Yank Sing
Rincon Center
San Francisco
City View Restaurant
Commercial Street
San Francisco
You know of Yank Sing if you work in downtown SF. Snappy decor, fresh ingredients in their dim sum. But hold on a second. If you love your dim sum, and you’re not getting your dim sum meal comp’d, you can go somewhere else to get just-as-good dining.
Don’t get me wrong, I love going there if someone else is paying for me. But, first we must all admit that not ALL the things on their dim sum cart are truly, well, authentically Chinese. Sure, that’s alright. As long as purists KNOW what is and isn’t derived from centuries (or at least decades) of Chinese dining. (I won’t tell you what those dishes are…you’ll have to go next time with someone that can point those out to you.)
Also, be careful of ordering the tea. We ordered some tea when our party of 8 arrived, and were given 2 pots. Upon paying for the tea, we noticed that the receipt noted $13.00 (!!!) for the tea. For $6.50 for each small kettle of tea, even my roundeye colleagues that don’t have Grub-like tendencies raised an eyebrow. The phrase “for all the tea in China” is meant to mean something, after all.
On the one hand, I’m darn impressed by the hefty margins that are made on the tea. Someone needs to tell me if that’s a better % than what is made on soft drinks/syrup served at a fast food restaurant.
But on the other hand…come ON, Yank Sing…that’s a bit much, don’t ya think?
If you’re spending money yourselves, Google up City View restaurant and head on over there. Less pretentious, and just as good, for about 1/2 the price. You still get a fairly clean place that your non-Chinese co-workers can tolerate. But…this isn’t really an SF secret. Ask others that work downtown and they should know about good ol’ City View, too.