Mayflower

Mayflower
6255 Geary Blvd (near 27th Ave), 415 387-8338
lunch 11am-2:30pm Mon-Fri, 10am-2:30pm Sat-Sun, dinner 7 days 5-10pm.

The Mayflower is a huge restaurant with 160 seats, and it is almost always full, which is a sure sign of good cooking. Some call it “the Poor Man’s Flower Lounge” (one of the best Chinese restaurants in the Bay Area, and expensive). The dinners are not cheap, but good, and reservations are usually needed. The portions are always very large, so family dinners can be planned with fewer dishes than in most Chinese family-run places. Most diners are Chinese. Lunches, on the other hand, are cheap, if one considers the size of the portions and number of dishes. There are three choices for lunch, all with five dishes -- $7.00, $7.50, and $8.00. With all three you can eat your full, and then probably take enough home for a second meal.

The $7.00 lunch consists of soup of the day (e.g., corn and crab soup), two eggrolls with dipping sauce, chicken with vegetables, fried rice, and dessert (usually, pudding).

The $7.50 lunch consists of soup of the day, two egg rolls and sauce, Mongolian beef, fried rice, and dessert.

The $8.00 lunch consists of soup of the day, BBB ribs, sauteed seafood in black-bean sauce, fried rice, dessert.

If you add tax and 15% tip, you’re still under $10.00, and you will usually have a second meal for the same money at home. Truly, affordable dining for upscale cuisine in a luxury milieu.

Dinner – can be expensive, especially the live-crab or live-fish dishes which are over $20.00, but there is a crabmeat with egg-white dish for $15.00, and it can be shared by two or three persons in a family meal. Shark’s fin soup, a Chinese delicacy, is also expensive, $13.00 to $28.00 per person. Abalone – the scarcest and most desirable Chinese seafood delicacy, is $30-35 per person.

Family dinners. A family dinner for 2-4 persons can be put together for a reasonable price, e.g., one large bowl of hot and sour soup $7.50, one sweet and sour pork $9.50, and one fried rice $9.00 or noodles with seafood $10.00. This three-course dinner can feed 3-4 persons at a price of $26.00-27.00. This would qualify as ”affordable”. Other dishes to consider are spareribs Peking-style $9.50, sizzling chicken in black-bean sauce $9.50, seasonal vegetables with black mushrooms $9.00, whole Peking duck $25.00, sweet corn soup with crabmeat $10.00. Of course, each person can order one dish for him-herself only, for $9-11, and have trouble finishing it, since it’s usually so ample. Tea is free.

Appetizers and soups – cold chicken in wine sauce $6.50, BBQ spareribs $6.50, egg rolls $6.00, wonton soup $7.50, seafood soup with bamboo $10.00, sliced cold pork or beef shank $5.50.

Claypot dishes are $9.00-11.00, e.g., sizzling chicken in black-pepper sauce $9.00, braised rock cod with tofu $9.00, shrimp with vermicelli and shrimp-fried rice $11.00, special spareribs $10.00. To be practical, a family dinner for 3-4 persons can include one live-crab dish, two or three other dishes in the $10-12 range, and stay under $20.00 per person, including tax and tip. Not bad for this quality of food.

Seafood, $9.50-16.00, e.g., fresh squid $9.50, filet of rock cod with sweet and sour sauce or black-bean sauce $9.50. Prawn dishes $14.00-15.00.

Vegetarian and tofu dishes, some with crabmeat or shrimp $8.50-11.00, e.g., vegetables with crabmeat $10.00, fried tofu with shrimp-meat $9.00.

For dessert, there is one dish for $1.00 per person, and two dishes (fruit pudding and coconut pudding) for $2.00 per person.

Tea, of course, is free (real tea, not a tea bag).