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    S & E Cafe

    3.3 (260 reviews)
    Closed Closed

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    S & E CAFE ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Moderate noise
    Casual
    Dogs allowed
    Good for groups

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    Recommended Reviews - S & E Cafe

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    Spaghetti
    drew w.

    We had a birthday party and got the vip room. They had karaoke and the room was spacious and gave us the opportunity to be a bit loud. Food was delicious especially prime rib and the chicken wings. Paul the owner was nice

    Steak
    Levi O.

    This place is uber San Franciscan. Awesome Cantonese and American staples. Owner is awesome and the price is fair. Also they have a really cool karaoke setup for all the uncles to jam out to their Hong Kong classics. I'd come for that alone!

    Onion ox tongue, ox tongue with tomato sauce, pork chop with meat sauce
    Elaine Y.

    Walked in at 5:40pm on a Saturday, should had been a tell tale sign. It's been at least a couple years since I've ate here so I wanted to reminisce. Big mistake on my part; the menu has been completely sparred down. Completely removed their soup options, and their drink menu is completely scaled down. Then I tried to order their prime rib special that they had posted on the wall. The waitress said it's actually not served until 6pm. Given it's only 15 mins away from this point, I told her I can wait. Then she replied saying they don't actually start preparing and cooking the prime ribs until 6 so it'll be awhile before it can be served, recommending me to order the filet minion instead. Sounded ridiculous to me as prime ribs can take awhile to cook up, if they don't fire it up now, they don't intend to actually serve until 8pm? Their flyers also dont show it's not served after 6pm. I end up ordering their onion ox tongue with spaghetti which also comes with a side of vegetables. The vegetables are the blend of frozen corn, peas and carrots, didn't even bother touching that. My husband tried all the dishes we ordered and he said everything is bland. I tend to eat things on the bland side so it tasted okay to me, just not great. Staff was friendly and courteous, just not the same from what it use to be. There's a few other HK style cafes nearby so the competition is too high for us to return. What a shame.

    Baked fish with spaghetti
    Sandra F.

    My friend and I had dinner there and I got the baked fish with spaghetti. There was a tv and few people there.

    Kenneth K.

    This place has great CantoHK cuisines; and exceptional prime rib and rib eye steaks. The steaks are super delicious & succulent. Amazing rack of lamb - cooked to perfection! Actually our family members liked the prime rib here at S&E Cafe more so than the House of.. something rather on Van Ness street!

    The tea is good
    Jacob C.

    Menu changed , not much Hk style food anymore ! No red bean icy drink 紅豆冰that made me feel disappointed! I ordered a seafood with scrambled eggs rice , some seafood on the plate was good cuz it had some shrimps and few scallops but sauce was bland ! Only 1 waitress works there for serval tables, sometime u have to wait for service! Service isn't good !

    Salted fish and chicken fried rice
    Tiffany W.

    Tasty Cantonese food spot on 19th and Taraval! We ordered the Hong Kong style rice rolls (delicious starter!), salt & pepper pork chops, dry beef chow fun, salted fish & chicken fried rice and chicken with butter melon for takeout. Everything was flavorful and everyone enjoyed the meal! Ordering was easy and server was friendly; the food was ready in good time. Additional tip--this restaurant can also make catering-type of orders for large groups of people.

    Rib eye steak with black pepper sauce. 10/10!
    Rosie W.

    4/5 for the rib eye steak. Don't come here for anything else. I'd much prefer cafe bakery for the rice and pasta dishes.

    Menu as of 10/31/20
    Amy T.

    Really want to love this place because the staff and owner are always so nice and food is pretty good but...just a couple things could be better. The Chinese borscht soup is my absolute favorite at HK cafes but they make it SO sweet here. Cut the sweetness down and it would've been perfect. It is a pity that meals here don't come as sets like in HK cafes that I'm used to. Soups and milk teas have to be ordered and charged separately. Their complimentary soup of the day is only available late in the afternoon "whenever it is ready." lol My go-to baked seafood rice has a GENEROUS amount and variety of seafood in it compared to other cafes: squid, shrimp, scallop, tilapia AND salmon. Two thumbs up. You can choose red or white sauce. Baked pork chop with red sauce and baked Portuguese chicken are both good as well. Comes with rice or spaghetti. I have to say the milk tea is only so-so, not as smooth as I would like despite that they use condensed milk as the sweetener. I was intrigued by the HK rice rolls as seen on TV. I like the sweet and peanut sauce but they're really just plain rice rolls. At least I can say I've tried it, right?

    menu 7/18/2022
    Jeff H.

    S & E Cafe recently reopened for indoor dining about one month ago. Hooray! I'm happy to see we've turned a corner as they were closed for indoor dining for over two years. Regulars will notice there are slight changes to the menu. I had the runny egg seafood crispy noodles $17 and a ice milk tea $3.50. With fish pieces, runny egg, scallops and shrimps, this was great. The crispy noodles stayed crispy because the chef didn't put too much gravy. Good job everyone at S & E Cafe.

    the outside of the restaurant

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    18 days ago

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    4 months ago

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    7 months ago

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    5 months ago

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    5 months ago

    Been here a few times, food was nothing special. The service was bad and probably won't be coming back here.

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    1 year ago

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    6 months ago

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    10 months ago

    The food was delicious and good portions too. Servers were friendly. Definitely will come back to try more items.

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    5 years ago

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    3 years ago

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    2 years ago

    I got an order of chow mein here yesterday that was so disgusting I threw the whole thing out! It cost $18 and tasted like dirt!!

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    7 years ago

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    9 years ago

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    5 years ago

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    3 years ago

    Food is good for the price. Portions are generous. Ambience and decor needs work. Plenty of seating. Nice staff.

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    15 years ago

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    10 years ago

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    2 years ago

    Delicious Food and Great service! Thumbs up! Will definitely go back to try the prime-rib,

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    8 years ago

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    7 years ago

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    Ask the Community - S & E Cafe

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    I managed to get a reservation at 7:45pm on a Friday. We were seated after a little wait at a…read morebar/counter. We ordered the kumquat umeshu highball and the lemon oolong highball and really enjoyed, quite refreshing. We ended up getting the small squab, lamb skewer, Mapo spaghetti, and eggplant. I liked that they had a small squab option which was perfect for two people. The meal started with complimentary cucumbers and peanuts snacks perfect paired with a drink. Everything was delicious but if I pick a favorite, I think it would be the eggplant. The lamb was very tender and flavorful. It's a small restaurant so I would probably only come with 2-4 people. I think you can walk in but the wait seemed quite long so I'd try to get a res. I wish it was easier to get one or I'd be back more often :)

    Came ~10 minutes before dinner window opening time on a Saturday evening and was luckily the last…read moreparty to be seated in the first round. Ambiance and service were 10/10. Servers were friendly and accommodating. Food came quickly and dishes had beautiful presentation. We shared the chili crisp pig head, clay pot rice with Chinese sausage and bacon, scallop vermicelli, and XO escargot with milk bread. I enjoyed the free bites of roasted peanuts and smashed cucumbers. Chili crisp pig head was good but got a little too oily immediately. The slices were really thin and there were a bunch of good textures from the chili crisp and the veggies but was a little heavy due to sitting in plate of oil. Clay pot rice didn't stand out to me that much, the tong ho on top helped cut the heaviness at first but there were only ~5 leaves so it ended up being a little too saucy and heavy. I also would've appreciated more toppings in the clay pot rice and rice also didn't get scorched despite leaving it there for most of the meal. Scallop vermicelli wasn't bad, but definitely felt overpriced for essentially 1 piece of scallop and 3-5 bites of vermicelli. Last, the XO escargot with milk bread was unique but also ultimately too oily. The escargot sat in a pool of oil/butter/fats which got a bit too much too. I will say the flavor was definitely there though and the texture of escargot was good. The milk bread was great, smelled fresh and sweet with a soft crunch. Overall I think it was a fun experience to dine here and no regrets, but none of the dishes stood out to me too much in particular to where I'd be running back.

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    Palette Tea House

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    4.1(1.9k reviews)
    5.2 miRussian Hill, Fisherman's Wharf
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    A beautiful Michelin-recognized tea house experience with amazing service, flavorful food, and a…read morereally unique atmosphere. Stopped by Palette Tea House with The Kid after FoodieLand thinking we were just coming for tea... and ended up having a full experience. We sat at the communal high-top table in the center of the restaurant, which has a small pond built into it with little goldfish and even a tiny rubber duck sitting on the rock formation -- such a cute detail and definitely adds to the ambiance. Our server Ken was fantastic and incredibly knowledgeable about the menu. He recommended the Iron Goddess tea, which ended up being excellent. The Kid ordered the Milk Aroma Oolong, which surprisingly tasted almost like milk tea even though it's just brewed tea. Each tea comes with its own kettle, and Ken even came back to refill the hot water for us. For food, we ordered the Wagyu Beef Fried Rice, which was a huge portion and easily shareable. Very flavorful and well prepared. We also tried the Sichuan Seafood Dumplings and the Iberico Pork Dumplings, both of which were delicious. One order is definitely enough to share. The dumplings come with several dipping sauces including soy sauce, vinegar, chili oil, hot mustard, and a cilantro-based sauce that had a slightly sweet, horseradish-like flavor that really stood out. Service throughout the meal was amazing. Even without a reservation, we were seated immediately. As a Michelin-recognized restaurant for 2025, it definitely felt like a special treat and lived up to the experience.

    Out to a new place for dinner with family…read more Palette Tea House Server - Westley, was so good in helping us pick the best dishes and drinks. Jordan Chardonnay, 2022 Russian River CA Decoy Cabernet Sauvignon, 2023 Alexander Valley, CA Fort Point Villager IPA Dinner Chinese Olive Fried Rice Cumin Spicy Lamb "Longevity" Noodle Palette Soup Dumpling "XLB" Sampler (5 Pieces) Chicken Soup Dumpling "XLB" (3 Pieces) Black Swan Tara Puff (2 Pieces) Lotus Wrap Abaline Sticky Rice Wok Fried Gai LAN and Shitake Mushroom Desert Steamed Custard Dumpling Durian Custard Bao Wow, I could not say which one was my favorite dish. Every dish was great. In addition to the deserts. The deco was real nice and colorful. The had Peking Ducks all set for roasting on display. Must visit.

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    With plenty of restaurants trying to get you thru the door in Chinatown, I was so happy to try out…read moreHon's Wun-Tun House! There will be a little bit of a wait if you come at lunchtime, but the changing of tables is so quick, it's worth the wait. My table got many items to try out, including a number of dumplings and main dishes. We have no complaints! The servers were on top of their game, and every time a menu item was brought out, they would cross it out at the table, to ensure all our food was brought out. Each dish came out piping hot (especially the dumpling and wontons), and my favorite main dish was definitely the Braised Seafood + Tofu in Clay Pot. Pair that with some rice and your set. This place was such a vibe! Totally recommend; all our food came out quick --- everything was made-to-order, and they got nothing wrong. 10 out of 10!

    Memorial weekend Saturday - got walking in that day, I asked the person who sat us if any of the…read morenoodle dishes had soy (they all have soy), she asked if I was gluten-free and I said no, allergy to soy so I will get something else. This person who took our order asked if there were any allergies, I said soy and her eyes lit up while she calming asked, 'soy-sauce', and I list soysauce and all the soy things that fall in that umbrella. I order my item, the chicken wings and item to share: the pan-fried dumplings, while my partner ordered one of the noodle soups. She comes back later and points out that the noodle soup has soy - much apperciated because people sometimes share, etc. And I said it was just for my partner. -- The chicken wings were plump, crispy, the first two were 'heathly', didn't taste the salt, and the rest were packed with flavor. If you're looking for consistency there is a #1 spot in Chinatown for chicken wings which I will not disclose in this review. But, otherwise, for flavor - I like it here. My partner said he didn't find the ones here oily but I said the bottom ones were a little and I did enjoy it. The panfried dumplings - the meat was succulent and delicious, I didn't think there was enough soup, these ones are smaller than other places, but the meat is massive. They were good, not my favorite ever, but I think the meat was the best hands-down anywhere. - It was very busy with perhaps locals and tourists. The table on our left were these two white men in the architeture field - super vulgar and sexist talking about people they don't like, it would defintely be an HR red flag. And then to the corner on the right, there was this little family who hadn't had soup dumplings before - the grown kids ate with their hands and the parents with forks (I love to see people trying new things), I didn't see all of this going on but I asked my partner who kept looking over.. Yes, my partner was judging you but kudos to trying new things however it is. - For large parties - you'll have to wait awhile. QR waitlist kiosk thing in at the front. ** I truly apperciate food safety and staff being attentive which makes patrons more confident and are able to make more safely informed decisions when ordering.

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    Hon's Wun-Tun House - Come here to sign in. Then sit until they call you.

    Come here to sign in. Then sit until they call you.

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