The outpost at 1125 Ocean Ave. closed one month ago, according to a worker at the original Taishan Cuisine in Chinatown; its Google listing also marks the restaurant as permanently closed. The restaurant opened in January of last year.
“San Francisco’s Chinatown used to be full of late-night spots like Sam Wo. Now there’s really just Taishan Cuisine,” Chronicle restaurant critic MacKenzie Chung Fegan wrote in the restaurant’s Top 100 entry. “Even if you’re not a night owl, there’s still good reason to visit — namely, that it’s among the tastiest Chinese restaurants in the city.”
Taishan Cuisine’s best known dishes include an eel claypot rice and whole roasted chickens, which are presented whole, wrapped in aluminum foil, before staff expertly dismantle the bird by hand into dripping chunks.