Osmanthus Dim Sum Lounge — Restaurant in San Francisco

3.5 stars. The food was decent but not out of the world. They allow pets on the patio, which was a big draw since our group had a dog. It was super cold outside even with the heaters, which wasn't as pleasant.

We ordered the spicy wontons, the soup dumplings, the chicken dumplings, the coconut fish curry, and the Singaporean style noodles. We also got a pot of jasmine tea to warm up.

The jasmine tea was lovely and helped with the cold immensely. The food came pretty quickly after we ordered it. A heads up that the curries do not come with rice, so you have to order it separately.

The spicy wontons were good. For those who don't like schezwan peppers like me, beware that there is a hint of those peppers in the sauce. It isn't to the extent of numbing your tongue, but you feel a little bit. I liked the dish despite this.

The soup dumplings weren't properly structured. They came in the aluminum foil cups and it was near impossible to take them out of the cup without splitting them apart, which means that the soup and the meat were now separated. It defeated the purpose of the dumplings. Considering that I am used to the intact dumplings from Din Tai Fung, this was quite disappointing. The soup was ok. The meat was ok. I just wish I could have had both together.

The chicken dumplings were fine. I can't say that they were best ever but they weren't bad. They were ok. Eating them with the spicy sauce from the spicy wontons helped.

The fish curry was honestly the best of the lot. The fish was wonderfully melt in the mouth with a very thin breading and the coconut based curry was delicious. It was a huge portion so my friend ended up taking almost 3/4 of it home. I would definitely recommend ordering this!

The Singaporean style noodles were ok. If you are expecting Char Kway Teow when you read this, you will be mistaken. The noodles are more along the lines of vermicelli and the spice mix reminded me of a Japanese curry or an Indian Ching's instant noodles mix. We liked them, but I think we had a different expectation in our head. This dish is also not spicy so if you want heat, this is not the dish to order.

Pricing wise, I think we paid an acceptable amount for the portions we got but the flavors could be a little better. Considering that this is a dim sum restaurant, I would really like their dumplings to be more...

If I could give this overpriced place zero stars I would do so.

First, their prices are double what authentic small Dim-Sum restaurants and cafés charge just a few blocks away in Chinatown.

This place is priced for tourists. There are no Chinese people dining there, just Asian staff working there.

But I only had 50 minutes to grab lunch before a 1 PM conference call, and they were near where I was staying.

Dim Sum is made in large batches and placed in perforated trays to be steamed. I have been eating Dim Sum for more than 50 years. Dim Sum is the epitome of FAST FOOD.

I did not order anything that needed to be cooked in a wok or ingredients that needed to be chopped or prepared. Think of Dim Sum like a donut you might order from Dunkin' Donuts.

I cannot remember the last time I sat down at a restaurant, ordered, and then walked out due to bad service. After 20 minutes, not a single dish I had ordered was delivered to my table.

I offered to pay for the soda I consumed, but I was not going to wait any longer for food that should have been delivered in 5 minutes or less.

Also, like three other San Francisco restaurants (Brenda's Soul Food, Cioppino's, and Chubby Noodle) I had dined in over the last few nights, this one followed the same pattern of NO Wi-Fi for diners.

There is always a router with the restaurants name, secured by a password, one they refuse to give to diners.

They may know food, but their knowledge of data usage is miniscule. Credit card authorizations and online orders take tiny snippets of data bandwidth. They could easily add another channel to the router for public access. They just choose not to do so.

Avoid this place and go get real Chinese Food at a third of the price. I walked two blocks to Broadway Café, a tiny hole in the wall, filled with mostly Chinese customers. In ten minutes, I had my carry-out order...

I feel very conflicted about this rating. The food and people working were really great. But they are severely understaffed, making the wait time to get seated, get food, even to pay take forever! I was only there for takeout and I spent over 1.5 hours there. Would have gone somewhere else if I knew it was going to be that bad on a late Tuesday afternoon.

I'm not sure if they had a lot of people call out that day or what. But I hope management notices this issue IF it's an ongoing thing. The people that are employed there are too kind and too hardworking to be going that hard all night picking up all that slack. They were literally going non-stop, working so fast trying to accommodate everyone and there was still a huge line forming outside.

The food was amazing, I had the beef lo mien and was worried it would make me tried and sluggish but I was really hungry so I ordered it anyway. Wow, it was so well prepared. The onions were cooked PERFECTLY and the noddles weren't drenched in sauce and msg. So it went down really well. The beef was very good, great texture and flavor. Seriously the best lol mien I've every had!

I also ordered custard buns. I used to work at an Asian restaurant so I was worried they wouldn't be what I was used to. But it was like eating a sweet fluffy memory! It was exactly the same! And so so soft! The food here was really amazing! My regret is that I didn't order more after waiting there for so long haha. If it's not too busy and you can afford their prices, please...