San Francisco's Best Asian Restaurants

My favourite Burmese restaurant. I'm craving their mango salad with fried onions, garlic and cilantro.A great classic that also highlights a unique aspect of San Francisco since 1980s, as we have the most concentrated, thriving Burmese community in America. Burma Superstar is the most famous restaurant that everyone knows. But my favourite Burmese restaurant is actually Mandalay and it has been here since 1984, the oldest Burmese restaurant in the U.S. I sometimes come back from around the world and I'm craving their mango salad - they do it like no one else. It's strips of juicy orange mango with fried onions, garlic and cilantro. It's savoury, sweet, bright, fresh and light. And of course they do tea leaf salad and some of the other legendary Burmese dishes, like a traditional Burmese dish of coconut chicken noodle with yellow pea powder. It's a special neighbourhood hole in the wall atmosphere kind of place.

With this many hits on the menu you want to bring many friends and share it all.An awesome and fun SF restaurant from Ravi Kapur (RN74) and Jeff Hanak (NoPa) that loosely celebrates Hawaiian heritage. A great Bar + Wine program compliment a solid line up of snacks and more traditional fare. Can’t miss the Beef Tongue buns, the homemade Spam Fried Rice, the Tuna Poké or the Baked hawaiian dessert…with this many hits on the menu you want to bring many friends and share it all.

Three Atelier Crenn alum open a tiny bakery and call on their Asian traditions and influences in pastries.When three Atelier Crenn alum open a tiny bakery and call on their Asian traditions and influences in gourmet, creative pastries — from Korea to the Philippines — the results are nothing but spectacular in a city already rife with the largest number of the U.S.' best bakeries. On fluffy house milk bread, their kaya toast surpasses even the best I've had in Singapore.

The restaurant that helped propel and popularize Burmese cuisine throughout the Bay Area. The Bay Area was at one point home to one of the largest Burmese immigrant populations in America, and Burma Superstar was the restaurant that helped popularize the cuisine in San Francisco. From super savory soups like mohinga (a fish-based noodle soup) and oh no Khao soi (creamy coconut chicken noodle soup), to funky and fermented tea leaf salads, the original location of Burma Superstar on Clement St is a great way to explore the wonderful and complex cuisine.

Luxurious California-Vietnamese food in the Inner Richmond.Chef Rob Lam is fulfilling a dream of cooking Vietnamese dishes from his upbringing, with a luxurious, ingredient- and technique-driven focus (he’s French-trained, so the pâté in his banh mi is next-level). Go with a posse so you can taste a number of dishes since the portions are quite generous. It’s open for weekend brunch and dinner. The busy dining room has an elegant yet approachable style, and there’s a bar where you can perch if you're dining by yourself (enjoy a bowl of sublime beef pho) or just want a casual bite. My favorite seasonal dish is the Bun Rieu with numerous types of crab and dry-farmed tomato. I also love the Cha Ca La Vong—it’s a turmeric-fried catfish with noodles and it's funky-fresh. For brunch, they're making some of the best banh mi in the city, plus a great Saigon breakfast plate and chao (porridge). Their wine list is by James Yu of Great China, so you’ll see some fantastic selections, and they also have a full bar.

My "secret" more affordable, casual but still quality sushi spot in SF.

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Hidden upstairs in SF's charming Japantown mall, casual Sasa strikes a fine balance of exquisite fish from Japan’s legendary Toyosu Market (formerly Tsukiji) in proper nigiri and maki (rolls), but a midpoint price below many of the city’s tiny Michelin-starred sushi bars.

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Must try: divine scallops from Hokkaido in a scallop roll with snow crab and cucumber, creamy with Kyoto white miso aioli.

Fiery northern Chinese fare in The Outer Sunset. Bite for bite, la si ni at old mandarin Islamic is one of my favorite dishes in San Francisco. Easily in my top 10. I crave it so much that I’ll happily make the 22-min trek from mission across sloat for the goat.Translates to spicy enough to kill you—not quite but it’s up there. Scrambled eggs five diff chilies and chopped chicken — could substitute tofu for the vegetarians and probably wouldn’t notice the difference. So savory so umami so spicy, the heat level for me isn’t past the point of pain per se, but has you sweating, has you reaching for water. Can’t stop eating it.Can go so many different routes at this northern Chinese spot. Hot pot, stick to your rib braised sticky lamb ribs , those fun “gnocchi”. I did cumin lamb and chive pancake this time around. Promove is to open up pancake and stuff with la si ni — proprietress Fatima aka Feng Wang gave me that one. Her food is so fire! I Love it so much.

A San Francisco institution and beloved dim sum house.My absolute favorite for a truly San Francisco dim sum experience. Yank Sing is a family-owned business that has been around since 1958. Everything is made fresh, and they taste all their dumplings daily to make sure it's all up to their high standards. They make some of the best Kurobuta pork xiao long bao (soup dumplings). It’s the perfect place to go for lunch, ideally with at least four people so you can taste more dishes. Enjoy their turnip cake, seafood-basil dumplings, har gow, pan-fried chicken buns, and best-in-class dan tat (egg custard tart) over a bottle of bubs. Their tea selection is also excellent, so you can enjoy some quality tea with your dim sum. Yank Sing has two locations, but the one on Stevenson Street has an outdoor patio.

The Japanese tasting menu by David Yoshimura is full of incredible surprises. This one is destined for awards. Nisei just passed the year mark as it opened last year. It is very Japanese with tasting menu only, but the chef, second generation Japanese-American David Yoshimura, calls his food Cal Japanese. The flavours are bold and fascinating - they are traditional Japanese ethos, but absolutely not traditional in flavour. This one is destined for awards and other accolades. The tasting menu is full of incredible surprises, like the signature dish Dorayaki, little Japanese pancakes that are stuffed traditionally with red beans, but he stuffs them with banana and tops them with caviar. They're incredibly playful and decadent and this dish epitomises the direction Yoshimura is going, with a tasting menu always full of surprises. They also serve a saké pairing and a sake and wine combo adds even more layers.