HK Lounge Bistro — Restaurant in San Francisco

First, let not the price scared you because if you do the math. The amount you pay at other places may be slightly less than this but the experience of your taste buds here will convey a much better value and enjoyment. The culinary skills of the chef is legit... At least on the dishes we ordered.

In summary:

Service is excellent. Very courteous and attentive. However, when ithe restaurant was complete full, you can see a little bit of catching up.

Foods were amazing. Quality was very good.

The pork it use for the 梅菜扣肉 was extraordinary. It's got layers of thin fat with meat. The sliced of pork was intact with good texture and not falling apart which you can experienced in even good banquet style Chinese restaurants. The skin is crisp not too soft. Personally, I prefer the 梅菜 to be sweeter. I found it a little salty.

The sweet and sour pork maintain its crunchiness within the sauce means they know how to do it right. Such as amount of oil add to the sauce to maintain the batter crunchiness.

The soup was excellent, use very good ingredients. The fish stomach was of very good quality. You can tell by the rich flavor and the texture.

The BBQ pork was top notch. The sauce was perfectly balanced not too sweet but sweet enough. The pork was of excellent quality. You have to get fatty one to make bbq pork and the pork meat was tender. There are some crispiness on the meat. Very well done.

Thousand layers cake was legit. They know how to use the authentic and proper ingredients to make it. Salty egg, probably lard, very fluffy yet texture is slightly firm.

Listen, if we are talking about the quality and skills and it's bar none. Value is definitely there with the kind of quality and culinary skills but it's not cheap.

Honestly, I've been to Michelin star Chinese restaurants in HK, this is at similar level. The dishes they made is not fancy with design etc. Just authentic quality Chinese food but when you talk about skills, techniques and taste, one would wonder if the chef has Michelin star aspiration. Nevertheless, the skills are there, but if you want to shoot for the stars, there are a few things need to improve.... Mostly about the interior design, restaurant settings, tableware and ramekins etc. The servers were great but for star level, there is more refining.

All in all, I'm impressed with the food at this restaurant. Regardless of what the chef's aspiration, as a patron, we are fortunate to enjoy some quality...

This will be a long review so here are some keywords first:

Small space, expensive, worth the money, make a reservation, no strollers

Now… I absolutely loved the food and service here. I went with my brother and his girlfriend. We ordered fried rice, shrimp dumplings, hot and sour soup, a scallion toast (?), a shrimp toast thing, coffee ribs, half a duck, some tea, mango pudding, and custard buns. I didn’t try the duck because I wasn’t adventurous enough, but they loved it.

The scallion toast was not my favorite and my party said other places do it better, but in my opinion everything else was delicious. The textures were all consistent and perfect. The food came out hot and very quickly, which we weren’t expecting, considering they were packed. Thankfully, it wasn’t too hot that we burned our mouths. I would definitely recommend getting the fried rice because it still tastes the same as leftovers the next day.

The service was excellent. They were very attentive, but also mindful to let us enjoy our experience and not overwhelm us. I haven’t heard of other Dim Sum restaurants actually serving the food into the plates for the table, so it was fun to have our server do that. If that is a common occurrence, then all the better as they were following the standard, but I just thought it was a nice touch. Everything was quick, prompt, and professional.

The space is very small, I described it as feeling like I was in someone’s home (which was honestly a plus) but someone else described it as feeling like a fever dream. The color of the walls makes you feel like you want to leave because they’re like a salmon pink, but it wasn’t too distracting. It was a welcoming space. It’s hard to wait inside so when you make your reservation, it might be good to wait just outside the door after checking in, as it can feel cramped.

I give the restaurant an extra good review just because I had been feeling badly and sick for a couple days and the food was very soothing. I felt a lot better so I would definitely recommend it as a comfort food place.

Overall, I really enjoyed my experience there and if I have the money I will definitely go back. I don’t think I had many negative things to say except for that one particular dish.

I believe parking is paid on the street but free after 5:00? I...

June 2023: I was happy to hear that the old owners of the Chinese restaurant on Geary and Parker opened up a new place near my home.

The menu was more limited than the old restaurant. We ordered a fried rice, Mongolian beef, fish with tofu and an "ung choy". Everything was okay but tasty. There were some areas that can use improvement.

I was disappointed in the fish because the item was described as "steamed Chilean sea bass with tofu in black bean sauce". When the dish came out, there was only a little bit of fish on a large bed of tofu. The way the menu described the dish, I was expecting the fish to be the "feature" item. For the price ($28), I was expecting a large fillet of sea bass with some small amount of tofu. At other restaurants, this dish would have been described as a "steamed tofu topped with sea bass in black bean sauce". The first ingredient is supposed to be the main ingredient! So I found the dish description to be somewhat misleading.

Tables and chairs were a bit uncomfortable. My wife, who is 5'4", was unable to sit close to the table properly because there was a table leg and crossbar that prevented her from scooting in. I would not have expected this at a restaurant of this price point.

Service was inconsistent. We asked for two bowls of rice 🍚 but never got it.

Place is small. Layout is challenging. Would I come back? Since I have had many years of great food at their old place, I would try it again. I hope they make some improvements... Especially on the menu description...