Sassy Foods — Restaurant in San Francisco

Love, love, love this place! Wish I could come more often, but vegan dim sum/yum cha is a very special occasion. As a young vegetarian-vegan, going out to eat with my mom and friends meant generally only having a handful of choices, that almost always being Buddha's delight, or gai lan, steamed veggies, with plain rice. Sassy Foods has brought me back to my childhood with delights I haven't had in years, but my omni friends and family have agreed that it still tastes great, and has the spirit of authentic dim sum in each dish. One time, we even got these pear-shaped things and my mom said she hardly sees them outside of HK.

Pictured and thoughts upon...

Lo mai gai/sticky rice: The gold flake makes this feel so fancy and elevated. This was my absolute favorite dim sum morsel hands down as a kid, pre-veg. And this vegan lo mai gai is cooked just right, when steamed in the lotus leaf it becomes a very aromatic and unique flavor. I just wish it had some vegan yolk of sorts, because that is the best part, but very hard to replicate.

Har gow/shrimp dumplings: The yellow wrapper has a nice chewy quality to it, a little thicker than I remember har gow to be, but this balances well with the vegan shrimp. There is a gentle flavor here that is captured very well, but I will admit myself, this one tastes the most obviously vegan. I like that because I'm vegan, but if you're hesitant on mock meats, this may not be the one for you.

Chiu chow dumplings/peanut chive: The purple wrapper is super cute! These ones did not survive for a picture, but they are the most beautiful cute things ever. Taste wise, very fresh while still savory. The texture is very interesting, crunchy and soft at the same time.

Siu mai/pork dumplings: I love these but my mom thinks they're salty.

Cheung fun/rice noodle roll: these are a must have! There are different filling options for whatever suits your preferences. We got the Chinese donut one this time but other ones we tried before have been great too.

Xiao long bao/soup dumplings: Not the restaurants fault I burnt my tongue, too delicious to not let it continue to burn my tongue further. Worth every second of flavor. Nice thin wrapper, good amount of soup, and the filling wasn't mushy.

Taro cake: I LOVE when taro cake is prepared this way! This is not a sweet dish! Have it with chili oil and a splash of soy, or use any extra rice noodle roll sauce.

Everything I've tried here is delicious, the level of "dim sum theatre" here is just right in my humble AB-half-C opinion. No frills, but you'll get what you want hot and fresh, you just have to know how to order.

I really wish they had the egg tarts a little more available, as I've been here a handful of times but they've been sold out/not available every time. No free red bean soup either but it's okay because we never have room after all the...

Some of the best vegan food I’ve had! The dumplings are really the stars of the show. We had the soup dumplings (xiao long bao), pork buns and siu mai which were all flavorful and delicious. The service was excellent and the agar tarts were a yummy treat to take home for dessert afterwards. Looking forward to trying more...

Food was amazing! It felt very authentic and just as flavorful as non-plant based dimsum. I would say this is up there as one of the best vegan places in SF. Pretty good value for the price as well, the portion sizes for the plated dishes are very large. The staff were very friendly and...