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LOVE this place. Cheap hole in the wall place for dimsum.
BUT
Watch out for the cochroaches! I've seen some crawl all over the baked goods, but for years I haven't let that stop me from buying the dimsum.
I must say, their Ha-gow (shrimp dumplings) are YUM! Full of flavor and always fresh! This place is consistently busy and the trays/ containers of steamed delicacies are usually replenished every 20 min. The pastries are made in the morning, but I can't review them because I've never had them. =)
Great place for favorable tasting and cheap Dim Sum on the go!
1. Steam pork buns
2. Ha-Gow (shrimp dumplings)
3. Sweet rice cake
4. Pork shumai Dumplings
5. Fun-goh (pork, shrimp, mushrooms)
There's been a long line of customers at the counter every time I've gone, and it's because of the greatness of the dim sum and the insanely low prices. Yesterday, I got like two bagsful of all different kinds of stuff for just over $20. Both the steamed and baked pork buns are great, the barbequed chicken on kebab sticks is always perfectly done, and the shrimp dim sum (the ones that look like seashells, with translucent wrapping) is really excellent. (This time, the BBQ pork turnovers were a little on the bready side.)
It can be a pain to park in the area, but it's worth it, I guarantee you.
Good , Cheap food here. My son loves their wings. we got 2 lbs this time.
Chow fun is good as well as chow mein.
CHEAP good chinese food.
Wing lee oh wing lee,my hangover haven of dimsum delight,How i savor your savory treats.In the morning when my heads are a throbbin(hehheh)one thought of wing lee and im all http://right.call a friend for a ride as im too delicate to drive,20 minutes later and at wing lee we arrive.Wing lee oh wing lee you are my hungover hearts delight!
The sesame ball I just ate was sad and tough. Why Wing Lee, why?
Cheap and pretty good dim sum here. I got an order of the Pork Shumai dumplings, 3-pieces, all for a buck fifty wow! So I thought I'd splurge and picked up a Chicken Bun for an additional 90 cents. You can eat in or grab food to go. Several steaming dim sum dishes to choose from. Service was fairly fast.
Tummy was satisfied and the wallet stuffed...
Another one of my must-visit places in SF that I've been frequenting since the days when I lived there. Dim sum from Wing Lee, washed down with a pina colada tapioca drink from Sweet Delite next door is the perfect meal. I love the cheung fun (long, flat rice noodles filled with shrimp or other things), jeen duy (sesame ball with lotus paste inside), ha gow (shrimp dumplings), and leen yung bow (lotus paste bow). My grandpa is a huge fan of the bows, so we usually take at least a dozen home for him. I like the quick, informal atmosphere, and it's always fun to people watch while we're eating. Don't forget to make a stop at Green Apple across the street afterward!
Congee here is good.
Cheap and good.
Had the Da Bao which was OK. The innards were delicious but the outside bread wasn't dense enough.
The ham sui gok was crispy but there wasn't much pork filling in them.
Two vitasoy drinks to finish them off.
$6.55 for two people you can't complain.
The women were very nice and had a good personality that makes that experience that much better.
This place is not too bad.
Stopped in here after seeing how busy it was, also to see the line stack up I figured it had to be a local favorite.
Place appeared to be fairly clean compared to others and it was busy enough to tempt me.
Not starving but in the mood for a quick savory treat, I decided to go with one chicken kabob and a custard bun all for $2.50 not bad at all.
Service was friendly, quick yet sincere.
The chicken kabob was surprisingly delicious- meaty and flavorful with few little pieces of fat throughout, though not too bad.
Custard bun was ok, texture was fluffy soft and chewy (definite plus) though HUGE! Little to big for me. Custard with in bun was the best part; I actually ended up just throwing most of the actual bun out and eating custard part.
Overall from what I had it was descent and flavorful, prices are great and I do believe I would go back to try more of there different types of buns ect...
Take-out dim sum...hmm...while the concept is not new even in Hong Kong, it certainly is not what I think dim sum should be. Granted, I'm rating this place based on the food alone.
If you read every review, you'll find that the reason this place gets a lot of stars is because it's cheap. The reason I'm giving the place a 2-star is also because it's cheap...dirt cheap, because the food isn't even worth that.
But if you know anything about dim sum -- don't believe the reviews. All the dim sum are oversized and cheap, but, well, they hardly compare to the offerings of any good dim sum restaurants in the area. Worst is, when I ordered the radish cakes (which actually tastes pretty good) and rice noodles (with beef in it), they have to microwave the food, right in front of my eyes.
Speaking of which, rice noodles (cheung fun) are supposed to be very, very thin, with meat rolled up into it. The rice noodles here have to be more than 0.5 cm thick, which is nothing like I've seen.
So, if you're tight on money, this place will feed you well. (a bbq pork bun is bigger than my hand, but the filling is just so-so) If you're hunting for good dim sum spots, you might want to pass on this -- even with the cheap price I don't think I'll go there again. It's all about the price to quality ratio - I've had way better dim sum for just a bit more than that price.
The food here is alright if you are in a mood to be cheap. The dumplings skins were thick and kind of starchy. The shrimp in the shrimp dumplings were huge and not bite sized at all. They lacked flavor and the shrimp fell out as soon as I took my first bite. The pork siu mai were dry and the bottom was inedible. The pork sticky rice was bland and it didn't have the flavor that usually accompanies such a good thing. The chicken on a stick tasted alright but it too was a little dry. I also bought the chive dumpling and that was so-so. I will say that their food is fresh, which is why I included the second star.
Michael was surprised at how horrible it was.....He usually can eat anything and say that it was good. Diana couldn't taste so she couldn't tell you.
I should've just stuck with going to Good Luck Dim Sum like my gut (and tummy) told me to.
This place is awesome. I ordered a cocktail bun not really knowing what the eff a cocktail bun is, but is was sweet and delicious and a pork bun. The pork bun was enormous, but still fluffy w/a very tasty filling. Next time I need to try some dumplings...and there will be many next times, I mean this place is so cheap it is essentially free.
My favorite all time dim-sum in the whole Bay area.
The pot stickers and the chicken skewers with onion and green bell pepper are whats keeps me coming back. Parking is difficult but it's so worth to come here and get there mostly steamed items.
It's a bad idea to get here any time after 5:30 and expect to get a wide assortment of there eats. Their items sell very quickly. Yes it is very crowded at times. I try to leave a "tip" and the ladies behind the counter get a little uneasy and or confused. I asked why one time and they said " These asian businesses work a little differently"? I was surprised.
If your thirsty you can bring your food into the 540 and have a beer and eat your dim sum in their bar.
Good times.
Another steamed chicken bun review from yours truly. I believe I've had steamed chicken buns from every dim sum takeout place that offers them on Clement, Irving, Noreiga and Taraval (though I haven't written a review for all of those places). Wing Lee offers a good version of the steamed combination chicken bun but Clement Restaurant's steamed chicken buns reign supreme in the Richmond and the Sunset.
Combination chicken bun analysis ($1.30):
* Appearance/construction: Round and big, not that heavy though. The filling is not tightly packed inside but appeared to be almost in four separate areas. The bun was too loose.
* Bun dough: good flavor, smooth, slightly sweet, not too dense but a little denser than Clement Restaurant's, not soggy at all
* Filling: The chicken chunks are bigger here which is a nice touch. Comes with one whole shitake mushroom, a piece of Chinese sausage, a wedge of hard-boiled egg. Nicely seasoned, not too salty, tender chicken. Needs more filling.
* Temperature: Served warm (big plus)
The combination chicken buns are the most expensive steamed buns they have. They had other steamed buns like chicken, pork & vegetable, egg custard, etc., and baked buns too. The dim sum dumplings looked larger than average (3 for $1.50) and they had chewy red bean pancakes. I didn't step foot into the deli side which has a separate entrance. Seating is available.
Cash only of course.
For those of you who go to UCSF, and often to go the nurseteria to get your dim sum.... STOP! UCSF gets their food from here, so you should just come and get it yourself here! it's so cheap, 3 pieces for $1.50. Their shrimp dumplings are filled with lots of shrimp, and are sooo flavorful. Their pork siu mai are also very yummy. What I like about this dimsum place in particular is that their dim sum is pretty big, and flavorful. I don't think you can go wrong with anything at this place. =)
oh yea... Cash only!
You can come here to stock up on both dim sum goodies and attitude. That's pork buns + impatient scowling. 2 for the price of 1. The product is what keeps me coming back, but the ladies behind the counter could be just a tad friendlier. I feel like I always get lectured at every time I come. Doesn't go down too well with the breakfast.
BUT if you are the type who can swallow a bit of your pride for a satisfied stomach, I would still say that this is the best chinese bakery in the Richmond for certain things. They even have the long lines to prove it. My favorites here are the pineapple buns, the pork buns, and the shrimp dumplings. Just be mindful of the things in the glass counter. They are not always made fresh the day of. Sometimes you take a bite, and you realize it was yesterday morning's left overs. This has been esp true for the coconut & taro bread.
OK - CRAZY BUSY in here but, but BUT! If you stand there and smile while taking in all the rushing and noise while patiently waiting your turn and someone tries to cut and take your turn. . . the nice ladies behind the counter will shout at that person and wave you over. Ok wave me over - I am so scared to accidentally kill one of the peeps crowding around because at 5'6 I always feel like a giant around my older Asian peers.
$11.60 yielded me two containers of little treasures - today's favorite of the collection: lo mai fan (I dunno how to spell it so gimme a break if it is incorrect - you know what I mean anyway) wrapped in a thin rice paper. Those little pouches of rice, lap chung (whatever, spelling again), and minced green onion make me feel like I am sitting at a round table at dim sum with my ex Chinese family!
I like the wonderful flavor of the vast variety of dim sum they offer, clean locale, fast service, and great price guarantee that Jennifer the half Asian giant plans to return like Gozilla crashing through Japan!
**update as of 4/1: Thanks to my buddy Charlton the spelling was close:
Law Mei Fan and Lap Cheung. ::laughing:: but you all are so smart you figured out what I meant and thanks to Charlton, I now spell it correctly which will come in handy for future posts, just watch!
Wing Lee continues to be my favorite dim sum spot along Clement Street. Granted, I haven't tried every single dim sum shop along Clement Street, but among the ones I have tried in that area (Good Luck Dim Sum, Gourmet Dim Sum & Clement Restaurant) Wing Lee stands out as the one restaurant that uses the least MSG. That's good news for someone like me who is sensitive to MSG or high sodium levels.
Like most dim sum places I have my likes and dislikes. You will never, ever see me eating turnip cakes, leek dumplings, beef siu mais or beef rice rolls at any dim sum shop regardless of how good they are. I don't like the taste of them, and I definitely don't like the look of them.
As my friend Sara A and I embarked on a six day great outdoors trip this would be the only restaurant food purchase of our entire trip. Everything except for the shrimp gows were exceptional, and through the magic of words and pictures here is where my review begins. One other thing, what I refer to the pastries as may not be what the restaurant refers to them as.
Chicken Siu Mai (http://www.yelp.com/bi...) - It's everything you love about your pork siu mais, but ground chicken thigh meat is used instead of the pork. The filling seems pretty simple with ground chicken, finely chopped mushrooms and carrots that are wrapped in a thin flour wrapper and steamed. These were very well seasoned and I could not detect any MSG.
Shrimp Gow "aka" Har Gow (http://www.yelp.com/bi...) - You get at least two baby shrimp in each along with some finely chopped bamboo shoot, and some gritty tapioca starch encased in a rather thick steamed rice flour skin that is super rubbery. Sara and I actually played catch with one, and it was so rubbery it didn't break open. These were okay, but I definitely detected some MSG inside the filling.
Fun Gor or Steamed Pork Dumpling (http://www.yelp.com/bi...) - The filling is very well compacted and had good flavor. The rice flour skin was also on the thick side, but aside from the ones my mom used to make I've come to expect thick skins on fun gors. The filling consisted of minced pork, shrimp bits, mushrooms, carrots, bamboo shoots, green onion and cilantro. All were chopped finely. No MSG taste.
Sweet Rice Cake (http://www.yelp.com/bi...) - These are a personal favorite of mine. Pretty simple too. It's a ball of sweet glutinous rice (sticky rice) flavored with minced green onion and bits of BBQ pork and wrapped inside a super thin rice flour membrane. These pastries appear small but just a few will fill you up because the rice is packed so firmly. Here is how it looks on the inside (http://www.yelp.com/bi...).
Bean Curd Rolls (http://www.yelp.com/bi...) - We had to try these because we had never seen them offered here before. These are a good vegetarian option to the meat filled rice rolls and very tasty. The filling consisted of thin glass noodles, chopped shiitake mushrooms, strips of carrot and strips of wood ear wrapped in hydrated dried bean curd and steamed. They're served with soy sauce and chopped green onion. We both agreed that these were delicious for a dish containing no meat. Here's the shot of the filling (http://www.yelp.com/bi...).
Chicken Combination Bun (http://www.yelp.com/bi...) - My dad and I love Wing Lee's chicken combination buns. As you can see from the photo there is tender, juicy chicken thigh meat with green onions, a part of a hard boiled egg, a whole shiitake mushroom and a piece of Chinese sausage inside the steamed sweet bun. Best of all ... no MSG taste.
The ladies here are cool and all are very much trilingual (Cantonese, Mandarin, English). If they can understand my Chinglish they can understand anyone.
This Chinese bakery can get fairly busy during peak hours or on weekends. I love their lotus leaf… Read more »
Typically, on any given Sunday, my early afternoon consist of walking four blocks down the street with my roommate to Good Luck to get our dim sum grub on. The line was to the back of the room, so we said forget it and looked for other spots for dim sum in the area. So many to choose from, we decided to Yelp for a recommendation.
That led us here, Wing Lee Bakery. There was actually no one there, so we were standing in front of the counter immediately. Prices here were still great (most of the things were 3 for 1.50). Nothing to say about the decor of the place but again, these to-go dim sum shops aren't there for their fancy dining. The dim sum here were noticeably bigger than usual which is nothing to complain about! I still think the taste doesn't quite measure up to what I've had.
All in all, I think this is a great alternative. I am a fan! Not my first choice in the area, but still very delicious and a couple blocks closer to me =D.
I moved here from Boston where I can find incredible gai mei bao (cocktail buns). You'd think SF would be much better with its long history of cantonese food. How could I go into such a promising looking place on Clement and get a crappy cocktail bun? The bread was dry, the filling too sweet. If they can't get something like this right, why try anything else? I think this place gets good reviews because the competition on clement (from bakeries) isn't that strong. If anyone knows where in SF i can get a great gai mei bao - do tell!
This place is great for take out dim sum. Their prices are very reasonable...and everything is always made so fresh. My family and I come here for their siew mai, ha gao, and their sticky rice balls (not sure what it's called in Chinese). Simply put, this place is reasonable and convenient when you can find parking in the area.
When dining in at Wing Lee, they place your dim sum on a piece of wax paper and place everything on a pizza tray. It's the cutest weirdest try I've seen for dim sum. But hey if it works?
Come here for dim sum to go, or quick bite to eat. Prices are insanely reasonable.
One of my two favorite places in the world to get bbq pork buns. Quality product, not too sweet, not fatty or chewy bits.
My friend, D, and I stopped by for some take-out dim sum.
I got:
3 Sesame balls (my favorite)
2 baked buns
2 wives buns (buns with bitter melon)
4 moon cakes with bean paste
all for $7.50
They were freshly made and yummy.
My friend, D, got sesame balls and wives cakes. She said the sesame ball was the best she ever had!
We happened to catch them when there was no line! But by the time we finished ordering there was a line out the door.
Service was friendly. And she carefully wrapped all my purchases separately so they arrived home tasty and unscrunched!
I could have easily have ordered more but I knew I was going to be returning!
Great place for togo dim sum.
all duplings are great and very fresh.
I like the zhung (Chinese tamale) and juk too!
Lately my kids have enjoyed the grilled chicken pieces on a stick.
Reasonable prices.
I would not dine in though. Just not a nice place to sit down.
Alright, lets be honest with ourselves.
Wing Lee is no fine dinning establishment. The place is small. The lighting is harsh. The service and prices vary wildly depending on mood (I've ordered the same thing, every week, for a year now and paid anywhere from $3.02 to $5.60) and sanitation doesn't seem to be a major priority on anyone's mind (at least behind the counter. I always think its cute that they take the time to wear gloves, but don't remove them to handle my dirty, filthy money.).
That said, I effing love the Wing Lee Bakery. If I wanted a fancy feast, I'd go to some of the overpriced sit down Dim Sum "Houses" found all over the City.
I'll take the cheap (if variable) prices, the no nonsense attitude, the amazing rice balls and the screaming intercom system any day.
What can I say? I'm in love. And sometimes love doesn't make any sense. Sometimes you love something so wrong, that it just ends up being right. Ask my boyfriend. He'll tell you.
The best dim sum dishes for the price in SF.
It's NOT the kind of dim sum that you invite your friends to on a Sunday and sit down at a table and people come by with carts. It's the kind of place where you just drop in, between going to Green Apple Books and that store with the cheap kitchen stuff, when you're hungry and don't have a lot of time, but want something really tasty.
The har gao is excellent, there's usually a chive or leek gao that's also excellent, the pork bun is one of the best I've tasted, the sticky rice is awesome, and everything is priced right.
Wing Lee Bakery has definitely dropped down a peg or two since I last visited. This place used to make the best potstickers. Granted their shrimp balls and pork/beef balls left some to be desired but you could count on the Wing Lee potstickers. No more.
Like the days of the styrofoam box and the pink plastic thank you bag, the good potstickers are gone. Oh and they're now more expensive too.
I miss the good ol' days. Maybe I just grew up with a higher standard for Dim Sum.
I prefer this place to Good Luck Dim Sum, one of its neighbors and a definite favorite. The beef siu mai and har gao are generally better here. Also, the wait tends to be shorter.
I do miss the lower prices. I've come here, on and off, since '98 or '99. Of course, not much hasn't gone up in price *and* 50 cents a piece is still darn reasonable.
Date: December 8, 2008 @ 12:06 PM
Occassion: Craving for a really good jook
Ambiance: Hole in a Wall Dimsum Place
Service: Surprisingly friendly and accomodating to people who do not know the names of the dimsum.
Taste:
1. Jook (Just how I like it: thick, with chunks of pork and hundred year old egg)
2 . 2 orders of plump shrimp dumplings ( 3 pcs each)
3. 1 order of dry tofu roll ( 4 delicious rolls filled with noodles, carrots and black mushrooms).
Tab: $8.45 for lunch today and tomorrow. (Yummy leftovers!!!)
Also available: Meat buns, custard pies, sesame balls, diff kinds of dumplings and rice rolls.
Plus: Accessible semi-clean bathroom. Priceless while shopping on Clement Street.
It used to be our top of the mind place for deep fried chicken drumsticks and lunchbox. The drumsticks are so popular and the restaurant has to make a lot in a day to meet the demand. We used to order 7-8 lbs for party all the time. However, in the past 2 years, the price has been raised so much, from $2.75 per lb to $3 to $3.25... We got 7 lbs for less than $20 in the past and now possibly 6 lb for $21.
The lunchbox is also not the cheapest in the area any more. The cheapest one is sold in the cafe next to Our Court Cafe on Clement at 11th Avenue. But, the chicken drumsticks are the most tasty ones in that neighborhood.
This is my go to Dim sum place. I have tried other places and this is my favorite for togo dim sum.
Usually my pals and I stop in here then take dim sum over to the beach on a sunny afternoon. It's an amazing deal. For $10 you can feed two people. I love their shrimp and leek dumplings. Also they have baked and streamed pork buns.
Har Gow, how I love thee. The shrimpy centers they make here are plump with shrimpy deliciousness. Unfortunately, their wrappers are like a big wad of gum. Blech to rice-flavored gum!
Some of the other dumplings are also yummy, but I can't get over the gummy wad of rice wrapper.
Baked pork buns are DELISH. No downside. Dough is sweet and delicate, and filling is full of pork chunks. Woohoo for porky numnums!
I stop here kinda often considering it only warrants three-ish stars. Can't explain it, but maybe because it's exactly midway between Smart and Final's parking lot and Green Apple Books. Convenience wins!
Decent prices for some dim sum~
Used to come here most of time in the morning for some dim sum when I used to work in the area.
The lady was nice and recognized my super handsome face after the first visit HAHAHAHAHAHA ok cross out the super handsome...
They carry the usual items, like ha gow, shu mai which had variations of pork or chicken, the shrimp rice rolls and some others. Their rice porridge is not bad too.
Best dim sum take-out place in the city! At $0.50 a piece, you cannot go wrong here. I usually like to mix and match my orders so that I can get a variety of things. The wraps on their dim sum are really thin, moist and have the perfect texture. Also, their shrimp always tastes fresh, unlike some other places I've been to.
My favorites:
- har gaw (shrimp dumpling)
- pork shu mai
- shrimp & leek dumpling
- shark fin dumpling
So delicious!
You are like my daughter who can play the violin, carry 80lbs of textbooks and operate a TI-83 with the greatest mastery of Calculus.... at the age of 6 years old.
There has been such disappointment in every other house of dim sum, I have to kinda get dramatic about how friendly the counter help is, and also profess my love for such wonderful dim sum.
It's best and very fresh between 7am and noon.
It's probably not the best place to go eat if you don't eat pork.
i've been frequenting this fast food style dim sum awesomeness since i was a oh but a wee recent grad with little money and no career aspirations. not much has changed since 2002, and neither has this place. you can grab all your dim sum faves - bao, potstickers, sesame balls, shumai (my ultimate fave) and a host of others - to fill you up for $5 or less. i admit i'm not a dim sum connoisseur nor am i particularly well known for my taste in chinese food (my other favorite "chinese" restaurant is panda express) but this place provides food yummy enough for those of us who still delude ourselves into myths of fortune cookies deriving from the ming dynasty.
i'm subtracting one star for clement street for lacking parking in an already lame neighborhood
I luv their dim sum. Best value take-out dim sum. Huge shrimp and pork dumplings.
For a cheap value lunch/snack , go to this neighborhood hole in the wall restaurant. For a few bucks, you can try almost every dim sum dish.
CHEAP EATS !!!!!!!!!!!!! GREAT FOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!
I especially loved the bean curd rolls which were nice and chewy on the outside and had a crisp filling on the inside. I'd never had the dry bean curd before or the wood ear in the filling. I liked their savory sticky rice balls too and filled up on just that. My friend also bought me some flat rice noodles with just shrimp in the middle. These came with sweet soy sauce. I was hungry too, but the dim sum was quite tasty.
I usually stop by here during a day of shopping on Clement and its pretty good for what you pay. But since I've moved to the area I've gone a couple of times and noticed how rude the staff are. I don't know if its because I'm not Chinese and I don't know what everything is called, but it sucks either way.
I went this morning to pick up a nice breakfast and I knew that I was going to order a lot so I asked for a to-go box. I saw that the woman in front of me was offered a box so I didn't think it would be a problem. Instead, the server looked at me like I was an idiot and threw all of my food into a plastic bag, which was exactly what I was trying to avoid.
The experience wasn't all bad but unfortunately, the quality of service tainted my whole breakfast. I would recommend the baked pork bun and the shrimp gow (if its freshly made, mornings are best).
Neighborhood: Inner Richmond
Category: Dim Sum
Neighborhood: Outer Sunset
Category: Dim Sum
Neighborhood: Inner Richmond
Category: Dim Sum
Neighborhood: Inner Richmond
Category: Dim Sum
Neighborhood: Nob Hill
Category: Bakeries
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