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China Live, George Chen and Cindy Wong-Chen's 30,000-Square-Foot Food Emporium - 644 Broadway in Chinatown


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I'm sure this will be a smashing success just like Eataly was back in 2010, when Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich opened their first store in New York, but a small voice inside me keeps asking "which part of Chinese cuisine has omakase sushi?"

"China Live: A Food Emporium of Epic Proportions in San Francisco's Chinatown" by Jonathan Kauffman on sfchronicle.com

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On 2/23/2017 at 3:19 PM, TrelayneNYC said:

I'm sure this will be a smashing success just like Eataly was back in 2010, when Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich opened their first store in New York, but a small voice inside me keeps asking "which part of Chinese cuisine has omakase sushi?"

Such a cynic, Trelayne. :)

For the historians among us, 644 Broadway previously housed Gold Mountain:

Screenshot 2017-03-04 at 12.54.08 PM.png

Dec 31, 2011 - "Disastrous Year End for Chinatown Dim Sum - Gold Mountain Closed, Too" by soupçon on chowhound.com

And for future historians: As of today, China Live has only 454 Twitter followers:

Screenshot 2017-03-04 at 12.47.47 PM.png

(Of course, in fifty years, Twitter will probably either be gone, or will be so different that many people won't know what I'm talking about.)

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China Live is supposed to be the San Francisco version of Eataly except it's Chinese, and I have to tell you that Eataly doesn't have anything to worry about.

AT ALL.

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The prices are about what you might expect...

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These were just "ok". Soup dumplings, six for $11.

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Peking duck, a quarter duck portion. The pancakes were actually dough pockets and way too thick. Not memorable, for $14.

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Crispy chicken, served with rice and chile paste. I think we ordered wrong. It was just plain old roast chicken with crispy skin. I could have had that at home. 

I know we can get better in SF - it's just that I had heard so much about this place, and we were sorely disappointed. Oh well...

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