As technology speeds us along at an ever-faster pace, the Bay Area is developing a serious nostalgia for a time when things were a little more analog, a little less artificial—a little, dare I say it, simpler.
Nowhere is that longing more visible than in local restaurant culture—”comfort food” is called that for a reason.
This year alone, San Francisco and Oakland have seen the return of previously loved spots that closed or were on hiatus (Ox & Tiger, Understory, Daytrip Counter, Harborview), the glow up of longtime favorites (Wayfare Tavern, Beretta), and the expansion of legacy and critically acclaimed names (Flour & Water Pizzeria, Precita Social, Nopa Fish, Piccino)—with more on their way soon (Dalida, Sons & Daughters, Rich Table).
Chef Helene An's garlic noodles sparked a local phenomenon.(Courtesy of Crustacean San Francisco)
Of them all, it is those that gave shape to the city’s love affair with Vietnamese cuisine that are especially flourishing in this moment, in which we are as interested in looking backwards as we are forwards. Three early players—Le Soleil, Crustacean, and Turtle Tower—are resurrecting, redesigning, and reinforcing the game they helped to create.
Considering the visibility of the Bay Area’s Vietnamese American community today, it’s easy to forget that most families came here as refugees in the 1970s and ‘80s. San Francisco didn’t even get Thanh Long, its first Vietnamese restaurant, until 1975, following the An family’s escape. Chef Helene An’s garlic noodles—a dish that has become a culinary staple of the Bay Area—didn’t exist until sometime around 1978.
By the 1990s, Vietnamese food was becoming a more known unknown in San Francisco. But it wasn’t until the opening of Crustacean, the An family’s second, more upscale restaurant on Polk Street in 1991, that the cuisine generally—and garlic noodles, in particular—became something like a phenomenon.
Le Soleil's signature tableside-flambéed quail(Erin Ng)
Two years later, in 1993, Dennis and Annie Wong opened Le Soleil (133 Clement St.) in the Inner Richmond. Before the war, Dennis’ family had run a noodle shop in Ho Chi Minh City, and he spent his first years in SF working his way up from dishwasher to line cook in a Thai restaurant before joining forces with friends to open one of their own.
Le Soleil, though, was the Wongs’ first commercial venture into the food traditions they’d carried with them across the world. The restaurant’s roasted crab and garlic noodles may have been what got the first customers in the door, but it’s not why they kept coming back. Signature dishes like poached hai nam chicken and rice, and tableside-flambéed quail developed cult followings all their own.
When Charles Phan’s The Slanted Door came on the scene in 1995—a more modern, elevated take on Vietnamese flavors and dishes—it burst open the door cracked by the Ans, Wongs, and other family restaurateurs wide open, lighting the way for more varied expressions of the cuisine, like the Northern-style focus of chef Steven Pham’s Turtle Tower in 1999.
The interior of Le Soleil Stonestown was designed by co-owner Annie Wong.(Erin Ng)
A quarter century later, many excellent Vietnamese restaurants have risen and then been lost (as well as, sadly, chef Phan), but these three restaurants—Le Soleil, Crustacean, and Turtle Tower—have done something none of the others could: they’ve thrived.
Turtle Tower was the first to make a move. The restaurant, which closed its last location in 2023, returned with its famous pho in March, opening a new space in the Financial District (220 California St.) whose walls preserve the restaurant’s quarter-century legacy.
Le Soleil has spent the last 32 years steadily operating out of its Clement Street storefront, with Dennis in the kitchen, Annie at the front of the house, and daughters Bianca and Kandyce coming up with one foot in each. Now grown women, the two have returned from other pursuits to introduce Le Soleil to the next generation, spearheading the opening of a second location in current Asian-cuisine juggernaut Stonestown Galleria.
Le Soleil Stonestown features new dishes like whole grilled branzino with herb salad.(Erin Ng)
Le Soleil Stonestown (3251 20th Ave., 2nd fl.), which opened at the beginning of July, is a collaboration between the two generations: Dennis and Bianca crafted the menu, combining classic dishes like bò lúc lắc and whole Dungeness crab with contemporary takes on Vietnamese flavors, like phở risotto and blue shrimp aguachile with nam jim jaew chili sauce. Annie, a former interior design student, and art school graduate Kandyce developed the restaurant’s sleek, modern feel, the look of its menus, and other visual elements.
Several additions to Le Soleil Stonestown can’t be found at the Clement location, including whole grilled branzino—a beautifully butterflied and ginger-caramelized fish filled with herb salad that deftly hits every note in the symphony of savory, sour, sweet, and salty. The pickled lotus root salad with lemongrass beef is crunchy, tangy, and craveable; the miso butter mushrooms are meaty and rich; and the umami butter they serve with the Acme pain d’epi—as well as the tom yum mussels with coconut milk and kaffir—are musts.
It was just three weeks ago that Crustacean made its big transition, moving from Lower Nob Hill to a large, lovely space in the Financial District (195 Pine St.) with soaring ceilings, architectural details reflecting Vietnamese heritage and aesthetics—like a pair of 18th-century carved wooden doors—and a “secret kitchen” in the back for preparing signatures like Helene An’s famed garlic noodles.
Like royal dynasties, all three restaurants simultaneously represent San Francisco’s past and future, as our collective nostalgia helps make what’s old new all over again.
The bar at Crustacean's new downtown location(Courtesy of Crustacean San Francisco)
