Skip to main content

The New Lun Ting Cafe: Old Fashioned Diner, aka "The Pork Chop House"

New Lun Ting Cafe is not a restaurant that stands out, and even in Chinatown it's extremely old-fashioned... It has maroon Naugahyde booth seats and bachelor's row stools, and it serves a mix of Eastern and Western foods, so it could be considered a tea restaurant. 

According to history, the bachelor's row used to stretch all the way around the interior in a U-shape and the whole cafe was called "bachelor's cafe", and women used to avoid the place. By adding booths and tables back in the 1970's, the place was made more "family-friendly". 

Another nickname for the place was "The Porkchop House", even though its best-known dish was actually "roast pork". A huge slab of pork, with ribs still attached in some places, sliced to about half-inch sticks, almost perfect tenderness, slathered with either "brown sauce" (which is sort of burnt orange), or if you are adventurous, try the yellow / curry sauce. You also get some vegetables (probably just some boiled cabbage, but you may be able to get mixed veggies instead) and a potsticker, plus a cup of restaurant tea.  Sadly, the free slice of jello (tm) dessert is no more. 

With that said, you *can* get pork chop, or oxtail, or roast beef, or beef stew... and dozens and dozens of other dishes at the New Lun Ting Cafe. 

But at least try the roast pork once. 

Roast Pork with brown sauce, photo by AndriaLo.com
sadly, the fruit jelly is no more


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

About the author

Kasey is a professional tour guide and amateur historian who specialized in Chinatown History and Tours. You will often find him guiding groups sampling delicious food and learning interesting historical tidbits about Chinatown most weekends.

Popular posts from this blog

Dragon Gate and its Surprising History

You can't come to SF Chinatown and leave out Dragon Gate, aka the Chinatown Gate, at the corner of Bush and Grant. But do you know its history?  Chinatown Gate, aka Dragon Gate, San Francisco Dragon Gate (aka Chinatown Gate, aka Dragon's Gate) was designed by Clayton Lee and others in 1967 in response to a mayoral competition, and his was the winning entry. Originally two gates were proposed, but the other gate leading to Barbary Coast was dropped due to lack of funds, and cost overrun.  The gate itself was designed after a Chinese "pailou 牌樓" or "paifang 牌坊", which were the "gates" that marked separate fang 坊, or "ward" within a city. However, later it evolved into a purely decorative element. As with tradition, the gate faces South, and is composed of a large gate with two smaller side gates.  The gate has a lot of its materials donated by Taiwan (Republic of China) including artisanal tiles, roofing, and the two guardian lions. Despite...
Post a Comment
Read more

Chinatown Q&A: Things You Probably Never Thought to Ask

Here are some questions that are a bit too short to deserve their own posts, but are interesting information nonetheless.  Q: When did Chinatown become known as Chinatown?  A: According to PBS's "Chinatown Guide" , the first Chinese in the area settled either on the street next to Portsmouth Square, or in the immediate block around it. The area was first known as "Little Canton", and it wasn't until 1853 that the local press named the area "Chinatown".  Q: What books should I read if I want to know more about San Francisco Chinatown?  A: In no particular order: San Francisco's Chinatown by Judy Yung and the Chinese Historical Society of America , full of vintage photographs, this book documented the life in Chinatown never seen before.  The Children of Chinatown: Growing Up Chinese American in San Francisco, 1850-1920 by Wendy Rouse , discusses the seldomly touched subject: children in Chinatown, who really feel the prejudices against them and ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Chop Suey Still Available: New Woey Loy Goey Restaurant

Chop suey is reputed to have been invented in Chinatown. The story goes that in the 1850's, Chinatown is barely established, but word was already out that Chinese food is cheap and delicious. So, late at night, 2 miners fresh off the gold fields, wandered into this Chinese restaurant, even as the owner and cook is about to close up. Already half drunk, they want food, and they want it now! To avoid confrontation, the cook went into the kitchen, found whatever scraps of vegetables left, tossed them all into the wok, whipped up some sauce, added whatever scraps of meat he had, added an egg, and served it on a plate and gave it to the miners.  The miners loved it, to the surprise of the owner, as they wanted the name of the dish as they want to order it again when they come back.  The owner, flabbergasted, simply told them 雜碎 tzap-suey which literally means "mixed scraps". The miners heard that as "chop suey", and a legend was born.  Keep in mind this is a story, a...
Post a Comment
Read more