A new Hong Kong-style restaurant has opened in the neighborhood.
Business partners Matthew Wang, Jim Ma and Chris Ho launched Wok Up in the former Shabu House storefront on Lakeside Village’s Ocean Avenue in mid June.
Manager and chef Ma, who also owns Oakland’s Cupcake Cove, called the restaurant’s concept “something modern, cooking with a robo-wok.”
Some items are then made with programmed robotic woks that turn and move food around autonomously with chefs nearby to check progress and plate up.
Its extensive menu features five categories that consist of dim sum, small eats, rice plates and noodles, drinks and desserts. Their dim sum and small eats sections offer classics like shrimp and pork siu mai, chicken lotus sticky rice and Sichuan green beans that range from $3 to $15.
The rice plates and noodles portion features baked or non-baked protein like pork, chicken and fish dishes with rice in tomato, white creamy, black pepper or curry sauce for $14 or $15 and noodle dishes like beef chow fun and soy sauce noodles for $12 to $15.
Wok Up in Lakeside Village. | Ingleside Light file phto
For drinks and desserts, there are Portuguese egg tarts, mango pudding, canned soda and a variety of iced or hot teas that range from $1 to $6.
Wok Up also has three combo meals for $18 that are served with gyoza and any drink. Options include wonton noodle soup, Chinese BBQ pork with egg rice and braised beef noodle soup/rice.
Neighbors are already taking to the restaurant.
“Our whole family has eaten at Wok Up many times already,” Friends of Lakeside Village's Kath Tsakalakis said. “Our sons, aged 22 and 20, are always enthusiastic to go back. It’s exciting to have dim sum as one of the delicious restaurant choices on Ocean Avenue in Lakeside Village.”
Ma said that they don’t have plans for the grand opening just yet, since there are improvements that need to be completed, like signing on to third-party ordering platforms like DoorDash and Uber Eats.
“I see great potential to be successful,” Ma said of his restaurant.
Anne Marie Kristoff (she/her) is a recent graduate from San Francisco State University's journalism program. She enjoys writing about the arts, entertainment and nature.
