Friday, April 08, 2016

Sam Wo, 713 Clay St., San Francisco

Pork jook from Sam Wo (Yelp photo)
In a story we had missed, Sam Wo Restaurant re-opened last October on Clay St., a couple of blocks away from its old Washington Ave. address. The new restaurant seems to have gotten favorable reviews. Here, for example, the Chronicle:
The chicken jook ($6.25) has an intense flavor, and in the plain wonton soup ($6.50) the deeply flavored chicken broth also stars. The nine plump dumplings are filled with pork and crunchy cubes of water chestnuts, making the soup as filling as the jook. More popular, however, is a combination of wonton soup ($8.50) chock-full of shrimp, meat and vegetables.
The food sounds much improved from that which I had in 2003:
I ordered the special won ton soup. For $4.75 I counted a half-dozen won ton, a couple of shrimp and pieces of pork, and some bok choy and water chestnuts. The liquid volume exceeded that of the solids, not a good sign of value. The food’s mediocre, the so-bad-it’s-good ambience has been replaced by no ambience. If Sam Wo is here 20 years from now, I'll be very surprised.
We'll just have to add the new Sam Wo to the list of SF eateries to check out, and we'll be sure to bring back a T-shirt.

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