San Francisco: Harborview Restaurant & Bar
My parents very rarely go up to the city, but when I told them the naturalization collaborative year-end dinner would be at Harborview, they patiently sat in traffic for two hours to meet me there:
I hadn't heard of Harborview, but my parents knew all the gossip of how the original founder of R&G Lounge was ousted and how he took the chef with him when he opened Harborview in November 2018. According to them, Harborview was supposed to be just like R&G Lounge, but even better and fancier.
I was pumped.
The collaborative has been around since 2013 and we've had two celebratory dinners so far. My parents and Abby are always invited because they've volunteered (not necessarily voluntarily) at just about every workshop we've organized. Abby, poor thing, hasn't been able to make it to either of the dinners due to school and work. My parents, however, have reaped the rewards of their labor.
Because my cousin was visiting at the time, my parents were ready to sacrifice dinner at Harborview to stay with her. When the collaborative lead found out, she pulled me aside after a meeting and whispered that I should just bring my cousin along.
My parents didn't even try to pretend to demur.
The night of the dinner, instead of the name of my organization on the table, the sign read "Amy Wang & Guests":
I laughed so hard I almost cried. No shame for sure.
I had no part in the ordering, so I've tried to piece together as much as I can based on the menu posted on Harborview's website.
We started with a pumpkin seafood soup ($9 per bowl):
It was thick and lovely. You can't see them in this photo, but there were scallops, shrimp, and calamari inside.
Then came the Kurobuta pork soup dumplings ($9 for four):
And then the BLACK TRUFFLE soup dumplings (listed as $16 for two along with two Kurobuta pork dumplings):
I warned my sister in advance that I might not be able to get any photos of the meal since it was a work dinner and all. I shouldn't have worried. The table we were assigned to was entirely Chinese. With the arrival of every dish, we all waited patiently as we slowly spun the lazy susan so that each person could have a chance to snap their picture.
R&G Lounge is known for its signature salt and pepper crab. Now you don't need to go to R&G Lounge to enjoy it because Harborview has it too:
It was just as amazing as I remember it being at R&G Lounge. I'm usually a lazy eater, but for this salt and pepper crab, I'm willing to roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty. So freakin' good! It's market price, which means it's not cheap. The last time I went to R&G Lounge years ago, it was around $35-40 per crab, so I can imagine it being higher now.
Our collaborative lead doesn't mess around when it comes to food. Besides the crab, we also had Peking duck ($46 for a whole duck):
And walnut shrimp ($20):
Scallops and beef ($25):
And three treasures with black bean sauce ($20):
The three "treasures" included eggplant, bean curd, and hot peppers stuffed with shrimp.
To add some green to the table, there was sauteed pea shoots ($18):
And just when we thought the meal was winding down, we were proven wrong by the arrival of the baked black cod ($42 for a small, $80 for a large...no clue what size this was):
The cod was without a doubt my second favorite dish after the crab. So buttery and smoky and everything I want but can rarely have because I'm poor.
There's always at least one filler dish at these Chinese banquet-style meals and the braised E-fu noodles with shredded pork ($18) was it:
By the time the noodles came out, we were all pretty much full. I still finished my bowl though.
Then finally came the desserts:
I have no clue what that jelly was, but it was bright and refreshing and an utter delight. The sesame balls were surprisingly filled with a sweet cream:
I've never seen sesame balls like these before and they were life-changing.
I've tried to match what we had that night to Harborview's posted banquet menus, but I can't. This certainly doesn't surprise me as our collaborative lead is close friends with Harborview's founder and probably could handpick her own banquet menu if she so wished.
Harborview isn't cheap. That much is obvious. I would probably never have gone if it weren't for our collaborative. As it is, I'm super thankful I got to enjoy this meal because everything was A-MAY-ZING.
Too bad Abby wasn't able to make it. She really missed out.
Sucks to suck.
Harborview Restaurant & Bar
4 Embarcadero Center, Street Level
San Francisco, CA 94111
(415) 399-1200
https://harborviewsf.com/
I hadn't heard of Harborview, but my parents knew all the gossip of how the original founder of R&G Lounge was ousted and how he took the chef with him when he opened Harborview in November 2018. According to them, Harborview was supposed to be just like R&G Lounge, but even better and fancier.
I was pumped.
The collaborative has been around since 2013 and we've had two celebratory dinners so far. My parents and Abby are always invited because they've volunteered (not necessarily voluntarily) at just about every workshop we've organized. Abby, poor thing, hasn't been able to make it to either of the dinners due to school and work. My parents, however, have reaped the rewards of their labor.
Because my cousin was visiting at the time, my parents were ready to sacrifice dinner at Harborview to stay with her. When the collaborative lead found out, she pulled me aside after a meeting and whispered that I should just bring my cousin along.
My parents didn't even try to pretend to demur.
The night of the dinner, instead of the name of my organization on the table, the sign read "Amy Wang & Guests":
I laughed so hard I almost cried. No shame for sure.
I had no part in the ordering, so I've tried to piece together as much as I can based on the menu posted on Harborview's website.
We started with a pumpkin seafood soup ($9 per bowl):
It was thick and lovely. You can't see them in this photo, but there were scallops, shrimp, and calamari inside.
Then came the Kurobuta pork soup dumplings ($9 for four):
And then the BLACK TRUFFLE soup dumplings (listed as $16 for two along with two Kurobuta pork dumplings):
I warned my sister in advance that I might not be able to get any photos of the meal since it was a work dinner and all. I shouldn't have worried. The table we were assigned to was entirely Chinese. With the arrival of every dish, we all waited patiently as we slowly spun the lazy susan so that each person could have a chance to snap their picture.
R&G Lounge is known for its signature salt and pepper crab. Now you don't need to go to R&G Lounge to enjoy it because Harborview has it too:
It was just as amazing as I remember it being at R&G Lounge. I'm usually a lazy eater, but for this salt and pepper crab, I'm willing to roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty. So freakin' good! It's market price, which means it's not cheap. The last time I went to R&G Lounge years ago, it was around $35-40 per crab, so I can imagine it being higher now.
Our collaborative lead doesn't mess around when it comes to food. Besides the crab, we also had Peking duck ($46 for a whole duck):
And walnut shrimp ($20):
Scallops and beef ($25):
And three treasures with black bean sauce ($20):
The three "treasures" included eggplant, bean curd, and hot peppers stuffed with shrimp.
To add some green to the table, there was sauteed pea shoots ($18):
And just when we thought the meal was winding down, we were proven wrong by the arrival of the baked black cod ($42 for a small, $80 for a large...no clue what size this was):
The cod was without a doubt my second favorite dish after the crab. So buttery and smoky and everything I want but can rarely have because I'm poor.
There's always at least one filler dish at these Chinese banquet-style meals and the braised E-fu noodles with shredded pork ($18) was it:
By the time the noodles came out, we were all pretty much full. I still finished my bowl though.
Then finally came the desserts:
I have no clue what that jelly was, but it was bright and refreshing and an utter delight. The sesame balls were surprisingly filled with a sweet cream:
I've never seen sesame balls like these before and they were life-changing.
I've tried to match what we had that night to Harborview's posted banquet menus, but I can't. This certainly doesn't surprise me as our collaborative lead is close friends with Harborview's founder and probably could handpick her own banquet menu if she so wished.
Harborview isn't cheap. That much is obvious. I would probably never have gone if it weren't for our collaborative. As it is, I'm super thankful I got to enjoy this meal because everything was A-MAY-ZING.
Too bad Abby wasn't able to make it. She really missed out.
Sucks to suck.
Harborview Restaurant & Bar
4 Embarcadero Center, Street Level
San Francisco, CA 94111
(415) 399-1200
https://harborviewsf.com/
Comments
Post a Comment