Hang Ah Tea Room (SF)

When one thinks of food in San Francisco, many culinary delights come to mind. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl at Fisherman's Wharf... Italian food at North Beach... How about Dim Sum in Chinatown?

I checked on Yelp for some suggestions and Hang Ah Tea Room came up as the oldest in town. Since 1920. Let's see if it's any good.

Hang Ah Tea Room web site

Through the main gate of Chinatown, we trekked up the hill and then down a side street. The restaurant faces a neighborhood playground. Once you enter, you walk down a ramp, so the place is actually below street level. There were plenty of tables available on Saturday at noon.

We went over all the menu items - and there were many - and the waitress brought a pot of tea. The dim sum, which translates to "touch of heart", are small plates of food meant to be shared. We wanted to try them all, but settled to start on some BBQ Pork Buns. They were doughy and had sweet BBQ meat on the inside. The homemade chili oil on the table was a perfect compliment to the thick doughy buns.

Next were some Mince Pork Tamales, which were sticky rice and pork wrapped in banana leaves and steamed. I had tried this at the Forest buffet in Tahoe and I liked unwrapping my edible treasure. Adult playing with food alert! The pork inside wasn't very minced, but still tasted good. Again, the homemade chili oil gave this dish a little kick.

My lunch companion's favorite Chinese dish are pot stickers and Hang Ah did not disappoint. The only drawback is having to wait until they aren't so hot to eat. They were cooked very well, first boiled, then sautéed with one crispy side. Rounding out the dim sum were some egg rolls. We both agreed we couldn't remember any others that were better. They were so crunchy as you bit into them. Very satisfying!

The final dish was Chicken Fried Noodles. This was very good with the understanding you were going to smell like onions afterwards. The chicken was plenty and the noodles weren't greasy. We couldn't believe our good fortune to find this place.

One nice feature was a screen showing a slideshow of the menu items. Very helpful in deciding what to order. The furniture was a little out-dated, but the quality of food more than made up for that. There were other nice artwork and historical items decorating the walls.

Scores out of 10:
Food: 9
Service: 8
Atmosphere: 7
Price: 8
Overall: 8