Happy Garden - Chinese, San Francisco

815 Clement St, San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 387-4011
Parking: street parking

Last Visited: June 4, 2005

Food: 2 to 3 stars
Service: 2 to 3 stars
Atmosphere: 2 to 3 stars
Price: $$

Happy Garden has had the grand opening sign outside their door for about a year now. Having been there for dim sum, I found the overall quality of dim sum to be fair. There are some dishes that were fine and others that didn’t meet an average rating. My original rating was three stars for service and atmosphere, with the food rating at 2 to 3 stars.

Upon entering the restaurant, there is a counter to your immediate right, and the rest of the restaurant is filled with tables. The large circular tables are in the center of the room and far right. The staircase in back leads to the women’s restroom and another private room currently used for storage. There is a fish tank in the rear of the restaurant and the kitchen is also in the back. The atmoshphere is neat and the walls are fairly newly painted.

My most recent visit was for dinner. For their dinner for two to three people, the value is incredible. For $18.80, you get a complete meal including soup, two meat dishes, a vegetable dish, and dessert. It’s pretty hard to beat. Food quality for dinner is about three stars, but service could have used improvement. Knowing that you get better service from the family members that own the restaurant than the people who are hired to work there, you’ll easily recognize the owners.

Service this evening was toward the two star rating. When service is given by the family members, it’s about three stars. You’ll also find one other hard working gentleman that is not related to the family. They’re not particularly friendly, but they’re efficient in the hustle and bustle. What was bad about the atmosphere this evening was the yelling. Apparently there was someone calling the wrong number and reaching the restaurant multiple times either asking for the wrong person or not saying anything at all. The two waitresses were yelling loudly despite the presence of the patrons, and they went on and on about how they weren’t going to answer the phone. The appearance of the restaurant is reasonable, but the yelling really reduced my impression of the atmosphere.

- Winter melon soup – Chunks of winter melon and pork are boiled over a slow fire for several hours to create a clear succulent broth. The soup was good, and though the presentation isn’t pretty – it arrives in a big bowl with pork bones, it is typical of this type of home style soup.

- Pork spare ribs with spicy salt – These aren’t typical pork spare ribs. They would probably be considered small pork chops, but Chinese people refer to them as ribs. Pork ribs are lightly battered with spicy salt batter and deep fried with onions and chili peppers. The batter is seasoned well and not too salty. Very good - although there is a little bit of MSG, so if you are concerned about MSG, be wary of this dish.

- Salted Baked Chicken – The name is a bit deceiving in English, but in Chinese, when you translate it literally, the chicken is actually cooked in a salted broth. Half a chicken is served for two to three people and it’s accompanied with a ginger dipping sauce. The sauce is simple and made from grated ginger, oil, and salt. The chicken still has the skin on it and is chopped into manageable pieces with the bones still intact. Very good.

- Mustard greens – Whole mustard greens are pan fried with garlic cloves that are pan fried/oil fried until golden brown. The mustard greens take on the flavor of the cooked garlic and chopped garlic is added to the dish. The garlic flavor isn’t overwhelming, but it nicely seasons the greens which are a very nice light green. Very fresh. Good.

Several points of improvement for service were needed during dinner. The soup was just given to us. Good servers will pour the soup out into individual bowls and serve the bowls to each person. This soup was basically plopped in front of us. As for the chicken, the plate holding the dipping sauce was directly on top of the chicken and should have been put on the table. These small touches would improve their service greatly.

One of the special meal sets available during our last visit was a Seafood Meal for $28.80. It serves four to five people.

- Salty Spicy Shrimp – Shrimp in its shell is lightly battered and deep fried, then pan fried with onion slices and jalapeno pepper slices. The combination is shrimp that is slightly crispy with lots of flavor on the outside. The shrimp seemed to be sprinkled with salt and possibly MSG, though the latter is not confirmed. I didn’t like the additional sprinkling because the shrimp was too salty, and your mouth can’t taste the shrimp flavor because it’s overpowered by the salt. Fair.

- Soup with Fish balls – Spinach, tofu, and meatballs made with fish are cooked in a light broth. The broth becomes sweet with the flavor of the fish. Good. The fish balls were also just the right texture, not too dense, and not coming apart.

- Crab with ginger and green onion – Crab is sautéed with ginger and green onions. A slightly thick sauce coats the crab. Good. Nice flavor, although the sauce seemed to be lacking just a little extra something in the flavor. Okay.

- Seasonal Vegetables – Today’s vegetable was mustard greens. Caramelized garlic is cooked with mustard greens until they turn a beautiful green. Tender and crunchy, these were excellent mustard greens.

- Tofu with Shrimp – Tofu bricks are cut into large pieces and steamed with a large dollop of ground shrimp. A light soy sauce is drizzled over the tofu. The things they could do better with this dish are to cut the tofu into smaller pieces – usually, you get about ten pieces of tofu, here you get five long pieces of tofu – and divide the shrimp up amongst the pieces. The presentation needs to be improved, but the flavor was good. The shrimp meat was tender and succulent.

- Deep Fried Flounder – A large flounder is deep fried whole and plated over soy sauce. The flounder was large, which is good when it’s steamed, but I prefer it to be thinner and flatter when fried. When it’s thinner, there seem to be less eggs and the soy sauce absorbs into the flesh better. Okay.

- Dessert – Red bean soup is served for dessert. It wasn’t the best nor was it the worst I’ve had. Okay.

For dinner, the meals are a wonderful value, but there are several improvements in service to be made. The service during my most recent visit was better during our second visit when the place was less busy since it was early in the evening. The overall meal makes Happy Garden worthy of a visit if you are willing to discount the potential service and atmosphere mishaps.