Sam Wo Restaurant — Restaurant in San Francisco

Terrible woman. Unbelievable. Immediately after we paid a little over 100$ for the meal, And this business got my money, I was told to not come back. for causing "trouble" for her. (ONLY FOR SPLITTING THE CHECK) I thought this woman was kidding at first because I have never been talked to like that a restaurant before. Then She literally told us again that we may not come back. She didn't give us a reason besides that we caused too much "trouble." Keep in mind that we tried to stack our plates to help with clean up and tipped her as well. The only time we even saw this woman was when she was asked by one of the servers to split our check. I understand it's difficult to split a check 5 ways, but we did exactly as asked. It stated on the menu that we can only use 3 cards. So during our meal, we asked the younger man who was helping us, if it's okay to use 3 cards and cash for the rest. He said yes, and then we walked downstairs and proceeded to tell the woman that we need it split. If she even told us that it makes it too difficult, we would have complied, and combined. BUT she did not. she was mumbling In another language and was frustrated because we were accidentally charged for an extra coke. she asked the two servers that were helping us if we should be charged anyways. and i'm pretty sure they explained how it was a mistake because the first server just forgot to bring it out, so we asked the young girl for a coke as well. one young server even laughed a little because it was a simple mistake, we weren't too worried about it. She most likely didn't want to take two dollars off the bill.

The two younger servers that helped us, were really helpful and polite. Also compliments to the chef and The night was lovely until we were surprised with that statement from that older woman with a short haircut. That was crazy, there was no sort of altercation or disagreement. I just don't see how we caused her trouble, it took a few minutes longer than she expected. But on the other hand there was not anybody in line so we didn't...

Wow, it is hard to even put into words how horrible this experience was. We chose this restaurant due to other reviews rating it highly. First, we had to wait forever for a tiny little table upstairs for the 4 of us. This wouldn't, on its own, bother me. We know lunchtime in chinatown is going to be busy. We proceeded to order the beef stew and some chow mein. The beef stew was, allegedly, their specialty. I had to get up and go to the wait station several times to get us some straws and side plates, as the waitress never asked or brought these things. When the food came out, the beef stew contained big balls of what appeared to be gelatinous fat. It looked awful. The waitress informed us these were "tendons." They looked so disgusting, we did not even try them. The rest of the beef stew had an awful taste. Not edible. Others in our party couldn't eat their chow mein, as the noodles were fried in oil that had obviously turned rancid. The taste was awful. So, we left spending almost 100 dollars and were starving. The seating area upstairs is ungodly hot and uncomfortable. When I was checking out, there was a couple in front of me finishing up paying their bill. The attendant at the cash register stuck her hand out for me requesting our bill. I gave it to her. She then said "card please." I wanted to tap my card, I don't like giving it to people to take and ring up out of my sight. I told her I would like to tap my card. She looked at me with such a nasty look and said, "just give me the card now. " She was so rude, so nasty, I couldn't believe it. I would suggest finding somewhere else to eat in chinatown. Here, you will get terrible, rude, rude, rude service and inedible, rancid food. I have never witnessed someone so rude and awful. This was the biggest mistake we made on our vacation to...

This was the first time that I went to Sam Wo restaurant. I was just a little boy fairly new to the United States. My "granny" would take me to Chinatown for our weekly grocery shopping. We lived in the Avenues, and Chinatown was the only place that we Chinese folks could get the groceries that we enjoyed. And when we were in this part of the city, my granny took me to see Edsel at Sam Wo. Edsel would always greet us with a cup of milk for me. Edsel was often gruff, but so was my granny. They got along very well. He would occasionally seat single men at our table, and my granny would yell at him.

Fast forward to the 80s, Sam Wo restaurant was the late night place to go to after a night of clubbing. We would arrive at 1am and the 4 to 8 of us would make our way upstairs to the 2nd or 3rd floor. It was the perfect end to each Friday or Saturday night as we returned home with stomachs filled with rice, noodles, soup..... I remember hearing that Sam Wo was closing about 15+ years ago? I went to eat there "one last time" and wrote a YELP review with basically this same story. BBC News actually contacted me for an interview about my experiences at Sam Wo restaurant.

Obviously, this location is NOT the original on Washington St, but the feeling is similar. The heavy and small marble and wooden tables bring back fond memories. I'm once again making my last trip to Sam Wo restaurant for a plate of BBQ pork rice noodle rolls and chicken fried rice. Good luck to the family of Sam...