Yank Sing

This is a long overdue review. The dimsum is decent but way over priced. Since I lived literally right across the street from here for half a year, I probably still would have come out of convenience.
BUT I only came once, and that was enough for me because the service was so horrible. Frankly, I felt the servers (host?) were racist and rude. (The irony is that I’m Chinese, and this is a Chinese restaurant). Avoid, unless you are not Chinese, maybe older in age, and don’t care to pay a premium for subpar dimsum.

YUM!!!
So four stars for the food, four stars for service, but two/​three stars for the fact that dim sum should never cost this much.
Le fiancé and I were in the area for a family wedding, cruising down Market, when we suddenly realized we were insanely hungry. We wanted a cheap and easy place to eat (but didn’t want fast food), and quickly realized in the area we were in that was going to be unlikely. We stopped in here just intending to get an order of dumplings to go, but the waitress didn’t really acknowledge that was an option and ushered us to a sit down table. Because it was raining, we accepted this fate. After giving le fiancé a stern, we are only ordering two orders of dumplings look, we went for it.
We got an order of the soup dumplings and the siu mai. Both were delicious! I saw some other reviews that they weren’t hot enough but ours were fine. Super flavorful. You really have to watch them though, I saw them pushing their most expensive items multiple times (like that $ 17 sea bass). That didn’t sit well with me — I like being able to relax when I eat, not be on guard that I’m going to be massively overcharged. Maybe people in the Financial District don’t care. But to me $ 17 for a dim sum item is just pure craziness.
Anyway, probably won’t be back because you can get dim sum for much cheaper that’s just as good of quality in the East Bay. But for the situation we found ourselves in, this place definitely hit the spot.

A busy upscale little place right off market. A lot of choices for you to try along with many favorites.
I think big parties are going to find seating a challenge so try to keep it to four or less. Carts come by fast and furiously and even if that one doesn’t have what you want, they speak into wireless headset to have the other cart come by with your request.
This keeps things moving fast that way. We will be back and recommend to friends. This is now our go to spot for dim sum. Unless there is yet an undiscovered treasure yet to be found… Stay tuned!

Took one of my work partners here for lunch yesterday to discuss some business related items. He had recommended it and I’ve always heard about it — so we decided to go there since we were in the area. It’s kind of tucked in an alley/​in-​between street from Market and Mission.
It was around 1:30PM and we were seated immediately. I’ve heard it gets filled up pretty quickly so I guess we got lucky and came at a good time! Right as we got seated, servers immediately flocked our table with offerings. Mind you, I haven’t even put my laptop bag down or my suit coat off! We were then asked what we wanted to drink so we settled with hot tea and water. The hot tea was good as it also came in a cool looking glass tea pot.
We only ordered 4 items: soup dumplings (about 5 – 6 small pieces), shrimp dumplings (about 4 – 5 small pieces), a shrimp and spinach (or some kind of vegetable — 3 small pieces) dumpling, and the crab pops (2 good sized pieces). There were all good/​okay, but I’ve had way better at other dim sum places around SF, Chinatown, and even in the East Bay where I live.
Then the bill came — over $ 50.00 for all and when I included about 18−19% tip, came out to $ 60.00. Again, that’s for hot tea and those 4 items mentioned. That’s pretty expensive. But I guess it is because it is the location (Financial District) and the hype that drives this place.
In my opinion, it was alright. I would rather recommend going to a place in Chinatown or something for that matter. Maybe I’ll try the Yank Sing To Go at the Rincon Center next time too. But we’ll see.

I’ve not had dim sum before, but this is exactly what I envisioned. The carts are pushing around busily and you just keep getting food until your heart/​belly is content. We had reservations for 4 at 12:30pm and were sat on time. You really have to pace the food, because they will keep your table full and feed you quick if you let them. We had broccoli, soup dumplings, pork buns, Peking duck, sea bass, and fried crab/​shrimp as well as tea. We had no room for dessert. Everything was tasty and seasoned well. I would come back for sure.

Yank Sing 2 has the same top notched Dim Sum, as their Rincon Center location. The crowd at this location tends to be more of the Financial District, as the other place has a combination of tourists and wealthy Chinese people. Please note that this place isn’t for the value conscious, expect to pay $ 25 to $ 50 per person! Unlike many Chinese Restaurants in Chinatown, Yank Sang has exceptional customer service and will continuously push those delicious plates, which somehow gets devoured! Another upscale feature, is the assortment of teas served in a clear glass teapot.

I really have no idea what the hype is about. My boss took me here for a late lunch and I was unimpressed.
Let me break down dim sum to you, it’s suppose to be cheap, delicious, and hot. This place fulfilled none of that. I understand that the price point can be higher due to the location, décor and the quality but I didn’t think the food was good, it was okay AT BEST.
Let’s start with the soup dumplings, first off, the they weren’t that hot, warm more like it, second way too much ginger in the filling and last the meat was not flavored well. When I have to pay about $ 11 for soup dumplings, I expect some din Tai fung quality dumplings but they were far from it.
We also ordered the Peking duck, it was 6.95 for 1 serving of duck that was 1.5 inches by 1.5 inches. Okay, I can just pay $ 10 and get half a duck in chinatown… also the duck was cold!
The rest of the food wasn’t memorable and lukewarm as well.
The lunch cost me way to much for the quality and amount of food I received.
That being said, the service and the décor was pretty good.
But in the end, the food is what counts. I think if you never had dim sum before, this is a safe environment to try it in, if you had, keep moving.

The famous Yank Sing in the financial district. Came here for lunch for a client meeting around 11AM, wasn’t too crowded, but it starts popping around 12:30PM!
Service was quick and fast. I really enjoyed their the small little details here. Such as their chopsticks are branded and the tea pot is super cute and cool. Just like a normal dim sum place, they just come around and you choose what you want.
We ordered:
Har Gaw: Pretty good and standard, the dumpling was kind of small
Siu Mai: Good not bad
Leaf with Sticky Rice: Liked their presentation, enjoyed this one
Shanghai Dumplings: Steamy and juicy, recommend ordering this
Pork Chop Buns: Hot and yummy
Fried Taro Cake: Loved this, can’t go wrong
Steamed Spare Ribs: Recommend, other places usually cook the spare ribs pretty dry, but they do a good job here
Chinese Broccoli: Basic, nothing special
Meat with Wrapped Lettuce: Not orth ordering, wasn’t satisfying
Fried Lobster: OK, kind of cold when it cam out
Mushroom Dumpling: OK
Chive Dumpling: OK
One thing I can say is their hot sauce is SOOOOO good and their hot mustard. You can buy it at any Chinese market. I highly recommend!
Overall, I found this place mediocre. I have had better. Not sure I would come here again honestly. But worth the try.

I always like Yank Sing. Yes, it is pricey. But it is also in a high rent area and they have a big selection. They also have a lot of vegetarian options (which isn’t always the case for dim sum). The spinach and mushroom dumplings were great. Their (pork) soup dumplings are really good — I think they are close to as good as Din Tai Fung. I also really like the eggplant and string beans. Father had the chicken feet and was loving them (apparently they are close to as good as what he has had in China).

Had a reservation here with a friend on a Sunday before some afternoon shopping at the mall.
I had heard a lot of good things about this place, but very little of it resonated with me when I dined here. When we walked up there was a long line to the front counter, which composed of people putting their name in, and people who had reservations. I feel like things would have been more efficient if reservation people didn’t have to wait in a long line.
3 things we ordered off the carts, 1 thing we ordered off the menu. From the carts we had the xiao long bao, pork potstickers, and bbq pork bun. Potstickers had good flavor, but were pretty cold. Not just sitting out for a bit, but on the cold side of room temperature. Still enjoyable but tasted like something off a buffet where the heat lamps were off and the door is open with cold air blowing in. In fact, that was happening with the front door here, and our seats were nowhere near the closest to the door, and we were still catching the occasional chill. Maybe the carts were catching it too.
Xiao long bao was fine, but was looking forward to something more special with all the raving reviews. It was also not steaming with hotness, which is one of the best parts about soup dumplings. Bbq pork bun was decent, also very middle of the road/​standard flavors.
The shrimp dumplings we ordered off of the menu took FOREVER. We reminded them FIVE times that we had ordered shrimp dumplings, and we were ready to just pay when they finally brought them out. Shrimp seemed of high quality, but one of mine had a really hard gritty piece when I bit into it. You never want that moment when you bite into seafood/​meat.
And when we got our check (after asking twice), took them a while to pick up our CCs, and then they disappeared for 10 minutes. What?! That’s a long time to be gone with our cards. We had to hail them down and remind them that they had our cards in order to get them back.
Go to a hole in the wall cheap and authentic dim sum place for better food and service than this.

I loved Yank Sing when I was visiting San Francisco! This is hands down the best dim sum I have ever had. This place was suggested to me by friends in the restaurant business in Texas.
We made a lunch reservation, and when we got there realized our weekday lunch reservation was overkill. Possibly because we were eating a later lunch, but they wasted no time getting carts to our table! They were asking us if we wanted certain items before we even sat down. That was tough because it was our first time here, and we had not even seen the menu! Also, I did not get a pleasant reaction when I would say no, thank you or please come back in a few minutes so I can look at the menu.
The food was absolutely delictable! We started off with melt in your mouth Shanghai dumplings that were tasteful and offered a flavorful broth on the inside with pork, scallions and ginger. Heaven in a dumpling. Had the curried chicken turnover– lovely filling of chicken and mushrooms, turnover had a slight sweetness on the top, and the pastry turnover itself (oh my goodness) was yummy, flaky, and buttery. Potstickers, pork Sui Mye, BBQ pork steam bun, green beans were all great choices too! It was hard not to keep going back here while visiting San Francisco, but I had a list of places I really wanted to try while I was there! I will return.
Downsides: got a little bit of attitude from waitstaff, from asking carts to come back or saying no thank to asking for water, it’s expensive for lunch dim sum (San Francisco dim sum pricing??).

Mediocre! I’m going to keep this review short.
This was my first Dim Sum experience that my friends absolutely raved about. So I was pretty excited. After seeing the EXTREMELY high prices, I couldn’t wait to see what all the hype was about. We order a few sets of dumplings, spring rolls, and some chicken dishes. I took my first bite expecting to experience one of those mouth orgasms that you get when the food is so good you don’t even take a breath before the next bite. Instead my face shriveled in disgust and disappointment. It wasn’t that it was bad, it just wasn’t GREAT.
If I’m paying $ 50 for something that I can get down the street from my house for a ¼ of the price I want to be amazed! That’s what turned me off from this place and why it deserves 2 stars. If you are going to charge insane prices, then you better come with it. The service was also slow it took them 3 tries to finally bring us water.
Like I said, this was my first Dim Sum experience, but I have had dumplings before and I KNOW there are cheaper and better places than Yank Sing. Save your time and money.

I think most of the reviews cover everything. The one thing I well note is that IF YOU ARE VEGETARIAN OR VEGAN, THIS IS YOUR PLACE FOR DIM SUM. They have a wide variety of vegetarian options. Most dim sum spots have about 90% meat based items. This place changes it to maybe only 65−70%.
But every other review is accurate: overpriced (about $ 30-​$ 35 per person), food was mostly good, and service was mostly good.

This place is fine. It’s totally fine. It’s not terrible, but it’s not great dim sum. If you want great dim sum, I don’t really know where to tell you to go, but this isn’t it. It’s also very pricey.
We tried:
— Chicken egg rolls
— Stuffed crab claw
— Steamed pork buns
— Shrimp dumpling
— Pork shu mai
— Shanghai dumpling (their signature dish)
— Pot stickers
— Green onion cake
— Curry chicken pie
The green onion cake was the best and I would say it was excellent. The pot stickers and curry pie were also stand outs. The rest were pretty bland. It kind of took a while for the food to come. And we were skipped for a while. I ate well but it was also $ 100 for two people. It’s not work that at all.
If you have friends who have never had dim sum, this is a good starter place. But for the deep cuts, go elsewhere.

The food here is very high quality – no blobs of gristle/​fat in the dumplings, especially the pork buns, and the noodle dishes aren’t mushy and the baked items very flakey and flavorful. The presentation is thoughtful – the shanghai dumplings are like works of art, holding in all that soupy broth in their thin noodle casings. Ingredients are super fresh, there’s nothing fishy tasting (or smelling) and the bites, although small (since it’s dim sum), are very filling. The hot chili sauce on the table is to die for. One person at our table even stated that he could eat it by itself – it’s that delicious.
The pricing is a little out of control… $ 16 for 6 Shanghai dumplings, $ 11 for a plate of potstickers, 1 peking duck bun is $ 6, 4 small pieces of jian dui are $ 11, and a small bowl of mango custard will run you $ 5.50. Traditionally, I’m used to rice and tea included in the meal but here it is a la carte, and adds to the final bill. For a modest midday lunch, expect to pay at least $ 35 a head, not even including any of the super fancy stuff like the sea bass, etc.
Definite must-​haves when you go: chicken curry turnovers (so flakey, buttery, and really delicious curry flavor), Shanghai dumplings, and chicken spring rolls.
However, the ambiance is very upscale and it is located in between the Fidi and SoMa, so a high price tag is somewhat to be expected. All in all, a great place for an upscale business lunch or an intimate celebration.

Other then the grand ambiance and love for being in the city, this place does have its ups and downs, big pros if you sit outside it is first come first serve, look for the steamed trays with piping hot goodies
Here is what I sampled and how it faired
Shu Mai — pork & shrimp meshed in a steamed roll — even though made fresh tasted as if it was not made in house, tasted as if it was defrosted then reheated
shu mai — scallop meshed in steamed roll — different taste to original shu mai offering also tasted as if it was not made in house
xia long bao — dumpling with sauce found in bottom — piping hot, slight waxy aftertaste, red vinegarette to dip in, had it straight up, I would order this again
steamed pork — diced pork ribs some with soft ribs some with hard, piping hot portion wise for 1 person is perfect, slight garlic flavor, unlike most spots this place offers more meat then bone on this dish, definite plus
bean curd — doesn’t sound appetizing but here it was just ok, 2 pieces sliced into 4 pieces, usually comes with worcestershire sauce, here it did not, piping hot yes, without the sauce it lacked its luster, not a flavorful as some other places I have sampled this dish
tea– fancy tea pot, see through, tea is mild good for all that dim sum
food *** sampled several of there dim sum offerings just ok
price $$$
service **** very friendly and helpful staff
ambiance **** fancy inside and fancy outside

Food was good but I’m sorry it was grossly (no insanely!!!) overpriced. I’ve been to my fair share of dim sum places in my life and food here is pretty good. So good that they charge $ 12 bucks for soup dumplings that the best place in NYC charges $ 5.50 for?! Hell no! $ 7 bucks for a Peking duck bun? Ridiculous… But hey I ordered it and knew it cost that much. Was it amazing? Not at all. If it were my complaining about the price would be a non-​issue.
Overall decent to good dim sum. But for prices. I thought I would be getting exceptional food, which it wasn’t.
I’m from out of town so did not mind spending more especially as we came with my in laws. Who thought it was good (but they didn’t see prices). Would I ever come again? No, but nice time for a tourist like me. Would otherwise NEVER be a regular.

Fastest service I have ever experienced! The restaurant was packed too. We sat down on the heated patio and not even a minute later, a server with a tray full of dim sum came by. Vegetarian options, baos, fried shrimp… It all looked very yummy!
I had the snow pea & shrimp dumplings, hubby had pork bao, pekin duck and pork dumplings he loved. We finished by Lotus Seed buns and coconut rolls/​balls. Super fresh and good.
The dumplings’ price is around $ 7 for 2 to 4 pieces except the pork ones which are around $ 14 (and the duck), so the bill can easily get pricey. We actually looked at the menu AFTER ordering off the tray. I’d look at the menu first next time but when you have a server and all this food in front of you, it’s very tempting to order right then :-D
Great experience regardless, go there if you’re craving good quality dim sum!

The pork and shrimp dumplings were my favorite. We got three orders of that. The fried sea bass and the grilled sea bass were a close second.
Our party of five arrived at noon on Saturday and were seated immediately because we made a reservation. I highly recommend that you make a reservation as the entire restaurant was packed… no open tables.
The prices are pretty steep. Our bill was $ 180 for five people and we ordered a moderate amount of food. Had we arrived with hungry stomachs, our bill would have easily been over $ 220+
Yank Sing, for me, is a one-​time experience as I believe there are cheaper dim sum places that serve equally tasty foods.

Dim sum was one of my main priorities on our recent visit to San Francisco. My friend suggested Yank Sing after having several people recommend the restaurant so we made our way there on a Sunday morning.
The place was pretty busy, but we were seated quickly and service was attentive. Food rotated quickly on the carts and there was a large variety of options available. I enjoyed every item I tried.
The only downside to our meal was the price. I don’t mind being a little spendy with my meals but I think they were a little more overpriced based solely on the location.