Last time we flew into San Francisco, we wandered around Chinatown on empty stomachs and pulled into a cheap dim sum place only to be thoroughly disappointed. This time we were determined to find a truly worthy dim sum restaurant to fulfill our growing need.
Luckily for us, we dropped into the San Francisco Visitor Center to inquire about getting Wicked tickets (They don't sell them. You need to go to the Orpheum directly or buy them online). The friendly African American lady behind the counter was great to talk to and so much fun. She really seemed to know her stuff when it came to things going on in the city.
She asked us what else we planned to do, and we said we were in search of a great dim sum restaurant. She commented that she had just suggested a place to a Chinese woman and her mother (who is from China) to go to New Asia in Chinatown. The Visitor Center woman then drew us a map and told us which bus to catch and we were on our way.
New Asia is located at 772 Pacific Avenue between Stockton Street and Grant Avenue. When we walked in we knew this was definitely
the spot to be at. For one thing, the entire dining room (which was quite humongous) was filled with what seemed to be local Chinese people. If locals go there, it must be a good sign, right? However, we used this same criterion our last trip but somehow got duped. More on that experience when I have time to get around writing up that review.
Like other dim sum restaurants, you get seated at a table and a slip of paper is left with you. Servers push carts around the room and you select the food you want to eat. They give you a wooden container filled with several pieces of the dish you ordered, then stamp your card for the correct price of the dish. Simple enough, right?
This place was so authentic that the servers would call out the dishes they had in Chinese. Um, that'd be great if you actually spoke the language. Still it wasn't too hard to figure out what they were peddling by the types of dishes they had. There was one cart with desserts such as custards, jin dui and cookies. Another cart was serving char siu bao (manapua for us Hawaii people), shumai and potstickers. Other carts had more exotic cuisine like chicken feet.
We ordered fried rice, potstickers, pork shumai (aka pork hash locally), shrimp shumai and char siu bao. We arrived near noon so they actually had lunch menu items going around as well such as chow fun, beef broccoli, etc. We stuck with the dim sum though since this was what we'd come for.
After being majorly disappointed on our last trip, New Asia was like a godsend. The shumai wrapper was soft and moist. They packed a ton of pork and shrimp into it. They didn't skimp on the filling at all. Delicious!
The char siu bao were a bit small, but then again that's how they usually are at home as well. I guess you can't compare the authentic stuff with the gargantuan manapua we're used to from Libby's or Char Hun Sut. The char siu bao were tasty with just the right amount of meat-to-bun ratio. The bun was soft and moist but not soggy.
Surprisingly, the fried rice was really, really good. I hate ordering rice on the mainland for fear that it'll either be Uncle Ben's rice or overly wet. The only thing I disliked was that they put
tons of onions in it. I really dislike onions - both round and scallions - but I suppose others wouldn't find this a turn off. Despite this (I tried to pick out as many onions as possible), the fried rice was very good. It tasted like local fried rice - lots of meat, good wetness, flavorful rice.
The potstickers were normal, though packed full of meat, which was good. They were crunchy and I guess that's all that you can ask of them.
Overall, New Asia hit the spot and killed that dim sum craving we've had since last November's visit. We would've never found this place had it not been for the SF Visitor Center lady.
Total cost for this authentic Chinese meal (tax included): $19.40
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