San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Hottest ticket in town
Here’s how to score a seat for the ever-changing and spectacular prix fixe
How to score a walk-in seat at Empress by Boon for this spectacular Pi Pa duck and other specialties.
Empress by Boon, the new Cantonese blockbuster restaurant in Chinatown, is one of the most impossible reservations to score right now. Tables at the restaurant with breathtaking views of San Francisco are booked until October, and have been almost since the moment it opened in June.
But here’s a tip: The sleek lounge and bar are reserved for walk-ins, with the full menu (and some views, too). It’s one of the happy secrets that I stumbled upon after my first time dining at the restaurant, which doesn’t actively advertise its walk-in availability. You just have to know. And once you do, you will find a romantic go-to spot to watch the sun set while tucking into baijiu cocktails and some of the best roast duck in the city.
Start in the lobby of the restaurant, which doesn’t have much going on, with only a host standing at a podium. To get in, simply tell them that you’d like to sit at the bar, and they’ll let you into the elevator; it will make you feel like you’re ascending into a secret club, like the offices of the Men in Black.
Once you’re upstairs, you’ll see what all the fuss is about. With a designer name akin to Marc by Marc Jacobs, Empress by Boon is not a modest restaurant: Every inch of it is engineered to awe you, from the turquoise glazed tiles to the dramatic floral arrangements. An antique wooden pergola, saved from Empress of China, the former 48-year tenant, towers over the lounge, worn by the ages much like the ancient preserved facades one might find in art museums. A skylight blesses the center of it with a soft, luminescent sunbeam. The 7,500-square-foot dining area has several distinct rooms that remind you of its banquet hall past.
I wasn’t surprised to see numerous people whip out their phones, some with selfie sticks, immediately upon exiting the elevator, hoping to document the experience of walking through this space. I even saw former Mayor Willie Brown’s party doing it. (Could this be the next glitzy, Starslike destination for city power brokers? Seems likely.)
Without a reservation, check in at the bar to grab some menus, and choose your seat at either the bar or in the lounge, where there are a few small tables set up in orbit around the pergola. A circular, salmon-colored couch sits in the middle. A server will then come by to take your order.
The highlight of the menu is the ever-changing prix fixe, which is currently $78 per person for seven courses. Chef Ho Chee Boon, longtime executive chef of upscale international Chinese chain Hakkasan, has distinguished himself through an approach to Cantonese food similar to what one might find at luxury hotel restaurants in Hong Kong. In his bracket, you’ll find sophisticated and precise presentations of traditional dishes, like stewed goose, barbecued pork and braised sea cucumber offered at premium prices.
On my first visit, the prix fixe came out as a flurry of small dishes, some more successful than others, though overall a worthy deal. An attractive bowl of springy noodles mixed with mushrooms did not have much flavor to offer, and from a braised and fried rib eye steak I got mostly gristle. But thick-stemmed young bok choy from the restaurant’s private farm was handled tenderly, with light seasoning, in that very California way of letting the vegetables do the talking. Fat shrimp wrapped in translucent tapioca dough, topped with minute dabs of Kaluga caviar and micro herbs, was a gorgeously rendered adaptation of the ubiquitous har gow.
That evening, the restaurant also offered one add-on: the Pi Pa duck ($48), a variation on the better-known Peking duck that involves butterflying the bird before roasting to achieve an even cook. Each bite exploded with duck juice and liquified fat, flooding the mouth as a ripe summer peach does.
I should say that the first time I had the prix fixe, it was at a proper table that I’d reserved. The restaurant is still working out how to serve a family-style meal using the small circular tables in the lounge, which quickly get overloaded if you’re putting anything other than glasses on them. You start to feel dread whenever a server, with an apologetic look, comes up with more plates. On one occasion, the prix fixe required them to bring two enormous bamboo steamers to the table. When we took off the lids, we weren’t sure where to put them: on the nice seats next to us? On the floor? Thankfully, a server quickly came up to fetch the lids from
us as we were considering our options. It’s likely that eating off of many plates works out better at the bar, though the seats there are not very comfortable. It’s up to you to pick your poison.
A happy medium would be to simply order off the a la carte menu in the lounge with a few drinks. Start with some snacks, like a cigar-shape fried prawn roll ($18) whose toasted sesame coating and rich marine stuffing brings to mind the shrimp toasts ubiquitous on dim sum menus. Though they seem tempting, skip the Iberico ham xiaolongbao ($21), which are rather imprecisely shaped, forfeiting their interiors like holey buckets with the slightest prod.
Instead, try the steamed zucchiniprawn dumplings ($12) topped with thin slivers of black truffle and gleaming in a jade pool of pureed squash. A thick piece of black cod ($38), simply prepared with soy and savory shacha sauces, showcases the fish’s buttery, wobbly texture. Another success is the crispy chicken ($25), light fried nuggets of boneless chicken arranged on top of a Southeast Asian-style curry sauce scented with galangal and curry leaves. Pair these rich dishes with one of the specialty cocktails, like the astringent Nanjing Cocktail ($18), made with Knob Creek rye whiskey rinsed with duck fat and bitters that sparkle with Sichuan spices.
As you can likely tell at this point, dining here is more of a splurge, especially for this neighborhood. In this way, Empress by Boon follows the track of others that have turned unused banquet hall spaces into upscale destinations: In 2017, China Live, a food emporium that includes a restaurant with a $225 per person tasting menu, opened in what was once Gold Mountain. Mister Jiu’s, which integrates modern Californian farm-to-table sensibilities with Cantonese cooking techniques, opened in the former Four Seas banquet hall in 2016. If it succeeds, it’s likely that Empress by Boon won’t be the last restaurant of its kind to open in Chinatown.