Skip to main content

Quick Review of Cafe Broadway (674 Broadway)

Cafe Broadway is at a location that used to house a restaurant called Hing Lung, which was famous for its jook (Chinese rice porridge). However, Cafe Broadway is not that. 

I had an hour to kill between appointments and decided to go to Cafe Broadway, and inside is much larger than you'd expect from the outside. Lighting hadn't improved much, as it was a bit dark during day-time, probably looks a little better at night. 

It was noon-ish on Friday, and I was quickly pointed to a table near the back. I'd say the place is about 80-90% full, decent business. I was slightly surprised when the waitress asked me what sort of tea I wanted, or do I want water. Generally, only higher-class restaurants have tea options. The cheaper ones just feed you cheap tea bags. I asked for chrysanthemum tea, and it was quickly served. However, it is... way too hot, and I don't see any sugar, the way it's usually served. Glancing at the menu shows they charge $1.50 per person for tea. The tea pot is very nice, not the typical "food service" steel tea pots. 

I poured myself a cup and perused the menu. This is the pre-printed dimsum style ordering sheet. Basically a bunch of dimsum, grouped into small, medium, large, extra-large, chef's special, and entrees. Write a number next to the ones you want. Prices a clearly labeled, and as this is sit-down service, prices tended to be high, with dimsum that normally cost you about 3-5 elsewhere would be 6-9 here. 

As I was alone, I picked my standby: beef chow fun 乾炒牛河 ($11.95) and added steamed beef meatballs 牛肉丸 ($8), just to see how they do it. The waitress retrieved the order sheet, then entered it into the computer, then someone else brought the sheet back with the entered order stapled to the sheet. 

The service did take a while, 10 minutes? and the beef chow fun was not bad, but there were a lot of mung bean sprouts and onions, and not quite enough beef for my palate. It was served on a trendy square plate. There was a decent portion size. 

It was several minutes later that the meatballs arrived. It did come with Worcestershire sauce on the side, which is the way it should be, and the waitress did offer to cut it, which I accepted. And it's quite decent if a bit bland without the sauce. 

There was a bit of confusion checking out. Apparently they gave me the check and credit card from a different table, because we both used an Amazon Prime Visa card. I think they realized the oops 2 minutes later when they came back to get it. They haven't even calculated my bill yet. With tax, tea, and everything else the bill came out to be like 28 something. I wrote down 34 total and left. 

All in all, Cafe Broadway is a bit on the expensive side for dimsum, but that could be because I'm used to the cheaper end of things. Quality is quite good, but it should be with that pricing. Okay for occasional splurge, but again, a bit expensive for lunch. 

Comments

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...

So What Exactly Are the Tongs of Chinatown?

The Tongs of Chinatown started off as an attempt to do good, but ended up corrupted by greed and turned into a term of evil. But what are they really?  Tong 堂 literally means the main room or a hall. It could be termed an "association", and they still exist today in San Francisco Chinatown.  Hop Sing Tong, or 合勝縂堂 (lit: united victory main hall) photo courtesy of Wikipedia / Wikicommons The Tongs started as immigrant associations serving people with common former residency, common dialect, or common ancestry. The tongs will help people fresh off the boast to adapt to the new culture. If you can find a tong that is affiliated with your village or your clan or speak your dialect, you will be welcomed. You will be given a bed for the night, then help to find a job, and find proper housing.  The tongs also offered both physical and legal protection. By 1854, the Chinese have been ruled to have no right to participate in the court system . In People vs. Hall, a Chinese witnes...

Origin of Chinese Laundry: How Chinese-Americans Turned Discrimination Into Opportunity

One of the oddities during the Gold Rush years of San Francisco was the extreme imbalance between males and females. It is believed the ratio was like 20 to 1. And remember, back in the 1800s, men do NOT do laundry... It was supposed to be women's work or domestic servant's work. Most men don't even know how to do laundry. Not to mention two buckets of fresh water would cost a quarter. This resulted in some very odd pricing, such as the cost of laundering a dozen shirts being $8-12 dollars, due to very few women available to do the laundry. A few men will try, but give up after a while after they either destroyed the shirts or lost all the buttons. The situation was bad enough, laundry was sent across the ocean to be laundered. A ship can carry back several hundred dozen pieces of laundry .  Hawaii, seeing an opportunity, started to offer $6 per dozen washes and a much faster turnaround.    Some folks in Chinatown recognized the profit potential, being close to the p...