Often described as a kind of soulful cousin to Cantonese food, the cuisine of China’s migratory Hakka people abounds with pickled vegetables and slow-cooked meats. This homey Outer Richmond restaurant is a great place to get hooked on these rustic, comforting flavors. Must-order dishes include salt-baked chicken, clams stir-fried with basil, and braised pork belly with shrimp paste.

On cold nights prior to the pandemic, many of the regulars who’d crowd the small, scruffy dining room at Old Mandarin Islamic would order one of the spicy Beijing-style hot pots. In general, the restaurant, which specializes in Chinese Muslim cuisine, is a great place to feast on lamb — stir-fried with cumin, braised, or boiled in a clay pot. Chili-heads will want to test their endurance against the side dish/condiment known as la si ni, or “spice you to death.”

Head to this Outer Sunset gem for Shaanxi cuisine, which many Americans became acquainted with thanks to Xian Famous Foods in New York. The menu’s highlights include lots of lamb dishes; stretchy, semi-translucent cold noodles (or mian pi); and the meat-stuffed sandwiches known as rou jia mo, or “Chinese burgers.”

Head to this Geary Street restaurant for, as the name indicates, Sichuan cuisine including the red-tinged Chef’s Special Fish Stew that’s heated tableside and lamb chops encrusted in cumin. Those with an affection for offal can try pan-fried pig intestine, tripe in red chile sauce, and spicy pig brain.

Chef Brandon Jew’s most casual and accessible restaurant yet is this counter-service operation in the Inner Richmond that specializes in Chinese-American takeout classics: sweet-and-sour chicken, beef and broccoli, and egg rolls. Every dish is made with well-sourced ingredients, abundant vegetables, and precise Chinese technique — which means that chicken, for instance, isn’t cloyingly sweet and has a satisfying crunch.

After closing in July 2022, the longtime Pacific Heights Chinese restaurant Gourmet Carousel reopened in April 2023 under slightly new owners. At the helm: the children of original owners BoHing Ko and his wife Sai Ko who ran the restaurant for nearly four decades. The business is back for both lunch and dinner offering dishes including Hakka chicken soup, honey walnut shrimp, and Singapore-style fried rice noodles for dine-in and takeout.

Trendy Hayes Valley has not previously had a reputation for destination-worthy Chinese food, but this spot is worth a special visit for its freshly handmade, supremely soupy xiao long bao, and crispy-bottomed vegetable dumplings. The xiao long bao, in particular, are available in six different versions, including one filled with numbingly spicy broth.

Fans of Hong Kong Lounge II mourned its loss when a fire took out the Geary Boulevard restaurant in 2019, but it returned in 2023 with a new location in SoMa (albeit with a slightly different name). Favorites such as the restaurant’s crispy baked pork buns and steamed har gow are still on the menu but diners should venture into other dishes, such as the glazed coffee baby back ribs or whole roasted duck with plum sauce, for more filling options.

The casual first-floor market restaurant in George Chen’s massive, multi-venue complex is known for customer favorites like its crisp-bottomed sheng jian bao and its Beijing duck sesame pockets.

The rest of the menu offers everything from fried scallion bread and butter garlic noodles to Dongbei-style long potstickers. While you’re there, might as well stock up on house-made condiments.

Chef Brandon Jew’s ambitious Chinese-American restaurant in the heart of Chinatown continues to shine, retaining its status as the only Michelin-starred Chinatown restaurant in 2021. Though Jew has gone on to introduce a number of new projects, from spinoffs to a cookbook, Mister Jiu’s is the original favorite and now serves a prix fixe menu with the option to add-on banquet-style plates including the roast duck platter with peanut butter hoisin.

This city is dense with dumpling specialists, and it’s true, the exceptionally thin wrappers on Yank Sing’s shrimp har gow and its juicy XLB are part of what put this spot on the Michelin Guide’s map. But Yank Sing also offers very good Peking-style roasted duck and plates like salt and pepper pork and egg noodles with barbecue pork that can round out your meal with fuller entrees.