Yank Sing’s xiao long bao (soup dumplings)

On our second day in San Francisco, my husband and I met up with one of his good friends Frank, his wife Erin, and their flaxen-haired two-year old, Owen. We chose Yank Sing for lunch (the more casual, kid-friendly location on Stevenston St.) after a bunch of food-lovers heartily recommended the restaurant. I had great reviews about Yank Sing’s dim sum years ago, so it didn’t take much for us to pencil it into our calendar.

shu mai

springrolls

some sort of fried shrimp paste thing my husband ordered

hai keem (my husband’s pick)

steamed BBQ pork bun

chicken feet–2 year old Owen and I are both fans of this!

pan-fried daikon cake

deep-fried taro puffs filled with minced pork
(This has been one of my favorite dim sum items for as long as I can remember.)

ham siu gok (deep-fried sticky rice flour dumplings filled with pork)

fried lotus bean paste sesame balls

Owen was a great eater, but when I asked him what his favorite food was, he opened his mouth to show me the sesame balls and said: “These things!”

My husband and I were a little disappointed in our meal at Yank Sing–the dim sum items were pretty mediocre. The best thing on the table were the soup dumplings, so we got two orders. The springrolls were particularly bad, with diced yellow pepper replacing the more traditional filling of sliced bamboo shoot and shitake mushrooms. Perhaps Yank Sing has taken a dive in recent years–I can’t imagine all the praise we’ve read being heaped onto run-of-the-mill dim sum like this meal. However, the company was lovely, and Owen had a wonderful time trying chicken feet and found a new love for sesame balls, which really is the most important thing. And, at least we can say we’ve given Yank Sing a go!