Yank Sing: San Francisco's Oversold Dim Sum Joint

Lee Klein

Yank Sing dining room

All we heard before our recent trip to San Francisco was to make sure to eat at Yank Sing. Yank Sing, Yank Sing, Yank Sing was sung to us again and again. "Best dim sum" everyone say and say, anytime of day. The place has been around since 1958, but somehow I've only heard about it in recent years. Now there are two locations, and everybody from the bus driver to the guy behind the hotel desk knew about it. That should have been our first hint that maybe Yank Sing's best songs were behind it. But we were blinded by a desire for great dim sum for our first lunch in town, just an hour or two after having landed at SFO.

Lee Klein

We hardly had removed our coats at Rincon Center near Emrcadero when the famed "deem sum" carts pulled alongside the table and we were being given a very hard sell on a number of not-so-fascinating-looking items. They especially pushed the signature Shanghai dumplings (XLB, or Xiao Long Bao) made with minced Kurobuta pork, scallions, and ginger. It wasn't difficult to convince us. We like soup dumplings, in which hot broth is encased with the meat (the trick in preparing is to cool the soup to a gelatin, then wrap in wonton). It was tasty enough, but we had better at Bund, in SF's Chinatown. And we've had much better at Hakkasan right here in Miami Beach. BTW: The Shanghai dumplings likely got pushed because an order is $10.95.

Other, more interesting dim sum came by one at a time, and some were very good. But overall it was a rushed, pushy lunch, with decent, not noteworthy food. I'll take Hakkasan any day.