I've been opposed to the Central Subway (a.k.a. Chinatown Subway) project from the outset. It just seems like too much expense and too much disruption for too long a time to effect a five minute improvement in travel time from Third and Market to Chinatown. Fortunately, the impact on Chinatown will apparently be limited to the taking of one building for the Chinatown Station site, but what a building it is, housing four budget-priced restaurants and one purveyor of house-made sausage and cured meats. These are You's Dim Sum, Little Paris Restaurant, San Sun Restaurant and Joy Hing BBQ Noodles on Stockton Street, and Wycen Meats arount the corner on Washington Street.
The first shoe to fall was the move, last weekend, of San Sun (a.k.a. Tam Duong) Restaurant to larger new quarters on Washington Street. San Sun is a popular Vietnamese-Fukienese-Chaozhouese-Malaysian mashup
with a prodigious noodle menu. According to my Chinatown source, San Sun received $250,000 in relocation assistance from the City, but spent ten times that to buy and renovate the building at 848 Washington St. which formerly housed the Great Oriental Restaurant. Fortunately, it's twice the size of the old San Sun, because they'll need to sell a lot of noodles to pay for the upgrade.
As for the other restaurants on the block, Little Paris will probably be the most missed, being
unique in providing Vietnamese "bento" box carryouts in addition to serving creditable pho and banh mi. My contact opined that it probably will not be replaced, as the owners were already on the verge of retirement, and there is already a family-run branch of Little Paris on Clement St. You's Dim Sun also has another, more popular branch in Chinatown (on Broadway). My friend had no clue as to the fate of Joy Hing BBQ Noodle House.
Mentioned: @Central_Subway
space most recently occupied by Ton Yong Thai on the Northwest corner of Kearny and Jackson. This location, which I first knew as Meilong Village, seems to change hands every year or two, but judging by the activity there Kobe Bento may be around for a while. The strategic positioning of Kobe Bento across the street from the soon-to-open City College campus was probably a consideration to Quickly. (According to Trademarkia, Kobe Bento is a registered trademark of Quickly, the Taiwanese bubble tea chain.} Along with the usual boba house suspects, the comestibles here include takoyaki (8 pieces for $4.95), something I'll have to try, at least once.
Further up the street, and further up the scale of gourmetise, the moribund Pearl City Seafood (641 Jackson) recently reinvented itself as Peninsula Seafood. At least that's what the big new hanging sign calls it. On the awning it's also called P&R Seafood; maybe they are inspired by the success of Z&Y two doors away. It's unclear whether the restaurant is under new management or has only received a makeover; ABC records still list Pearl City as the owner of the liquor license. The new signage also promises Hong Kong style dim sum; that was a staple of Pearl City.
Lunch, of stinky tofu fame, is finally getting some attention. The Star Lunch/上海小吃 sign (which I've long coveted) has finally been removed and a ladder was newly visible above the papering in the window. The space was big enough for only a counter and a solitary two-top; here's hoping it will become the humble noodle or dumpling bar I've fantasized about putting there myself.
unique in providing Vietnamese "bento" box carryouts in addition to serving creditable pho and banh mi. My contact opined that it probably will not be replaced, as the owners were already on the verge of retirement, and there is already a family-run branch of Little Paris on Clement St. You's Dim Sun also has another, more popular branch in Chinatown (on Broadway). My friend had no clue as to the fate of Joy Hing BBQ Noodle House.