Lam Hoa Thuan — Restaurant in San Francisco

Food was not that great. If you really like duck leg with noodles I suggest you go to thai nghiep ky mi gia on Noriega (a few blocks down) It is way better.

We ordered today the duck leg with noodles and there was way too much noodles. It is not like it is hand pulled or fresh, it is just store bought noodles. The broth just tasted like chicken broth and msg. Not to mention, the broth smelled old. The quality of the food was way below average especially for all the hype it gets. Way better Cantonese/Vietnamese food elsewhere on Irving.

To add to that, the service was poor. I had to ask for extra napkins, ask for small plates to share an “appetizer”, have to ask for a refill on tea, have to ask for a box, have to ask for the check, have to ask for more napkins, have to wave my hands in the air like a psycho hoping a waiter will notice me. Then after I ask, you forget about it and I have to ask again. If a customer has to ask all these questions that the service is poor and you have no clue how to run a restaurant that values quality and customer service. I tipped $5, considering all that was said. When we were outside of the door the waiter came back and told us that we didn’t tip enough, and said “oh this is too little and not 15%”. Just extremely disgusting entitled behavior. Tip is earned not given and something I guess they don’t understand. If you want tip, you should how to do your job better. Learn from any other restaurant that provides good service and you will. Absolutely ridiculous. I will not be returning here. Give your money to a more deserving business. Roast duck tastes better at Ranch 99. We are in SF, with one of the largest populations of Chinese-Americans in the country. Roast duck & char siu are available on every single block. Seriously don’t waste your time.

Also parking is awful on...

Updated review 4/2/2025: Lam Hoa Thuan has a pretty good dry thick egg wonton noodles $13.20. The restaurant itself is noisy. If you sit too close to the front, you can hear endless chopping of the take-out BBQ meats. I noticed the clientele has changed to half mandarin speaking mainland Chinese people. There was one guy tonight on his speaker phone talking the entire time in mandarin. That was annoying. I ate my noodles as fast as possible and left.

Updated review 9/4/2023: There's always a line in front of Lam Hoa Thuan for the BBQ take-out items on weekends/holidays during peak hours. The lines do move fairly quickly as there are two butchers. Today I was fortunate enough to pick-up some BBQ spareribs, $11 a pound at 2pm. They are always sold out when I come after work on a weekday. The flavor for the BBQ spareribs can be described as juicy, smokey and sweet. Since I'm already here, I decided to dine-in and get their #2, combo wonton noodles dry (Hủ Tiếu Khô), with soup on the side, $13.50. I love their Teochew style noodles served dry. Service was excellent.

Original review: Indoor dining is finally back at Lam Hoa Thuan! This has to be the best revenge meal from Covid restaurant closures I had. Their #7, house special egg noodles (thick or thin noodles) $11.50 is my favorite. I love how you can order it dry with soup on the side (chiu chow style). It is sort of like lo-mein but with an oilier texture and minced meat.

This has to be one of the last hold outs of take-out only restaurants. They only served BBQ by the window during March 2020 - August 2023. O, how I miss their noodles. We used to come on the weekends after our bike rides. It was something we all looked forwarded to. Their menu is now truncated though. It feels great to finally get...

I went to this restaurant based on a friend's recommendation, as she mentioned they serve excellent roast duck. So, I decided to try it out and ordered the roast duck, along with an additional boiled salted chicken. Upon entering, I noticed that the majority of the customers were Chinese. When a staff member asked for my order and proceeded to cut the duck for me, he chose a very skinny one with barely any meat. I explained that I preferred a different one since I had paid the same amount as everyone else and didn't want to end up with a skinny duck. I didn't want to be the unlucky person with less meat. However, when I reached the cashier to pay, it seemed there was a misunderstanding. They gave me two ducks instead of one. I clarified that I only wanted one, but the cashier seemed unwilling to accommodate my request. She insisted that since the duck had already been cut, I couldn't return it. I found this frustrating as I hadn't even touched or opened the box. The situation escalated when she spoke rapidly in Chinese, which I didn't understand. Adding to the inconvenience, the restaurant only accepted cash, and despite this, they required customers to pay taxes. It felt odd to imagine them avoiding taxes but still expecting customers to cover that expense. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough cash on hand, so I had to go to the bank to withdraw money.

Overall, I found the customer service to be subpar and the atmosphere...