House of Nanking
Peter and Lily Fang moved from Shanghai to San Francisco in 1980. They opened House of Nanking on Kearny Street in 1988. They named it for Lily's father, who came from Nanking, though the cooking is Shanghainese home food. In 1989 Peter took the ordering away from his customers and started doing it himself.
Why go
Peter Fang's reason was the line. People stood outside long enough that they sat down starving. So he cooked the moment they came through the door, ladling from the wok straight onto the plate. The kitchen sat in the front of the room then, glassed in. The burner faced the windows and the queue watched the flames. He moved it to the back in 1997 and added twenty-five seats. The glass is still there.
Kathy Fang, their daughter, spent close to fifteen years in that kitchen before it was a job. She is executive chef at Fang, the restaurant her father opened with her in 2009. Lily still works the room every day.
I haven't found a critic's verdict on the cooking here, and nothing I read names a dish.
Order this / avoid
- Order: whatever Peter Fang decides. That has been his job since 1989 and it is the reason to sit down.
What locals & experts say
- Kathy Fang, chef at House of Nanking and at Fang, in the San Francisco Standard, April 2026, on the Chinatown shops she grew up going to with her parents:
There's something therapeutic about being inside these shops for me -- the nostalgia, the closeness I feel to my parents, community, and childhood all rolled up into a delicious bite.
2 Her own pick in that panel is Wong Lee Bakery on Jackson Street. - The restaurant's own account of the family: Kathy Fang has won Chopped on the Food Network twice.1
Good to know
- Where: 919 Kearny Street, where Chinatown, the Financial District and North Beach meet.
- The other room: Fang is a separate restaurant from the same family, with Kathy Fang as executive chef.
Verdict
could-visit — Come as three.