Kam PO Kitchen — Restaurant in San Francisco

This is a no frills cash only Chinese dive and it's damn delicious!

Don't expect much table service here and don't be too adventurous either. Their menu is vast, but for a place like this - stick with the basics: porridge, noodle dishes, or rice plates.

We began with a medium serving of fish filet porridge, my families baseline for porridge these days. I thought it was delicious - it had the right consistency and was very generous with fish. It was also infused with a good amount of ginger and cilantro which definitely kicked it up a notch!

Next came the beef chow fun and Peking duck and roasted pork over rice. Hands down, the latter won. The roasted pork was awesome! We also chose to order this because we noted the hanging pig was still within the half range point (the best area). It was meaty, not too fat, and well spiced. The pork skin was nice and crisp. The duck was on the fatty side, but like good Peking duck, it dripped all its glorious juices into the rice beneath and that greasy goodness reminded me of days when I used to throw a tantrum as a child and get this or soy sauce rice as my alternative dinner. And yeah, maybe I did this a little more often than I should have....but it's so worth. The beef chow fun was pretty standard but I liked that they didn't use too many fillers (onions and bean sprouts). The noodles were also sauteed correctly and not glued together. Kudos to the chef!

To get a few veggies in, we also opted for gai lan sauteed with beef tendons. The veggies were crisp but came soaking in beef tendon sauce/broth which probably eliminated all its health benefits but sure tasted good anyway. The tendons were also large and not chewy, cooked just right.

All in all, it's definitely one of Chinatown's best casual places to...

No frills or thrills Chinese restaurant/deli. Great comfort food. Basically a hole in the wall. The best place to get BBQ pork, roast pork, soy sauce chicken 🐔, and of course, their roast duck rice plates. Still a bargain and still under $10. While everyone was blaming inflation, this restaurant kept their prices. affordable. Not exactly in Chinatown, closer to North Beach. Had been patronizing this restaurant since the early nineties. Pandemic made us strangers as I had moved back to the East Bay. Now that I have returned to SF due to my job, I decided to walk up to the restaurant after my coworker said she had a nice roast duck rice plate for lunch yesterday. Asked her about my favorite waitress and was told she was there. The moment she saw me she asked, "Tea or hot water." Amazing that she could remember such small details after 3+ years. Tonight I had a roast pork rice 🍚 plate after I went to pickup my godson. This was his first time. He ate up everything and said he wanted to come back again in a couple of days for the BBQ pork rice plate 🍛. Definitely will be spending more time here. Only drawback. They're only open until 6pm, Monday through Sunday. No more 8pm. Where there is a will, there is a way. You've got to try this restaurant to believe it. Forgot to mention the wonton soup. It's 👍 great when you don't feel like a rice plate or anything heavy.

06.16.25 The BBQ meat dishes remain the crowning glory of Kam Po Kitchen. We continue to eat there at least 3 to 5 times weekly. I can have a BBQ rice 🍚 plate back to back on Tuesday and Wednesday. The owner/butcher knows how to pick the half fat and half lean BBQ pork and cut it perfectly. My nephew can't get enough of the rice and noodle dishes when he is in SF. It's Kam Po...

Since pretty much every restaurant was closed on Thanksgiving Day except for the restaurants in Chinatown, my family and I decided to stop by Kam Po for lunch. The reviews for their roasted duck made my mouth water, and seeing all of the BBQ delicacies in the storefront window ...

I think this restaurant's roasted duck is the best I have ever had in my life. They don't give you any additional sauces for their meats (BBQ, sweet and sour, etc.) and to be honest, you don't really need it. The meat was tender and tasty, but the lightly crisp skin was so tasty! The BBQ pork was also really delicious. The pieces of meat weren't too fat, but not too skinny either. The fried pork was just okay. I've had better, and so I wouldn't recommend ordering the fried pork here. I think we had more pieces of dry skin than I would have liked.

Also, the waitress kept recommending the spare rib noodle soup. She said it was really good, and though my mom didn't really want to have spare ribs with the noodles, the waitress made it sound so good that we just went with it. Haha bad decision because they were so dry and not tasty ...

I only give this restaurant 4 stars instead of 5 is because we told the waitress what we wanted to order. She changed it up and said it wouldn't be enough food for us and made the 2 delicacy with rice to be 2 different BBQ items with separate bowls of rice. I think what we wanted in the first place was fine, but sometimes waitresses in restaurants think they know their customers' stomachs more than we know our own.

Cash only! And buying a whole roasted duck carryout in SF seems so much...