Mow Lee Shing Kee & Co
Janet Chan has eaten her way through all hundred and fifty-odd restaurants in Chinatown since 2020. One of her favorite finds is not a restaurant. It is this counter, open since 1856, where she buys Chinese bacon and dried meats.
Why go
Chan is a former insurance broker and she does it unpaid. She films it on a wobbly phone camera and asks not to be called an influencer. Sara Deseran wrote her up for The San Francisco Standard.1 Her recommendation is the whole of what has been published about this shop, and I haven't found a second. It sells cured meat to cook at home, which is why the restaurant guides pass it by.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Chinese bacon. That is Chan's order and the only dish anyone has named here.1
- Avoid: turning up hungry. There is nothing here to eat on the spot.
What locals & experts say
- Janet Chan, who has eaten every restaurant in Chinatown, to Sara Deseran of The San Francisco Standard, October 2025: among her favorite discoveries is
Mow Lee Shing Kee & Co., which opened in 1856, where she goes for Chinese bacon and other dried meats.
1 - Grace Young, the James Beard Foundation's 2022 Humanitarian of the Year for her work on New York's Chinatown, on Chan, in the same column:
She's played a critical role in helping the community survive.
1
Good to know
- Getting in: a counter, so no bookings.
- Where: 774 Commercial Street, in Chinatown.
Verdict
could-visit — Buy a length of the bacon and cook it into rice at home.