Blue Sky Restaurant

Ghettolicious. I am not sure I need to say much else. Negative one star for ambience. It is super ghetto here. If you like eating in a dark diner with old retirees sitting reading the newspaper while flies are buzzing around, then this is your place. If you like loud obnoxious little old ladies who chastize you for not calling ahead to order your food, then this is your place. It is essentially the quinetessential local dive for locals only. For old Asian locals only. Do not think this is a tourist trap. If you are sitting in Germany or Spain or where-​ever and reading this review hoping to find some authentic San Francisco institution that only locals patronize and feel the sense of adventure will take you to Blue Sky in Chinatown, then you are going to be unsatisfied. If you want character and quaintness and a classic San Francisco experience, then try the fococcia at LIguiria Bakery (see my review of that classic San Francisco institution). Blue Sky is strickly for the big dogs and for people who want their brand of Chinese food. Yes they serve dim sum, but look around the place, none of the local regulars are eating it. Why are you ordering it when the regulars won’t? Hmmmm. I wonder.
If you stray into this place, which is certainly a candidate for prototypical Chinatown restaurant closed by the health department (Not sure they have ever been closed by the Health dept, but if they did, I won’t be surprised), then you need to order their clay pot rice. The beef rib clay pot rice, or the preserved meat (lop may) clay pot rice, the chicken clay pot rice or the minced pork clay pot rice are the things to get. Look around and see the old Chinese men sitting their with their empty clay pots. They know what to order and you should not deviate from the plan. If you order the dim sum, everybody will snicker and know what you’re about.
Please note, while it is not my taste, my friends swear by their frog leg clay pot rice. I suspect they buy their frogs from the local wet markets around the corner where live frogs can be purchased for eating. Yes, this place probably uses quality ingredients for the. clay pot rice dishes. Not sure I would venture into their dim sum menu, but I will defer that to your expertise. This place is ghettolicious, come at your own peril. Disclaimer: I never got sick while eating here.

Pretty nice place to get take-​out dimsum. They always have a huge selection of fresh baos (some of which to this day I still have never tried before), and of course all the dimsum is hot and fresh as well.
These are old-​school folks who wake up crazy early every day to make these things Fresh, and have been doing for years
They don’t really sell anything to drink other than teabag tea, so unfortunately it’s not really a great sit-​down place. Like I said, order takeout if you happen to walk by.

Blue Sky’s Custard Tarts are the only ones that come even close to Golden Gate’s. Nice flakey crust and delicious custard. I can’t wait to try the red bean pancake!

$ 0.50 bao?! yes please.
came on a sunday afternoon and they still tasted fresh.
the bbq pork bun is a little sweeter than most places. soft dough.
the custard bun has a good amount of custard.
i’m not one to let a DPH score deter me from enjoying delicious food, so i’ll be back.

The gigantic steamed buns in the window caught my eye. Blue Sky had handwritten menus in Chinese and English. Older Chinese guys hang out here (usually a good sign).
They’ve got baked buns (hot dog, egg yolk, BBQ pork — 70 cents each), cake rolls, egg custard tarts, steamed buns, dim sum (har gow, siu mai, dry shrimp crêpe, shark’s fin dumplings, 3 for $ 1.40) and congee.
* Red bean pancake: good, soft, chewy, lot of red bean, not greasy at all, smooth filling
* Steamed big bun ($ 1.10): still warm with mushroom, sausage, hard boiled egg, chicken chunks, scallions, moist interior. Good dough not soggy, fluffy and slightly sweet.
* Congee: little flavor, little preserved egg, tiny pieces of pork
Cash only.

Specialty are the baos and pastries, but the dumplings, while limited in variety are great. This place is better than You’s.

come here at 8am anyday of the week for best fresh dimsum and baos. seriously i’ve had dimsum in hong kong and the top places in the bay area like yank sing, hk flower lounge, etc. those places are of course going there with you family and enjoying nice long dimsum sunday lunch. here at blue sky, you can get a pint of jook (thousand yr egg and pork) for a $ 1.10??? really??? and its better than some restaurants that sell jook for 5 – 6 bucks. their rice noodles are good as well as baked baos. the lady is super nice too.
for those who don’t go in the morning, you will of course have bad food in the afternoon as they don’t make it throughout the day but just the morning. they will still sell it to you and microwave if you’re dumb enough to buy it. we chinese, always thinking to make money. learn how to buy dimsum from these small counter places before making judgements.

I hate writing bad reviews for places I like. I usually come here every Sunday to buy food for our 10 minute party at church. The buns are good and cheap! I come here to eat the dim sum as well. Recently, one of my friend told me her sponge cake had mold on it. No way! She was right! GROSS!!!
So I decided to go on the Dept of Public Health website to see what’s up. They scored a 55 on their last inspection. WOW… I am totally speechless. I am shocked. I am done with this place.
I am sad because the owner is so nice. It is a mom and pop place.
I had one of my most memorable moments here. Before we were BF/​GF, I bought my fiancée her first egg tart at Blue Sky. She was craving it so bad. When I got it for her, she LITERALLY drooled when she took her first bite. It was the beginning was a great friendship and now we are getting married.
I really want to give them another chance. I will talk to the owner with my broken Chinese about the moldy cake. Hopefully, their standards will improve. I really want to see this place do well.

Delicious!!! The lady is super duper nice!!!
Although this place isn’t all that clean… their buns and Dim Sum are delicious!
They are hot and ready to eat ! I’m addicted to the Sew Mai, I swear they are the only place that have so much taste and flavor. I highly recommend if you want something fast and tasty!

Old-​timer Chinese hangout.
If you have a hankering for old-​school San Francisco, you will find the faded paint and faded patrons here. The women behind the counter are wonderfully nice and speak just enough English; they are attentive and there is a sign behind the steam window lists the specialties in English to order: BBQ pork bun (2 stars), Chicken bun (3 stars), sticky rice in tea leaf (something to savor-​4 stars plus some), and the rest of the list that i haven’t explored yet, but am very willing to try.
There are tables in the restaurant, which always seems to be exactly ½ occupied, or you can get a bag to go… but…
this hole-​in-​the-​wall restaurant is on the same block as the Northstar pub– so obviously a ‘togo’ bag of buns and rice is a very nice juxtaposition against watching Germany stomp the hell out of England in the World Cup.

This is the second dim sum counter that I’ve been to in a row that microwaves my order, in front of me to boot, before giving it to me…
What’s up with that???

I just came here to get a quick bite. I brought three stream choi yaik buns. It a nice relaxing place to sit.

This place calls itself a restaurant but to me it seems more like a one-​room tiny hole-​in-​the-​wall cafeteria. They have dim-​sum items and other hot foods. It’s located just five blocks from my place, so I walk over often to buy a fast cheap bite to eat. Usually I buy the little egg custard tarts at $ 3 for $ 1.75 or the shrimp dumplings at about the same price. The lady behind the counter doesn’t speak much english but I can point!!! The place is always filled with asian retirees, and have seen tourists inside eating too.

Yuck, disgusting! Ok, we passed by this place — mostly empty or table of older Chinese men sitting drinking coffee and eating buns. It seems they are supposed to be famous for their flavored rice. Appear to have some dim sum pieces and baked buns.
Normally wouldn’t have tried but given two 4-​stars reviews, how bad can it be? First time we walked in — they were out of whatever we asked for. Ok, next time. When we did return — we asked for a pineapple bun. I mean, this is probably one of the most common baked good in Chinese bakery so one can’t really screw up right? Think again!
The bun was yuck — old and stale. I can’t even swallow the bite I took and my husband didn’t even want a second bite or try to finish it so we threw it away — you don’t know my husband but he NEVER throws anything away, he was brought up to not waste food so imagine how bad it was! We were glad it only took us $ 0.40 to rule out this place so we don’t need to waste precious stomach space here.
We are all for going to neighborhood mom and pop joints but unless someone convince me otherwise, this place is a GONER!

I was just walking home from across town and I was hungry for a little treat. I stopped in to this corner joint that says «you get best dim sum here» in english. Low and behold that is exactly what ends up happening. The usual linguistical chaffing occurred during the ordering phase of the transaction; especially with my heavy NY «what?» and her not really giving a shit if I got the exact five or six 40 cent dumplings that I wanted. Not sure if i specifically order it or not, but steaming hot and fuckin on point is what I got. Which coincidentally enough is all I am really looking for in a chinatown dumpling; whatever the little buggers are stuffed with is inconsequential if they are tasty, and I’ll be damned if this wasn’t the best mother loving dim sum I’ve gotten to date. The icing on the proverbial cake is that it is cheaper than a quick toss in the –loin if you know what i mean… huh… huh… huh… …ahhh you know what i mean.

A new over-​the-​counter dim-​sum place for me. They also have tables, so you can sit-​down for a quick, nourishing meal too.
So far, all the menu items I’ve tried are better than the other over-​the-​counters I’ve had here in Chinatown. The taste and quality are very much on par with much higher dollar sit-​down and yum-​cha restaurants for the same menu items, but for cheap-​cheep.
I’ve had the Tai-​Shan Big Bun, the «plain bun,» the Plain Chinese Donut, the sesame ball, and the fried meat dumpling. They were all superb (note: the steamed Northern Chinese menu items are still a bit off on account of Southern sweetness in the breadding… but the rice-​flour items are simply great).
They have a few «Western Style» baked goods, and even make wedding cakes.
I’ll just have to keep coming back.
Oh, and sorry, no congee.