While taking a video of the classic egg foo young at the 105-year-old Far East Cafe, Janet Chan is insistent: “Please don’t call me an influencer,” she begs. “All those guys sound annoyingly the same. I trust people who know food, not just looking to get likes. Plus, I’m a nobody.”
For a nobody, Chan has quietly become a somebody. Since 2020, the former insurance broker, mother of two grown kids, and wife of an SF native has made it her mission to eat at every one of the 150-something restaurants in Chinatown. She doesn’t get paid to do it; she just wants to support the businesses. “I used to just have my favorite six spots,” she says, “but there are so many hidden gems.”
Chan chronicles her visits on Instagram at @sfchinatown.today — not to be confused with her smaller account @chinatown_sanfrancisco, where she delves into the neighborhood’s history. I’m just one of her ardent 22,200 followers.
There’s something about her videos’ lo-fi earnestness that charms me. You never see Chan’s face. You just hear her voice and follow along with her wobbly camera angles, a kind of accidental cinéma vérité. There she is touting Hon’s Wun-Tun House, one of Chinatown’s most famous restaurants, to the soundtrack of Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf.” Or she’s at House of Xian Dumpling, home to some of the city’s best dumplings, eating black sesame balls in sweet soup, exclaiming “omg” with three heart emojis. Or delving into the history of gum wah (Chinese ham).
The daughter of the owners of a Chinese American restaurant in Chicago, Chan started her obsessive Chinatown immersion as a way to help businesses suffering during the tourism drought of the pandemic. Even today, with the neighborhood experiencing a “creative resurgency,” foot traffic is down 22% from 2019, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. And with the threat of 100% tariffs on Chinese goods still on the table (President Donald Trump is set to bargain with Chinese leader Xi Jingping on Thursday), things are by no means back to normal.
Chan’s reputation as a Chinatown booster extends far beyond San Francisco. My friend Grace Young — a San Francisco cookbook author who was named Humanitarian of the Year in 2022 by the James Beard Foundation for her work in support of New York’s Chinatown — has gotten to know Chan because of their shared mission. “Janet is great,” she texted me. “She’s played a critical role in helping the community survive.”
What have been some of her favorite discoveries during her five-year mission to dine at every spot? Of the old-school restaurants, there’s Far East Cafe, which she had “pooh-poohed” as being for tourists until she discovered the yee foo wonton soup (egg drop soup afloat with fried wontons), and Mow Lee Shing Kee & Co., which opened in 1856, where she goes for Chinese bacon and other dried meats. Taishan Cuisine serves the food of the Guangdong province, where many Chinese San Franciscans are from. “This is home cooking, not a date place,” she warns. “I like their clay-pot rice with yellow eel. They’ll make a soup using the bones.” Then there’s Dol Ho, where people crowd in for steamed pork ribs at 10 a.m., and Spicy & Cloud, the hood’s new, and apparently only, Yunnan place.
And while she’s supportive of all, Chan isn’t beyond a little taste-off. She recently tried 16 bowls of wonton soup in order to declare Utopia Cafe’s the best and pitted egg tarts against one another, saying AA Bakery won out.
After five years of dedication, she’s become a bit of a reluctant hero. “I try to stay under the radar,” she says. However, there’s definitely a little pride in being recognized. “I was at Four Kings, and they asked, ‘Are you SF Chinatown Today?’ They figured me out.” Of course Chan has her own opinion on the universally acclaimed restaurant. “I love those kids — great concept,” she says. “But I think they need to keep pushing.”
— Sara Deseran (@saradeseran_food)
Got a hot tip, a juicy morsel, a spicy take? Email offmenu@sfstandard.com.
