You don’t care at all for the shrimp/leek dumplings, hot/sour soup or even the string beans? That is all we ever order (plus the wings of course) if the two of us. Bigger parties have added the fried fish which tastes like the chicken from using the same oil or something and yeah I am not a fan of the black noodle.
Shrimp/Leek Dumplings - nothing special for Northern style dumplings. You can get the same quality (if not better) from http://www.kingofchinesedumpling.com which is down Taraval. 22 pcs per bag for about $7. Cook at home.
Dry Fried String Beans - their rendition is ok. A tad too oily for my tastes. This is a dish that is hard to make just right with little oil.
Hot/Sour Soup - I am not a fan of this kind of soup. For soup, I much prefer the Cantonese “old fire soups” with exquisite broth. Actually I had some bomb-ass soup from HL Peninsula in South San Francisco recently (on Dubuque Ave).
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Is HL peninsula the one that @dioworld badmouthed? I have avoided that restaurant since his badmouthing.
I am now relying more on words of mouth like this forum and a FB group of fellow Chinese immigrants.
Here is another Yelp letdown. 4 star for nothing:
I’ve been to HL Peninsula precisely once - for a celebratory dinner. I was a guest.
The food was not bad… but it wasn’t the best, even by bay area standards – Koi Palace or even that old stand HK Flower Lounge can beat it. The decor and ambience and seating were superlative (which matters if you do one of those private room dealios).
The things that stood out to me were:
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The soup. The broth was fantastic. REALLY REALLY good. Like Shark Fin’s soup with no Shark Fin.
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The “white guy shrimp dish”
The Honey Walnut shrimp was actually pretty good - the shrimp were cooked right and were bursting full of shrimp flavor. -
Lobster was well cooked.
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How’s that roast piglet? Looks pretty good in picture. 
The piglet itself was really tender and juicy and the skin was super light and crispy. It is not often that you find super light and crispy skin. Too often it is over crunchy. However, the piglet sat on a bed of wonder bread??? I have had piglet where you wrapped it in thin pancakes and plum sauce … which is better.
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Wonder bread? WTF??? 
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Good way to sop up the fat drippings
Uh, hello? This is Vietnamese food… I am not to blame for places serving Vietnamese food!!! And, it is in the Mission, so of course we real Chinese don’t give it any credibility. At least stick to our true blue neighborhoods like Chinatown, Richmond or Sunset please??? Some chinese place in Noe Valley or Castro is a red flag if there ever was one!!!
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My favorite pho place. It has an awesome selection of different cuts of meat. I always order pho with lean brisket, fatty brisket, tendon, tripe, and extra tripe. No flank and no steak for me.
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Yeah, that location is a very very string clue as to wrt clientele they are trying to target!!
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If suckling pig is roasted properly, there will not be much grease/fat to sop up.
I was telling my friends the other day that if Marugame’s toppings were not the bland tempuras but fish balls/squid/tripe instead (the ones you can find in HK cart noodles), that’d make the meal ten times tastier.
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I know South Bay has strong Vietnamese restaurants. I used to live close to little Saigon and they have pretty authentic Vietnamese food down there. All the Vietnamese restaurants I tried in SF have been super weak sauce.
That mission restaurant actually has Chinese owners speaking fluent Cantonese. 
I think I have heard of pho nam I may even have eaten there once or twice when I still worked in that area. 3.5 stars on Yelp! Sounds like my kind of place!
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Remember last time I had buddha jumps over the wall? That was at HL Peninsula. That dish was good (because the ingredients were good, flavor was okay), but other dishes were just average. I’ve been there for dim sum too - mediocre.
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Cart noodles are super yummy. But it doesn’t have the pretentious presentation of Japanese food. Even Chinese people don’t treat it with the respect it deserves. Everybody just lines up for “exotic” Japanese food because it feels more upscale. Sad!
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That would be awesome. Yeah, their tempura is weak sauce, As well, their condiment area is a mess. It is a shame because their udon texture really is really good.
Like WTF? Chinese food has too much margin? Forget running a Japanese restaurant … those insane margins be ridonculus! Let’s operate a Vietnamese restaurant! 0.005% margin is where its at!!! 
Ha, on that topic, actually, when I lived on the east side (of SF) one of my favorite places for a good bowl of noodles was https://www.yelp.com/biz/hai-ky-noodles-san-francisco?osq=hai+ky . Chinese-Vietnamese and they spoke Cantonese.
Anyways, hands down, my favorite bowl of noodles was “Running Chicken Wonton Noodle Soup” All it was was the thin elastic wonton noodles (no wontons), lovely lovely running chicken pieces, and the most yellow-fur-chickeny broth ever!! That broth was so chickeny, so delicious! Then, to make it even better, I would always ask for addition of pork kidney 腰花. Yuuuuummmm.
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Why does Hai Ky close at 6? Area too shady?
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