im planning an upcoming trip to san francisco and was wanting to solicit the advice of those residents and tourists alike who could give me their opinion of what are some of the best places in san francisco to go to for cantonese food? i have an affinity for orange chicken especially. i know there are many restaurants, but im looking for some place that has a reknown local reputation for being one of the best. long lines or price is of no concern to me as long as they are the best in what they do.

One very popular spot is the R&G Lounge on Kearny between Clay and Commercial.
http://rnglounge.com/
http://www.yelp.com/biz/r-and-g-lounge-san-francisco

I would also search on yelp.com for other such recommendations.

Will you have a car?

The best Cantonese place is Koi Palace out in Daly City.

R & G Lounge is good for Chinatown.

Mayflower is out on Geary and about 24th or 25th.

South Sea Restaurant is on Irving and about 10th or 11th, but I haven't been there for a long time.

If you have a car and will be driving to the South Sea Restaurant anyhow, then, in the same neighborhood, is Shantung. It's Northern Chinese food, but their Dry Fried Chicken/Fish will beat any orange chicken you can find almost anywhere.

Happy dining! I'm off to get my In and Out burger!

Boy, easytraveler, the reviews for Koi Palace on Yelp.com don't mention Cantonese food at all, and are very mixed on their dim sum. I haven't eaten there myself, but based on those reviews, I think there are better Cantonese restaurants around.

r & g lounge was great. sounds silly, but it was the best fortune cookie i've ever had. i love in and out burger!!

Wellvis: I don't trust yelp for Chinese food. A lot of the reviewers have no idea what is good Chinese food and what is not.

For example, once another Fodorite, Shanghainese, and I went to a number of Shanghai-style restaurants in San Francisco listed on yelp. She's from Shanghai. All I can say is that the highest rated Shanghai styled restaurants on yelp were not the ones we liked. In fact, there was one where Shanghainese walked in and then walked right out again!

At Koi Palace, for the dim sum crowd, if one arrives at 9:30am, the wait is about an hour even at that early hour. It is extremely popular among the Chinese, the Cantonese especially.

Koi Palace is Cantonese. Its Chinese name is after a famous seafood area in Hong Kong. The waiters speak Cantonese, although some can manage Mandarin with an accent.

But... food is a matter of individual taste after all. If you like some other Cantonese restaurant, go for it!

As someone who grew up eating Cantonese food, I can vouch for the Koi Palace quality. We ate at the Koi Garden in Dublin, CA (which is a sister restaurant of Koi Palace in Daly City), and I can tell you that the quality of the Cantonese food there is superb.

I can give a definite yes vote for R&G, I haven't been to the others. Everything we had at R&G in late October was very good!

Koi Palace is incredible!!

(Disclaimer... I am not Chinese, speak no Cantonese and I happily let easytraveler do my ordering for me!)

DO NOT mistakenly heed the advice of yelp or chowhound or any other random food board over our own experts... Easytraveler and Shanghainese!!

That's good to hear, folks. Thanks for the suggestions on Koi Palace - I'll try it next time I'm in Daly City.

Since the OP is looking for something like orange chicken an upscale HK seafood palace like Koi Palace is probably overkill. R&G Lounge is perfectly adequate for her needs, I think, and for a tourist it would probably be more convenient.

thanks for all the replies. koi palace sounds wonderful, but since my travels will be centered on san francisco proper, i may have to opt for r&g.

Another vote for R&G. Highly recommend the salt & pepper crab, R&G special beef and the salmon avocado egg rolls. We are going to SF in February and have R&G on our list to visit. Enjoy!

We tried to go to R&G last night, but the wait was 45 minutes+ (if it were just us, we would have waited, but we had 3 little kids with us). Another time....