Riverside Seafood Restaurant Reviews

Found this place by chance. Went for dim sum on a Sunday, 95% Chinese clientele (this is a good sign), the specials in Chinese only (another good sign). Clean and spacious dining room with plenty of natural light. You order of a menu where you write down the number of dishes you want. There were some dishes I never heard of. The ingredients were outstanding. The best chicken feet I've ever had. Other yummy foods; the jelly fish, fried pumpkin and shanghai dumplings. All the dishes were tasty and of high quality, everything you ordered came right out of the kitchen and to your table. This is my new official dim sum spot. The wait was short, but got long as morning turned into afternoon.

I've been eating here for nearly ten years, under two different owners. Some of the staff have been there that long. They are the most hospitable and friendly people, and the service is quick ( at 11:00), but considering that if you get there at 12:15 you can expect a wait. Its definitely a local hangout of regulars. I get mostly to-go orders, as I work up the street, but I enjoy the dim sum. My favorites are the Singapore Vermacelli, pot stickers, hot and sour soup, and won ton soup. Enjoy!

I was born and raised in San Francisco but have since moved away. Whenever I come back to visit, I make it a point to come here for dinner. My parents introduced me to this place and their food is delish! I particularly love their fresh lobster noodles ("yee-mein"), fresh conch soup (very reasonably priced and so refreshing for those that know about this soup), and salty spicy peppery prawns. SO yummy! I want to give it 4.5 stars, but this system does not allow it. The reason for me not giving this place 5 stars is because one time I came here, we ordered a fresh fish (came recommended from the waitress as it was not on the menu and we didn't have enough sense to ask as we didn't think it would be THAT expensive) that was not very big and the cost was more then half of our total bill (I believe our total bill was around $100 for 3 adults and 2 small children). In addition, this place is pretty clean as far as Chinese restaurants go, but some of the chairs were pretty greasy sticky. :-( Regardless, I would recommend that you seek out this hidden gem in the outer Sunset district. Food is very good!

I was visiting my niece in SF from England and this is her neighborhood Chinese Restaurant. We went there for dim sum on a Tuesday (they serve it everyday). It was delicious, fast, perfectly prepared. The service was very friendly and attentive. We were the only non-Asians in there, which I took to be a very good sign. I will return to this place as often as I can during my visit. I only wish I had this restaurant in my little village in England.

I've had Cantonese food in quite a few cities, including Hong Kong my home town, and this is one of the best Cantonese restaurants. The stir fried flat rice noodles with beef is such a common dish but it's rare that it's cooked well. We were totally satisfied with its quality: not too oily, noodles were thin and soft, beef was tender (but not artificially tenderized), and seasoning was just right. We were also very happy with the steamed tofu with prawns, the chicken, and the white fungus lily bulbs egg stir fry. The last one is a dish I had never tried before and it's tasty but light and refreshing. Highly recommended.

We had a family lunch banquet here the day after a Thanksgiving. We had a reservation for 10 people at 1pm and were seated after a 10 minute wait (they moved some parties around to accommodate our reservation). They were packed at 1 with many people sharing large tables and there were many people waiting for tables. We had ordered a family meal of 10 dishes for $168 along with a Peking Duck and because we pre ordered, the dishes all came out nearly at the same time, nearly overwhelming us...soup, mayonnaise shrimp, minced squab, abalone and choy, beef short ribs, scallops and squids, roasted chicken, fried flounder, Peking Duck, and fried rice. Overall, the food was quite good, fresh ingredients, including fresh fish and not overly salty. We thought the service was above some of the usual surly, and impatient service you get in typical Chinese restaurants, as the waiters kept up the pace of dishes and kept our tea pot filled. Almond jello offered for dessert for those who had a sweet tooth. We ended up spending over 90 minutes enjoying the meal. We looked at their regular lunch menu including dim sum and thought they had good variety but the prices are on the high side. Still, considering how disappointing some other Chinese places can be in the Sunset, and the struggle many places have with rising wages and costs, the higher prices in these sit down places may be the new norm. The bill included a 15% tip which did not bother us because the service was fairly good. I could see us coming back for a banquet type of meal, maybe at 2 pm rather than during their peak lunch hours as the place slowed down considerable by 2 with plenty of time to eat and enjoy the food (they shut down between 3 and 5). Preordering in advance seemed like a good idea. Parking was a bit of a challenge but we found spaces in the neighborhood.

Four of us came here on a Thursday night for dinner. We arrived at 6:00 and the restaurant was about 1/3 full. The dining room is typical of most Chinese restaurants - dull and without much character. There are some booths along one wall but they were full so we ended up at a large circular table in the middle. We were brought tea and menus along with some peanuts to much on. We shared all our dishes and dined family style - we ordered some shrimp dumplings, ginger beef, lemon chicken, and a seafood noodle dish. Everything ca,me out one after another, all delicious and timed just right. I'll definitely return to this Sunset gem!

We have been coming to this restaurant for years and thought it was about time to give it a review. This restaurant has Diem Sum during lunch and seafood dishes throughout the day. You can actually point to the fish or crab you want and they will recommend a way to cook it for you. We just finished a great diem sum lunch here last week. We had their traditional Har Gaw, Siew Mai, Noodles stuffed with Shrimp, Chinese Veggetables, and BBQ Pork Buns- all fresh and excellent in taste. We also had a special Crispy Fried Rice Noodle with pork and veggetables and it was done just right. The place is very popular with locals and gets full by 11:45AM for lunch. Service is good.

just moving down the street, I stopped by Riverside tonight to order a meal for my wife, ill from Alzheimer's. I went in and in the restaurant which was very, very spacious and perhaps only 7-10 people there, I told them I wanted a meal to go and a beer while I waited. There's no place to sit awaiting a go order and no bar so they directed me to a table for four. Not the only one, I may add. Beer came and I was sipping that when the credit card bill came, followed very quickly by the food. Again, note the restaurant was at least 90% empty. A couple came in (I had been there total perhaps 20 minutes max) and wanted my table. The wait person told me I need to sign my check and leave the table. Seriously? 90% empty, I was just finishing my beer at the table I was told to sit in, now told to go? Gone, no problem, and let me tell you as a family that just moved here and orders takeout or eats out at least 4-5 times a week, done with you. Disrespect doesn't work. At all. Food? Average at best.

A good heaping of delicious dishes we had. We had the pork spare ribs, egg rolls, and filet of cod with crabmeat. The prices are reasonable and the service is good. This place if off the beaten path but well worth it!

This one of our regular "go to" restaurant for dim sum and for dinner. The food is fresh and delicious. The seafood selection is good and flavorful. The service can be rushed. The wait can be long but worth it. Parking is generally easy to find.

We took our visiting English cousin to one of our favorite neighborhood Chinese restaurants. There were seven of us. It is a very busy place, therefore reservations are a must. They had a large round table,with a lazy susan waiting for us. Their patrons are local Chinese families with babies to grand parents. This restaurant reminds me of Hong Kong restaurants, which are well lit, with white table cloth and very clean. The menu is quite extensive. Although they have a prepared menu for eight people we chose to order a la carte. I was assgined the duty to order the food for everyone to share.I ordered Hot and Sour soup to start, Mongolian Beef, Kung Pao Chicken, Sweet and Sour Pork, Curry Chicken, Combination Chow Mein and Steamed Rice. As they brought the first dish, I noticed that the restaurant was completely full. The food was very tasty and the portions were plenty. We really enjoyed the evening. The restaurant does not accept American Express cards.

Had a family dinner party here, two tables, twenty people. Ordered the $118 per table set menu and added an order of roast chicken sticky rice. Everything was standard, good place for families, typical service for this kind of place. The roast chicken sticky rice was excellent!

This place is more than good, it is the place to go for darn good dim sum! Do not expect little carts pushing goods around like a lot of dim sum places, here you place your order than it is made and brought to you. An out of the way location still doesn't prevent the crowds from storming this place on the weekends, but if you can make it during the work week, you will be amazed by the delicious food.

The staff gives you excellent service and the food is delicious. I had two big banquets at Riverside one for my husband's retirement party and a red egg and ginger party for my grandson. I really like the ease of planning the banquet menu with them and how well they accommodated my requests for a whole roasted pig.. I was able to come in and put up the decorations for the tables. I was also given an extra table to put a sign in book and make it a gift table. The food comes out in a timely manner and it's temperature hot. When it comes out.Everything we ordered was so very delicious and the service was too notch. They even had a cake table for us and they cut the cake for us. Great service with great food.

Riverside Seafood Restaurant 1201 Vicente St, San Francisco, CA 94116-3045 We’ve been going to this restaurant since it first opened in what must be almost two decades ago. In that time, Riverside Seafood has changed ownership three to four times, with the original owners retiring, and the place remodeled at least once or twice. Most of the staff (waiters and waitresses) left with the change in ownerships, but there are a couple of staff people who have remained throughout the changes. While the best time, best service, and best food for Riverside Seafood in my opinion happened during the first original ownership, the food still remains really good as most of the chefs were kept during the change of ownerships. Riverside just changed owners and remodeled in 2011. With the new ownership, the prices have gone down and more dishes (such as more choices of soups, seafood, clay pots, and sizzling Iron Platters) were added to the menu. Riverside Seafood remains one of the few restaurants open all year round, even on Holidays, and we consider this the “place go to” if we need food and cannot cook because it’s close and has more authentic Chinese dishes with most not spicy hot. To me, Riverside Seafood is one of the higher-class Chinese restaurants in the Sunset District. The place does take reservations and I have never seen Riverside Seafood to ever make home deliveries in their entire existence. We also consider Riverside Seafood to be one of the safer, cleaner, and healthier Chinese restaurants in the entire Sunset District; it has been ever since it opened. It’s less cramped, less crowded, and less noisy than some of the other (smaller) Chinese restaurants in the Avenues and Sunset mainly because the building it is under isn’t as old, not to mention that the owners have kept the place pretty shipshape. The large one-room restaurant is well-lit with windows on two sides so one could see outside and those outside could see in; therefore, eating there, I didn’t feel as if I sat inside a building since I could always look outside. On some days, the waiting line could be out the door. Parking on the street is above average; we generally park by the Dianne Feinstein Elementary School down the block. Seating varies from sofa booths that could seat four to rectangular tables of four to round banquet tables for twelve or more. Dinnertime is when the white tablecloths and napkins come out. The table layout often doesn’t change to there’s no jostling to add extra tables to elbow people in. Opening time for dinner is 5 p.m. and the crowd usually comes at 6 to 7 p.m. Take-out is a good option if the place gets too crowded. The Take-Out boxes are not your typical white trapezoid waxed cardboard carton with a wire handle that has everything crammed into that small box, but a clamshell plastic box, which makes for much larger take-out portions arraigned horizontally, not stuffed in vertically—Riverside has been using clamshell Take-Out boxes ever since it opened—and this means one does get full with Take-Out. Riverside also serves Dim Sum brunch which we haven’t tried since the new ownership so I cannot comment. The food tends to be heavy on the sauce and less greasy depending on what’s ordered. If you want less grease, order more seafood and vegetable dishes. If you want flavor and more sauce, then order the meat dishes and Clay Pots. The current owners have brought back the sizzling Iron Platters. The food looks fresh and the portions are quite large. In fact, there are some dishes not even on the menu. If someone in your party could speak Chinese, chances are that the chef could make that special dish if you describe it well and if the kitchen has the ingredients. Riverside offers dishes from the expensive lobsters and whole fishes to the cheaper Egg Foo Young and Won Ton Soups. Current prices range from $7 to $13 for the average dinner entrée. They’re also open for lunch. Riverside’s nice food quality doesn’t deviate, which remains a very good thing. The many times over the years we’ve eaten there, we haven’t had a bad experience. At the end of the dinner, patrons receive sweet (soup) desert usually in a bowl. Fortune cookies are available for those who buy Take-Out or if asked for those dining in. Current service is average to okay. At times the place could get busy and the waiting staff kind of forgets you unless you get their attention. This is especially true when it comes time to get the bill. This is one restaurant were the waiting staff wears black and white uniforms so they’re easy to spot. Another good thing about Riverside Seafood Restaurant is that when busy, the staff people generally don’t rush to kick you out. (Those waiting for a table will just have to wait which could make for some long waits sometimes. On weekdays, chances are you will get a table). The waiters and waitresses may take away the plates and hand you the bill, but on average your party could eat your meal at your leisure. In summary, Riverside Seafood Restaurant is a very good place to eat Chinese food. While it may not be the best “knock your tastebuds off experience” compared to some other Chinese restaurants in San Francisco, Riverside does offer safe, clean, very good fresh food that has been their hallmark for two decades in an environment that is both pleasing and comfortable.

I've been to this place for lunch many times. Food is consistently good. There is a variety of dim sum dishes also. It is always very busy at a lunchtime on the weekends. I suggest late lunch around 2 pm, then there is not that much wait. Waiters are very reserved. It takes an extra effort to get a smile out of them, but service is fast and prompt. (Toilets are clean! I always check that part)

It is a cosy restaurant with great food and service. It’s tight and may be loud with restaurant is packed. Great dim sum for lunch. Dinner with fresh live seafood. Tonight we had giant oysters, $6 each. Sorry only one picture. Easy street packing, kids friendly and wheel chair accessible.

Located on Vicente with no competing restaurants around. Have a chance for free street parking. Has about 8 large family tables, four booths and not much more. Had dim sum. Choices are in four price categories; $4.50- $8.00 Chow fun is done simple but correctly. Pork buns pass test also. Stuffed eggplant had four large pieces but shrimp filling was like a slice of shrimp loaf; rubbery. Had a nice sauce. Shrimp chive dumpling just okay. Good size dishes.

We thought it would be good but my thoughts are if you go here order the dim sum. Almost everyone there did. We ordered flat noodles ( meh) noodle soup ( which was so bland I couldn’t tell you) the green onion pancake was so greasy we couldn’t eat. The one item from dim sum menu, the shrimp dumplings was good. They also didn’t offer any hot sauce or even ask. We were there at lunch and it was fairly busy. I don’t recommend but maybe we just didn’t order the right stuff.

We've been coming here for more than 20 years. But it was Valentine's night so we decided to go at 5 pm. 3 of us shared 3 dishes, we had Westlake beef soup, "eight precious" tofu, bitter gourd omelette plus sweet and sour pork. Along with white rice. We barely ate half of each dish, except for the soup! All very tasty and satisfying. The restaurant provides free dessert and Valentine's was red bean soup. I was too full to have that, and they kindly packed a generous portion for my doggie bag! Service is always prompt, although they do get a tad busy at times. One of the wait staff has been there for more than 2 decades, and this job sure keeps her young looking!

Low price family style Chinese food. You can order individual plates. Don't expect great food but it is not bad either.