San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Empress by Boon, a feast for the eyes, opens.
Restaurant opens with sweeping views, $68 modern Cantonese prix fixe menu
Empress by Boon is arguably the most splashy blockbuster of a restaurant opening to hit San Francisco since the pandemic began.
Occupying the top floor of the historic Empress of China banquet restaurant space at 838 Grant Ave. in Chinatown, the new 7,500squarefoot restaurant offers sweeping views of San Francisco and a stunning design to match. It opened June 18, with reservations largely booked up through July — even with a whopping 156 seats across multiple dining rooms, the tea lounge and the bar.
Ho Chee Boon, best known as the longtime executive chef of upscale international Chinese chain Hakkasan, is starting out with a $68 tasting menu — a way for Boon to introduce diners to his take on modern Cantonese dishes using unexpected ingredients.
It opens with a steamed shrimp dumpling topped with caviar — Boon generally loves the idea of serving higherend dim sum — and moves onto heartier fare like grilled rib eye with tofu and a Sichuan peppercorninfused sauce, evoking mapo tofu.
For the restaurant’s first month in business, diners must order the prix fixe. After that, Boon plans to gauge diners’ reactions to develop a new menu — likely a mix of a la carte options and a seasonal prix fixe. Boon will use organic produce such as pea shoots from Empress by Boon’s own 200acre Gilroy farm, something the chef described as “a dream come true” and “the perfect way to offer a farmtotable experience like no other in San Francisco.”
That said, Boon already has some ideas for dishes he wants to serve down the line. While not on the opening tasting menu, Peking duck is likely to be a staple of the restaurant, with ducks sourced from Joe Jurgielewicz & Son, a fourthgeneration farm in Pennsylvania.
“The ducks we serve are specifically bred to have great natural favor and unmatched crispy skin with an ideal meattofat ratio,” Boon said by email.
Dishes won’t necessarily be strictly Chinese, either. Boon, who was born in Malaysia, plans to serve a spicy, peanutlaced beef salad inspired by shrimp pastespiked snacks and fruit salads he grew up eating at street stalls. South Asian flavors inform a crispy chicken with curry and milk, heady with curry leaves, galangal and turmeric.
The space, designed by Atelier LLYS, features three distinct atmospheres to highlight different views of the city’s skyline. Royal blue curved booths are elevated along the northfacing windows, giving diners a striking look at Coit Tower. To the east, there’s a dining room surrounded by maroon, carved wood screens, with a chef ’s prep table taking center stage.
The tea lounge, with plush seats and low tables, is contained within the same intricate wooden pergola that used to sit inside the original Empress of China. Restored fixtures from the former banquet restaurant are peppered throughout the space.
Large banquet restaurants like the original Empress of China, which closed in 2014, have served as important gathering spaces for Chinatown’s many family associations, community organizations and cultural celebrations. But they’re expensive to maintain — and most have shuttered in recent years. Mister Jiu’s took over Four Seas in 2016. China Live and Eight Tables replaced Gold Mountain one year later. China Live owner George Chen included a banquet hall in his complex but said it was a losing game financially.
Some Chinatown organizations unsuccessfully fought Empress by Boon’s arrival, hoping to keep the legendary Empress space geared toward the people who live in Chinatown. But Boon hopes his activation of the space brings helpful energy to the neighborhood.
“I hope to continue the special location’s dining legacy with modern and approachable cuisine in an elegant, reimagined dining atmosphere,” Boon said. “I want to provide a positive contribution for the people of this great city that I love so dearly.”