6255 Geary Blvd, San Francisco CA 94121
(415) 387-8338
428 Barber Lane, Milpitas CA 95035
(408) 922-2700
Parking: street parking
Hours: Mon-Fri: 11am to 2:30pm, 5 to 9pm; Sat/Sun/Holidays: 10am to 2:30pm, 5pm to 9:30pm
http://www.mayflower-seafood.com/
Last Visited: January 9, 2011 in San Francisco, May 21, 2005 in Milpitas
Food: 3 to 4 stars
Atmosphere: 3 to 4 stars
Service: 3 stars
Price: $$ to $$$$
First, let me explain the Best rating. While it's not the best ever, Mayflower in San Francisco provides consistent food quality - fresh, hot, authentic. It's my go-to place for recommendations to friends and where I go when I have a dim sum craving. Service, that's another matter...
Note 2011 pricing seems to be more competitive from as low as $2.10 a dish to $4.85 for most chef specials.
It’s easy to find Mayflower in San Francisco by the jade green awning outside. Enter the glass doors, and you’ll be greeted by the many tanks of seafood featuring live shrimp, geoduck, crab, fish, and whatever else is in season.
The dining room is a bit crowded. Since the restaurant is located on the corner, there are two walls with a lot of windows that bring in natural light and brighten up the room. Short curtains decorate the windows. There is a bar area with mirrors behind it and bottles of liquor on display. It’s less used as a bar and more used as a work area. There is a room to the side that is tucked away and can be used as a private room when dividers are utilized. More seafood tanks display fresh seafood in the main dining area.
A Chinese character in large gold print on a red background decorates the room. White tablecloths adorn the tables and the plates are white with blue trim.
Today, we had a dim sum lunch. Dinner here usually involves many plates of seafood. They have set menus for ten people ranging from around $200 for the entire set meal to over $600. Of course, you can also order directly from the menu and create your own set.
Some of the photos have a bit of weird coloring because I was sitting by the window and the combination of natural and artificial light seems to have tinted the dishes a weird blue.
- Siu Mai (pork dumplings) (4) - Topped with shrimp and shrimp roe, these pork dumplings are filled with flavor.
- Deep fried Mango seafood roll (3) – Seafood and mango is battered in panko crumbs and deep fried until golden brown. The mango gives the roll a sweetness and adds brightness. It’s an unusual combination, but it tasted good. Another bonus was the hot temperature and the sweetness.
- Eggplant stuffed with shrimp paste (3) - One of my favorite dishes, the stuffed eggplant is deep fried and then topped with black bean sauce. The deep frying of the eggplant makes it super hot in temperature and the texture becomes so soft that it almost melts in your mouth. The shrimp paste develops a slight crispiness which contrasts the eggplant well.
- Spareribs with black bean sauce – Spareribs are steamed in black bean sauce. This dish was okay. I prefer 
mine to have a little more heat to it, both in temperature and spice. If you can sit near the kitchen and get them right away, you'll enjoy the product more. Also, sometimes the flavor is similar, but you'll see steamed spareribs without the black beans.
- Spicy turnip cake – This was a unique dish. Turnip cake is cut into large cubes, dipped in egg, and pan fried with some red pepper flakes. The turnip cake was hot in temperature and flavor. It’s a welcome twist to the regular style of turnip cake. Very good.
- Deep fried Taro dumpling (3) – The taro dumplings had recently come out of the deep fryer and were fresh and the outside was crispy. When these dumplings are hot, they’re very good.
- Shanghai dumpling (3) – These Shanghai dumplings are served with red vinegar and thin slices of ginger. Of all the dim sum, this was the most disappointing, but remember that Mayflower’s specialty isn’t Shanghai dumplings. The dumplings were so tiny in size that they were filled with very little meat. I wouldn’t order these again.
- Seafood donut rice noodle roll – Rice noodle is rolled around a Chinese donut, but what is unusual is that this donut contains seafood – most recognizably shrimp. Three sauces – peanut sauce, hoisin sauce, and soy sauce – accompany the rice noodle roll. Although the presentation is interesting and the many sauces add a different twist to this dish, it was still fairly standard. The majority of the flavor comes from the sauce, and it can be a bit overwhelming if too much is added. Okay.
- Steamed rice and chicken wrapped in lotus leaf (2) – Chicken, Chinese sausage, and rice, are wrapped inside a lotus leaf and steamed. Although the flavor tastes as it should, with light soy sauce on the chicken, and the mixture being infused by the lotus leaf, the overall size of the wrap is small. There are places that serve this in twice or three times the size. These are cute and petite, but if you’re hungry, they won’t be particularly satisfying. Okay.
- Deep fried Tofu in soya sauce – Bricks of tofu are thinly sliced but kept intact. They have a light brown skin and have had light soy sauce poured over them. It makes for a slightly crispy outside layer on the tofu, and soft silky tofu on the inside. This dish would be even better served warm, but it came just slightly above room temperature. Good.
- Gai lan – Young gai lan is cooked until tender and served with oyster sauce. Good.
- Green pan fried seafood dumpling (3) – Seafood is wrapped in a green wrapper and the dumpling is pan fried. I found the wrapper to be a too thick, and though the seafood was still tender, the dumpling as a whole was only fair.
- Shrimp dumpling – Shrimp and bamboo shoots are wrapped in a rice flour wrapper and steamed. Good. Make sure you get these hot, otherwise the flavor seems to become limp.
- Deep fried milk – A milk based custard is wrapped in a phyllo dough-like wrapper, however, instead of flaky crispy, you have flaky thin layers that are pan fried and white in color. The custard is smooth and delicate. Good.
- Braised chicken feet – Very nice texture and large pieces of chicken feet. Excellent flavor.
- Deep fried tofu skin wrapped shrimp – Shrimp is wrapped inside tofu skins and fried until golden brown. This is served with Worcestershire sauce. Delicious. This is one of our favorite dishes to order at dim sum restaurants. Four stars.
- Steamed Lotus Buns (3) - I love getting these here. While other restaurants stuff the buns with lotus paste only, these come with a quarter of an egg yolk from a thousand year old egg. This creates a contrast of sweet and savory that is really pleasing, but the 
texture of the egg may take some getting used to. It's a great way to end a meal.
- Noodle with Clam Meat and Crab Paste - This is one of the newest items at Mayflower. I never saw it before 2010. A small container is filled with a noodle dish cooked with clams and crab paste for a very aromatic dish. Heating this pot directly over the fire allows the dish to come to you sizzling and steaming. It's a great way to get warmed up in cold weather. The flavors were 
noticeably like the sea, but I would prefer a touch more salt. $5.95
Mayflower is considered one of the more upscale Chinese restaurants in San Francisco. Overall, the dim sum is above average and the service is okay. One thing that was much appreciated was their approach to the customer’s time. They never hurried us and even though we had to wait 
for other people at the table to arrive, unlike many other places, they never shot us any dirty looks or even hinted at any sign of disrespectfulness. The downside of the service was that after refilling the tea several times, it became bland. Good places know to add more tea leaves without being asked by seeing how weak the tea is after a quick review of the teacups at the table. During my most recent visit, they were not as busy it seemed and we had a smaller table. The food quality seemed to be better than competition in the area and although service was only fair in that they neglected our tea pot very often, when we requested the deep fried tofu skin wrapped shrimp, they were more than happy to fill our order – which sometimes does not happen at dim sum restaurants.
My visit to Mayflower in Milpitas proved to be a similar experience. This Mayflower had a larger setting including larger seafood tanks, but I found that the staff here was not quite as detail oriented. They were however very good with refilling our tea. Like the other locations, they offer some unique dim sum that is rarely found elsewhere like their excellent mango pudding made from scratch (definitely made from scratch as I found an egg shell in mine) and mango shrimp wrapped in rice paper. What was most disappointing here was that after we requested a specific dim sum dish, they came back and told us that it was in the process of being made. More than half an hour later, we found that they hadn’t made the dish at all. Also, when they brought the news, they didn’t offer to make the dish for us either. That seems to me to be poor customer service. For that reason, I downgraded their service rating from the 3 to 4 range to a mere 3 stars.
Give Mayflower a try. They’re patient in explaining dishes, but be prepared to wait for a table since it is a popular place for dim sum. Also note that service varies.
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