Ton Kiang Restaurant - San Francisco, California
Prior to visiting San Francisco, I had read up on some of the city's restaurants. It was by chance that we had ended up at Ton Kiang while driving around the city at night. In fact, we drove past Naan-N-Curry hoping to stop by for a bite to eat, but we couldn't find any parking near the restaurant. So driving around, apparently with no idea where we were headed, I saw the sign for Ton Kiang, and luckily we found a parking space about a block away.
According to the restaurant's website (link provided below), the served Hakka food. I really hadn't tried Hakka food before, nor did I know of any Hakka restaurants in Hawaii, so I was quite excited to try the food here.
Walking up to the restaurant, and peering inside the window, I could see that there were a number of people inside. Entering the restaurant, I found that it was brightly lit and full of people. I was actually surprised at number of people eating at 9:00 pm.
After looking at the menu, and not really knowing what to order, we took a few recommendations from the waiter before making our decision on what to order. We decided to start with some soup. We shared one bowl of fish maw and crab meat soup (US$10.50).
For those of you that don't know, fish maw is the air bladder of the fish and is used in delicately flavored soups. This soup was delicious and really hit the spot, especially since it was
cold out. There was lots of fish maw and crab meat and the soup had great flavor without being too salty or oily. It seemed to both my friend and I, like the fish maw used here was fresh and not the dried variety. If so, kudos to the chef. This was excellent.
For our entrées, we selected the Ton Kiang steamed salt baked chicken (half, US$9.50).
When this arrived at the table with the accompanying ginger sauce, we thought this dish would be like the Cantonese cold ginger chicken. Not so. The chicken was served slightly warm and had a wonderful aroma. Despite being packed in salt, then steamed, the chicken was surprisingly not salty at all. The chicken was tender, juicy and really flavorful.
To finish off the meal, we selected one dish from the clay pot menu -- the diced chicken with salted fish and tofu (US$9.00).
This dish was a surprise. There was lots of tofu, diced chicken AND salted fish here. There were also some vegetables buried on the bottom of the dish, with everything combined in a thick rich gravy. I don't know how authentic any of these dishes were, but they sure were good.
Here are the sauces provided - grated ginger for the chicken (top), red (right) and green (left) chilli sauces for everything else. Both of the chilli sauces were made in house and were very good. The red chilli sauce was especially good as there was a bit of tanginess to it.
When the bill was brought to our table, we were also served some homemade almond cookies. This were crisp and buttery, with just the slightest hint of almond flavor. Excellent. Can I have a few more?
Besides the Hakka and Cantonese dishes, Ton Kiang also serves dim sum until well into the evening. The service was excellent and everyone was helpful in recommending dishes. And although the restaurant was fairly crowded, the food was delivered quickly to our table. The dishes here were expertly presented, and the flavorful food will have me coming back everytime I visit the city. Highly recommended.
Ton Kiang Restaurant
5821 Geary Boulevard
San Francisco, California
Telephone: 415.752.4440 or 415.387.8273
website
I really like your blog and appreciate the time and effort involved. It broadens my life and imagination to see how other places, cultures and people eat and live. Makes me homesick for Hawaii and SF though.
Posted by: Laurel | June 06, 2005 at 09:03 PM
Hi Laurel,
Welcome to my blog and thank you so much for the compliments. I'm glad you enjoy my site. It's comments like yours that make me want to continue!
Thanks again!
Posted by: Reid | June 07, 2005 at 12:21 AM
Hey..Reid,
Glad you enjoyed this meal.. :) The dishes does look nice though.. although i have never had authentic hakka food before.. :)
Posted by: MrsT | June 07, 2005 at 03:00 AM
I stumbled upon your blog by chance, and I commented earlier about the great photos before I had read and seen your other posts.
I agree with Laurel.
Posted by: Ray | June 07, 2005 at 03:06 AM
Oh that looks gorgeous, heh I had just talked to a friend who told me i had to go there! LOL Thanks Reid!
Posted by: milgwimper | June 07, 2005 at 07:22 AM
You said it Milly! I think I really NEED those cookies.
Posted by: Jo | June 07, 2005 at 07:33 AM
Reid - Great pic's again! Never had authentic Hakka, but I do know that Salt Roasted Chicken is one of their "famous" dishes. BTW, have you seen Cold Ginger Chicken in SF - I've been having problems finding it here in San Diego - I found something named Kwai Fei Chicken but it's not quite the same....did you have to mention Cold Ginger Chicken........
Posted by: Kirk | June 07, 2005 at 08:49 AM
As a former resident of San Francisco you visited my favorite dim sum restaurant and didnt even have any. Ton Kiang is probably the #2 dim sum restaurant in the city behind Yang Sing. One of the good things about Ton Kiang is that it is wayyyy cheaper than Yang Sing. The time to avoid Ton Kiang is on weekend morning/aftenoon. The wait can be well over an hour as they do not take reservations. I strongly urge eveyone to give it a try when your in SF.
Posted by: mikeylikesit | June 07, 2005 at 08:54 AM
I should NOT have checked out the website.
Reid, this place is just a few blocks from the Tiblisi bakery. Do breakfast at Tiblisi, wander the streets a few hours checking out the shops then Ton Kiang for lunch after which you hurry home, fall flat on your back and pray you digest before you explode!
Kirk, I have GOT to do this place! What do you want me to eat for you? ::winsome smile::
Milly, next Tuesday?
Everyone in general, there's a dim sum menu with pictures! How cool is that? You can actually have a clue what your eating beyond how yummy it is. They have EGG TARTS! And of course, at the end of it all, the drated, undecipherable Chinese Menu where all the REALLY good food is listed. I'm gonna overcome that barrier!
Milly, Tuesday? Then on Thursday we can do the Ferry Building? That way we don't have to take the guys... well, the little guys, just not the big guys. ;o)
Posted by: Jo | June 07, 2005 at 10:09 AM
Jo - Eat everything - it all looks good! I haven't seen a human explode since Monthy Python :) BTW Reid - What was the damage???
Posted by: KirkK | June 07, 2005 at 12:51 PM
hmmmm... That might be doable Kirk. Are you willing to fund the process? ::looks hopefull::
Speaking of MP, remember the Dead Parrot routine?
Posted by: Jo | June 07, 2005 at 02:07 PM
Good! Glad you went to Ton Kiang- i used to live in the Richmond district, and i'd always go there for dim sum. It's worth the LOOOONG lines!
Posted by: a.i. | June 07, 2005 at 06:49 PM
Hi MrsT,
Thank you. The food here was excellent, though I really don't know how authentic it was.
Anyone care to let me know?
Hi Ray,
Thank you for coming back. I'm glad you enjoy the photos and the site. May I ask where you're at?
Hi Milgwimper,
LOL! Thanks! =)
Don't worry, the food is really good here. Your friend knows what s/he is talking about! =P
Hi Jo,
The cookies were great. I need to get the recipe...and fast!
Hi Kirk,
I actually have never looked for cold ginger chicken in SF. Reason? I don't really care for it much. I guess I don't like it cooked "Hong Kong" style, you know...where the bones are still red. I really don't care for my food to be done in that manner that's why I normally eat everything well done!
BTW...sorry! =(
Hi mikeylikesit,
Thank you for stopping by.
I thought about eating the dim sum at Ton Kiang, but decided against it since I had planned to eat dim sum at Yank Sing. Well, I never made it to Yank Sing, so I kicked myself in the foot for that.
It was still a wonderful meal though. I will definitely try the dim sum the next time I visit.
Hi Jo,
The dim sum looked really good in person! =)
BTW...don't forget to take photos of yourself exploding OK? This is something that I can't miss...I've been quite close myself. =P
Hi Kirk,
I think it came out to about US$36 including tip?
Hi Jo & Kirk,
MP huh? Haven't seen any of the shows in years...I personally haven't seen the one with the dead parrot.
Posted by: Reid | June 07, 2005 at 06:49 PM
Hi a.i.,
Welcome to my blog!
I must have just missed you! =) I'm glad there weren't any lines when I was at Ton Kiang, but it was definitely crowded when we got there at 9:00 pm. I was definitely surprised, but after eating the food, I knew why.
This is definitely one restaurant that I will continue to visit!
Thanks for stopping by!
Posted by: Reid | June 07, 2005 at 06:52 PM
Food looks good. Sauces too.
Posted by: FatMan Seoul | June 07, 2005 at 08:44 PM
Is this the FATMAN?DR
Posted by: Dave Randle | June 08, 2005 at 06:38 PM
Hi Fats,
The food was delicious. I know that you've travelled extensively. Have you had Hakka food before, and does this look authentic?
Posted by: Reid | June 08, 2005 at 11:04 PM
Hi Reid - Your photos really make me hungry... all of them! I'm thinking about visiting San Francisco this year, there must be lots of places I should go... (I'd love to visit Hawaii one day too...)
Posted by: keiko | June 09, 2005 at 04:22 AM
Hi Keiko,
Thank you for stopping by. =)
There are so many places to eat at in SF that it was so hard to choose just a few. I'm looking forward to visiting again soon.
You should definitely come to Hawaii just to see what it's like. I'd love to go to London again, it's been years!
BTW...I can only dream of taking photos as good as yours. Your photos make me hungry all the time too!
Posted by: Reid | June 10, 2005 at 12:26 AM
The "Dead Parrot" routine was hysterical. I'm trying to find an audio file for you...
http://orangecow.org/pythonet/audio/zipped/
You'll have to scroll down to the entry that begins "Monty Python - Dead"
I was 13 the first time I heard this! There is a different ending which was the one I heard originally.
Posted by: Jo | June 12, 2005 at 03:16 PM
Hi Jo,
Thanks for the link. I'm going to listen to it tomorrow while I'm at work. I'm sure that it's hilarious. =)
Posted by: Reid | June 13, 2005 at 12:38 AM