TLDR: Find and showcase authentic Asian cuisine in SF/Bay Area + Travel

Authentic Asian restaurants are just hard to find. 

Google reviews/Yelp seem to never get the ratings right. I’ve been to 5 star rated Asian restaurants which ended up just not being authentic. Make no mistake, the food is still delicious, but just doesn’t satisfy my need for grandma’s cooking. Of course authenticity shouldn’t always correspond to rating. For most Americans, some different tasting, delicious food is enough to constitute a 5 star rating. Nothing wrong with that. However, for Asian Americans who have grown up eating their traditional, family food, a friend’s “awesome recommended 5 star Asian place” is sometimes just not going to cut it. Making a large assumption, but I’m sure other Asian Americans share the same sentiment. I’m a Cantonese American, so I can mainly speak from the perspective of Cantonese Cuisine. Some of my favorite restaurants are family recommended, 3.5 star restaurants on Yelp.

When visiting new cities and countries, I always struggle finding authentic restaurants. It turns into a trial and error process. There are reasons I feel like there are many hidden gems when it comes to Asian food:

• Traditional restaurants seem like they don’t care much about customer service. I say “seem” because this reason is often due to language and cultural barriers.
• Restaurants in an area that his not highly populated by the native population 
• Some Asian restaurants just haven’t transitioned to the more appealing “modern” style of dining

I created Asian Food Tours because I wanted to get rid of this trial and error process for finding authentic Asian restaurants. I want to document the places I’ve tried and bridge this gap that I feel just goes under the radar. I created this for Asian people like myself but also non Asian people who want to try something new. My personal reviews are going to be more accurate for Cantonese cuisine, but I try to translate my understanding of authenticity with the help of friends. Hopefully I can speak out for restaurants that don’t have the resources or know how to promote themselves. Looking forward to some great local finds!! There will be mainstream restaurants posted but I hope to find a good balance with local.

I’m a foodie who grew up on the East Coast, went to college in the Midwest, and is moving to the West Coast. Food highlights I guess will just be where I live for the most part, which is now SF. You’ll definitely see some travel highlights. I’m very much looking forward to the serendipitous effect of this blog forcing me to try different places all around the country and world!

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