Lunette
Cambodian restaurant · Financial District
Ferry Building, 1, Suite 33/47, San Francisco, CA 94111
Highlights
Cambodian noodles, rice dishes, and fried chicken
Cambodian noodles, rice dishes, and fried chicken
"Chef Nite Yun is one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s most singular cooks. There’s her love of black pepper, incorporating the spice “by the handful” as Cesar Hernandez writes for the San Francisco Chronicle. There’s her storied past — including the ascent and decline of her first restaurant Nyum Bai amongst her tales — captured lovingly by Netflix’s Chef’s Table: Noodles. The accolades, the myths, don’t matter. Lunette’s well-priced, crunchy, chewy, and spicy menu is some of the best food in the city, and certainly at the Ferry Building and along the waterfront. The Khmer Fried Chicken Wings, lightly battered in rice flour and served with a lime, are one of the smartest ways to spend $16. It’s a run don’t walk situation. Best for: Rolling through on a weekday — preferably a sunny one to take advantage of the outdoor seating at the Ferry Building — to catch up with a friend over a mind-blowing testament to Cambodian cuisine." - Paolo Bicchieri
"Recent James Beard semifinalist Nite Yun cooks up Cambodian flavors bombs at her Ferry Building location. This colorful and filling soup, featuring a rich pork broth slow-cooked for eight hours, contains rice noodles, shrimp, crispy garlic with oil and greens, and different textures of pork. Every spoon is a joyful moment." - Flora Tsapovsky
"Recent James Beard semifinalist Nite Yun cooks up Cambodian flavors bombs at her Ferry Building location. This colorful and filling soup, featuring a rich pork broth slow-cooked for eight hours, contains rice noodles, shrimp, crispy garlic with oil and greens, and different textures of pork. Every spoon is a joyful moment." - Flora Tsapovsky
"Chef Nite Yun’s newest Cambodian restaurant arrived at the Ferry Building in June 2024, serving a mix of rice bowls, noodles, and can’t-miss fried chicken. Order the Nyum Bai bowl, which is essentially prahok ktiss with pork belly in kroeung paste over rice. KFC — or, here, Khmer Fried Chicken — should not be glossed over and skipped. Seasoned with salt and Kampot pepper, the chicken is crisp and crunchy, and perfect with a zing of lime on top." - Eater Staff
"When Lunette opened, we were thrilled. This Ferry Building Cambodian restaurant is from the chef behind the beloved and now-closed Nyum Bai, which served excellent dishes unconcerned with being too sour, too spicy—too anything. Unfortunately, the current version hasn’t retained that special something that made us so excited to visit its predecessor. Lunette’s food is a mixed bag. Some things are straight-up hits. Yellow curi is rich and creamy, and the loc lak shaking beef is tender and served with a lip-puckering lime dipping sauce that we would buy by the bottle. If you come on a good day, student noodles will be perfectly charred. On another visit, they might be over- or undercooked. A couple of Lunette’s dishes are consistently disappointing, though, like the kut teav phnom penh that manages to be bland despite a bone broth with crispy garlic, shrimp, pork, and cilantro. (Adding three heaping spoonfuls of table sambal feels necessary to give the noodle soup some life.) And the fish sauce in the funky cabbage salad somehow lacks the self-described funk and pungency you’d expect. photo credit: Erin Ng photo credit: Erin Ng photo credit: Erin Ng photo credit: Erin Ng photo credit: Erin Ng The location certainly doesn’t help. The Ferry Building brings a lot of foot traffic, which means there are usually lines of people, and big groups circle like hawks to find a seat at one of the ten or so tables that fit into this food-stall-like-space. We’re holding out hope that Lunette finds a way back to its roots. In the meantime, we won’t go out of our way to visit, but this small outpost is still a solid option when in or near the Ferry Building. Just don’t count on getting one of those tables. Food Rundown photo credit: Erin Ng Loc Lak Shaking Beef Let’s get one thing out of the way, this is the best dish here and you should order it. The cubes of beef are well-charred and the lime sauce is sharp and tangy. photo credit: Erin Ng Student Noodles According to the menu, these are supposed to be pinstripe noodles, but, on some visits, we’ve gotten flat ones. Whatever you get, the noodles will be pleasantly chewy, but the flavor is muted, and not helped by the heaping amounts of bean sprouts throughout. photo credit: Erin Ng Kuy Teav Phnom Penh The bowl packed with herbs, meat, and seafood gives the expectation that this will be one of the best noodle soups in the city, Unfortunately, it’s not. If you’re looking for noodles, the student’s are a better choice. photo credit: Erin Ng Yellow Curi A solid option. It’s a little sweet and a lot creamy with no-value-add potatoes. Add the fried chicken to get the best out of this dish. photo credit: Erin Ng Mee Kola These noodles have no chance at salvation. They’re meant to be dry, but when it’s a struggle to swallow, there’s a problem. photo credit: Erin Ng Funky Cabbage Salad This salad is disappointing, with or without optional fried chicken. There’s no funk to be found." - Ricky Rodriguez
