The Hidden Chinatown of San Francisco

Snow Garden Restaurant is a thoroughly average restaurant in the middle of Chinatown. Being on the famous Grant Ave, it is where tourists walk by by the hundreds daily, yet its service is slow, selection limited, and quality merely average. It is not even open for dinner, being a strictly lunch restaurant.  I visited on a weekday for lunch. Other than entrees and "XXX over rice" lunch plates, the only thing they seem to offer is fried rice and fried noodles (chow fan and chow mien). They don't even offer rice noodles, as I typically order "beef and fried rice noodles" or gone-chow-au-ho as a test.  I ended up ordering beef chow mien. And the orders took 10-15 minutes to arrive, which is forever in Chinatown, where entrees are typically par-cooked separately then when ready to service, ingredients are combined then wok-fried to finish cooking and serve. There is also this soy-sauce-y liquid at the bottom of the plate after I finished most of the noodles.     Pric...

Wong Lee Bakery, on 738 Jackson, is just opposite the must busier and more famous House of Dimsum, and while they do serve some dimsum, WL should really be better known for its big baos and eggtarts.  The place is rather dark and there's often a line going in, and you have some time to look over the steam table / shelf of egg tarts (decently priced) and other items on the menu behind them.  They are probably more famous for frozen wontons and dumplings for sale by the dozens.  If you want to eat cheap, I recommend ordering a pound of chow fun (rice noodles) or chow mein (egg noodles). There's no meat in these, just scallions and soy sauce. As of March 2023, it's $3.70 a pound. And you should be more than half way full once you eat a pound of that.  The other item I recommend is the "dai-bao" (lit: big bao) which is mostly chicken, but also has chinese sausage (which is pork) plus portions of an boiled egg, for a mere $2.20. So One pound of starch, 2 die-bao, and i...