Following its January closure, a trio of chefs and restaurateurs conspired to reopen the 116-year-old Chinatown institution Sam Wo in September 2025. On the corner of Clay and Kearny streets, the restaurant that’s kept the city fed since 1908, is much the same under new ownership.
Its centenarian status helped define a genre of Chinese American restaurant. That means dark woods, family portraits on the wall, newspaper clippings across from the large window-front steamers and grills. Shotgun-style, this restaurant is more lowkey than lowkey.