Blue Whale Restaurant & Lounge — Restaurant in San Francisco

There are hints of wonderful joy at Blue Whale. They are aiming to be a high-end somewhat fusion and progessive Hong Kong cuisine, while preserving some of the elements that are essential to the tradition. Blue Whale largely succeeds in that and combined with a modern blue-ish decor and pleasant service, it is a great place to hang out with friends and colleagues. Very hip. And you certainly pay the premium for the upscale ambience.

Unlike a wannabe Asian fusion, food at Blue Whale is solid and stays truthful to the traditions. The Xialong Bao is well made, juicy, and their truffle version absolutely is delightful. Packed with flavor, well balance, and delicious. The spicy, sour mango salad was interesting. Very progressive. Quite a bit of Thai influence. Unique but doesn't put you off. Again most dishes had that one "twist" built into the concoction, like pomengrate in a salad with crispy duck, and they work out well. The noodle with the duck and roasted peanuts were also one of the highlights.

There were some blemishes too - not major but also not forgivable at that price point. The dough of the baked bun was bland, The steamed vegetables in oyster sauce really played it safe like a microwave food. The wasabi prawns barely had wasabi in them to live up to its name. And for these meh dishes, what was disappointing was it was literally not discernable from a cheap down-to-earth restaurant in Chinatown, but at 1/3rd the price.

Dessert was also a bit stilted, not to mention it not generally harmonizing with the rest of the menu. Banana mango cake didn't have any bananas and wasn't made fresh - it had sat in the fridge for days I'd think.

Oh and finally, Blue Whale charges hefty prices and gives small portions - completely the opposite of what you'd want from a Chinese restaurant.

Despite all of this, I still give Blue Whale 4 stars. My party had a wonderful time there. Perect atmosphere with appropriate music and vibes. Wonderful service. Great cocktails and drinks. And again, all of this does make anything taste good if semi decent.

I'd return to Blue Whale, but not quite for the food. I'd be back with good friends...

Very disappointing service, and we gave this place 2 tries. We came the weekend when they opened, and we were seated relatively quickly but with only the regular menu and no wine menu. We waited patiently for 20m before the server came to check, at which point we were given the wine menu but then left alone for another 15m before finally being able to order. This was a few years ago but I recall the food being good enough that we chalked this up to opening weekend logistics and felt we would come back.

We returned in July 2025 and sadly the service is still awful. We were seated for our reservation but then left at our table for about 20m (730 seating, 750 was when a server checked on us) despite multiple servers seemingly acknowledging us while passing. It was busy but not completely full (there were empty tables). One server finally noticed we had not been helped, at which point we ordered a glass of wine, a martini, two apps (Rojak and Szechwan chicken), and two mains (noodles and green beans). The rojak came first, 10m before either drink (more on that to come). It was ok, the jicama had no flavor. The chicken then came, again with no drinks.... It was good, spicy and crisp. Then we finally flagged our server who came with the wine, and then after we had finished the apps (timed at 35m into our meal) the martini came.

We then got the noodles, these were honestly quite mediocre (no different than a basic noodle place in the city). We finished this and I ordered a glass of wine (not wanting to wait another 35m for a martini) and we FINISHED this glass while still waiting for our last dish. At this point a server came to clear our plates-- and we noted we still had not received a dish we ordered! In frustration we asked that this be removed from our check and we left. They did comp one glass of wine.

For the price and quality, the service is not worth it. I would avoid this restaurant, there are so many others with better service even at this price point/ambience on Union Street. Given 2 bad experiences, I frankly hope they close and get replaced since it does not seem their issues...

Food and ambiance alone would be a 3/5 at best, but a dismissive and disrespectful service experience dropped it down to 1/5.

This review would have been a 3/5 because: (1) The menu does NOT identify which dishes are deep-fried. Even if customers have a prior understanding of the dish they're ordering, some are deep-fried despite normally being prepared other ways, like the spicy Szechuan chicken. (2) The food & drinks were mostly unremarkable. To this place's credit, our first bartender/server (a younger guy) was extremely nice and offered to rectify the drinks situation. (3) The bar/lounge area smells a bit like an aquarium, which dampens the otherwise nice ambiance.

They get a 1/5 in my book because one of the second waiter/bartender that closed us out. After running and returning our card, they abruptly took back the card and receipt of both our table and the adjacent table — later returning with updated bills. In our case, we had the original receipt + a NEW bill, with NO EXPLANATION as to what happened or why we now had two receipts: the server was back behind the bar without a single word.

As we tried to figure out why our bill doubled, the people at the adjacent table nervously looked our way as they hastily departed – adding to our confusion. Did we get both tables' tabs and watching the others escape in the mayhem or was there a simple issue with our bills? (as far as we know, we see our card was charged twice with no refund).

I followed and asked the server what was going on with the bills, and he dismissively hands me a voided receipt for the original transaction, still offering no explanation for the changed price, apologies for the mixup, or apologies for not simply clarifying what literally any other server would have noted in the...