Via EaterSF I found this map of someone’s favorite dim sum houses in the city, and having no lunch plans, and a bit short on time, Sarah & I decided to try out House of Banquet.  We arrived at 11:15am on a Wednesday and walked upstairs, surprised to find the rather large dining room completely packed!  It took only a few minutes for a table to open up, however, and we sat down, ordered a pot of oolong, and set about watching for carts.

It’s always difficult for me to be objective about dim sum halls, as I love the hustle, bustle, and the randomness of carts coming by, contents unknown.  We started with shrimp stuffed tofu, which was great.  The tofu had a crispy fried exterior and a piping-hot interior, topped by a crispy shrimp.

Next we had Har Gao, which had fairly thick, chewy wrappers, and big pieces of shrimp inside, then continued with Siu Mai, which was very good, with more flavor than many.

In addition to Har Gao & Siu Mai, I always get the Char Siu Bao at a new dim sum place, and House of Banquet’s was very good indeed.  My favorite is still at Ton Kaing, but this one was a close second.  The bun was perfectly fluffy and light, and the char siu within was flavorful, with a lot of ginger, and not gummy.

Still hungry, and not seeing the stuffed wide noodles we often enjoy, I picked a seafood dumpling.  The filling was tasty and had a nice texture, however the tips of the dumplings were hard, presumably due to too much re-heating.

We thought we were done until we saw many folks digging into green balls.  Three children at a nearby table were particularly enthusiastic about them, so we decided they must be one of the dessert balls, and ordered one from a very-helpful staffer who came by and asked if we wanted anything from the kitchen.  The balls turned out to be black sesame balls, one of my favorite dim sum sweets, and these were a good, if slightly too-sweet rendition.

Service throughout was informal, as befits the tea house setting, but was unfailingly friendly and attempted to explain what some of the dishes were, despite there being a bit of a language barrier.  Our tea, a tasty oolong, was refilled often, and several times a friendly maitre’d came by to see if we needed anything other than what was on the carts.

The real treat, however, was the bill – just $14 before tip for the two of us!  Although I have not been to many tea houses in the Inner Richmond, House of Banquet is the best of the ones I”ve sampled.  We’ll definitely be back.

My rating: Very good

House of Banquet (website)
939 Clement St.
(between 10th & 11th)
San Francisco, CA (map)