June 1, 2007
San Francisco - Mayflower Seafood Restaurant etc
Mom prefers Chinese food to anything else, so last weekend, J and I brought her to Mayflower Seafood Restaurant in San Francisco to eat dim sum. This branch is much smaller in size compared to the one in Milpitas, CA. The restaurant opens at 10am, but there were already a group of hungry vultures waiting outside the restaurant’s un-opened doors before 10am.
The restaurant was too small to accommodate the typical dim sum carts, so all the dim sum were served by non-smiling, Cantonese speaking waiters/waitresses. Mom said there used to be a Mayflower Seafood Restaurant in Singapore too (located in Shenton Way area?) but they were knocked out by strong contenders like the Tung Luk Group and the Crystal Jade chain of restaurants.
We had a friend join us for dim sum. She works as a pediatrician in San Francisco so we needed to bribe her to give us free pediatrics consultation after the baby is born. After all, the dim sum bill for the 4 of us only amounted to US$42 with taxes and tips included, so it was a good deal.
Of course we didn’t drive all the way up to San Francisco (are you nuts?!) just to eat dim sum. This was just part of the one-day San Francisco “tour itinerary” for mom. We also brought her down the curvy wurvy Lombard Street, Chinatown and took pictures with her at the Golden Gate Bridge.
All these pictures below are not current. San Francisco last Sunday was pretty windy, so we did a “car tour” to save mom from the gusty winds that she was not used to.
Lombard Street is America’s crookedest street. Cars can only drive down Lombard Street at 5 miles/hour.
San Francisco Chinatown is the largest Chinatown outside Asia. There was some sort of festival (Mooncake Festival??) at the time this picture was taken, that’s why the road was closed and there were throngs of people. Sept 04! - that was how long ago I was in SF Chinatown! We brought mom to Chinatown to show her how difficult it is to get parking and so that she will never ever ask me to go there again when I tell her I cannot find a particular ingredient in Ranch 99.)
Everybody who has been to San Francisco would at least have a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge, wouldn’t you? BUT… is yours as picturesque as mine? Bwahahahaa… ok… I confess. All the above pictures were taken by J, not me. It was only late last year that I started using his camera cos he moved on to a new hobby.
Bite This!
More recipes:
Dim Sum For Christmas? Mayflower Seafood Restaurant!
My Singapore Food Cravings (1): Stir Fried Noodles - Hong Kong Style
Indian Mee Goreng In Penang Village
Vung Tau Restaurant - Bánh Khot
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June 1st, 2007 at 10:06 pm
my best friend lives in San Francisco, I hope to see it one day :) Where is your mom based? :)
June 1st, 2007 at 10:11 pm
My mom hails from Singapore!
June 2nd, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Is Mayflower better than Koi Palace?
June 2nd, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Hi Alice,
Thanks for visiting my humble blog. :) Personally I feel that Koi Palace is better in terms of their portion size. There are some things in Mayflower that are made too big for my liking. Eg, the siew mai is huge, the chee cheong fun’s shrimp is too big, and some other dishes come in so huge a portion that I cannot order them if I have only 2-4 people in my group. Taste wise, I feel that they are similar (for the regular stuff I eat, like phoenix claw, char siew pao, bean curd skin, egg tarts and tofu hua). Koi Palace has a slightly wider variety which includes duck tongue, tripe and some other stuff I dunno what they are :p
Both have crazy weekend crowds, so go early!
June 3rd, 2007 at 10:37 am
I could never get a “clear” pic of Golden Gate Bridge as nice as this. When I get to see it, it’s always foggy. Suay!
June 3rd, 2007 at 11:12 am
Looks like Dec is a good time to go then! Eat dungeoness crab and see bridge :)
June 4th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
*sniff* I miss Northern California. Darda Seafood! Maylower!
What do you think of Penang Garden in Milpitas? I tried it the last time I was up there.
June 23rd, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Actually, the Mayflower restaurant in Singapore was knocked out by Tung Lok and Fook Yuen (the same as the one in Millbrae). When Mayflower in Singapore closed, Crystal Jade has not even started.