Sam Wo Restaurant

Like the awning out front states, Sam Wo has been cooking for over 100 years, and is one of the oldest restaurants in SF’s Chinatown. The two-story Cantonese restaurant—complete with a dumbwaiter—was famously home to “San Francisco’s Worst Waiter” before closing and moving to a new location on Clay Street back in 2015. The service these days is decidedly more polite (and they’re no longer open until 3am), but not much else has changed. BBQ pork noodle rolls and youtiao are mainstays on practically every table, and you’re just as likely to see multi-generational families doling out big portions of fried rice as you will a group of 20-somethings nursing hangovers over bowls of fish jook and wonton noodle soup.