Sam Wo at 713-715 Clay Street has been serving Chinatown since 1907, making it one of the oldest restaurants in the neighborhood. The original location on Washington Street was famous for its dumbwaiter that carried food between floors and for Edsel Ford Fung, a famously rude waiter who became a local celebrity.
The restaurant has closed and come back twice. It closed in 2012 and reopened in 2015 at this Clay Street location. It closed again in January 2025 when chef and co-owner David Ho retired, and reopened in September 2025 under a new ownership group of Bay Area Chinese restaurant operators, with Ho training the kitchen on the legacy recipes.
Order the jook (rice porridge), the chow fun noodles, or the barbecue pork with rice. Simple, cheap, and satisfying. This is a good place to sit down for a real meal if you’re hungry, or just peek in and keep walking.