Bay Area

Best Chinese Restaurants in San Francisco

Sichuan fire, Cantonese classics, and Chinatown institutions

San Francisco is home to the oldest Chinatown in North America, but the city's Chinese food story long ago spread to the Richmond and Sunset, where many locals do their regular eating. The range on this list is the point: Cantonese seafood houses and dim sum parlors, Sichuan noodle shops, Hakka and Hunan specialists, Shanghainese dumpling rooms, and modern kitchens rethinking the canon. Some of these dining rooms have been serving since the early twentieth century; others opened in the last few years. Together they cover a century of the city's Chinese cooking, from congee at dawn to banquet dinners.