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ABC Bakery Cafe
Category: Restaurants Chinese Chinese [Edit]
650 Jackson St(between Beckett St & Cooper Aly)
San Francisco, CA 94133
Neighborhood: Chinatown
(415) 981-0685
- Hours:
Mon-Sun 8 am - 10 pm
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- No
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Price Range:
-
$
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Good For:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- No
- Noise Level:
- Loud
- Ambience:
- Casual
- Has TV:
- Yes
- Caters:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
167 reviews for ABC Bakery Cafe
Review Highlights
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"The Best Wonton Noodle Soup." In 7 reviews -
"This is authentic hong kong style restaurant." In 10 reviews -
"And they also have egg tarts." In 5 reviews
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167 reviews in English
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Review from Mona H.
Palo Alto, CA
4/8/2012
I'd eat at ABC every time I visit Chinatown. Very authentic Cantonese "tea restaurant" type fast food. Nothing fancy though.
Loved the milk tea. Service is lacking but hey what do you expect it's a cash-only Chinese fast food restaurant. Environment is "meh" as well but better than some of the other places in the area I suppose. Gonna try their "pineapple buns" next time I'm here. -
Review from Mei C.
San Francisco, CA
2/18/2012 1 Check-in Here
Awful weekend breakfast experience. Waited almost an hour for a bowl of preserved egg congee. Had to get up and get a cold green onion twist bun since I was so hungry. After the hour passed, was served beef congee. Complained then was told "oh, but you already ate it."
Really? Seriously? They should have assumed that as soon as they put the bowl on my table that it was eaten. What are they going to do if I hadn't sampled it? Reheat and serve it to some other poor customer??!
Eventually came back with the right order. Bland, but the crunchy?oily chinese donut balanced it out and the preserved egg was good.
Pluses: Their milk tea drink was not bitter since I think they added quite a bit of milk. their green jelly / ice cream drink was good too. Initially impressed with their wide array of offerings but soon realized that it was probably the reason why the foods take so long to get to the tables. -
Review from Elaine Y.
1/10/2012
The only thing that's worth trying is their lemon tea. Their Russian Borsche Soup use to hit the spot, but it's now just watered down tomato soup. Their prices are hiked up, but their quality is rolling down the hill. Beware of their meals, they don't really do the whole free hot drink and soup anymore, you need to read the fine print because they'll charge you an extra $1 or $2 if you do request it. And if you can't read chinese, you're kinda out of luck so heads up from me right now.
Don't bother dining here, get your drink and leave. -
Review from Wilson T.
12/7/2011
The waitress tricked me into ordering a drink, literally. (this convo was in Cantonese but I will translate)
After I ordered my food, the waitress said do you want a drink with that. On top of the page it said add $1.00 for hot drink, $2 for cold drink for this combo. I asked her, does it come with the meal, it says add $1.00 on here. She says, yes it comes with the meal. So I order a hot drink...and SUR-FRICKIN-PRISE the bill has add $1.00 on there.
So naturally I complain because I had asked her before. She said to me " Yes it comes with the meal... for $1.00" She even tried to say it like she was being nice, she said "OH, if you ordered it separately it would have been $2.40" I already had my STARBUCKS. WTF I ASKED YOU and you said it COMES WITH THE MEAL. Wow, never coming back again.
Plus my friend ordered a porridge and it took him longer to get his porridge than my friend who ordered something on a hot-plate/skillet. All they do is ladle out some porridge from this HUGE pot that they keep warm and it took them 20 minutes!?!
GET OUT OF HERE.
Also, this is not a rant because I am Asian and won't pay $1.00 for a hot milk tea. It's the principle (in this case). -
Review from Artisha C.
San Mateo, CA
1/30/2012
I like the mini pineapple buns and green onion twists. (I've only been here for the bakery and cleaner restroom, not cafe)
Be careful of the cakes! I noticed mold growing on one of them. -
Review from Connie L.
San Francisco, CA
Updated - 4/12/2012
Food is good for its price but service is definitely lacking.
1 Previous Review:
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11/30/2011
How can you exclude something on the menu when it says it is offered daily?
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Review from Diana C.
Been coming here for years for one thing: wonton noodle soup. Everything in the bowl is fantastic. The wontons are huge filled with a generous amount of crunchy shrimp in thin wrappers. The noodles are super springy and the broth tastes like it's been boiled with shrimp heads for extra flavor. Other noodle soups are great too, but the wonton noodle soup is the best.
Do not expect great customer service. They're always busy and short staffed. It's typical that you have to get the attention of the waitresses. If you can handle this, then ABC's a must try when you're in Chinatown.Listed in: Where You'd Find Me in San…
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Review from LisaH T.
San Francisco, CA
10/20/2011 1 Check-in Here
Wow this place is so Chinese!! Lol. People here don't speak english but there congee are delicious! Custom
Service do sucks though! -
Review from Denise M.
10/22/2011
Had a craving for baked pork chops over rice. There used to be a place that made this dish perfectly, but alas that is long gone.
I've never been to this place before though I have been to other ABC Bakeries and only bought their breads and buns.
I ordered the pork chops with a fried egg on top. Hubby got the Portuguese chicken rice. Both dishes were good. We've had better, but these satisfied the craving.
My dish was more sweet than tangy, so I wasn't crazy about that. But the combo of the tomatoe based sauce, the fried rice, and the egg - I still gobbled up most of my dish. The pork was three thin chops with bone. Good, but hardly matches up to what I've had in the past. No cheese on this version.
Hubby's Portuguese chicken was ok. Again on the sweet side, but not much taste of coconut. Generous amount of chicken, but just as much white onion. It was OK.
All in all, the meal can only be described as ok. Would I go back. Yeah, but I would try a different place first. -
Review from Connie M.
11/15/2011
a solid 3 stars, nothing more. I went in, was seated and looked over the menus on the table... but it took forever for a waitress to notice me and take my order. Conversely, a guy at a neighboring table who sat down 10 minutes after me and got his order and food a lot faster than me. So service wise they are poor.
I ordered the roast duck with rice plate. Not the best, but then I should've ordered something else seeing as how this place is similar to a Hong Kong Cafe. Duck wasn't too meaty, a fair amount of bones and the rice was a bit stiff. -
Review from Brian J.
2/13/2012
Call me the poster child for the site http://stuffwhitepeopl... simply because I dug the fact that I was the only 'white' guy in here. Did this mean the food is good? Did this mean I had a more authentic experience than the place next door that was filled with 'white' people? YES! Because for all intensive purposes during the time I ate my lunch here, I WAS in Hong Kong! The food combinations are interesting in that a hodgepodge of Chinese and Western items make up the menu. But rather than Americanize food, this place mirrors food served in Hong Kong after WWII when an influx of foreign foods fused with local flavors to form a new kind of hybrid cuisine. I've noted other restaurants around Chinatown with this same format but didn't quite understand what they were until I read the history on this menu.
Food wise, I've tried two dishes here, the Laihan chicken (with soup)--one of their signature dishes-- and the healing sliced fish congee. Both dishes were highly satisfying, neither overly salter nor greasy, and probably quite similar to food severed in Hong Kong. I'll skip the ubiquitous joints elsewhere with their standard Americanized Cantonese dishes (lemon chicken, sweat and sour pork, beef/broccoli) and come here for some more Hong Kong experience. I'll have to go against the trend and give this place the coveted 4-star review. I hope to try one of the mango cakes one day. Cheers! -
Review from Slim Y.
San Jose, CA
I have to say that ABC bakery cafe is one of the few cafes around where they actually have decent HK styled food & drinks. I especially love their hong kong styled teas and wonton noodle soup.
I usually just come here for a quick bite to eat and really, their goods are kind of limited. Their bakery is kind of a joke- I mean, the buns are ok but the cakes aren't that great. I like their fresh rice wraps in the morning and their wonton noodle soup is a hit or miss (their wontons can range from 5 star "heaven!" to 2 star "what the heck?!" ) their Hong Kong styled tea is what I really like there though- you can smell the silky milk tea aroma once you open the doors. Mm....super good milk tea with condensed milk? LOVE IT!
I would definitely recommend for people to try the more traditional Hong Kong cafe stuff but stay away from the more Americanized stuff like beef stew...spaghetti etc....ugh, my friend's order of spaghetti looked like it had tomato paste in it not sauce. Plus the noodles were kind of hard and gross- it was almost like it wasn't even freshly made.
Service-wise...well, truthfully, they're really bad at cleaning and have terrible customer service. It's the same people over the years and the service has never improved. Ugh, this lady has these plastic gloves on all the time and she never changes them- I saw her pick up a dropped bill from the ground (HANDS TOUCHING THE GROUND!) THEN turn around and serve wonton noodle soup with her dirty gloved thumb touching the soup!!! She never even changed the gloves!
The people who work there no matter male or female are all super rude. Don't expect any kind of service not even the basic kind. -
Review from Mindy X.
San Francisco, CA
9/4/2011
Came here with my mom last week and the first thing I thought was "ABC xi wo xi wo" lol from ABC by MC Jin. for yall that don't know abc= American born Chinese. This might not be the origins of the name for this cafe, but it fits esp with the menu. With so many choices, it's a fusion of Chinese and American but everything is very affordable. The place is pretty crowded even on a weekday, while I prefer the booth tables, we were placed at a 4 seat table.
I ordered an almond milk tea to start and it came steaming in a clear cup. You know that feeling when you've just drank something lovely, you get that ahhh everythings right in the world sensation? Yeup they know how to make real almond milk alright with little almond granules and condensed milk mixd with hot milk.
For lunch I ordered the Shui Kai? noodle soup. Its sort of like wonton but the dumplings have an extra ingredient in it. The dumpling was the best part, the noodles a bit egh... could be better, the soup? a bit bland if not a little oily. But I have faith, it wasn't that bad esp for the price. Service was ok given the place was bustling but don't be shy to flag down a waitress if you need something. Place is good for a quick semi intimate lunch, not so much to chill as they serve you your check fast. Btw there actually is a restroom, its just through this door in the wall, down a flight of stairs, and in the basement I think. :P -
Review from Jon G.
8/30/2011 1 Check-in Here
Thank you for the use of the restrooms and the buns.
That's all I really know about the place folks. Hope it helps. -
Review from rob d.
San Francisco, CA
3/12/2012
i had a bowl of won ton soup with prawns about 1.5 hours ago. i'm still twitching from the high levels of msg.
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Review from Connie C.
8/7/2011 2 Check-ins Here
ABC prides itself as a cha-chaan-teng, meaning a tea cafe where patrons can sit down, enjoy a bun and sip on tea. I remember ABC being really busy when I was younger and I was able to come here again a few days ago with my dad and sister.
ABC still offers a variety of buns at the front of their store and they even have buns sitting on racks for customers to pick. They have hotdog buns, green onion buns, dinner rolls, egg tarts, and much more! The sit-down menu however is unimpressive. We came here for breakfast and apparently there's no such thing as a breakfast menu. Everything is served all day.
The options were pretty lame and I was hoping for more since ABC has been around for a while. I ordered the wonton egg noodles, my sister ordered the ham omelette, and my dad ordered noodle soup too. My order was upsetting. If you've read my other reviews about soups, you know that the soup is what brings the entire meal altogether for me. I took a sip and they did a poor job at cleaning the noodles. Egg noodles leave a gross taste if you don't clean it properly and being unclean, the noodles tainted the soup and it tasted almost bitter. The wonton was okay but I lost my appetite from the soup alone. My sister's omelette was weird. They added a tomato sauce inside the omelette and she said it didn't blend well as a whole. My dad's meal? I don't trust his opinion most times.
The service was ordinary but they have no common sense. One waitress felt the need to swat flies in the back room with the electric fly swatters that makes a noise each time it zaps one. Not exactly what I want to hear as I'm eating.Plus, this means there are tons of dead flies everywhere on the floor because she didn't pick them up. Its also not helpful to your business that you attract so many flies. -
Review from Jennifer T.
Alameda, CA
2/3/2012
We like coming here to order the hainan chicken rice. They make very good hainan chicken rice and sizzling plates. Very good Chinese food with a bit of western influence.
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Review from Cat N.
12/19/2011 1 Check-in Here
Best place for wonton duck noodle soup! The Hai Nan chicken with rice is also great. The other dishes are hearty but greasy, and there aren't too many vegetarian options. The servers aren't chatty, but super efficient. I'm 100% certain they have the cleanest bathroom in Chinatown, which is quite a feat and enough reason alone to go here versus anywhere else!
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Review from Victor W.
5/28/2011
Fine place for quick HK style food. Overall, the food taste good but the place feels a little dated and dirty at times. Nonetheless, I frequent this place because of how authentic the food is.
The baked goods are pretty safe. Staples like wonton noodles or steamed chicken are pretty safe choices too. -
Review from Shannon K.
Mountain View, CA
1/4/2011
This place does the trick if you're wanting "fast Chinese food," but don't expect miracles here.
Noodles: Make sure you ask whether you're getting real Chinese noodles (e.g., egg noodles, rice noodles) or spaghetti noodles because a lot of their dishes are cooked with spaghetti noodles. I don't know about you, but I feel jipped eating spaghetti noodles at a Chinese restaurant... doesn't that seem odd?
Fried Pork Chop and Rice (1/5): I was thinking that they'd give that good Taiwanese pork chop rice dish or some sort of tonkatsu, but this one was covered in some radioactive red sweet sauce. Bleh.... And the meat was really tough. Definitely pass this one up unless you want a face full of thick, sweet red sauce. I think they should take this one off the menu and revamp it-- get rid of smothering the entire dish in that red plastic sauce, fry up those pork chops nice and golden brown, put a side of Asian dipping sauce next to the bowl, give some of those Asian pickled cabbage sides and throw it on a bed of white or brown rice. Now THAT is a satisfying pork chop rice dish.
House Special Noodles (3/5): If you're craving the pan-fried egg noodles that have that sauce in the center that makes the noodles crunchy yet soft, then order this because it'll hit the spot. The description "House Special" isn't very helpful, so here's what's in it: a hodge podge of everything like diced chicken, pieces of chao xiao (bbq pork), a few shrimp, one or two pieces of calamari, imitation crab meat, snap peas, carrots, bak choy and frozen veggies. Yes, you feel like you're eating something oily, but sometimes you just want some fast food Chinese noodles that have protein.
Popcorn Chicken (2/5): Passssssss. Don't get it here-- just go to Guppy's (Cerritos / Irvine), Mountain View's Castro Street (Verde Tea) or even one of those Tapioca Express or Quickly chains. The popcorn chicken isn't popcorn-y: no crunch, no kick of flavor. It's just pieces of chicken rolled in breading and fried. Meh.
Get your tea on because they're very generous with refilling your tea cup. Tea is $0.50 a person.
Oh-- and it's all cash here! SUCKS.
The good thing about this place is that it's open late at night (e.g., after 11 pm) and the service is quite good. :) If it's still open and you're looking for a more pricey alternative, march yourself two blocks down and go to R&G Lounge. -
Review from Irene T.
Daly City, CA
8/6/2011
- 3 stars for service
- 1 star for the menu
The food was good. But I hated how at the end, when they gave me my change, the waitress just automatically went, "So you know, you haven't given us tip yet." Ticked me off. I was going to give your gosh darned tip so calm your tits lady. Also, I got the Afternoon Tea Special: A rice plate with a hot drink. She never asked me for my hot drink ):
P.S. On the menu, it says Fresh Tomato & Beef over Rice. Well, there's also eggs with it o: I just thought they should make it more clear... what if the person who orders it in the future is allergic to eggs?! -
Review from LeeLee C.
Milpitas, CA
12/11/2011
This HK style cafe is quite a popular choice in Chinatown. A 1.15pm on Sat noon, the restaurant was packed with people. Compared to other places, the service was relatively better and the staff was helpful. We tried their baked combo plates ($8.50 for two choices with options like shrimp and seafood, ox tongue, etc), baked pork chop over rice and sizzling steak set meal. They were all good. The hot milk tea had the option of adding sweet condensed milk and the customer can determine their sweet preference. I don't think the prices are particularly cheap (except maybe the baked pork chop over rice for under $7), but overall it's a solid 3 star place.
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Review from Tammy C.
Updated - 9/27/2010 5 photos
(See pics)
Yes I come here for breakfast, lunch and sometimes dinner because it's a casual place with good food. It's inexpensive and people here are fairly efficient! And the food is always sizzling hot.
Came here after visiting some friends and wanted to grab a quick and filling bite. The sizzling steel pan beef with noodles was smoking delicious with the sprouts still bouncing off from the plate. I ate almost all of it. My friend had the baked pork chops with spaghetti. I don't know how much he liked it but he finished the dish!
It's less chaotic as they finished the Mid Autumn Festival moon cakes season and back to the normal nice bakery and cakes happily sitting in the glass fridge.2 Previous Reviews: Show all »
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12/15/2009
(See pics)
I come here very often for lunch and sometimes to pick up bakery in the morning. It's a… Read more »
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Review from Stephanie Y.
San Francisco, CA
10/3/2011 2 Check-ins Here
This place is crazy. If you can actually find the line to get a table and then finally get seated, then you have a chance of tasting the food. The menu is like a hodge podge of chinese and american. I got the roasted duck and beef brisket noodle soup. The duck was super fat, hardly much meat to eat. There wasn't much brisket, but for the few it was pretty tasteless. The salt and pepper chicken wings were ok. Can't really mess up fried chicken wings with just salt and pepper anyways.
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Review from Winnie J.
San Francisco, CA
12/27/2010
So, I've came here a couple times with my family, usually with my mom, which pretty much love the noodle soup here.
As a traditional chinese person she is, she always picks the noodles with the fish soup base. It's good if you like the fishy taste.
I prefer the "four treasures" one...seaweed with noodles is actually a very nice combination.
You should definitely try their 'lai fun'-- if you're catonese, you know what I mean...they're the best! You get to choose what noodles you'd like with your order, so definitely try this one.
Service isn't exactly great there, slow and the waitresses look sleep-deprived, but that's okay, the food makes up for it!
Happy eating! -
Review from Alice X.
Alameda, CA
4/24/2011 4 Check-ins Here
This place is great for eating lunch with your coworkers. Food service is generally fast but the food is mediocre. It's not the best and it's not the worst.
Every time I come here, I am overwhelmed with the amount of food choices on the menu. I never know what to order!
They have lunch specials that includes the main dish, soup and complimentary hot drink. I've tried their pork cutlets and I wouldn't recommend it, it's very fatty! Their wonton noodle soup is OK. I've tried other dishes as well but I can't remember any to-die-for dishes.
The service is okay...the ladies working here have their good and bad days. Just don't expect too much when dining here! -
Review from Florence S.
San Francisco, CA
3/25/2011
I used to come here a lot with my family, but now at most, I come once a year maybe. Today was the first for me this year.
I LOVE their Baked Meat & Cheese Spaghetti here. I'm a creature of habit, so even though there's a lot I like from here, I'll always get that. I've been to many places but none make this dish as good as ABC. It's probably what keeps me coming back.
Portions are pretty big (for me). I always have leftovers.
Service is okay. There haveve been good days and bad days. Not really consistent.
They're usually pretty good with our orders, but this time around, the waitress didn't write my mom's order down, so her wait time was doubled. The waitress was very apologetic, so I won't deduct any stars.
3.5 stars for pretty good food, good portions, decent prices, and okay service. -
Review from DANA L.
San Francisco, CA
6/29/2011
I like the food here even though every time I come here I always get the chicken curry with rice. But I tend to get different kind of drinks each time I order. Last time i got the 'PINEAPPLE ICE'... it literally meant Pineapple chunks from a can in a cup of iced water.
The customer service is not really good. Even when they aren't busy they still wont talk to you unless you ask for them. Sometimes they forget your order.
But otherwise, this place definitely has a bit of Hong Kong touch to it. -
Review from Rahil P.
1/15/2011 3 photos
I wasn't too hungry, so I went for a Bourdain meal. I asked the waiter for a special meal, and he told me about steamed chicken. I saw an older chinese person eating this, so I went ahead and ordered it.
It was served with rice, salted peanuts, some ginger oil mix, and dry roasted vegetable soup. The soup tasted what I imagine sewage water tastes like. It had mystery meat inside it too. I couldn't identify what animal or what body part it was according to the bone. I could only bare a few sips. Conversely, the rice was bangin'! I know it's just rice, but compared to everything else, it was a savior.
On to entree: steamed chicken. It's barely cooked, barely salted (if any), and cold. It tasted exactly like my description: barely cooked chicken. Maybe this reminds chinese people how the food was during their awful childhood as a peasant in the mainland somewhere. Nothing special.
I still give it three stars just because I purposely ordered something crazy. The place itself was very clean and modern. They probably do have good food, just not what I ordered. -
Review from Anna N.
Alhambra, CA
9/26/2010 2 Check-ins Here
Love their wonton beefstew noodle! No place in LA area can beat it.
Love their hoi nan chicken also :)
This place is in C-town so you can't really expect super good service but otherwise they are okay. -
Review from Kristin X.
San Lorenzo, CA
8/5/2011
I needed to grab a quick bite before going to see the dentist. Bought an onion roll and cream bun for a total of $1.50. The pastries were mediocre, nothing special.
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Review from Jackie S.
11/26/2010
I needed a snack in the afternoon, so I asked my husband if we could stop by a Chinese bakery to pick up pineapple buns. My favorite place to go to is Napolean Bakery on Stockton Street. However, I wanted to try the pineapple buns at ABC Bakery since that is where my husband buys buns.
We searched everywhere for this bakery, but found it! There weren't a lot of choices left around 3pm. Luckily my husband can communicate in Cantonese since there weren't any prices for the pineapple buns. We bought four for $2. The buns do not taste good cold, but at least my hunger subsided. -
Review from eric l.
San Francisco, CA
2/18/2012
i used to always come here after going to the bars , this place opens till 3am, jus bought time to sober up and get home, i always ordered the baked meat spaghetti everytime i came i would have to get that one handsdown, the servers there are friendly in my opinion, thinking from therr stand point working with so many rude,drunk people at that hour i wouldnt be able to deal with it in the manner they do so i give props for that
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Review from Lisa R.
San Luis Obispo, CA
Updated - 2/21/2011
We were back for the Chinese New Year Parade weekend. This time the good cooks must have gotten worn out over Spring Festival (or went back to China to celebrate).
It was a quiet night, not crowded at all. And the food was off - all but the Hai Nan Chicken. The steamed chicken was tender and the minced ginger oil dipping sauce was wonderful! The rest of the meal was not wonderful.
The Chow Fun was done in a way too hot wok (or a dirty wok); but the flavor and the couple black crispy chunks of rice noodles point to too much heat on the wok. What is a basic dish was ruined. They were out of pea greens, so no gingko and pea spouts. We opted for the spinach and green eggs in soup, which we both really like. But the spinach was mushy. The wonton soup was OK.
Hopefully this was just an off night, thus the generous 3 stars.1 Previous Review: Show all »
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7/31/2010
My husband and I finally found this place last week! A friend I'd met in Guangzhou China (and now is… Read more »
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Review from Miss Maggie C.
San Diego, CA
8/11/2010
Oh emm geee, they had THE BEST green onion pancake ever!!!! It was flaky, the middle was just a little bit doughy, and it was hot off the press! You could tell it was very freshly made. SOOOOO AMAZING!!!
They looked at my funny when I asked if they could put an egg on it.... I guess that's a Taiwanese thing ? No clue.. but even without the egg, it was deeeeelicious.
I forgot to add, it's quite pricey at $6.50 a pancake.... -
Review from jason g.
San Francisco, CA
1/12/2009
Wow.............this place is bad. Lack of service, the sub par food, and the filth in this establishment is eye opening. I don't even remember Chinatown being this dirty until I came here. This is the Lucky Penny of Chinese restaurants in Chinatown. Except the waiters here are a lot friendlier here than LP. I went with a few friends the other night and this is what we had.
Mince beef with egg over rice. This is a terrible rendition of the classic. It had a sweet tomato taste to it accompanied with frozen vegetables. Who puts vegetables on mince beef over rice? Very bad. It was inedible
Chicken Ala King. Don't even bother. The pork chop house a few store up the block, aka lun ting, is a lot better and cheaper. As hard as it is to believe.........there are actually cheaper places than this place.
Curry stew over rice. I just don't like sweet curry. Not my cup of tea.
wonton and sui gaw were the only two items that were good and the gai lan, Chinese broccoli was average at best.
ABC and ZY across the street are by far the worst restaurants in Chinatown. I think a good rule of thumb. Don't try any of the restaurants with alphabets in them..............oh wait.........VIP on Broadway is pretty good. -
Review from Ken K.
5/24/2007
Review and stars are awarded for their iced HK style milk tea only (and nothing else). On my way home from the musicial yesterday, I grabbed a drink to go from here.
The conglomerate that owns this ABC Bakery Cafe, also owns the locations in Noriega SF (the settings are just as nasty looking as this one) and Oakland Chinatown (not that much better). On the upscale side, the same folks also own the fancy seafood and dim sum restaurants in Foster City (good but inconsistent) and Milpitas (yuck most of the time and you have to suffer through singing out of tune karaoke at wedding banquets if you dine here on certain weekends).
Having tried the HK iced milk tea at all locations of ABC, I can say that this SF Chinatown branch makes it the best, and arguably the most authentic flavor, trumping Oakland and Noriega, and near the top of my list of places that make this drink good (and not very many I might add, including a few places in the East Bay).
Best of all, it was strong, great texture and smoothness, and it did not keep me awake at night, which the Noriega location's version has been guilty of several times. The Oakland one is probably the least flavorful, ok during the first few sips but once the ice starts to melt, the flavor decreases exponentially (and I think they used crushed ice if I remember correctly, the worst way to go).
One thing I noticed is that these folks pour the tea right out of the pot, then add evaporated milk, ice, sweetener. That is probably the best way to get the fullest flavor of this drink on ice, unlike Broadway Bistro and Washington Bakery who pour from a pre-made container holding what looks like some nasty liquid hazmat sludge with shots of milk (HATTE? HAZSLATTE?). I dunno what it is, but in general these pre made mixes generally taste a bit sour and almost ground coffee like, as if they added a twist of lemon. Ironically in Hong Kong they DO offer a drink called Ling Feh, which is coffee with lemon but I'm sure it doesn't taste like shit with a fruity twist.
Lan Fong Yuen in Hong Kong, arguably the birthplace of the HK milk tea drink, they use ice cubes made with part milk tea, part water, so if the ice melts it won't dilute your drink. If only these ABCs took it a step further, but alas this is Chinatown.
Washington Bakery used to make a decent cuppa, but now it looks like ABC is the better one. Not sure about New Jackson Cafe next door...not keeping my hopes up on that one.
Chinatown is still good for very few things, and I would add that this is one of them. Otherwise, not a good place to be overall. It is worse than Hotel California, you can visit, but you definitely wanna leave and check out as quickly as you can.Listed in: The Low Down on Run Down SF…
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Review from evelyn y.
San Francisco, CA
10/30/2006
Yeah thats right yelper!!! This is authentic hong kong style restaurant. (And owner is previous winner of " Miss Hong Kong") Will highly recommended if you are craving for hong kong cafe. This is the kind of style restaurant you will see everywhere in HONG KONG. They are very good, but I just don't seems to get over the atmophere of louddess and sanitation for these type of chinatown restaurant. I never manage to eat here nor chinatown ones either. But I love togos!!!!
Baked pork chop over rice(20 min wait)
Anything with Curry (based upon favor on meat fish, chicken, beef,beef stew, seafood, )
Beef Chow Fun(wet style)
Best "Wonton"
cream of chicken/corn
* Definitely will passed on their Pastries*
You will enjoy more when you don't see or feel the atmosphere. -
Review from Gloria H.
Updated - 11/27/2009
Can always count on Chinese restaurants to open on American holidays like Thanksigiving. After striking out in Union Square, we headed back and decided Chinese food is the way to go. Of the many places that were opened, we decided on ABC - had a sudden craving for wonton.
The place was over half full, just regular folks having dinner. There is a special Thanksgiving menu but I didn't see anyone order it.
We had the combon wonton/dumpling soup fun and the stewed eggplant, preserved radish w/ chicken over fine rice noodle. The soup fun came out pretty quickly - the fun was thinly sliced and very smooth - hits the spot perfectly. The rice noodle took another 20 minutes or so and it was a disappointment. There were about 5 pieces of eggplants, if that many, and the sauce they used were too sweet...to a point where we just couldn't eat it.
Word of advice, stick w/ the wonton/dumpling noodles - it's good and consistent.
PS: one of the ladies working dropped one of the tongs on the floor - the tongs they used to get buns and such. She picked it up and proceeded to use it on buns without even wiping it - all within sight of all the customers. I will not be buying any buns here.Listed in: Chinatown Eats, Buns - another craving,…
2 Previous Reviews: Show all »
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4/14/2009
I was so much of a fan that I suggested for my family to meet up here for breakfast. Big mistake.… Read more »
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Review from Daniel C.
San Francisco, CA
4/19/2008
For the price, this food will float your boat if you find yourself in the middle of Chinatown. You don't visit the 'hood just to eat here, rather you go here if you lost your shirt at gambling, but managed to hang on to $7. You did remember to set aside dinner money, right?
What can $7 get you in this place? Noodles, sui-kau, wontons, rice plates, and a host of other cuisine. The menu is very large, so you're sure to find something to fit your mood. Make sure to ask about the specials though, since they're written in Cantonese at the entrance.
For dessert, try the coconut tarts or one of the other cheap pastries. I give them credit for setting the restaurant up with the sweets and goodies viewable from the street. But on the flip side, you sit down for dinner close to an ugly cleaning station with a sink and dirty mops. What the hay?
