Venus Cafe - San Francisco — Restaurant in San Francisco

Hainan chicken rice(海南鸡饭) a traditional working-class meal is said to be originated in Singapore or Malasia after its split from British control in 1960s, which is rumored to have also brought the two Southeast Asian countries into a turf war for claiming its authenticity or invention of Hainan Gai ("Gai" referring to Chicken in Cantonese and similar in Vietnamese "Ga" and others dialects because the character of Gai is the same. In fact, there's a restaurant located on Market at the corner of 6th street and its name is "Gai," which is also a slang in Chinese, irrelevantly, referring to "street walkers."😉 ) The chicken is called Wenchang and is said to be brought by Chinese migrants from Hainan region, which is an island in between Vietnam and Mainland China. (Remember in April 2001 when a US Navy EP-3 signals intelligence aircraft landed on Hainan Island after collided with a Chinese J-8 fighter jet over the South China Sea? 😉) I would imagine the Wenchang chicken must have come from “free rage” farm yet one of the key ingredients is ginger turmeric, which is the soul of Hainan Chichen Rice and also why it was invented in the Southeast Asian region instead of Mailand China inasmuch as the Chinese like to take credits for everything. 😂 (After all the contemporary world history in the past 500 plus years imhv is connected by the Portugues along with their cousins to explore the trade route over the sea for spices despite its infamous participation in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.) Hainan chicken rice in Venus Café is one of the best in the City imhv (Note: 😉Penang Garden Restaurant on Washington Street in Chinatown is also decent) and affordable just about $16 (I would raise eyebrows on any plate over $20 or $30 dollars as to its true ingredients or quality in any Asian Restaurant unless it’s that good or money is not a subject to you. Don’t be fooled by long lines waiting outside because of social media or misled by so-called Michelin stars such as infamous XYZ in Chinatown: Stay away!) You would use your finger and dip the tender and cold (not frozen) into finely chopped ginger and scallion sauce over light soy sauce and olive oil with some salad (lettuce, turnip, and a few cilantros) and peanuts on the side. There are two kinds of rice: Oily turmeric fried rice or rice soup (“Tang-fan”) including a few boy choy and carrots, the latter would be my choice because of more veggies. PS The posters in its two bathrooms are very hilarious in case you go in there washing your hands after finish eating delicious...

Updated review 3/30/2022: Venus Cafe saves the day. A lot of the restaurants in the Sunset district were closed at 7pm (Smile House closes every other Wednesdays, S&E Cafe (no indoor dining) and Just Wonton closed.) I was in the mood for some HK style instant noodles w/spam and egg or wontons. I had the fried pork chop w/fried egg on a bed of instant noodles without soup $13. My appetizer was Hong Kong style fish balls with a heavy dark sauce $5. The food tasted fine. The Yelp hours are incorrect, they close at 8pm everyday. Well done Venus Cafe for satisfying my Hong Kong style instant noodles fix.

Indoor dining 5/19/2021. Venus Cafe is a not a bad Hong Kong style cafe. The service is fast with fair tasting food. Tonight I had their house combo sizzling platter, chicken, pork chop, bacon, ham, hot dog , fried egg on top and french fries on the bottom. It came with a side of spaghetti and milk tea. The milk tea was served in a dirty cup with coffee stains from the previous customer. HK cafes are not known for their cleanliness and is as expected. The first bites of the various meats were awesome. Towards the end of my meal, it felt tedious and was too much. The bottom piece of the chicken had a lot of fat and I had to cut that off along with the skin. This wasn't a bad meal. I will come back to try their...

We stumbled in here on Clement while wandering around because it was filled with older Asian people and that's usually a pretty good sign. Service was fine, not particularly efficient but not terrible either. They seated us right away but it got pretty busy as we were dining there.

The menu is very extensive, there are a million things on there and even more written in Chinese on the wall. While it is a cha chaan teng, I didn't end up ordering the usual western influenced dishes but went with some classics. The food was lightly seasoned and that was perfect for me - some people might find it needs more.

Dried scallop & egg white fried rice: this is my favorite kind of fried rice and shockingly hard to find in the city. This was a really good version - it had some wokhei and every grain was separated and not too hard. I was really glad I ordered this. Garlic sauteed water spinach: perfectly cooked and not too greasy. Salt pepper pork ribs: nicely seasoned and crispy! The vegetables with it were weirdly cold but the pork was served hot. Felt like they just added the vegetables at the end and they were precooked.

This place delivers on Cantonese food that is decent and has enough dishes that you can come back frequently not get bored. Prices are on the higher side but the...