Years have gone by but my memories of the flavors of fresh sweet bread and savory bbq pork that make up Lai Hong Lounge’s char siu bao remain unchanged. My vacation time is about to expire so a road trip to San Francisco is planned. I manage to slip a visit to Lai Hong Lounge into the schedule.
I arrive at 10am and the place is starting to fill up. I order one order of 3 baked char siu bao for myself.
These treats are too delicious to share. The sugary top is like they have on the best concha’s I’ve eaten. There is a nice crunch and a light sweet flavor fills my mouth.
Sweet pastry is fresh and fluffy melting in my mouth. Char siu filing is tender with a sweet and savory 5 spice power flavor. These flavors and textures blend together resulting in the best tasting baked char siu boa I’ve ever had.
There are many more delicious dishes here.
Won ton soup had delicious pork and shrimp dumplings with noodles and bok choy. I loved the mix of flavors from the seasoning, pork, and shrimp. I prefer the mix to dumplings that are all shrimp or all pork. Noodles and bok choy had fresh flavors
Siu mei used the same dumplings as in the won ton soup. Flavors were more intense as the soup didn’t steal any of the delicious flavor.
Custard piglet bun had a fresh boa pastry flavor with a sweet filling. Nicely decorated!
To order we used a Sharpie to write the number of each item we wanted. Dim sum was freshly made in the kitchen instead of rolling carts. Service was pretty speedy. There was a line outside when we left. I’m gonna plan another road trip next year to revisit Lai Hong Lounge.
1416 Powell St
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 397-2290
My top two favorite items here are the baked char siu bao and the custard piglet buns. I love how they have a big screen tv showcasing pictures of each dish, that way you can pick out new things to try. Definitely will do that next visit. Even though they were crazy busy service was excellent! Good to know a paid parking garage is available a block away since street parking is scarce.
That’s good you found items you love! Street parking in SF is terrible.