The Happy Crane has been one of the most hyped and anticipated openings in San Francisco this year, and for good reasons. Getting a reservation here is exceptionally difficult. You will have to try your luck when as they drop for the date you want. Walk ins are only one side of the bar and about 7 seats only.
Upon my first time, I went in a group of 5 with a pescatarian. While this restaurant may have enough for pescatarians, I would say that the stars of their menu are meat centric. Like most Cantonese cuisine, it is very shrimp and pork centric and Chef James Yuen Leong Parry embodies that tradition. Chef Parry has been at Benu before he left for Palette Tea House before opening The Happy Crane. Interestingly, he has also had experience in fine dining in Hong Kong and Tokyo prior to Benu. Being a Hong Kong Brit myself that craves food from the motherland, in addition to my storied palette, he had a tough critic to please in me. However, I was pleasantly surprised for my first visit. The meal, including dessert, was perfection and my guests all agreed. The stand out dishes were firecracker shrimp, XO little fry king, maitake biang biang, fragrant fish. We were pleased with all the desserts as it was fig season (see second visit below).
hawthorne berry oyster
oyster of the day, hawthorne mignonette
ginger scallion scallop
scalded chives, jicama, salted radish
smacked cucumber & smoked figs
chinkiang balsamic, avocado, cherry tomatoes
doupi tofu salad
roasted bell pepper sauce, sakura shrimp
beef shin & artichoke
master stock, celtuce, house chili vinaigrette
firecracker shrimp
nori, shiso, mala glaze
sugarsnap pea dumpling
shiitake, summer squash, pea foam
golden coin
coppa, rose wine chicken liver mousse, house bao
crab rice roll
fresh milled rice roll, shaoxing crab butter, trout roe
oyster pancake
fermented chili sauce, chaozhou ramp dip
XO little fry king
monterey abalone, bay shrimp and scallop, jimmy nardello
salted egg yolk squash
butternut and summer squash, makrut lime
chasiu iberico pork jowl
lime ginger compressed apple, scallion rice
maitake biang biang
house pulled noodle, roasted maitake, xinjiang spices
fish fragrant fish
lingcod, eggplant roasted, celtuce, yam leaves
mango sago sorbet
kaoliang, passionfruit
fig and oolong tart
peach compote, lime
mochi rocher
cinnamon chocolate, hazelnut
My second visit was a somewhat different story. We were a group of 4 with a lot of Michelin Star cred amongst the table including a critic. Naturally we had a lot more notes and not all of them good. Restaurants: We are available for hire if you need honest feedback for your restaurant (front of house, design, flow, kitchen, service and menu included). Overall, there were inconsistency issues from my first visit to this time and I can say with certainty that the savories are much stronger than dessert. And if you are a non drinker like me, please skip the Flying Nimbus (which we sent back after we all had a taste of this bizarre drink). One of the chefs at my table was hilariously at the restaurant the night before and had ordered different things. According to him they clearly ordered incorrectly the previous night and that we did much better. Interesting... We all thought the golden coin was the most interesting with the oyster pancake a close second. While we all liked the XO little fry king, there being only 3 tiny slices of abalone confused us. I am allergic to crab, but the rest of the table was unimpressed by the rice roll in the crab rice roll as it was far too soggy and too little crab. However, the chasiu iberico pork jowl was the redemption dish for us all. 2 of us are from Hong Kong so we knew upon first bite that this is the star of the menu. I haven't been able to get chasiu made from the pork jowl here since my move. Do yourself a favor and make sure to order this dish when you go here. The tenderness of the pork jowl is what makes this great, balanced with fennel and pickled apple on top served with scallion rice was excellent.
oyster of the day, hawthorne mignonette
ginger scallion scallop
scalded chives, jicama, salted radish
smacked cucumber & smoked figs
chinkiang balsamic, avocado, cherry tomatoes
doupi tofu salad
roasted bell pepper sauce, sakura shrimp
beef shin & artichoke
master stock, celtuce, house chili vinaigrette
firecracker shrimp
nori, shiso, mala glaze
sugarsnap pea dumpling
shiitake, summer squash, pea foam
golden coin
coppa, rose wine chicken liver mousse, house bao
crab rice roll
fresh milled rice roll, shaoxing crab butter, trout roe
oyster pancake
fermented chili sauce, chaozhou ramp dip
XO little fry king
monterey abalone, bay shrimp and scallop, jimmy nardello
salted egg yolk squash
butternut and summer squash, makrut lime
chasiu iberico pork jowl
lime ginger compressed apple, scallion rice
maitake biang biang
house pulled noodle, roasted maitake, xinjiang spices
fish fragrant fish
lingcod, eggplant roasted, celtuce, yam leaves
mango sago sorbet
kaoliang, passionfruit
fig and oolong tart
peach compote, lime
mochi rocher
cinnamon chocolate, hazelnut
My second visit was a somewhat different story. We were a group of 4 with a lot of Michelin Star cred amongst the table including a critic. Naturally we had a lot more notes and not all of them good. Restaurants: We are available for hire if you need honest feedback for your restaurant (front of house, design, flow, kitchen, service and menu included). Overall, there were inconsistency issues from my first visit to this time and I can say with certainty that the savories are much stronger than dessert. And if you are a non drinker like me, please skip the Flying Nimbus (which we sent back after we all had a taste of this bizarre drink). One of the chefs at my table was hilariously at the restaurant the night before and had ordered different things. According to him they clearly ordered incorrectly the previous night and that we did much better. Interesting... We all thought the golden coin was the most interesting with the oyster pancake a close second. While we all liked the XO little fry king, there being only 3 tiny slices of abalone confused us. I am allergic to crab, but the rest of the table was unimpressed by the rice roll in the crab rice roll as it was far too soggy and too little crab. However, the chasiu iberico pork jowl was the redemption dish for us all. 2 of us are from Hong Kong so we knew upon first bite that this is the star of the menu. I haven't been able to get chasiu made from the pork jowl here since my move. Do yourself a favor and make sure to order this dish when you go here. The tenderness of the pork jowl is what makes this great, balanced with fennel and pickled apple on top served with scallion rice was excellent.
Dessert is when this meal fell apart. We only ordered the mango sago sorbet and the fig and oolong tart. Mind you, we were a table of sweet tooths, the tart was so strange that it literally ruined the entire meal for all of us. We all knew the second it came out that it was going to be a challenge by the look of the figs. Why on earth would any chef send produce out that is out of season and not in their prime is beyond me. We were baffled by the look of the figs, but that was just the beginning of our enigma. Upon tasting the filling, it was incorrectly done. For me, who had the tart correctly and in season the month before, I was traumatized by how bad it had become. So if you see the tart on the menu, I would skip it until it's proper fig season. Let this be a cautionary tale to chefs that are not pastry chefs: the last bites can seal the fate of your meal and ruin a perfectly great meal. If you had a pastry chef consult for your dessert menu, please for the love of God make it properly. AHEM.
My third visit a month later was another party of 5, and we opted for the Happy as a Crane tasting menu at $120 each. It was too much food for the 5 of us as we were given 2 of most dishes. If you have hearty eaters, this may be the way to go. But if you are not, you will have a lot of leftovers. The only new dish that I had from the tasting menu was beef shin & artichoke, which was excellent. The umami from the golden coin may be too much for some palettes. Please for the love of all that is holy why you serve me out of season figs again? But at least the filling was done right this time but the out of season figs make no sense. Alas, I was extremely happy with my savory leftovers the next day.
My third visit a month later was another party of 5, and we opted for the Happy as a Crane tasting menu at $120 each. It was too much food for the 5 of us as we were given 2 of most dishes. If you have hearty eaters, this may be the way to go. But if you are not, you will have a lot of leftovers. The only new dish that I had from the tasting menu was beef shin & artichoke, which was excellent. The umami from the golden coin may be too much for some palettes. Please for the love of all that is holy why you serve me out of season figs again? But at least the filling was done right this time but the out of season figs make no sense. Alas, I was extremely happy with my savory leftovers the next day.
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