Yank Sing Rincon Center - 101 Spear Street (also at 49 Stevenson Street) www.yanksing.com 415 957 9300

Yank Sing is one of the most imaginative dim sun restaurants in San Francisco. There are many great dim sun restaurants in SF, so it is easy to sit watching the carts of sui mai, har gow, fried turnip and other goodies roll by and choose plate after plate on a lazy morning. Such old favorites are wonderful, but we like to try something new every so often. Yank Sing, on Battery Street, near Clay is where we go.

Here, when the carts roll by, the steam baskets and trays are full of surprises. How about Peking ravioli stuffed with fresh pea shoots cooked in chicken stock? How about a curry dumpling stuffed with curried lamb and vegetables? How about the Peking duck portions served with hoisin sauce on a mini-steam bun? Or, pork wrapped in bean curd skins? Or fried lobster balls, that remind one of savory shrimp toast? Yank Sing makes dumplings with lobster, with chives, with a broad variety of meats and muschrooms. You can even get Chinese broccoli stalks or asparagus with black beans as a vegetable sidedish.

Tired of all this new fangled food? You can also get excellent renditions most of the old standbys.

Like most dim sun places, they charge by the plate, and we wind up with considerable piles of them. The prices are moderate, the food is excellent, we just wish they did room service at the Park Hyatt down the street.

UPDATED 2007 - Yank Sing has moved. The Park Hyatt is now Le Meridien (and still a very good hotel). Yank Sing has two locations. We tried the one at Rincon Center. It is huge, but it still fills up very nicely. The dumplings are brighter and better, and more imaginative than anywhere else. No one gets crisper bean curd skins, or soft shell crab for that matter. No where else do the dumplings, with pork, spinach, mushrooms, chicken, crab and, in season, pea shoots, have a firmer skin, or a more delicate one, nor is the filling ever richer and more satisfying in flavor. It was hard to leave Yank Sing, even at its new location, but we had a flight to catch.