Rare Hakka restaurant closes
Zhong Shan Hakka, whose chef Jin Hua Li introduced many in San Francisco to a broader range of food from the Hakka people of China, is closing on Monday, March 15, the restaurant confirmed. The business has been sold.
Though the Parkside restaurant at 2237 Taraval St. opened in just 2019, Li already had a following when it debuted. The chef gained attention while working at the Outer Richmond’s Hakka Restaurant, which was recognized for precise yet homey Chinese cooking. (The restaurant remains open under different ownership.)
Dishes such as silken tofu stuffed with ground pork, saltbaked chicken and braised Chinese bacon became signatures. The options migrated over with Li to Zhong Shan Hakka, where Cantonese fare rounded out the rest of the menu. The restaurant became a neighborhood favorite, while also attracting a broader audience, including for banquets.
Hakka cuisine is generally uncommon in the U.S.; it comes from the Hakka people, who resettled in the south of China from the north thousands of years ago. The diaspora is now around the world.
Li was not the first to serve Hakka food in the Bay Area. Famed dim sum restaurant Ton Kiang, which closed during the pandemic after 42 years in business, had Hakkastyle dishes on the menu. And there are some other restaurants that serve some Hakka dishes alongside other Chinese options, according to Linda Anusasananan, the Bay Areabased author of “The Hakka Cookbook.”
But Zhong Shan Hakka, owned by the chef and his wife, Bonnie, is one of the few modern restaurants to widely advertise itself as serving Hakka food, said Anusasananan, who adapted some of Li’s recipes for her book.
“I’m really happy that he was able to gain fans for Hakka food and to build a following for that cuisine that’s not very well known,” she said.
The owners said they sold due to the challenges of running a restaurant. Still, they left the restaurant business before and returned, leaving some fans hoping that they’ll reopen later.
“There’s hardly any [Hakka restaurants],” Anusasananan said. “That’s why it’s so sad to see it close.”