Cordon Bleu Vietnamese Restaurant
Anthony Dang-Tran opened Cordon Bleu on California Street in 1970 with a five-item menu. Katie Yu bought it in 1995 and kept every one of them. She still works the char grill herself, five days a week, driving in from Fremont.
Why go
The grill is the reason. Yu rubs chicken in five-spice and lays it on grates that decades of service have turned black. Cesar Hernandez is the San Francisco Chronicle's restaurant critic. He wrote in December 2025 that she knows the chicken is done by its sizzle, and by its weight in her tongs.1 Michael Procopio, writing for KQED, sets out the rub: cinnamon, star anise, cloves, Sichuan pepper and fennel.7
Dang-Tran's original five were the chicken, thin pork shish kebabs, imperial rolls, a garlicky pork meat sauce and rice. Yu added mapo tofu, salads and pork chops from her native Hong Kong. She left the rest alone. Fans have split into camps by dish since.
Twelve people fit. Three sit at a table in the back and the rest ride a counter around the open kitchen. Patrick Wong of The Infatuation watched one cook caramelize chicken, ladle rice and pull rolls from the fryer at once.4
Yu found an old menu on which the best-selling No. 5 combo was $2.45. It was $7.95 in 2005 and $15.88 in December 2025, and nothing on the card passes $16.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the No. 5 combo: chicken, a shish kebab, an imperial roll and rice under meat sauce.
- Order: a lunch special. They ran $9.90 to $10.59 in December 2025, and Patrick Wong's pick at The Infatuation is the imperial roll one.4
- Avoid: turning up with a card and no cash. Venmo is the only other way to pay.
What locals & experts say
- Katie Yu, owner, to the San Francisco Chronicle, December 2025:
I enjoy my customers very much. Many have become my friends and family.
1 - Cesar Hernandez and MacKenzie Chung Fegan, San Francisco Chronicle, on their classics project: the imperial rolls are
bubbly, fearsomely crunchy.
2 - Nico Madrigal-Yankowski, SFGATE, February 2026, quoting Yu on why she kept it small:
I felt that it was small enough that I can handle it, and it's more affordable to manage that way.
3
Good to know
- Closed: Sunday and Monday.
- Getting in: no bookings, twelve seats, a line most evenings. Takeout is the pressure valve.
- Paying: cash, or Venmo.
- Where: 1574 California Street, in Polk Gulch, around the corner from Swan Oyster Depot.
Verdict
should-visit — Sit at the counter so you can watch Yu work. The back table misses it.