minute you order it. I saved quite a bit of money by coming here. I have had other dinner parties at those generic franchise restuarants and spent much more money and had bad service and bland food. I have also spent a lot of money in those so called «fushion» places and learned you pay for the fancy décor but the food stinks. When a place is packed with Asians waiting to eat, it’s a good sign. I can’t wait to come back and try the more exotic dishes, salt and pepper frog legs, Taishan yellow eel, Pork tongue w/​preserved veggies, pig intestines w/​yellow bean sprouts. Mmmmm. They do have much tamer stuff also. Parking is very available only one block away on Fulton. Lots of people stupidly drive around the other residencial streets looking for parking when all they have to do is go to Fulton St one block away.

Came here for dinner last night on a whim and it was pretty empty. But then again it was only about 5:45pm on a Friday night. There was only one other table there. By the time we left an hour later, there was only two other tables filled. Parking was easy. We found a spot right around the corner in about 2 seconds.
We ordered the pork sparerib/​sausage clay pot, chicken/​frog/​quail in lotus leaf, and a vegetable dish. I thought all the dishes were pretty good. Service was excellent for a Chinese restaurant. Probably because it was completely empty though. Everything came out promptly & they even gave us a dish of pickled chicken feet free to start off the meal. I’m not a big chicken feet fan, but one of my dinner companions totally is.
It was really quiet in there for a restaurant. Hardly any conversation (from the other table), but I think everyone was engrossed in watching the old Jackie Chan movie on the two flat screens in the back. Or at least I was.

very very close to 5 stars. there are some unique dishes that are traditionally Taishan (toy –san in Cantonese) cuisine that you cannot find elsewhere. The clay pot rice dish with yellow eel imported from Southern China is da bomb. the bottom of the clay pot is heated to the point where the rice is crisped flavor-​fully with the savoriness of the ingredients in the clay pot. what is presented is an awesome display of Southern Chinese comfort food. another recommended dish is the steamed frog’s legs in a lotus leaf. served with a wonderful soy-​chili sauce on the side, it’s a cross between a delicate fish texture and chicken. even the house soup served in a ceramic pot was flavorful and full bodied. the non-​Taishan dish ordered today was the salt and pepper pork chops. lots of garlic and jalapeño over the seasoned lean fried pork.
very well executed here.
another SF hidden treasure.