Kam’s Restaurant

A-​ha! After visiting Purple Kow last night the inevitable has happened. Kam’s is now closed. I’m thinking that keeping the ‘Gourmet Chicken’ on the menu was supposed to be enough to keep the business thriving after new ownership. Perhaps everyone who used to go to the ‘old Kam’s’ still wants to expect the same as it was before (much like me) and what it was really known for — home of the huge portions and bottomless plates. Perhaps in this economy the new ownership didn’t think that could fly anymore. Bye bye Kam’s…
My suggestion to the new owners, or current one: Rename the place, and for whatever the new menu is… make it not an attachment to the name ‘Kam’s’. Just my two cents.

I used to go there very often, but only occassionally after I moved to Solano County. Excellent food, large portions, and great service. But now I tried to look for the phone numbers about the hours, and I found out through several different places, that the restaurant is CLOSED. Say it isn’t so! You mean I will never again have a huge bowl of won-​ton noodle soup? Or the family size beef chow fun? It can’t be true, can someone please confirm this? Thanks.
PS: I drove right in front of the restaurant today, it’ is OPEN, not closed. The signage and the lights in front are different, but it is still in the same place. Now all I have to do is make a trip just to go eat there. I’ll let you know how it goes.

We’ve been coming here for years. I had my son’s Red Egg & Ginger banquet party here. Staff were attentive to every detail of the party. They made sure I was happy with their menu choices and how the order of the dishes were served to guests. We happily introduced our latest addition to friends & family, and being that he is a boy, red envelopes were given. Red-​dyed eggs were handed out to guests to symbolize happiness & the renewal of life! Due to the traditional importance of male children in Chinese culture, a boy has to receive an elaborate Red & Egg Ginger party at a Chinese Restaurant — it calls for a serious celebration!

I liked the food here! There is not one dish that’s worth complaining about. My favorite dishes were their honey walnut prawns, pan-​fried flounder, and their house special (?) pan-​fried sweet potato toasts topped with prawns and condensed milk. That dish, my friend, is a must-​try. I would come back just to eat that again.

We ordered the fixed price menu $ 128 for ten people. Also added two additional dishes, and a bottle of red Malbec wine, with bottle of cider and 2liter coke.
Chicken, peking duck, steak cube, scallop with Chinese broccoli, gin du pork chop, honey glazed walnuts with shrimp, soup, sweet and sour pork, fried rice, American broccoli and mushrooms, and minced duck in lettuce cup. Out of flounder so substituted oysters on half shell.
Everything was o.k.
A couple of so so dishes for me were the gin du pork chops and the peking duck. Peking duck seemed a bit reheated. And the gin du pork chops came with a knife; however more chop than meat on the bone. Good flavor.
Tax and tip $ 230.00. Fortune cookies for dessert.
It’s been years since coming. They’ve cut the room in half, with one half is Kam’s and the other half? Shared kitchen and restroom, but two entrances.

Had not been there since days at USF… I guess memories of platters of food and mounds of tasty tidbits are gone for good… The tried and proven recipe worked…
But now that the Kam’s has new management… Stay away… For the money, don’t waste it here… They tried, but kept on apologizing…
Would we come back… NO… Even if they got a bunch of write-​ups… To many places to eat in SF to have to deal with the headaches here…

We came here after holding a
coupon (aka that place that everyone went to before Groupon came along) that a friend gave us back in 2009. The result was that we came in hungry and left full, but far from satisfied from a location that could best be described as a little lacking.
To start from the top, we ordered the Kam’s special dinner for two. It comes with a lot of food, but aside from the dim sum and the little dumplings, just about everything missed the mark. The rest of the food was pretty greasy tasting and while we are the type to finish everything in sight, we left nearly a full course behind as our appetite slowly vanished and we stocked up on the white rice side dish we had ordered to get our fill.
All in all, the food left us disappointed, and in the end that’s the crucial part. Also, oddly enough, they calculated out a very generous tip for themselves that basically negated the coupon we came with (part of the fallacy of using a coupon that lets them determine the tip, but its the first time we have ever seen the practice the used).

SF is loaded with underwhelming Chinese restaurants. This avoids being one of them, but not by a whole lot.
Ignore the other Unilocalers who insist upon meals larger than your head, just like Mom warned you. We’re obese enough of a nation as it is, and any amount of food that goes beyond your basic meal is feeding more of a psychological need than a physical one. We’re reviewing food here — not why you need a shrink.
As for the «value» reviews here, you’re not an idiot. You can do the math: there are two dollar signs ($$) associated with the «Price Range» for this place. So what this star rating has to do with is purely quality. And it’s decent. Not too greasy. Flavorful. But not exceptional by any means.
A decent place for Chinese food in the city, which is oddly a bit more challenging than it sounds.

During high school and college years, my friends and I asked for three things from a meal: a) decent taste, b) large portions, meaning we’re more full than we should be, and c) cheap prices. Kam’s was known for mainly b) and c), and, for certain items such as their Hung Tao Yee Won Ton, sometimes a). It’s been over twenty years since I’ve dined here, but, after reading a recent Examiner review that described a new chef and his new menu, we dined here for a Saturday dinner. For a party of nine adults, we ordered the following:
a) Fried Wonton (2 orders) — okay with a sweet/​sour dipping sauce
b) XLB (2 orders) — as mentioned by many other reviews, just okay as the skin is on the doughy side and drier than I like
c) Tofu Special — waitress’ recommendation, soft tofu topped with a Hoisin/​Wasabi sauce and mint leaf; pass
d) Pan Fried Salted Fish Pork Patties (2 orders) — probably the star of the dinner.
e) Stir Fried Pea Shoots with Garlic — veggies were fresh and good garlic flavor.
f) Spicy Fried Chicken — Some other reviewers compare this to San Tung’s/So’s chicken wings… no contest, disappointment.
g) Shanghai Style Chow Mein — okay, but Shanghai background person at the table didn’t like this much.
h) Salted Fish and Chicken Fried Rice — just right for me, but not for those who like heavy salted fish flavor.
i) Pan Fried Sea Bass — two small fillets that comes with two dipping sauces; a bit pricey for the portions.
Overall, the food was a better quality and more in line with Hong Kong style cooking. The waitress suggested the sea bass and tofu special, besides the crab and lobster, which we didn’t order. The service was fine until the food started coming and the dining room filled as it became a chore to ask for tea and water refills. Would dine here again if visiting the neighborhood. Just an okay meal, save the great company and conversation.

Quick Tip: Didn’t have lunch… Picking up fried won tons. Wondering if they are still as good as I remembered.
Review: We called in our order of Fried Won Tons to pick-​up.
Was hot and ready by the time we got there. About $ 6 for 12 pieces (a little pricey). They were yummy crispy won tons filled with pork. Didn’t really like the Sweet & Sour flaming bright red sauce, it tasted a little weird. But let’s just say it didn’t make it to Great Highway it was just as good as we rememebered! It was perfect and tied us over until we got to Linner in HMB.
The weird thing was that it was about 3pm on a sunny Saturday afternoon and there was PLENTY of parking everywhere. The restaurant was almost empty.

You know how to know if a Chinese restaurant is good? There are Chinese people eating in it, that’s how.
I’ve been dining at Kam’s since 2000 and the although the menu has slightly changed, my favorite dish is still on the menu: Kam’s Gourmet Chicken.
Good solid dishes. Tasty family combination menus. And the tea is free :)

Back in the day (and by ‘day’ I mean at night, but in 2003 or 2004), I’d come here to Kam’s every couple of weeks for their duck yee won ton (duck and fried won ton soup.) It was delicious. A good balance of duck and mushroom and water chestnuts and celery and, well, I won’t go through an entire ingredients list, but suffice it to say, there were many tastes and textures and they all blended together well. The thing that bound the whole thing together was a rich and flavorful duck broth. At the time, for me, it was the best won ton in the city.
Well, they still have duck yee won ton on the menu, but even with the fancy new chef, it’s still a weak and pale imitation of its former self. The broth is more greasy than rich and not nearly as tasty as it used to be. There was really very little duck in the soup itself, but I guess that’s okay because there was very little of anything else in the soup. The won ton themselves were fine. Nothing spectacular, but right there on the above average side of the won ton scale.
The salt and pepper fried calamari, though, was great — lightly battered and tender and delicious. The quality of the calamari dish makes hopeful and think it’s just a matter of understanding what Kam’s does well now (which shouldn’t be hard — there’s a whole menu card of chef’s recommendations), instead of just ordering based on memories and nostalgia.
Maybe the real lesson here is to not be overly sentimental, especially with regards to won ton.

We came to the Outer Richmond because Patricia Unterman’s review in the SF examiner piqued our interest. The deep fried chicken with spicy honey sauce was good — not super tasty like San Tung’s. The Westlake Beef Soup was a little bit off. I’m not sure what it was… but the soup didn’t have enough flavor and the minced beef was odd. I was intrigued by the reviewer’s 6-​inch-​long surf clam shell piled with steamed clam and glass noodles, in a clam-​infused broth ($ 6.95 each), so of course we each got one (very good!) We had wanted to try the house special dried ginger chicken, but sadly they were out. So we got the honey and garlic sauce pork ribs. The pork was tender, the sauce was delicate and not overbearing (I liked the sauce for this dish more than the sauce on the deep fried chicken).
Dessert. WOW. We got the whole young coconut filled with the creamy coconut pudding. It tasted like I biting into fresh coconut — OH WAIT, I was! We scraped off every possible piece of the delectable soft, young coconut meat from the interior. The flavors were fresh and light. It was one of the more memorable coconut puddings we have tried. I topped that off with a cappuccino. The espresso was a great choice for dessert, it had tones of chocolate at the end, so it didn’t require me to add any sugar. I don’t want to drink a heavy espresso after dinner, so it hit the spot. The owner gave us a square of the Triple layer squares of espresso-​strength coffee and cream gelatin that was mentioned in the examiner article. The gelatin was not too sweet, the hints of espresso was not overpowering. But the star was the definitely the coconut pudding.
The food was good, the service was prompt and friendly. We’ll be back to try the dishes we didn’t try this time around. And of course, have some more coconut pudding.

Ate here over a year ago, but reviewed the wrong resturant.
I got some orange beef stuff that was not very good. I’m pretty sure it was designated «special», however it was not special at all!

I use to come to this place for years whenever staying in the Richmond district. Especially for their combos plates since we were a bunch of kids trying to eat good and cheap. They food was cheap but amazingly good. Over time things have changed but most of the food is non-​the-​less still good.
Kam’s gourmet chicken, I’d have to say is
ahaha deep fried chicken with sweet spicy honey sauce & fried won ton strips. Delicious. I’ve recently visited and you can note there is quite a difference, possibly new owners or management? Some of the food has changed and it isn’t as cheap as I remembering it being. The food is good though. The service had always been some what lacking since I can remember, you have to ask for water and chop sticks, and if you want something you might as well flag them down, even if you hate doing that, because I DO, I feel like a jerk but what can you do in order to get some service at some places right?
There are restrooms here they’re decently clean. As far as parking there are some spots on Balboa along all of the stores which I believe are meter parking now? But of course there is a lot of neighborhood street parking, for those of you that don’t live in the city be sure to read all the signs for street cleaning and what not because you do not want a ticket.

We came by here for some cheap, old school Chinese food. We ordered the Kam’s Special chow mein (Hong Kong style deep fried noodels), Kam’s gourmet chicken (deep fried with sweet honey sauce), beef stew bowl, chicken and dried salted fish fried rice (very salty, but so good) and beef tongue (boiled with gravy).
The food was fatty and delicious. Chinese comfort food at its finest. You come to Kam’s for good, old school Chinese food… if you are a foodie or want gourmet dining… Kam’s is not for you.
Just like high school and college nights… great food for a few bucks.

I grew up eating at Kam’s even though I lived in the Sunset and there were plenty of other Chinese restaurants on this side of GGP. And I love that now that I have my own family, my kids get to eat the same dishes I ate when I was their age. As a matter of fact, I ordered the tomato beef chow mein, gourmet chicken, sizzling rice soup, and fried wonton for tonight’s dinner just as my mother did for me 20+ years ago. Yes, this place has been around forever and I hope that doesn’t change!
You can count on great food at reasonable prices! A restaurant staple for me and my family.

XLB?
is it?
Really?
You gotto be kidding.
Right?
I was expecting Shang-​Hai XLB.
It’s a new item at Kam’s. There is a big sign in front of the door.
I had to try it. So I did.
But when I bite, NOTHING CAME OUT!!!
Nothing.
Kam’s XLB has NO Hot Juicy Soup INSIDE at all !!!
I wanted so badly having a Shanghai style XLB with the Hot Juicy Soup INSIDE.
I wanted it so badly.
I was really ready for the famous Shanghai style ejaculation!
I was so ready, man!
I wanted the explosion!
But It was nothing.
WhattheFXXX?
It wasn’t even premature.
Hey! Kam, dude, tell me.
If this is just a polk meat ball inside of a won-​ton, I don’t think you can call it as XLB, can you?
I didn’t know what the Fxxx I was eating.
I would say,… it was a polk dumpling looked like XLB.
That’s it.
What a fake! DumbAss.
Cat C said, «WTF xlb @ Kam’s? XLB @ a Canto restaurant is pretty much a no no! I remember many years ago eating here before it went downhill by changing ownership. I miss their gourmet chicken & salty egg w/​pork!»
Good point by Cat C!
XLB isn’t Cantonese.
It’s a Shang-​Hai cuisine.
above the ocean.

The service here was good but the food was absolutely terrible. The Xlb were dry and it took over ½ an hour to make. You figure if you waited this long that the food would be great. Nope!!! The Xlb looks like siu mai. The shanghai noodles were average, and the spicy wontons were not spicy and tasteless. The only reason why we came here was because both of the Xlb places on Balboa were closed on tuesdays. Out of curiosity, shouldn’t one of them be open when the other is closed? Makes business sense… right? I don’t get it.
Getting back to this restaurant…
I think what they wanted to do was to compete with the other places since they seem to be doing so well. They just fell so short from everything. The only reason why they don’t get a 1 star is that they are really nice people. However, where do you draw the line with good service vs bad food?
Those damn pictures are so deceiving. Got me!!!

Old Kam’s = FIVE Stars!!! (My family and I LOVED the ALL of the waitresses here, who are now, sigh, gone baby gone, in addition to the menu and $ 3 lunch specials) Growing up, we used to eat here 2 – 3 times a week and there was a looong wait to get seated. It was filled with a mix of Outer Richmond residents, Ocean Beach Surfers, and people who work up the hill at the VA Hospital. Now, the tables are EMPTY.
New Kam’s = 1 – 2 STARS!!!
Dear «New» Kam’s Owners–
#1 Since when did Asians start drinking lattes with their Chinese food!!! Your efforts to turn a laid-​back family run restaurant that used to have really tasty and inexpensive Cantonese cooking «Chic» with coffee drinks, fancier dishes served on large plates with smaller portions, and adding more expensive menu items has turned out to be more like «Sick.»
#2 Are you even reading the Unilocal reviews of your place? While I applaud the efforts of trying to change the genre of your business to attract a different clientele, it was TOO MUCH TOO SOON. Your long time customers are your «bread and butter»! Almost every review from people who used to be regulars at OLD Kam’s contain the words «What happened…, and «USED to…» in them!!!
#3 STOP (talk to the hand) using so much FREAKING MSG!!!
We gave the new Kam’s 2 try’s too many. The first try we had to adjust to the new menu. Why did you remove many of the really «home style» items and start dividing the entrees in to 2 different sizes?
Now for the MSG issue-​My brother was ILL all afternoon after eating at NEW Kam’s because there was so much of it in the now smaller Gourmet Chicken and soups. Second time here I specifically asked for no MSG. Ever see the Nature Channel’s pictures of the Sea Iguanas that live in the Galapagos? They swim in the ocean and when they sun themselves on rocks they cough up the salt out of their noses. This is what I felt like after eating here the second time! Rather than putting MSG in the dishes, NEW Kam’s loaded up the dishes with more sugar and a lot more salt! BLEAH!!!
I really don’t know what is in the future for this place. Unless Kam’s does a Paradigm Shift, the long time customers will not be coming back and the new customers will be repulsed at the failed ambitions to transform it in to the Ton Kiang of Balboa Street!!!