Yan’s Kitchen

General Tso’s chicken was average at best, soup scalding hot, didn’t receive lunch special dumplings until I asked about them a few minutes after the entrée arrived. Service slow, asked for a beverage twice but never received it. Place became very hectic as the lunch hour progressed due to parade of to-​go orderers that left the older lady working the register and the floor overwhelmed.

My husband and I were looking for highly rated Chinese food near Chinatown in SF. This place was listed as mom and pop with great food. They get 5 stars. The pot stickers were the best I’ve ever had and I lived in South Korea for a year where it was a staple. My husband and I shared the General Tso’s chicken which had the perfect amount of batter and flavor. Excellent food overall. The egg rolls were only so so and not worth the calories. Get some dumplings instead. Loves this place!

I had a quick stay in San Francisco and was looking for a tasty lunch spot so I hit up Yan’s Kitchen, which was right around the corner from my hotel room.
I started off with a small won ton soup. It certainly wasn’t small. It had a tasty broth, a good dose of peas, carrots and other veggies, and 5 big won tons! My lunch platter came with 2 small spring rolls which were also delicious, and then the entrée of General Gao’s Chicken with rice.
Yan left me very pleased with my meal, and I would definitely seek them out again for lunch near Chinatown.

Amazing Chinese food great prices very affordable and the sweetest service by the cute couple they have been here for 22 years! A must come!!! yummy food try Hunan beef and orange chicken, clean and quiet atmosphere

Yan’s is a great little place right in between China Town and Little Italy run by Husband and wife. Food is pretty good and not weird like some places in China Town. Lol
Just make sure you take cash because it’s «CASH ONLY». Mr. and Mrs. Yan are very nice hard working people. General Tso Chicken and Orange Chicken taste delicious!

The food was so good. We ordered the general chicken… shrimp fried rice… and Mongolian beef. Fresh… and very tasty.

Best inexpensive Chinese food you can get in the neighborhood! Owned by a sweet older couple, you can see the husband cook the food in the small kitchen behind the counter. They have really good vegetarian options. My favorite is the eggplant with tofu and the veggie spring rolls — such a good, filling meal! Cash only, but the prices are super reasonable especially considering the quality and portion size!

Weary after slogging through a rainy Chinatown, finding Yan’s outside of bustling Chinatown was a nice surprise (ok, not really a surprise, we found it on Unilocal!). As we had done so far at other restaurants, we decided to pick through the menu to try a few things — first the dumplings (very good, filled with meat) then an order of orange chicken (included a massive scoop of steamed rice).
I picked a nice cold Tsing Tao to wash down the snacks, which was the perfect touch for an early afternoon treat.

Perfect home cooked type of meal in a nice homey environment. Husband cooks wife serves with a smile that can light up the space ship! I’ve been eating here for a while, every time I craved a home cooking.
General Tso chicken −5÷5
Chicken in ginger garlic sauce — ⁵⁄₅
Pot stickers — ⁵⁄₅
This place is a must try!

We were in Chinatown for the first time and wanted to find a good Chinese food place. I came across Yan’s Kitchen via Unilocal.The reviews were good and the pictures provided a good image of the food.
As we arrived, we found a good parking spot. The cook and the waitress were very humble people. Our order was promptly served and the taste of the food was amazing. The veggies were fresh and had good flavor. We ordered from the lunch menu.
My husband had the #19; which had a combination of chicken, beef and shrimp in Mongolian sauce with vegetables.
I had the #3; house special/​beef with vegetables.
Both of our kids had the orange chicken lunch special.
Each lunch special comes with your choice of rice and/​or 2 dumplings/​egg rolls.
We all chose egg rolls. They were very crispy and had a fresh flavor to them.

This a 3.5 rating but seeing that it ran by a mom and pop I rounded it up.
The place is pretty small and there is only a few tables.
NOTE: Only the pop is making the food… so if you’re in a hurry do not dine here.
The food was tasty and worth the 8 bucks I paid together for the General Tsao Chicken and fried rice.
The General Tsao Chicken I thought was a bit too much on the batter and less chicken, but the sauce was pretty good. Overall, not bad and cheap eat.

Nice little place to get some quick and tasty Chinese food. They have a pretty standard menu, but the thing that stood out the most were the fried pork dumplings. So delicious! Super crunchy and perfectly fried on the outside, but just like a regular dumpling on the inside. Definitely a must try.
Don’t forget it’s cash only!

I used to eat here a lot. Cheap and good quality. Woman and Man is very nice ! Small place but really good to have a quick lunch. Tasty enough .
Thanks !

Yan’s Kitchen is my favorite happy hour go-​to restaurant near where I work. Note that they only accept cash here! Their happy hour is from Mondays through Fridays 11−3pm, and it starts from $ 7.35 which includes steamed rice with either steamed or fried dumplings.
I ordered the salt and pepper chicken with fried dumplings and was not disappointed. The wait was a bit long (10 minutes), but that’s because they were busy and only had one server and cook. I’m assuming that it’s the husband and wife.
I took my order to go and thank goodness they have huge servings! The chicken was freshly cooked, and it had the right texture. It wasn’t overcooked nor undercooked — it was perfect! The fried dumplings were great too!
Overall, I highly recommend checking this place out if you’re looking for a restaurant that has happy hour and big portions.

General Tso’s chicken is amazing! Batter is all fresh light and crispy! Superb!
Ok embarrassing ending to my dinner time here. I go to pay my $ 15 for the Tso and fried rice and 2 Anchor Steams (amazing!) and they dont take credit card. So I ask where the ATM is and ask if they mind me heading up the street to get cash out and come back. I get to the ATM only to discover I had left my cash card back home on the East Coast and who remembers their PIN to their VISA. I go back to explain the situation. The wife is not there but the husband, the chef whom I had just praised for the best General Tso’s chicken ever, I told. He graciously accepted the $ 5 dollars cash I had and said no worries! Wow is his wife ever going to kick his butt! Tomorrow I will head back with cash and a large tip.

Yan’s makes your typical Americanized Chinese food – flavorful than most, but, like many Americanized Chinese restaurants, not the healthiest. It could be worse though.
I ordered the chicken with vegetables and fried dumplings, but they made a mistake on our take-​out order (which took forever, btw)… My friend ended up getting someone else’s entrée instead of his, and worse, they forgot our fried dumplings! We were pretty upset, but were ultimately able to feed ourselves with the large portions anyway.

I came to this place tonight with a friend, got sat at a table for two and then proceeded to look at the menu. My friend really needed to use the restroom, so he got up to do that while I perused the menu. They had some good options and very reasonably priced. The décor wasn’t much but sometimes those hole-​in-​the-​wall type eateries have the best food.
I was all set to order when my friend came back, eyes wide, and told me that there are COCKROACHES hanging out on the bathroom wall in full view. It goes without saying that we refused to eat there. We politely told the server we were leaving because of what we saw and he had the nerve to charge my friend $ 2 for using the bathroom without ordering food. He paid and we left because we couldn’t get out of that place fast enough but for any current and future patrons, be warned. This place clearly isn’t up to code.

This place is a small mom and pop shop in Chinatown and it is pretty delicious! The restaurant was empty when we came in so no wait.
Came with a group of friends and ordered General Tso chicken, orange chicken, broccoli beef, rice & chow mein.
We were completely full!
However I would not recommend the broccoli beef, it’s a little on the salty side.
Other than that everything was great, definitely recommend!

Not bad, but I’ll try it again and possibly update my review. The dining room is definitely outdated, but my review will have nothing to do with that.
The food is good, and it is fresh. The vegetables seemed fresh and I was glad that there were not huge chunks of near raw green bell pepper. Lots of Chinese spots include those and I don’t care for it. I also like my onions to be cooked a little more, but now that I know, I’ll ask them to cook the onions a little longer next time.
My original motivation for going here was my hankering for some noodles. I didn’t do a very thorough eval of this spot for going, so I guess it is my fault that they didn’t have crispy noodles (hong kong style).
The quality of the chicken was really good, not fatty, not dry, and it seemed like white meat. This is key. Some inexpensive Chinese places have horrible almost inedible meat, chewy, fatty, and nasty. I was glad that this place was nothing like this.
The people working there (I’m guessing the owners) were nice and were not rude like you can sometimes get from other Chinese places. They both seemed to be easy going and not in a rush (in a good way, not in a lazy way).
The prices were decent for what it was, but seemed a little on the high side for this type of food, but I guess it is closer to the fidi, so it probably has higher overhead. $ 10 for a plate of chow mein after tax and tip. The dish was also a little light on the noodles.
Give them a try, just don’t go out of your way to come here if you are looking for a fancy or romantic meal. If you want a quick lunch, it is worth a stop.

I ordered the salt n pepper fish with white rice and 2x egg rolls. The fish was good but a tad too oily for me and the egg rolls were delicious!
I’m definitely interested to try their other dishes.