Hakka Restaurant, San Francisco

Reviewer: Foodnut.com Hakka Restaurant 4401-A Cabrillo St (At 45th avenue) San Francisco, CA 94121 (415) 876-6898 (415) 876-6198 (Fax)

Hakka Restaurant SF is a family run Chinese restaurant in San Francisco’s Outer Richmond District that opened in early 2010. It has garnered some foodie attention on chowhound. While they serve a wide variety of Chinese dishes including Americanized standbys, they are known for their regional Chinese specialties. We returned for to go in late 2015.

Decor, Vibe – Hakka Restaurant has typical basic Chinese restaurant decor. The place was packed when we visited on a Friday night, making reservations a must during busy times. The crowd was almost exclusively Asian, little mystifying given the positive press this place has gotten.

Hakka Restaurant SF Menu (Click to zoom into any picture)

Hakka Restaurant Menu has a list of Chef specialties that you should concentrate ordering on. The waiters were helpful in pointing out the most popular dishes.

Note that they have some great sounding dishes that need to be ordered ahead of time.

• Stuffed Duck ($55)
• Stuffed Chicken with Sticky Rice ($35)
• Hakka Restaurant Full image set

Hakka Restaurant SF Food Picks:
Free soup was a melon with pork brothy freebie.

Salt-baked chicken ($12.95 half) is a classic Hakka dish in which they rub the chicken with wine, seasonings, and rock salt, and roast it slowly. The chicken did not look very photogenic but had lots of flavor and was very tender. Smoky flavors, only parts of the skin were crispy though. Comes with a sesame dipping sauce.

House Special Steamed Chicken ($11.95 half) is in their Chef’s Special section. Tender chicken cooked just right.  Nice garlic based dipping sauce that perfectly accented it.

Sautéed Crab with salted egg yolk (Price Varies, 2.5 lbs for $28) was an excellent dish and a must get. Its price changes due to market conditions. They have a tank with live crab in the back. The crab was cooked perfectly and the Golden yellow almost corn mealy coating added a punchy flavor to the crab. Hot out of the kitchen. Messy, finger licking good, but worth it. Cold leftovers the next day were still delectable.

Home Style Frog Legs with basil were on the spicy side but had a huge quantity of fresh frog that sort of tastes like chicken. Very boney, lots of basil flavor, and a bit on the salty side.

Beef short ribs with black pepper and honey sauce ($13.95) was also an excellent dish. Sort of like Korean short ribs but with a more subtle sweetness and smooth texture that included a bit of pepper on the tongue. Not spicy, but tender and boney.

Clams in black bean sauce ($13.95) utilized some large and fresh clams bathed in a strong sauce.  A mild bit of heat was provided with some red peppers.

Garlic Pea Shoots ($9.95) was well done. Nice crisp greens perfectly cooked and high in quantity.

Complementary dessert was a mung bean and seaweed soup. A very interesting combination of flavors.

OK:
None

Pans:
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Hakka Restaurant had decent service with the waiters obviously trying their best for a small family run place. Tea was kept up to date, plate changes were made. The pacing of the dishes was wild and varied though. For those looking for Hakka Chinese food in San Francisco, be sure to try this place. For those little less adventurous, give this inexpensive place to try and order the dishes we selected.

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