Almost every night, you will find San Tung crowded inside and out. The patrons can be found anxiously waiting for the next open table. San Tung has been serving their famous dried fried chicken to local diners as well as out of town diners for almost a decade at their inner Sunset location. Despite the lack of parking and unspectacular location, San Tung has become the premiere destination for great Northern Chinese food. The Northern Chinese menu offers something for every diner — soups, noodle, seafood, meat, and dumplings.

The interior décor is not impressive but the crowd affirms that the food is the main focus. The waiters, dressed in white shirts and black pants, are fast order takers and are open to recommendations. The food plays center stage and the loud noise only adds to the atmosphere of a bustling restaurant.

Food.
Like most Chinese restaurants, the menu is large in selection. The menu has been assembled with care as each item includes clear descriptions of each dish. Their house special is their dry fried chicken wings ($8.00). Chicken wings are deep fried in a batter with roasted red peppers, ginger, and garlic. The result is a chicken wing that is crunchy, moist, lightly spicy, and sweet.

The Szechuan tea smoked duck ($11.00) is half a duck marinated in five spice. The duck is smoked with Oolong black tea leaves and then deep fried. The duck meat is tender and is flavored by the pungent smoky flavor that goes perfected well with the nutty hoisin sauce in the lotus bun. Other classic dishes include the dried sautéed string beans ($6.50). The green beans are flash fried and tossed in a garlic sauce with Chinese pickles. They are crunchy and savory. Some other favorites include hot and sour soup ($6.95-M). The mixture of shrimp, tofu, peas, tree fungus and bamboo shots in a tangy and peppery broth with whipped eggs makes it a great dish especially on cold foggy days in city.

San Tung sets themselves apart from other Chinese restaurants by using handmade ingredients. This includes handmade noodles, potstickers, dumplings, and mu shu wrappers. Their black bean sauce noodles ($7.00) features calamari, beef, and shrimp in a dark soy sauce over a bowl noodles that are cooked to perfection, chewy but not doughy. The shrimp and leek dumplings ($6.50) come in twelve and are filled with a savory mixture of ginger, garlic, chives, and shrimp. The handmade dumpling skins are thin and the fresh chives play center role in the filling.

Consultant Hat.
Behind this successful Northern Chinese restaurant is mother Mrs. Chu and son Frank Chu. Mrs.Chu immigrated to San Francisco from Korea as an ambitious Chinese entrepreneur. She is the brains behind the operation responsible for duties such as purchasing and accounting. Frank’s father had a serious medical condition ten years ago that forced Frank to leave school at Skyline Community College studying to be an auto mechanic. Although Frank sacrificed his dream to own a mechanic shop, he is enjoying the success of the family restaurant. Amazingly, San Tung has great business without advertisement. He credits fresh food and loyal customers who in return have generated business from word of mouth advertisement.

As we mentioned in previous postings, restaurants need to start with one spectacular dish in their menu. For San Tung, their dried fried chicken is their bread and butter. Across the street, the Chinese restaurant is often empty and may act only as a defalut to the mile-long line at San Tung. In San Francisco, there are over 5,000 restaurants and a large number don’t last longer than three years. Press releases surely boost restaurant sales, but at the very end, word of mouth is the major key. You need loyal customers who champion your restaurant. Differentiating yourself is key as well. Many do not know, but there are numerous Chinese cuisines: Shanghai, Hong Kong, Beijing, Taiwan, and San Tung just to name a few. Despite the large number of Chinese restaurant in San Francisco, there are very few that serve San Tung food. So be original and so that you stand out from the crow.

1031 Irving St. (Between 11th & 12th)
San Francisco, CA 94122
Tel: (415) 242-0828
Open Thursday to Tuesday
11 A.M to 9:30 P.M
Closed Wednesday (accept Visa & Mastercard)
Prices: $$ ($10-$20 per person)