Good Chinese Food

Going in a couple weeks, any recommendations for good Chinese food? Also, good Italian in North Beach?

Good Chinese Food

We enjoyed our meal at the Empress in Chinatown. Excellent service, good atmosphere, good food. Probably a bit too touristy if you%26#39;re a purist, but we were happy.

Good Chinese Food

What kind of Chinese food? Cantonese? Hunanese? Szechwanese? Doesn%26#39;t matter? Is atmosphere and decor important, or do hole-in-the-wall places OK? Do you prefer to be in Chinatown or out in the western side of the city that (Richmond District)?

With Italian, do you also have preferences re atmosphere? that is basic vs. cute vs. formal?

Breakfast, lunch, dinner or snacks?

My current favorites are R%26amp;G Lounge or Great Eastern in Chinatown; Yank Sing for dim sum, and Trattoria Contadina in North Beach. All are casual and (except for Yank Sing) relatively inexpensive, but all have great food and are a little off the normal tourist routes. Check out sfgate.com/dining or chowhound.com for other recommendations.

If you want great Dim sum for a resonable price Ton Kiang on Geary Blvd. near 24th Ave. is a perfect San Francisco(Non-touristy type) experience.

Thanks everyone for the info...i love hole in the wall places, off the beaten path.

My favorite is the Five Happiness at the corner of 5th Avenue and Geary Blvd. Ask for the hot and sour chicken and the salt shrimp (I think that%26#39;s what it%26#39;s called--shrimp in the shell with the heads (ick) still attached--but yum)

p.s. Also at the Five Happiness, the szechuan green beans are delicious.

Hunan%26#39;s Home and Chef Jia%26#39;s are two of my favorites. Neither of these is a big tourist draw but the food at both is very good and reasonable. Hunan%26#39;s Home is on Jackson and Chef Jia%26#39;s

is on Kearney.

If you like pizza, try Tomasso%26#39;s on Kearney.

For Hunan, I like Hunan%26#39;s Home, already referenced by previous poster

For Szechwanese, I have no preference

For Cantonese, I like R%26amp;G Lounge and Great Eastern.

For dim sum, I can%26#39;t remember the name of the place, or how they spell their name in English. I just go there. But there are plenty of dim sum places and everyone has a favorite they can suggest.

These are all Chinatown places. If you wind up in the Richmond district, holler. Not a tourist destination, so we don%26#39;t usually suggest unless you think you%26#39;re going there.

p.s. Do not go to House of Nanking on Kearny unless you like waiting with a bunch of other auslanders who don%26#39;t know what they%26#39;re doing. I don%26#39;t have the time or the patience for that kind of thing, myself.