SF restaurant known for 'rudest waiter' closing

I've been to SF several times and had heard of the place. Would loved to have experienced it all but not the Health Department code violations part. Ha.

back in the day I used to take visitors to SF there. The guy was so rude "You don't want that".."If you order that you are gonna have to get it yourself" etc. Guy was hilarious (So was Sammy Wo himself) but whenever people came to SF on a return they demanded to go there. The dining room was on the second floor and you had to walk through the kitchen to get there.

You had to take your won booze in, cuz they didn't serve it. The food was delivered via a dumbwaiter and the waitstaff would sit by it and smoke ciggys waiting for the arrival of the meal.

I am gonna miss that place:
Lately it has been the only place that was cheap in Chinatown and not made up primarily of Dim Sum. They served noodles there mostly. One fo the true treasures of SF...

I was waited on by Edsel back in the day.

Never were you so magnificently insulted - a great place to take unsuspecting newbs.

And the food was very good - though I didn't ever after Edsel passed.

Been awhile, though.

I went to City College and SF State during the late 60s and lived for a while above a Jazz Club on Broadway. Those noodles filled this boy well.

Edsel was fine, but after a while most of the noodle shops got a loud waiter just like him. There was place below ground a block or two away called Wo Loy Goy that had an excellent Corned Beef plate for about a buck and quarter. Where else can you celebrate Saint Pattys day every day in Chinatown but San Francisco, an still have enough change for busfare

I also went to Wo Loy Goy.Sam's got too crowded, especially when i drove a cab for Veterans Cab and couldn't wait long.

Always remembered it as the reversed restaurant with the kitchen in front and customers had to walk through it. Sometimes when you walk by, all the hot air coming out from the place was not caused by the kitchen. Since I don't understand Cantonese the staff could be hollering in Klingon for all I care. I did however find out the meaning of one word; "fei chai" which was "big fat dude"

I first encountered Edsel Ford in the late sixties. I found him fun and entertaining; a gracious host. He made suggestions on ordering food and steered us away from dishes he thought we didn't understand and would not like, he even sat down and tasted the food when it arrived and laughed with us as he imparted wisdom. I have cherished memories of Edsel Ford, a cool dude.


Was a time, if someone wanted a rude waiter, they would go to Caffe Sport. They had the market cornered on surly ones, for sure.

They wore rude suits with rude shoes and passed out rude menus with lots of omissions.

Any one who has ever been there will tell you about the waiters there. I never went a second time.

and the owner, who might be best described as the Martini Nazi. Only bar that ever threw me out.

I never heard of Sam Wo until this story broke. And I lived in San Francisco for twenty years!