I drove from East Bay to try this place with an understanding that the owners are the original owners of Hing Lung in SF Chinatown. I wanted the original Hing Lung porridge (jook in Cantonese). Well, I ordered the fish porridge. Generous portion so I was able to share it with my mom and we each had 2 bowls from one order. The consistency of the porridge was better than most places (not watery). But it lacks flavor. We also ordered beef chow fun - big portion and lacks flavor. Also had Chinese donuts to go with our porridge - it was just ok. Nothing like the original Hing Lung. Will I make a special trip from the East Bay just to eat here...no. If I was in the neighborhood I might come in.
T F.
The food is ok. We ordered ginseng chicken soup, lamb clay pot, stir-fried beef, and a donut during our visit. The donut was very good. The ginseng chicken was decent. The stir-fried beef was disappointing because broccoli was the only veggie in this dish, and I expected more than one type of vegetables. These dishes didn't come easily because we waited for almost an hour to have all these dishes served. This restaurant has a big operational problem and it can't handle too many customers. I saw a long waiting line for takeout and many dine-in customers, including us, didn't get their dishes served for a long while. The waiting was not pleasant. We will not go back there because it's not worth the wait.
Ricky S.
This place is the place that I'd went when I was in my teens. Opened in 1987 and then moved out to SSF in 2020. Their famous Liver Porridge is the bomb!!! The flavor when I had it in the 90s is still the same now. Consistency is what makes them still the best. And Chuck Gong (Owner) is still making those Chinese Donuts. What an awesome guy!!! This place is NOT the same owner as the one on El Camino (San Bruno) so if you want ORIGINAL Hing Lung, SOUTH San Francisco is the place to go to.
Richard Y.
Two stars because we used to like going there. Not sure it was an anomaly today but the restaurant was full of people and no food being served. We waited 45 minutes after ordering food and only one soup dish arrived, so ended up canceling the order cos they had not even started. Why? Because there were non stop take out orders ---tip to restaurant - you don't prioritize take out orders over people sitting at your tables. There were several big family tables and they had no food either. If this is how you operate, shut down your restaurant and do a pickup window --no service staff required, busing tables, tea or otherwise: TOTAL FAIL - greed overcoming any thoughts for your customers - we won't be back for a long while, after being a regular customer for 2-+ years - good luck with your take out business
Gene P.
This restaurant taste good but waitress taking too long to set up the table and too long to charge on bills. I often comes here to eat lunch but it takes to long to wait for the foods,hopefully they can do some changes by pay more attention to the customers that eating lunch and dinner over there.
Claremont S.
Authentic Chinese foods. Taste well and good place to dine! I'll be backed in this place again.
Em P.
Solid Chinese food. It's more on the pricey side because I ordered only a couple of things and it totaled almost $50! My husband wanted salt and pepper pork chop and fried rice so that's what we got. The fried rice is good. Not like the usual Americanized fried rice though. For some reason it taste more authentic. The pork chop is also really good. It had a nice salty and garlicky flavor that one looks for in the dish. The portions are a bit small for what you pay for though, just be aware of that. This place also has some other gnarly things in their menu. Definitely some authentic stuff going on there. Overall I'd come back and eat here.
Bonnie C.
This is my first time coming to this establishment. It's always busy non stop busy. We ordered two conger and one brisket noodles. Their congregation is really flavorful the brisket is usually a hit or miss. Sometimes you get it really tender and sometimes it's tender but no meat and no flavor. when we went home all of us had a stomach movement. and when we called to address this to the manager, they hung up in our face. and when we called back they said sorry bad connection. and from then no one bothered to call back to see if we were ok or if they can do anything for us.
Kukumalu M.
This place offers very delicious Cantonese cuisines. It's very hard to find yummy 牛脷酥 in the entire Bay Area lol but this place has it!! I am very happy! Definitely will come back! The only complaint is the parking, so hard to find a spot
Irene P.
Came on a Sunday morning after working out. We were hungry and was able to get seated pretty quickly. We ordered - salt and pepper chicken wings - we have gotten this in the past but we were disappointed with it this time. It was seasoned with too much salt, we couldn't eat it. - shredded pork and century egg congee - this comes out piping hot. With the first bite, we know they do skimp with the ingredients. It's not runny nor too thick. - house special pan fried noodles - fried donuts (you tieu) - comes out fresh as it gets and it's a must with the congee.
I literally always order take out from here ATLEAST once a week. This place has the best Chinese food! Every single thing on the menu is amazing and their Chinese donuts...this is the ONLY place I get my Chinese donuts and the only place I know that had the sweet Chinese donut. I love this place so much you won't go wrong ordering anything from here.
Angel L.
Ordered some congee from here because I got food poisoning from somewhere else and it was 10/10. Hit the spot and absolutely delicious. Only one issue is that the online menu said the congee was chicken, but I am fairly certain the bird in my dish was actually duck! Still delicious, but concerning for anyone who might have allergies, so please be aware!
Rani Z.
Congee aka Jook (粥) is one of the most comforting meals out there, and also my favorite breakfast! It's simple, nutritious, & nourishing for the soul, what's not to like? My favorite thing to eat with jook is chinese donut sticks (yóutíao, 油条). The yóutíao soaks up all the porridge so every bite is so savory & mushy with a bit of chew. It reminds me of clam chowder with bread! Did you know pork liver is rich in iron, phosphorus, protein, lecithin, and increases iron levels in the blood? I ordered the Pork Liver Jook and it's to die for! Don't forget to try other items from the menu! I also ordered pan fried noodles with beef and pickled veggies -- the noodles were perfectly golden crispy with a generous portion of meat and veggies! For the cheap price, it's 100% worth it!
Vincent W.
If you are looking for home style Cantonese comfort food this is your spot. I know there are some reviews where they choose more traditional Chinese American dishes like sweet and sour chicken but for this spot during lunch you should go with either the congee or the won ton mein. That's pretty much what the OG Hing Lung versions in SF were known for. The fried bread (cow's tongue in canto) and the fried donut are really good fresh. Nice and crispy. The Fried bread is a little sweet and you can just eat it like a donut. The fried donut is more like a fried bread with no flavoring. Good for the crispiness and for eating with congee. But for the lunch hour you want to get congee, wonton and fried bread as those come out fast and they have the fried items freshly made. Probably not as good if you get it at dinner and it was produced at lunch. We did also order the salted egg yolk pumpkin and wings. While it was good they only include like 6 wings so just don't be surprised when it doesn't seem like enough. Looking at other reviews it looks like that's the standard here so I guess food costs are going up. Was pretty good but portion size has something left to be desired. We also came by to try their dinner food and they have a couple of special set menus where you choose from a number of items. I would say it was pretty decent in terms of food choices, but again it leans more towards Cantonese home style food. We got the $128 menu for 6 which came with a soup and peking duck. The soup was actually really good with the ginseng and made with silky chicken. The rest of the meal was pretty decent. Not the best but not bad either. So if you are looking for homestyle Canto food this will bring back some memories of the OG Hing Lung in Chinatown and the version on 19th ave.
Derek X.
We were just craving for some simple family style, Chinese cafe type of food, which is hard to find these days. We got the Sampan congee (e2) and Golden egg yolk with chicken wings and pumpkins (U2), which was enough for two people. Sampan congee came in a Korean type of clay pot, which has about 3-4 small bowls worth of congee. So if you have a large group, may need another order. This congee has fish, shrimp, scallops, squid, and fried peanuts, which gives it an extra crunch in texture. It was very flavorful with salt, although I like to add a bit of white pepper. The congee was not watered down. The chicken wings and pumpkins were deep fried and coated with salted egg yolk. It came in a big portion, which is good with a group of people. But for the two of us, it was too much deep fried food that we couldn't finish all of it. The dish came with 6 chicken wings (yes, we counted), and many pumpkins. Very flavorful and very delicious. The salty egg wasn't too strong. One of my favorite dish. We saw other people order it, so must be pretty popular. We saw other people ordered the lobster noodles, which looked delicious. But because we only had 2 people, we couldn't order too much food. It's a small cafe, with probably 15 tables of various number of seatings. When we came on a Thursday night around 7:30pm, it was already packed. But we got lucky and only waited for a few minutes for a table to be cleaned. They closed at 8:30pm, so when customers tried to come in around 8pm, they had to turn them away because it was close to closing time. I think there's parking spaces in the back of the restaurant for pick up orders. Lots of metered street parking, but can be difficult during busy times. Overall, very delicious food. Would like to come back with a larger group to try different dishes.
I drove from East Bay to try this place with an understanding that the owners are the original owners of Hing Lung in SF Chinatown. I wanted the original Hing Lung porridge (jook in Cantonese). Well, I ordered the fish porridge. Generous portion so I was able to share it with my mom and we each had 2 bowls from one order. The consistency of the porridge was better than most places (not watery). But it lacks flavor. We also ordered beef chow fun - big portion and lacks flavor. Also had Chinese donuts to go with our porridge - it was just ok. Nothing like the original Hing Lung. Will I make a special trip from the East Bay just to eat here...no. If I was in the neighborhood I might come in.
The food is ok. We ordered ginseng chicken soup, lamb clay pot, stir-fried beef, and a donut during our visit. The donut was very good. The ginseng chicken was decent. The stir-fried beef was disappointing because broccoli was the only veggie in this dish, and I expected more than one type of vegetables. These dishes didn't come easily because we waited for almost an hour to have all these dishes served. This restaurant has a big operational problem and it can't handle too many customers. I saw a long waiting line for takeout and many dine-in customers, including us, didn't get their dishes served for a long while. The waiting was not pleasant. We will not go back there because it's not worth the wait.
This place is the place that I'd went when I was in my teens. Opened in 1987 and then moved out to SSF in 2020. Their famous Liver Porridge is the bomb!!! The flavor when I had it in the 90s is still the same now. Consistency is what makes them still the best. And Chuck Gong (Owner) is still making those Chinese Donuts. What an awesome guy!!! This place is NOT the same owner as the one on El Camino (San Bruno) so if you want ORIGINAL Hing Lung, SOUTH San Francisco is the place to go to.
Two stars because we used to like going there. Not sure it was an anomaly today but the restaurant was full of people and no food being served. We waited 45 minutes after ordering food and only one soup dish arrived, so ended up canceling the order cos they had not even started. Why? Because there were non stop take out orders ---tip to restaurant - you don't prioritize take out orders over people sitting at your tables. There were several big family tables and they had no food either. If this is how you operate, shut down your restaurant and do a pickup window --no service staff required, busing tables, tea or otherwise: TOTAL FAIL - greed overcoming any thoughts for your customers - we won't be back for a long while, after being a regular customer for 2-+ years - good luck with your take out business
This restaurant taste good but waitress taking too long to set up the table and too long to charge on bills. I often comes here to eat lunch but it takes to long to wait for the foods,hopefully they can do some changes by pay more attention to the customers that eating lunch and dinner over there.
Authentic Chinese foods. Taste well and good place to dine! I'll be backed in this place again.
Solid Chinese food. It's more on the pricey side because I ordered only a couple of things and it totaled almost $50! My husband wanted salt and pepper pork chop and fried rice so that's what we got. The fried rice is good. Not like the usual Americanized fried rice though. For some reason it taste more authentic. The pork chop is also really good. It had a nice salty and garlicky flavor that one looks for in the dish. The portions are a bit small for what you pay for though, just be aware of that. This place also has some other gnarly things in their menu. Definitely some authentic stuff going on there. Overall I'd come back and eat here.
This is my first time coming to this establishment. It's always busy non stop busy. We ordered two conger and one brisket noodles. Their congregation is really flavorful the brisket is usually a hit or miss. Sometimes you get it really tender and sometimes it's tender but no meat and no flavor. when we went home all of us had a stomach movement. and when we called to address this to the manager, they hung up in our face. and when we called back they said sorry bad connection. and from then no one bothered to call back to see if we were ok or if they can do anything for us.
This place offers very delicious Cantonese cuisines. It's very hard to find yummy 牛脷酥 in the entire Bay Area lol but this place has it!! I am very happy! Definitely will come back! The only complaint is the parking, so hard to find a spot
Came on a Sunday morning after working out. We were hungry and was able to get seated pretty quickly. We ordered - salt and pepper chicken wings - we have gotten this in the past but we were disappointed with it this time. It was seasoned with too much salt, we couldn't eat it. - shredded pork and century egg congee - this comes out piping hot. With the first bite, we know they do skimp with the ingredients. It's not runny nor too thick. - house special pan fried noodles - fried donuts (you tieu) - comes out fresh as it gets and it's a must with the congee.
Restaurantji Recommends
I literally always order take out from here ATLEAST once a week. This place has the best Chinese food! Every single thing on the menu is amazing and their Chinese donuts...this is the ONLY place I get my Chinese donuts and the only place I know that had the sweet Chinese donut. I love this place so much you won't go wrong ordering anything from here.
Ordered some congee from here because I got food poisoning from somewhere else and it was 10/10. Hit the spot and absolutely delicious. Only one issue is that the online menu said the congee was chicken, but I am fairly certain the bird in my dish was actually duck! Still delicious, but concerning for anyone who might have allergies, so please be aware!
Congee aka Jook (粥) is one of the most comforting meals out there, and also my favorite breakfast! It's simple, nutritious, & nourishing for the soul, what's not to like? My favorite thing to eat with jook is chinese donut sticks (yóutíao, 油条). The yóutíao soaks up all the porridge so every bite is so savory & mushy with a bit of chew. It reminds me of clam chowder with bread! Did you know pork liver is rich in iron, phosphorus, protein, lecithin, and increases iron levels in the blood? I ordered the Pork Liver Jook and it's to die for! Don't forget to try other items from the menu! I also ordered pan fried noodles with beef and pickled veggies -- the noodles were perfectly golden crispy with a generous portion of meat and veggies! For the cheap price, it's 100% worth it!
If you are looking for home style Cantonese comfort food this is your spot. I know there are some reviews where they choose more traditional Chinese American dishes like sweet and sour chicken but for this spot during lunch you should go with either the congee or the won ton mein. That's pretty much what the OG Hing Lung versions in SF were known for. The fried bread (cow's tongue in canto) and the fried donut are really good fresh. Nice and crispy. The Fried bread is a little sweet and you can just eat it like a donut. The fried donut is more like a fried bread with no flavoring. Good for the crispiness and for eating with congee. But for the lunch hour you want to get congee, wonton and fried bread as those come out fast and they have the fried items freshly made. Probably not as good if you get it at dinner and it was produced at lunch. We did also order the salted egg yolk pumpkin and wings. While it was good they only include like 6 wings so just don't be surprised when it doesn't seem like enough. Looking at other reviews it looks like that's the standard here so I guess food costs are going up. Was pretty good but portion size has something left to be desired. We also came by to try their dinner food and they have a couple of special set menus where you choose from a number of items. I would say it was pretty decent in terms of food choices, but again it leans more towards Cantonese home style food. We got the $128 menu for 6 which came with a soup and peking duck. The soup was actually really good with the ginseng and made with silky chicken. The rest of the meal was pretty decent. Not the best but not bad either. So if you are looking for homestyle Canto food this will bring back some memories of the OG Hing Lung in Chinatown and the version on 19th ave.
We were just craving for some simple family style, Chinese cafe type of food, which is hard to find these days. We got the Sampan congee (e2) and Golden egg yolk with chicken wings and pumpkins (U2), which was enough for two people. Sampan congee came in a Korean type of clay pot, which has about 3-4 small bowls worth of congee. So if you have a large group, may need another order. This congee has fish, shrimp, scallops, squid, and fried peanuts, which gives it an extra crunch in texture. It was very flavorful with salt, although I like to add a bit of white pepper. The congee was not watered down. The chicken wings and pumpkins were deep fried and coated with salted egg yolk. It came in a big portion, which is good with a group of people. But for the two of us, it was too much deep fried food that we couldn't finish all of it. The dish came with 6 chicken wings (yes, we counted), and many pumpkins. Very flavorful and very delicious. The salty egg wasn't too strong. One of my favorite dish. We saw other people order it, so must be pretty popular. We saw other people ordered the lobster noodles, which looked delicious. But because we only had 2 people, we couldn't order too much food. It's a small cafe, with probably 15 tables of various number of seatings. When we came on a Thursday night around 7:30pm, it was already packed. But we got lucky and only waited for a few minutes for a table to be cleaned. They closed at 8:30pm, so when customers tried to come in around 8pm, they had to turn them away because it was close to closing time. I think there's parking spaces in the back of the restaurant for pick up orders. Lots of metered street parking, but can be difficult during busy times. Overall, very delicious food. Would like to come back with a larger group to try different dishes.