Gourmet Carousel

"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." - Lena Park, Eater Staff

"In July 2022, the longtime owners of Lower Pac Heights favorite Gourmet Carousel retired and sold the business. Just a few short months later, however, they’re back and reopening the restaurant. On Monday, April 10th, the family behind the Chinese restaurant began serving its signature Cantonese and Mandarin dishes again, as first reported by SFGATE. Gourmet Carousel has been a neighborhood staple at the corner of Franklin and Pine streets under original owners BoHing Ko and his wife Sai Ko who ran the restaurant for 38 years before their brief time away from the business last year. BoHing Ko worked as a chef for most of Gourmet Carousel’s existence, before handing over the reins — and the recipes — to another chef, Peter Yu, in more recent years. Siblings Chew Ko, Pei Yok Ko, and Yin Ko reunited to resurrect their parents’ restaurant, bringing back former chef Yu out of retirement to restore Gourmet Carousel’s classics. “Two years ago, my mom passed away so everybody wanted to retire — we were so sad,” Yin Ko says. “Now we’ve come back.” During its first run under the Ko family, the restaurant both endured a fire that shuttered it for a number of months and earned a glowing two-and-a-half star review from former San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic Michael Bauer back in 1994. Bauer praised the inexpensive prix fixe family menu, a crab dish cooked in a clay pot with glass noodles, and the restaurant’s plump pot stickers among other dishes. Over the phone, Yin Ko confirmed that the full Gourmet Carousel menu is back, with favorites such as those aforementioned pot stickers and the deluxe won ton soup, another customer standby. The family, meanwhile, made a few updates to the interior of the restaurant but are ready to welcome customers new and old to their corner spot in Lower Pac Heights. Gourmet Carousel (1559 Franklin Street) is now open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday." - Dianne de Guzman

"After writing about the unexpected comeback of Gourmet Carousel — as well as the outstanding reviews the restaurant has received over the years — I was excited to settle in for lunch at the Lower Pac Heights restaurant this week to try a number of the classic dishes. The heavily recommended pot stickers were excellent, with crisp bottoms and excellent filling, but what really captured my attention was the hung tao yee foo wonton soup. The owners recommended I try it, and it was just such a lovely, comforting, and rich soup made with egg whites, peas, and bits of imitation crab meat offset against beautifully fried and stuffed wontons. It’s best to have the soup as soon as possible, to retain that golden-fried crispness of the wontons, but to be quite honest, it remained delicious a day later after being reheated. Despite the wontons having gone soft in their soup bath, the stuffing remained a delight and made me thankful I took the excess home with me after lunch. I regret to say this is my first time trying this soup, but I know I’ll be seeking it out in the future. Gourmet Carousel, 1559 Franklin Street, San Francisco" - Lauren Saria