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Specail salt & pepper chicken wings appetizer for $1.95 when you mention http://Yelp.com. Available anytime!
Mon-Sun. 11:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
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I always come here for their happy hour specials. 2:00 - 5:00
My friends and I would always get their "Ja Jang Lai Mien". Oh btw, the menu is in chinese for the happy hour so bring someone who knows how to read chinese. Sorry non-readers LOL
But seriously, the ja jang lai mien is to DIE FOR! Omg the noodles are so soft and slippery.. and the soup. Don't even get me started on the soup! It's tangy, sweet, spicy.. You just have to try it.
The next dish we'd get would be the "jiew yeem dao fu pok" (salt&peppa tofu cubes). The outside of the tofu is just perfectly crisp and the tofu inside is soft and can just melt in your mouth. Be sure they give you the soy sauce for it, and add hot sauce to it. Don't use the soy sauce on the table, it's different.
These two are the best I've ever had at this restaurant and at any other restaurant.
The one thing I don't like is their "hong dao bing" or "luk dao bing" (red bean ice or green bean ice). They put tangerine peels in it. I know some people like it with it, but just my personal taste, I don't like it.
Wish I knew about the $1.95 wings before I went!!
Came here for dinner by recommendation of family as a sticky hole in the wall chinese restaurant. (That's where you find the best food!) Anyways, as we drove up the dark alley, saw the bright lights of the Double Dragon Massage place...then Utopia...it proved to be promising. You can hear old opera music and mah-jong as you exit the car.
The ladies that work there speak limited English. We got the $28 set menu, added the sizzling frog claypot and salt fish fried rice. The set menu came with soup (seafood and tofu), greens, steamed mushroom chicken, sweet and sour pork, and whole fried sole. Definitely a lot of food for 4 people! The food was fulfilling. The claypot was excellent! I would eat here again...just have to remember to bring more people!
When you walk on one of San Francisco's Chinatown's historic alley, you actually feel like a part of Chinese History. I can elaborate all day from my grandparents taking my siblings and I to hang out at one of many associations listening to Old-school Chinese Opera and play mah-jongg, to assisting my parents in grocery shopping-duties in my beloved Chinatown.
It did seems like yesterday when that happen. And currently, I have the responsibility of carrying the torch and take my daughter with me to walk around the historic Waverly Alley for an early dinner. We all know that history is over and the future is tomorrow. But like yesterday, today and beyond, Waverly Place is still one of the most historic and "dirtiest" alleys in San Francisco.
Utopia Cafe has been opened maybe twenty years and amazingly the restaurant is one of the newest businesses in the block. As a result, there isn't too much history of this restaurant. But I can tell you that this bright-light and hole in the wall cafe serves your conventional Chinese cuisines.
I had a craving for a clay pot meal, so my daughter and I split an ordered of Curry Chicken in the steamy Clay Pot. For $8.00, the Clay pot's content contains the bits of chicken meat, sliced onions and peppers in a thick and mild curry sauce. With just about everything you wanted in a meal, the clay pot was comforting and tolerable enough for my daughter and I to enjoy.
We also split an order of Salt and Pepper Wings for $5.00. We get ten pieces of the crispy wings and they are crispy and tasty. I just found out that the restaurant is currently having a special on the wings for $2.00. Just mentioned to the helpful and friendly waitresses that you are and proudly a Yelper and you will get those wings for the special price.
Our meal also comes with tea, house-soup and warm red-bean soup for dessert. The waitress were very vigilant and assisted our needs when needed.
I paid our meal in cash and credit cards are also accepted. There is also a Yelp-sticker and various awards on the door too.
Now that is your Chinatown History lesson from me. It's also free too.
Went to try and buy the salt and pepper chicken wings and mentions saw the special on yelp to get it for $1.95. But they want the printout of the coupon.
Yelp said "This is our special tasting item, and is available for dinner for yelp readers. Please mention that you read this offer from http://yelp.com.
'
Thats what I did, so I'm going back to show them this also happen last time they had this ad.
The lady at the counter seems like the owner with glasses and short hair and don't understand english that will. Hopefully, someone can explain to her in Cantonese about the yelp special, because I can't speak that good.
Came back to try it when I was in the neighborhood and wanted...well, fast and cheap.
This time, the server was almost entirely MIA (waved her down six times before she noticed...and then took the longest time to get iced water for another table before coming).
Food was decent. But as we came in the evening, there were no real specials. We ordered a 3 dishes combo...and paid extra for rice (seriously? Who eats side dishes without rice?!? I hate when places charge this... $1 per person...). Food was generally OK, but nothing really with a "wow" factor. The Chinese-style beef texturally and taste was fine...just weird how it sat on a bed of raw onions. o.O real weird...
I'm still not seeing a wow-factor that makes me want to return as a frequent customer...
I came here with some old co-workers the other day.
The service was good - its a small restaurant,…
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I recently had lunch there, and it was "just okay"...
I was quite excited after hearing about this small Chinatown eatery from a food blogger. I've been in that area many times before- but never had any urge to eat inside the Utopia Cafe.
The menu there features your typical Chinese restaurant fare- noodles, soups, various meat dishes. They had rice porridge available- gonna have to go back to try the sampan jook with deep fried chinese donuts one day. We shared a few dishes- won ton soup (delicious and tasty- had a real home made taste to it), honey walnut prawns (crisp and tender prawns in a light, sweet creamy sauce), and a pair of clay pot rice dishes (one with chicken and mushrooms, the other with smoked meats). Both of these were okay- I was expecting more after hearing how great it was. I almost forgot to mention the free bowls of soup we received - carrot and some sort of root. The soup was refreshing and light- a nice touch (and did I already mention that it's free?). lol
Service was good, and the place is pleasing compared to other Chinatown spots. Prices are about inline with the competition... food was average/okay. Nothing to get too excited about.
If you're in the area, I'd suggest stopping by for some great home made tasting won ton- it reminded me of mom's! The rice porridge looked good too- several locals had ordered it. Note that they do offer 2 hours parking validation ($6 value) at the Portsmoth Square underground garage in Chinatown - with a $30 purchase.
All said- I'd go back... but then again, I wouldn't go out of my way to eat here again.
***extra tip*** there's the double dragon massage parlor (with gated security camera doorway) right next door... can you say "happy ending"? Also, there's a Chinese temple a few doors down. Climb all the way up the zig-zagging flight of stairs- you'll be transported to Asia with all the exotic sights and smells. Be sure to donate a few dollars for incense and please- no photographs.
The salt & pepper chicken wings are outstanding. And that's no lie.
Every time I go back (and I go back often) I try and find something on the menu to order WITH the wings. So far nothing has been any better than average. Closest I've found is the beef chow fun, which was tasty if less than an inspired choice.
The clay pots seem popular. I'll try them next.
Service is decent. For some reason I really like the atmosphere; maybe it's the slightly-hidden location.
I've been to almost every restaurant in Chinatown and this is a place has made it onto our list of regular take-out places. The service isn't anything special, but what do you expect from a place in Chinatown. My favorite things to order are:
Roast pork and oyster clay pot
Chicken fried rice
Beef chow fun
Don't order the water melon drink ... you'll be disappointed!
I came back on a weekend night and the food is still yummy. I tried the chicken and mushroom clay pot, chinese brocolli, walnut shrimp, and beef chow fun. I was disappointed that the rice was not as crunchy at the bottom, but the rice was still delicious, nonetheless.
You can get better chow fun at other chinese restaurants, but the restaurant is clean, service is good, and MSG isn't used as a main seasoning, like at other chinese restaurants.
Salt and Pepper chicken wings - Juicy, crispy, and delicious
Chicken Chow Fun - Lacked vegetables and…
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Came back for 'boh jai fan' again -- was craving it badly! Got the ground pork pattie and salty fish one again to share with the family, but this time, also got some garlic pea sprouts, shrimp and pork wontons, salt and pepper tofu.
Everything was delicious, although this time, the crust on the bottom of the claypot rice wasn't as scorched as the last time I ate here.
I thought service is pretty good for Chinatown, but again, that's because I speak Cantonese, and they seem to react better than say, English or Mandarin.
If you spent $30 or more you also get 2 hours validated parking at Portsmouth Square Garage -- so that's even more reason to dine here.
Everyone loved it!!
Can anyone say "claypot rice"? There isn't anywhere in Orange County or LA County for that matter,… Read more »
We liked it so much we came back the next day. For some reason, we could not find a restaurant in the biggest Chinatown in the U.S. that served wonton mie for breakfast. We were starving and craving it, and after a frustrating walk, we found this place and decided to give it a try because it was open at 1030am and served wonton mie.
Ironically, the wonton noodle was mediocre, but the char koi tiaw (stir fried rice noodles in English?) was excellent. Words can not describe it.
We came back the next day for lunch and ordered the koi tiaw again. So you can get a great lunch for ~$7 here, and the wait staff was friendly.
The dumpling noodle soup was good but not great. Dumplings very tasty with some kind of peanut flavor but the noodles were a bit hard and the broth nothing special.
OMG... go there and order the fried rice with pine nuts and seaweed. It sounds a little weird, but is SO GOOD! The fried rice isn't greasy at all, and the pine nuts and seaweed add interesting flavor.
Imagine, fried rice that's not oily! Amazing.
I ordered clay pot take out from here (chicken and mushrooms) and it was really good. The portion… Read more »
Wow!
What a great find. My friend came to visit from Flagstaff, AZ. We were walking around Chinatown, and discovered this place. We were very happy to taste the frog claypot for the first time. We were the only non Asians in the restaurant. This is a good sign.
Nobody talks about Sweet & Sour Soup. it was huge, and very tasty. In fact, I am taking my East Bay friends there this weekend. I cant wait.
Great place for the price.
I hope you realize that Utopia is the name coined by Sir Thomas More for an ideal society possessing a seemingly perfect socio-politico-legal system. Now I'm not sure if they have achieved that level of nirvana since I was stuck in the corner of this compact place with no room for my bulbous body to squeeze through. Does that sound like Utopia? It sounds more like Dystopia if you ask me...or maybe Anti-Fatopia!
This bare-bones restaurant is located on the surprisingly non-congested alley where the redoubtable Uncle's Cafe is on the corner. Even though they have the standard Cantonese dishes on the menu, I came here for the famous claypots. I took a look at the faded 2003 San Francisco Magazine cover (see my photo) they have framed in the window, which spotlights the $6.95 Cuttlefish and Minced Pork Claypot as #34 among the top 125 best things to eat in the city. OK, that's for me.
First up was a cup of warm, nondescript soup (see my photo with the appealing reflection of the fluorescent lights). Then came the huge claypot topped with lots of tender Chinese broccoli (see my photo). Underneath was a big patty of pork and cuttlefish chopped up into a burger-like consistency, all of it resting on a whole lotta rice. Naturally the best part of the rice is the crusty part on the sides of the bowl. I have to admit I liked it a lot, though I kinda wished it was a fried rice to break up the carbs a bit. There was enough for two people, but I was having a bad day, OK? Don't judge me.
FOOD - 4 stars...hearty claypots...but hey, you don't get to keep the bowl, dammit
AMBIANCE - 2.5 stars...lunch room central at a senior center
SERVICE - 3 stars...they work in Utopia...they must be happy, right?
TOTAL - 4 stars...oh what the hell, we'll keep it at 4 stars for the mutha-sized claypot
Try not to come here during lunch if you plan on driving there. You'll have a hard time getting into the parking lot or dodging tourists if you try to park on the street. If that doesn't stop you then make your way into the famous Waverly Street.
We usually order their minced pork with egg clay pot. It's quite good here and really cheap. Wonton noodle soup is good too but not the reason why I come here. If you have someone that reads chinese characters... then you're set. They have specials all over the wall that aren't on the regular menu.
We had cockroach in the soup!
Utopia is my "go to" for clay pot when I want a relaxed lunch with my friends. (I like to bring my own apple juice and no one minds.) My favorite dish is the Oyster/Pork clay pot and the Salty fish/Pork clay pot. These dishes are about $7 each and very generous in portions!
Utopia always serves a nice soup with the meal - which is a plus - because it's healthy home made Chinese soup.
I've \friends who enjoy american-chinese food and they always order the orange-chicken or the kung pao chicken which I find boring - but at the Utopia, it's always good. I taste it once in a while to be friendly, but it's not what I am looking for when I go to China Town.
How do you know the food is good? Because there are always a flock of Chinese in there eating and having a good time. (Once, there were some older women having a *real good time*! That was nice to see! Laughing and animated they were having a fine lunch talking over things.) If you enjoy people-watching the Utopia is good.
The servers are responsive, helpful and friendly. Being a guai lo, I like to try out my broken Chinese on them and they are good natured at my feeble attempts; always giving me a smile and sometimes comprehending. I had a hard time asking for a glass for my apple juice, and they taught me the correct phrase: "sui bui" - meaning "water glass".
I was here recently while working on a show, and I have to say I really like the place.
The noodle soup with fish balls and meat balls were great. I liked the tea, although it could have been a bit hotter. The only thing that was lacking were the egg rolls. The filling was a bit on the bland side, however, the pork was good, and a little hot sauce woke it up.
I will definitely be back.
I hardly make it to Chinatown since traffic is a pain... but when I do go, I have to stop at Utopia for 2 reasons: 1) clay pots and 2) salt & pepper chicken wings. I was never a fan of clay pots until I ate here... but now I'm addicted to them, especially the chicken & mushroom clay pot rice... Such a simple meal but yet so rich in flavor... I could just eat the rice w/ the sauce over it and be a happy camper. As for their salt & pepper chicken wings... YUM!! Crispy, juicy and soooo delish. I always need a whole order just for myself, oink, oink!
A couple of things to note... the waitresses english is limited... so be patient! Oh ya, they validate parking.
utopia cafe is by far....one of the better chinese restaurants in chinatown.
tucked away on waverly place, next to the shady double-dragon massage parlor (wonder what the outside cameras are for?), utopia serves up bomb chinese-sausage clay pots, general's tso's chicken, & salt/pepper jalapeno fried chicken wings. sooooo yummy!
i loves me some burnt rice stuck all around the clay pot!!!
lap cheong lap-may bo-jai fan! YES!
jiu-jeem ja gai-yik! YES!
Read about this place in San Francisco magazine and decided to give it a try. Never even knew this place existed. The Chinese name to this place is quite unique - ginseng satisfy porridge - but basically it's food that'll you'll be satisfy with.
Now, they are also famous for their clay pot rice and is there any Chinese who doesn't LOVE this dish? It's not a fancy dish but it's not easy to make it right. Wherever they served them, we have tried and this place is the BEST yet. You must know a little about this dish to understand or try to catch the episode when Anthony Bourdain was in Hong Kong. It's rice with whatever toppings slow cooked in a clay pot -the result is a layer of crispy goodness and flavorful rice from whatever topping you choose (black bean sparerib, chicken with mushroom and chinese sausage, combo of preserved meat and chinese sausage, salty fish pork patty, beef patty...the possibilities can be endless and establishments are getting very creative.).
We ordered the finely minced preserved cabbage and beef clay pot rice - it was made perfectly. The beef was flavorful and every grain of the rice was perfect. The crunchy goodness was just divine and of course, the sweetened soy sauce makes the meal complete. The plus was the rice also included some tender greens. $6.95!
We decided to try the pork giblet porridge ($4.50) and the bok choy chicken pan fried noodles ($6.25). The porridge was ok - the thickness was just right, the ingredients were a bit overcooked and it was lacking a bit of taste. The pan fried noodles was tasty and surprisingly not oily as expected - the chicken was a bit 'choppy' and the bok choy was just ok.
So all this was less than $20 and we had left over to bring home, not to mention the free bowl of the house soup and dessert (taro with tapioca).
From looking around, I see their stir fried dishes are most popular and they all looked very good. We will definitely return for the clay pot rice - likely will get two and try one of their 15 flavors although the frog one is always tempting.
Big plus: they validate up to 2 hours of parking at Portsmouth Square! We did see a sign on the door re: change of ownership. Like many HK styled restaurants, they also have 'Happy Hour' from 3-5pm? where many snacks, noodles and rice dishes are at discounted price.
Not much for ambiance. There are florescent lights to illuminate your favorite clay pot. The servers appear stressed and are very short on conversation. The food was cheap, delicious and not as greasy as other Chinese restaurants.
My first visit there a few months ago was okay. They gave us some soup while waiting for our order of clay pot and another dish. Just one turn-off was they included service charge on the bill (we don't look like tourlists!)
We wanted to have their clay pot again, but at our second visit a few nights ago, things were little different. All seats on the ground floor were taken so they sent us to downstairs. The room looked like a karaoke room trying to be a banquet room; a TV screen on the wall, a storage closet with mirrored sliding doors and half-way-done drawing of cultural architecture on the wall.
The waitress was a little rude by asking we, two of us, wanted ONLY 2 dishes. There was not soup this time. It took a while for the food to arrive (compare to the next table which was seated right after we were seated), but they were tasty.
Then one of the workers came down, pointed something in the back of the room and yelled at us something we didn't understand. Looking at that direction, I realized the floor was wet. The water seemed to be coming from back of the room. So we switched to another table. A few minutes later the water was coming close to our way. We asked if we could move to upstairs to another worker who came down, but she did not understand us. So we just grabbed everything (purses, plates, tea cups and chopsticks) and head to upstairs.
Those who were working upstairs were surprised that we showed up with all our dishes but also looked more concerned not to make things obvious to other customers. They apologized and said our bill was being fixed. That probably meant removing the service charge. It otherwise looked nothing unusual to me.
I will probably go there again but not to downstairs!
Went here today for lunch since everything else had a 45minute wait because of the autumn moon festival.
We ordered the Sampan Porridge, Minced Beef w/Raw Egg in Clay Pot, and the Dumpling Noodle Soup. All three dishes were good, tasty, but bland. I rarely salt anything, and it perturbs me that I have to salt the porridge at this restaurant.
During our visit to San Francisco, we were recommended to visit here.
It's a pretty darn good place to eat, actually. Authentic Chinese food and good clay pots. Yum. Plus, since it's San Francisco, the fish is fresh too. The tea wasn't all that great, though. We visited at dinner, by the way, so it might have been the time, but I don't know.
It's good to order some of the Chinese dishes for the three-dish special. Those dishes are good as well. It's also a veggie paradise as well: Veggie Crispy Noodles, a vegetarian claypot, vegetarian fried rice, and an entire vegetarian dinner. Seriously! Needless to say, I liked this place. If I lived in SF, then I think I would come here quite a bit.
I usually don't like most of the places in Chinatown, food is mainly catered to tourist and not so authentic... Not to mention, cleanliness is a big issue for me!!! But this place is a jewel!
It is kinda of hidden and I really love their clay pot rice, had so many but this place is made just right! You have many choices but the best in my books is still the chinese sausage and duck... yup, the BEST! My husband laughs at me when i order the same thing over and over again, but I really like that one! Also, you can order their steammed fish and not have to pay a lot like in most places!
The soup is complimentary, but i wouldn't care for it... is not tasty and it's mainly watered down soup!
But i come here mainly for the clay pot, and rice can be found crispy on the bottom, and that is the way it should be! Very cheap and if you want, their veggies is prettty reasonable priced! The place is clean as well, that is always a plus for me when I am in Chinatown!!!
Noted as one of SF Examiner's Top 10 Chinese restaurants in 2003 and featured in San Francisco: Great Escapes magazine for May 2003, they sure have gone downhill since then.
I was running some errands today through the rainy mess and had to hit up Chinatown. I figure I would grab some lunch, and passed by this cafe in the alleyway of Waverly Place. Nestled between the suki suki Double Dragon Massage parlor and the Wonderful Foods Co., it's quite easy to miss.
I noted that most, if not all the diners were Asian, Chinese-speaking Asian. Usually a good sign, right? I ended up with the Chow Fun, dry style. I requested it vegetarian. This cost me $6.25. I figure with that price, they would take out meat and throw in some veggies....any veggies would be good at this point! I would be so happy if I found broccoli, snow peas, carrots, mushrooms, string beans, or even cabbage!
I got back to the office and this is what I found...a box of brown noodles with no taste, bean sprouts, onions, and green onions. Shute, all those 'veggies' would have been in the regular order anyway! Now I'm stuck eating a box of greasy noodles with no substance whatsoever! Argh! I hate this. Thank gawd for hot sauce. Okay, so it does look like I have an overabundance of bean sprouts in there, but hey, bean sprouts are damn cheap! (I'm beginning to pick them out now 'cuz there's so much!)
If I'm ever dragged back there, maybe I'll have to get there salt and pepper rock cod that was featured in the magazine. But yeah, no to go orders for me anymore from here! Blah!
Sidenote: They offer two hours free parking at Portsmouth Garage with a minimum $20-$25 purchase (depending on what sign you read). They also have the 'secret' Chinese menus posted inside and out...y'know, the specials that are a steal but only if you can read Chinese can you order from it. I can't read Chinese, oh well. I feel stiffed!
Tried their veggie fried rice, pretty good, but I thought it was kind of a small serving (but it had a variety of veggies that I don't normally see in fried rice ie water chestnuts, broccoli, etc), but my dad LOVES their wonton noodle soup and he knows wonton noodles back from his old HK days.
Great value and the clay pot really is the attraction. The smoked duck and preserved pork type was good, but not great. However, at $7 it is hardly anything to be disappointed about. They do the basic chinese dishes and seemed to have some dishes tailored for the american tastes. For the price, I would be very hard pressed to go elsewhere and get food just as good.
Like somebody else, I had the buzzing fruit fly issue. Service is definitely their sore spot, but you just need to be aware of the shortcoming.
Beers and a 3 course meal for two grown adults was under 30 bucks.
My quick rule of thumb for picking out a decent cheap Chinese place in SF:
The yellow ratio - if Chinese customers to non-Chinese customers is at least 3:2 then you're good to go on the grounds of authenticity, menu selection, and the ability to customize your order. If there aren't enough tables of people in the restaurant to apply the ratio, well that's not a good sign in the first place.
So how was this rule successfully applied to Utopia cafe? Well first, I was a little thrown by the name Utopia restaurant. I mean Utopia? That's way more whitified than something like New Sun Hong Kong Restaurant, which is essentially as redundant as saying "Chai Tea" and whitified normally means too salty and greasy in my book to be any good. But the cheery yellow awning and random icicle lights in the middle of Waverly alley at least convinced my friend and I to walk up to the window and peer in.
And that's when we applied the rule - more Chinese people than white. Sweet. Let's go in.
How did we fair? Well, it was decent food! I was still nursing (at 9pm) a hangover from the previous night, so I was craving salt and pepper fried chicken wings. They came out quite perfect. Tasty, piping hot, and juicy. Plus, they had clay pot rice, which while it looked like a large hamburger patty slapped on top of a pot of rice, was savory and crispy on the edges.
Despite the decent food, it's a 3 star place because I hate it when there are fruit flies buzzing around a restaurant. I've seen fruit flies in all kinds of restaurants, regardless of cleanliness expectations, but it just gives me the eebie jeebies. And I counted 2 fruit flies constantly circling our table last night.
1 star...1 star.. if i could give zero, you would've received a zero! NEVER COMING BACK HERE EVER AGAIN!!!!!!
OK.. the food is good, its not bad. The Clay Pot Rice is to die for, but the Salt and Pepper Chicken wings were HORRIBLE! They came out Half cooked half raw! WTF!?! how are you going to serve us raw chicken? When it came to the table, it looked ok, but after a minute sitting on the table... blood started dripping out.. it leaked out of the chicken... wtf.. so we complained... we told them to take it away, and that we didn't want it. When we asked for the bill, the chicken wings were still on there, and we asked the waitress why is was still on the bill. She said we ordered it, and that she could only replace it with a different dish.. and we said, hell no.. we want a refund, but she wouldn't give it to us. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO SERVE RAW CHICKEN to your customers and not refund us the money!? I WILL NEVER EVER COME BACK HERE EVER A AGAIN!!! Learn some business ethics! DOUCHE BAGS!
So here's one of those hole-in-the-wall chinese places that I absolutely love!!!
Located in an alley of Chinatown, you get this weird feeling like you've discovered a whole new part of the neighborhood. Waverly Place has been recently redone so it looks a little cleaner, but still it's a cool little alleyway as you walk north with the view of the old ornate buildings.
Everytime we take friends there, they're like 'What? You're taking us here?' - and i'm just like 'HELL YEAH!!!' - it's not the prettiest of places.
The food however makes up for appearance of the restaurant. The dish that everyone in the world must try is the Sweet and Sour Chicken. It's to die for. First time I tried it... pure ecstasy! I was like oh. my. god. this sh!t is good.
I gave it four stars because sometimes we have to wait forever, and the service is not always what it should be,,, the prices are awesome.... we never spend more than 20 bucks for two people...
Give it a try!
Update: This is now my second time here and just reiterates to me what a good deal that I'm getting. For $20, two people can eat well and be really full. For dinner, they even give you a nice taro-sago dessert soup. Upgrading this as 4 stars now. Parking in C-town can be difficult though.
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This place is a real find. The restaurant is located on Waveryly Street, the street made famous by the Joy Luck Club. This is a place frequented by locals. There is a slow familial feeling to the place. The food portions are generous and price is sooo good. A three entree lunch consisting of fried squab (three succulent pieces), mustard green with garlic, and steamed pork with salty fish came out at $18.
I can just imagine a local Chinese person eating at Aqua for lunch where one entree will cost you $20+ throwing a fit.
Going into Chinatown for lunch is like traveling to Asia...different food, different ambiance and a different price!
Utopia Cafe is a find for the inexpensive but good Cantonese food.
The clay pot rice was done right with the right amount of rice crusted in the pot.
Surprisingly clean for being in the alley.
Exceeded expectations based on my one visit.
The food was pretty good-- really tasty and fresh egg rolls (not soggy at all), good chicken fried rice, but sort of bland beef chow fun.
However, as has been noted: there is a fruit fly issue. When my boyfriend noted the bug zapper behind the counter we were a little concerned, when he found a fruit fly in the chow fun, that was pretty much the end of the meal. I'd like to think that maybe it died sometime after the food hit our table, but still, it's something that they really should take care of.
I've been here a number of times because they serve Cantonese-style clay pot rice. The food is usually good, but the service is spotty at best. I've had half my order forgotten here, with no apology.
I can recommend the clay pot rice. It's good with chicken and black mushrooms, or with ribs in black bean sauce. All the noodle dishes I've had have been very good as well.
The downside is the service. It's generally slow and careless, and sometimes downright rude. As mentioned, on one visit I ordered a noodle dish and the claypot rice w/ chicken. The noodles came, and were enjoyable. 45 minutes later, without ever having had our claypot rice they slapped the check down on the table. When I pointed out that we'd never had half our meal, the apologized. 30 minutes later I told them to cancel the rest of the meal, and we left. I swore I'd never go back, but I have once. The best I can say for the service this last time is they didn't forget anything.
On the night of the Chinese New Year's parade we stopped at another restaurant and could not get served. As we walked past Utiopia something caught our eye; it looked cleaner than most restaurants in the area so we went in. The service was friendly and fast. We ordered a plate rice item and one clay pot. They were both served hot and they were delicious. On the way out the owner asked us if we enjoyed our meal and welcomed us back. Our two items (including tea) with a generous tip cost $20. All in all a very good restaurant on a very special street in San Francisco. How can you beat that?
This was my first clay pot experience, and it was really good. We had 3 different clay pots (chicken, chinese sausage and duck, and minced pork). I think my favorite was the chicken. Simple flavors with just chicken and mushrooms. I imagine this is pretty healthy too.
Sweet and sour pork was good, haven't had this in a LONG time.
String beans were not the greatest. This is a pretty classic dish and this one was sub-par.
Fried Oysters were pretty good. I was surprised, since I usually only like oysters raw. But they weren't too greasy, and had great flavor (good sauce).
Generally pretty good food. I'd go back for sure.
Best Kept Secret!
First understand that Chinese food has many categories... and fortunately for us we have Utopia Cafe to show us the other end of all that is good and not expensive.
Utopia Cafe is a place where the food is more Chinese Cafe style than that of a full dinner restaurant like R&G. As a Hong Kong average kinda guy, this place totally hits the spot when I want to get some normal eats at 6-8 dollars a person out the door. From porridge to noodles this place has all the good stuff, and it taste fresh and home made without the MSG. I recommend their salt and pepper chicken wings... don't ask just order! Their porridge selection is good and my favorite is their "cha jong mein" which is a pork based noodle that has a kick of spiciness to it. My brother really enjoys their clay pots as well, if you are in the restaruant. Best value for food, utopia Cafe is one of the best in my book.
Prix-Fixe Dinner
Neighborhood: Financial District
Special Deals for Yelpers!
Neighborhood: Outer Richmond
Neighborhood: Nob Hill
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: Nob Hill
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: Nob Hill
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: Nob Hill
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: Nob Hill
Category: Bakeries
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