Hong Kong Lounge — Restaurant in San Francisco

Came here for an SFBW event. Hit or miss on the food... the good was awesome, the rest was boring. I'd come back though, now that I know what to order.

All the attendees were seated together randomly and a steady stream of food arrived sized to each table:

Garlic Pea Sprouts - fresh, perfectly steamed, and garlicky. A great compliment to the heaviness of the rest of the dim sum. 5-stars.

Broccoli with Oyster Sauce - difficult to eat as they were huge and slippery with chopsticks. Also fresh and perfectly steamed, but I wish they had been cut into more reasonable pieces. 4-stars.

Soup Dumplings - mine wasn't soupy at all, though others' appeared to be. Flavor was right but I missed the soup. 3-stars.

Shrimp & Chive Dumplings - I didn't taste the shrimp or chive at all, these had more of a spinach flavor than anything. They weren't bad but not at all what I expected. 3-stars.

Pork Shrimp Siu Mai - good, nothing special to write home about. 3-stars.

Shrimp Noodle Roll - very little flavor, and my shrimp instantly slid out of the noodle roll. Both elements were boring. 2-stars.

Pan-Fried Turnip Cake - not what I expected at all. I thought this might be like a scallion pancake, but it was much more gelatinous than bready or cakey. The flavor was meaty and left me confused. 2-stars.

Baked Pork Buns - I LOVED the texture on these buns. It was much different than others I'm used to, a bit sweeter and a bit grainier, but I found myself really drawn to it. The meat was a bit sweet though, and with this bun, it was too sweet as a combo, but only barely. 4-stars.

BBQ Pork Buns - the sweeter meat worked together better with this more traditional, white fluffy bun. Good meat to bun ratio. 5-stars.

Steamed Chicken Feet - I really liked the flavor on these, but the texture was quite slimy, which was a turn off. 3-stars.

Salt & Pepper Chicken Wings - lightly fried, not overly done. I really liked these, though I was hoping for more of a spice kick. 4-stars.

Peking Duck - outrageously good. Perfectly cooked, tender and fatty, I could have eaten this all day. 5-stars.

Coffee Pork Ribs - I expected these to be better than they were. I love ribs and they're often an easy win for me, but these tasted overwhelmingly of maple syrup. I lost the coffee and the pork flavors. 3-stars.

Steamed Custard Buns - OMG SO GOOD. Sweeter than I expected, but I was surprised to find I loved them. Coconut creamy goodness, great ratio of custard to bun. In my face. 5-stars.

Fried Sesame Balls - came out PIPING hot. Loved the sticky paste in the dough, great ratio of filling to dough. 4-stars.

Overall, lots to love. This was an overwhelmingly filling meal, if I stuck to just the things I liked, I'd have a perfect meal. Thanks Hong...

We got there 10 minutes after they opened, and the place was already packed. We were seated almost at the very back. The server came to us, and started speaking in Chinese. We’re Asians but we’re not Chinese and we don’t speak the language. When she realized we didn’t speak English, she looked panicked. I just said Oolong tea, and she seemed to understand.

To place an order, we have to mark the laminated menu with the items and quantities we wanted. Some guy came over to grab the menu, and we never saw it again. They didn’t seem to care if maybe we would want more food later. The same guy came back with a printed receipt which we assumed were lists of the items we ordered. It was in Chinese. Sure enough items were crossed off as food were delivered.

It took forever for our food to start coming! One item we did not recognize, and we knew did not order was placed on the table. We tried to talk to the lady who came but she didn’t speak English, and just left. We tried to get somebody but nobody else was willing to speak with us. I finally saw the guy that took our menu, and I told him we did not order the item. He said it was sticky rice, we ordered it but he would check with the front. I asked him if it was on the printed list on the table, and he said, “of course it is!” He was really curt and rude! He took the item with him, and we never saw him again.

Nobody came to check how we were doing. My nephew ran out of water, and we couldn’t get any help. The one server in charge of the back room was focusing on Chinese speaking customers only. We had to ask for the very last item because it never came despite the fact that it was over one hour already! It was just one mango pudding for my nephew.

When we got the bill, it was in Chinese. When I asked if the guy in the front removed the sticky rice from the receipt, the woman started yelling! When I asked her to stop yelling, she walked away angry! We didn’t know what was going on! Finally, she came back with the receipt in English! Although my nephew did not drink tea, we were still charged. It wasn’t worth the effort to have the $1.50 removed. We paid in cash.

My sister and I are good tippers. We tend to tip 25-30% because we appreciate food, and understand that being a server is hard work. However, when only 3 of the 13 items we ordered are above average, and the service is extremely horrible, they should just be glad my sister still tipped!

When we left, there were a lot of people outside. When I made a comment about it, my nephew responded, “they’ll be...

Wifey says dim sum so I'm like sure let's go. I didn't want to do any research or anything but enjoy some good dim sum. Wifey had to do most work for the day because I was being pampered for sure. . So we took the Bart into the city to go eat dim sum, and that's how extra we were. Wifey loves when we are extra. . So we waited for a table, wifey was complaining about the time and that the system was terrible. The asian aunty basically yell out number with the ticket we were holding. Each number she yelled sound the same. It was hard to hear her and make sure you stand by the door to hear it. . We then got seated around 30 mins later. We went crazy and each ordered around 50 bucks per person , cuz there's vegan dim sum and reg Dim sum too. . In the past I have had real, authentic, and home feeling, and fancy dim sum before. this place is definitely recommended in my books. I would even drive or travel to sf just for dim sum here. So below is what I had and will order again. . Chiu chow fun gao - house dumpling with pork and peanuts inside. It was served piping hot. The wrap was clear and chewy, just so good! . Beef meat ball - tender and generous Size. The flavor was very authentic, you can taste the dry orange peel inside the beef meatball. . Siu Mai- tender, fatty pork and lean pork mixed in. The bits of shrimp was fantastic. . Pig intestines, this wasn't temperature hot. It was ok. Probably will skip next time. . Purple yam shrimp chives dumpling- This was very unique, it had purple yam, shrimp and yellow chives. The flavor was good. The presentation with light purple crystal wrap was omg. This is a re order for sure. . Curry beef dumpling, this was unique and different. Although the curry flavor isn't too powerful more calm. It was just an ok dish but A for effort and thought put into it. . Steam red color rice noodle with fish paste, this was served the last thing, at that time I was full and was ready to cancel the order but because it was special made but order from the menu it took longer. I'm glad I got to try it but it wasn't a favorite. It was good but too unique for me. I will stick with the regular bbq pork or shrimp rice noodle. But again A for the thought and creativeness. . Overall I was blown away with the quality of the dim Sum. I love how they have regular items which was good, but also cater to veggie and vegan eaters. Definitely a place to go try and recommended from me genuinely. Thanks for reading and have a yelptastic day! Don't forget to vote useful if this review...