Sam Wo Restaurant
Chinese restaurant · Chinatown ·
Classic Cantonese-American eatery serving BBQ pork noodle rolls
Classic Cantonese-American eatery serving BBQ pork noodle rolls
"Following its January closure, a trio of chefs and restaurateurs conspired to reopen the 116-year-old Chinatown institution in September 2025, and on the corner of Clay and Kearny streets the restaurant that’s kept the city fed since 1908 feels much the same under new ownership. The barbecue pork noodle roll is the most-storied dish, still just $8 in 2025, with a side of spicy mustard that’s been written about many times; drag that eighth of soft, chewy rice roll into the ramekin of spicy mustard: that first bite of dipped pork feels like the heat of that sun rising from beneath and behind your eyeballs. The duck meat fried rice ($18) is a satisfying large bowl of scallion-topped rice, those stalwart peas and cubes of carrot mingling amongst the oily grains. Don’t miss the onion pancakes — I’m a fiend for cong you bing, but I have my standards — and here, the four triangles come unfussy and inexpensive, a sturdy vehicle for the table’s chile oil. After reopening, fellow neighborhood favorite Vital Tea Leaf provides a menu of teas, and the neon yellow chrysanthemum is a pot worth splitting with a friend. Its centenarian status helped define a genre of Chinese American restaurant, with dark woods, family portraits on the wall, and newspaper clippings across from the large window-front steamers and grills; shotgun-style, this place is more lowkey than lowkey." - Paolo Bicchieri
"After closing in January 2025 following 116 years in business, Chinatown’s oldest restaurant returns as of Friday, September 5 with new investors and a chef trained by longtime steward David Ho, bringing back plenty of classics while adding a few new dishes such as har gow and siu mai." - Dianne de Guzman
"The Chinatown institution will close on Sunday, January 26 after 116 years; chef and owner David Jitong Ho is retiring after 42 years of running the restaurant. Investors had been searching for a chef or family to take over, but a replacement didn’t materialize and the lease ends in January." - Dianne de Guzman
"The 116-year-old Chinatown restaurant will close on Sunday, January 26, 2025: owners had warned fans they were set to close in January 2025 unless they found someone to buy the business, but with the lease expiring this month and chef/owner David Jitong Ho wanting to retire at 68 after working at the restaurant for 42 years, investors' hopes that another family or chef could keep the restaurant legend going have fallen through. "Make your last pilgrimage now while you can." - Dianne de Guzman
"Having been a Chinatown staple for over a century, I learned that Sam Wo may close at the end of the year if a buyer cannot be found: owner David Jitong Ho, who has run the restaurant for more than 40 years and has been seeking a buyer before the lease expires in January 2025, says a serious buyer still hasn’t emerged, and co-owner Steven Lee warns that if they’re forced to close when the lease expires (reported as December 31) the historic items will likely be auctioned and the brand could pivot to a packaged food line." - Dianne de Guzman