After pop-ups at a pickleball court and a bathhouse, SF chef finds a home

Kevin Tang’s Vietnamese Californian concept has appeared across many San Francisco venues, including borrowed kitchens, dive bars, delis, a museum, a sake bar, a pickleball court, and a bathhouse. He developed menus by asking what energy a place provides and what he wants to eat there, including herbal tea, Vietnamese oysters Rockefeller, and chicken roulade with miso-whipped tofu after soaking. After six years of living by this sense-of-place approach, he opened his first permanent restaurant, Mantis, on May 22 in Bernal Heights inside a space shared with Fat Cat wine bar. The restaurant-watering hole roommate setup reflects a growing trend in San Francisco. Tang’s background includes Chinese restaurant work and fine dining experience, and he keeps the concept playful through naming, design choices, and candid reflections on feedback from Saigon customers.

"“I always ask myself, 'What energy does this place provide and what do I want to eat here?'” Tang recently told SFGATE. The answer? “After, I felt almost dehydrated, like I just did drugs and I'm melting.” His cure: herbal tea, Viet oysters Rockefeller and chicken roulade with miso-whipped tofu, of course."

"Now, after six years of living the sense-of-place mantra quite literally, Tang has finally written a menu for his own restaurant. On May 22, the San Jose native is celebrating the grand opening of his first brick-and-mortar, the Mantis. The eatery is permanently located inside a Bernal Heights space shared with Fat Cat wine bar, also a former pop-up. The duo is the latest example of the restaurant-watering hole roommate concept flourishing in SF."

"The first thing you need to know about Tang, an art school dropout who grew up chopping vegetables in his mom's Chinese restaurants, is that he doesn't take himself too seriously, despite his fine dining chops. He named his concept after a kung fu technique, designed its website to look like a Windows 95 throwback and is the first to admit he “was a f-king nobody” during a recent chef residency in Saigon."

"“There, they straight up tell you if they don't like your food,” said Tang, adding that his biggest takeaway was how salty Saigon customers found his food. “It definitely changed my perspective on Vietnamese cuisine and how to balance it.”"

Read at SFGATE