25115 Mon Jul 28 17:31:45 -0700 2003 13 1 San Francisco Bay Area 0 99821 Has anyone been to Yank Sing for a Chinese dinner banquet? How does the food compared to their dimsum? Do you have any other suggestions for authentic Chinese banquet in the city? Thanks! Mon Jul 28 17:31:45 -0700 2003 0 Goo 1 99874 Yank Sing has a nice space, but since they apparently don't routinely do dinner, one would have to wonder about the food and how it gets done. I've been to a couple of good banquets at Mayflower on Geary (though it's not much in the atmosphere department), and at the now defunct North Sea Village in Sausalito (the upstairs room was ideal for taking over for a wedding banquet). Not in SF, but close, is Koi Palace which strikes me as a good place for a wedding banquet. You also might inquire at Harbor Village. I think that the attractiveness of the setting and the degree of privacy are of equal importance to the quality of the food at Chinese wedding banquets. Tue Jul 29 00:47:28 -0700 2003 99821 0 Gary Soup 2 99878 Yank Sing does a huge catering business and that keeps the cooks busy when they're not booked for on-premise dinners. Harbor Village is top of the line for wedding banquets, very expensive, but has rooms for 20 people on up for smaller parties. Empress of China has multiple floors if needed. Upstairs dining area of Yet Wah on Clement works well for medium size groups. Downstairs at Great Eastern is nice for the right size group, but be aware that there's no elevator for those with mobility issues. Koi Palace has an area that can be partitioned off, but doesn't offer the privacy of the those named above. Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/20803#73140 Tue Jul 29 02:27:54 -0700 2003 99874 0 Melanie Wong 3 99881 Within SF city limits, Harbor Village is certainly one of the places with the best decor for a special event. But One thing that you should be careful to discuss with the management at Harbor Village is whether there will be other weddings going on, particularly if you are planning to do it on a lucky day. I went to a banquet where we were seated in the outer room, while a bigger group had the (nicer I think) inner area facing the embarcadero. There is no partition between the two, so while the two groups weren't mingled, you could still hear the other party's speeches and could see their setup (and guests getting up to use the bathroom got to see that they had paid for more expensive food and carts of VSOP). Their lion dancers had to walk straight through our hosts' party to get to their room and needless to say it was slightly embarassing for our hosts, who hadn't paid for dancers, to have to hear the cymbals and poppers going off 50 feet away. And the banquet food wasn't terribly impressive either. I used to go to Harbor Village all the time for yum cha, but I would have been scolded until eternity by every one of my relatives if I had paid that kind of money at my wedding banquet for that food. One could rest easy about the environmental consequences of eating their sharksfin soup, because I had a hard time finding any in my bowl. Some of the other dishes weren't so bad, but they really do charge top dollar. Tue Jul 29 03:52:44 -0700 2003 99878 0 chibi 4 99883 Good insight, chibi. Here's a link to our earlier exchange re: Harbor Village Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/19084#62701 Tue Jul 29 04:05:38 -0700 2003 99881 0 Melanie Wong 3 99898 I happened to be at Yank Sing in Rincon Center for dim sum on a Saturday when they were setting up for a banquet (looked like a wedding). They were setting up in the inner court yard of the center -- right outside the entrance -- and surrounding the big skylight/fountain in the middle. I thought it looked both beautiful (airy and spacious) and unusual (I'm a total sucker for that fountain), but I wondered how private it was, since a couple of the other restaurants in the center are open on weekends. Tue Jul 29 12:05:50 -0700 2003 99878 0 Ruth Lafler 4 99916 Looks-wise it is a lovely setting with the fountain and all (if you can keep the kids from jumping in). But the noise in the inner court defeated every attempt at speech-making or quiet conversation. Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/21367#76632 Tue Jul 29 15:47:50 -0700 2003 99898 0 Melanie Wong 4 99918 Other than the pizza joint, and Yang Sing itself, no one else was open on the evening (saturday) we were there. Yang Sing was only opened for a small tour group dinner. The fountain looks great, but it was right in the middle. So eventually it had to be shut off for speech making. Tue Jul 29 15:57:57 -0700 2003 99898 0 Peter 1 99897 We were there for a banquet in April. It's a great space. There were over 300 guests. But the kitchen is too small to do these dinners. They definitely truck the food in from somewhere else. It does not compare with Koi Palace or Joy Luck, by a long shot. In fact it was pretty poor. Two dishes have essentially the same vegetable complements. We all looked at each other and thought, didn't we have this dish already? I don't know what the cost is, but I am thinking at least $500 per table, plus other associated costs. (decorations, parking). As others have suggested Koi Palace. We were there for a banquet a couple of years ago. The food was definitely excellent, esp. if you go with the high end stuff such as shark fin and abalone. But the space is cramped. And you do pay through your nose. Another thing, you can't compare regular dinner fare with banquet fare. While there may be come correlation, serving 20 to 30 tables of the same 10 dishes is different from serving one table at a time. Tue Jul 29 11:58:13 -0700 2003 99821 0 Peter 1 99900 We were there for a banquet this april. The space is great. There were over 300 guests. Their kitchen is too small for banquets, so they truck their food in from somewhere else. I don't know the cost, but can't be too cheap. I am guessing $500 per table plus associated costs (decoration, parking). The food does not compare with Koi Palace. I'd give it a B. But Koi Palace really shoehorns you in. Tue Jul 29 12:08:19 -0700 2003 99821 0 Peter 1 99956 Thanks for all your invaluable feedback! We are now deciding between Hong Kong Flower Lounge in Millbrae & Joy Luck in Cupertino. If we were to choose the wedding menu with shark's fin & abalone etc., Which one would be a better choice? How about service & ambiance? Wed Jul 30 00:43:44 -0700 2003 99821 0 Goo 2 99962 If parking is any consideration, Joy Luck has lots of free parking (except during lunchtime on weekends), but HK Flower Lounge has valet parking for which you or your guests will have to pay. I hope your wedding banquet is a joyful and supremely delicious, as all wedding banquets should be. But please consider having something in place of sharksfin, as many shark species are rapidly becoming endagered as demand for sharksfin soup far outstrips the ability of sharks to reproduce. (The Monterey Bay Aquarium website has plenty of excellent information on choosing sustainable seafood.) Best wishes! Wed Jul 30 03:47:04 -0700 2003 99956 0 Pia 3 99990 My family has pretty much stopped having shark's fin (the quality ones from the dried goods shops that you can buy and cook at home), as reports in the Hong Kong and Chinese Media have mentioned there are some levels of mercury in these things. Once in a while is ok, but definitely not worth the risk. Wed Jul 30 12:54:46 -0700 2003 99962 0 KK 2 99997 I just was at Hong Kong Flower Lounge for a wedding banquet this past Saturday. Here was the menu cold appetizer plate: bbq pork, jelly fish, beef shank, baby octapus, and fatty pork slices. Shrimp and scallops stir fried with snap peas shark fin soup dried scallops with pea shoots whole lobster, ginger and scallion stir fried steamed whole fish black mushroom with sea cucumber Peking duck and stired fried yee noodles oh, and red bean and lotus seed soup for dessert. I havn't had any other wedding banquet in the bay area so I can't give you any comparision. But based on their food alone, I thought they did an excellent job on all the dishes. Overall, food tended to be a bit on the under-salted side, but then again, I prefer that than too salty. Especially good were the apptizers, dried scallops with pea shoots, lobsters and the Peking duck. I think you can skip the shark fin soup there, it was good, but not great. It was one of the more bland dish. Wed Jul 30 13:37:09 -0700 2003 99956 0 Wendy Lai