S & E Cafe — Restaurant in San Francisco

Have you ever had really high quality 80's Cantonese cuisine in Hong Kong or the old San Francisco Chinatown/Peninsula before the Loma Prieta earthquake? This restaurant is that gold standard quality. They can cook up a storm!...if you've seen Stephen Chow's movie, "The God of Cookery"? You get a tear after a bite like that ending scene with that judge because you remember how good food is supposed to taste like. This restaurant has an incredible chef with cutting skills like that movie. Ask Paul the new owner to order you the banquet style sliced ham perfectly cut chicken dish and you will know what I mean about this chef' s cuttery skills as in like "The God of Cookery". Just to be clear I'm not a cook nor in the restaurant biz; I was a biopharma R&D Chemist, then Forensic Scientist, then Pharma Quality Management. I'm a tough critic when it comes to Hk-Canto food of being quality or not. I can't stand bad food. This restaurant from the first to the last dish on both dinner occasions we visited were superb; just like the golden era days of the past. Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Jet Li movies. Ingredients procurement to preparation were all A++. They have a lot of celebrities that frequent here too to taste traditional authentic...

Love the fact that this place is open late, if not mistaken 1:00AM. Whenever I'm going to be out late in the city, I know that aside from places like Mel's, I can come and eat here. The food here is decent, and the service is friendly. They are typically busy, even late at night, and I'm patient enough to wait for the food. Just be warned, that sometimes there are long wait times. I'm not just taking about a table either. Sometimes, the food takes forever. Just be aware that they are on it and that you may just have to wait a spell for it to come out. The flavor of the food is enough to make the wait worth it. S&E is not a world class restaurant, it is the corner cafe that you can go chill with your friends over a decent cuppa. If it is late, and you're near the area, then check them out. Oh, side note, if you speak Cantonese, then you will have an easier time. If you were wondering, I don't speak...

Parking is off-site. Traffic in the area is heavy. There are parking meters in front and around the restaurant. The menu is rather extensive for a small place. I noticed that the American Chinese dishes like sweet and sour pork, noodle dishes or kung pao chicken are super expensive as compared to purely Chinese "soul" food. I can't figure out why there is such a large gap in prices. Food is served temperature warm even though there aren't many in the restaurant and I did not observe "take-out" while I was there. Food is bland, super small portions for what you are paying and there is absolutely no service at all. It's an okay restaurant but would not go out of way to go there. Across the street on Taraval, there are much better tasting restaurants with better pricing than...