Gelato and Dim Sum: A Transit-Powered Visit to SF Chinatown With 3 Kids

Some people might consider it a little crazy to take three young kids (ages 8, 5, and 4) into the city to visit Chinatown. 

Most would probably consider it more than a little crazy to do so using transit instead of driving. But that’s exactly what I did with my family this Thanksgiving break.

The kids were home. There’s a very special gelato place in the city that we wanted to visit. We had two grandparents in tow. So, we got on BART (the first ride for the little ones) and made our way from Lafayette to downtown.

The first challenge was figuring out how to ride BART with kids in the first place. Turns out, kids 4 and under are free–a nice little cost savings. 

Our older kid needed to scan a Clipper card (we could have gotten him a Youth card for a 50% savings but hadn’t thought ahead) to get through BART’s enhanced new turnstiles and walk through himself, but the littles could ride through in a stroller–provoking a complex dance of scanning and running once the gates swung open!

Finally, we were all on the train and heading downtown. It’s hard to describe how much joy little kids get from riding BART. For many jaded adults, it’s just part of the daily commute. But for them, it means getting about this whoosing, whizzing thing they see cruising alongside the highway since they’re tiny. It’s magical.

We took the train to Montgomery Street, and then exited via the elevators. Onboard, we found something a bit quaint–elevator operators. 

These operators appear to be there to assist handicapped passengers. But one operator told us we were the first group of people he’d seen all day. He’d otherwise sat by himself in a tiny metal box since 5am. 

In his words, we made his day just by riding his elevator!

We then proceeded to walk across the city–with strollers for the littles–to Amorino Gelato, on the corner of Union Square.

If you haven’t tried it, this is one of the best gelato places in the Bay Area. They fly their ice cream in from Europe, and it shows in the quality of everything they sell.

Post ice cream, we wandered through the Dragon Gate and into Chinatown itself. This is a fantastic experience for kids and adults too, just walking around with the pleasant sensory overload of all the shops selling interesting foods, restaurants with photos of their food pasted to the outside, unique architecture, and rows of lanterns hanging above.

It was neat to catch a glimpse of the pyramid building in the distance, too. We had hoped for something hole-in-the-wall and little-known for dim sum, but my oldest son saw a place called Sum Dim Sum and got his heart set on visiting.

It turned out to be a great place to go with a big group. There were tons of large tables, and a straightforward and reasonably priced menu.

We got soup dumplings and pork bao.

Tofu and broccoli there were great too.

It was perhaps a bit too big and well-advertised to be considered a “hole in the wall” option, but for a large group, it worked great.

We then proceeded back across town to BART, and made our way back to the East Bay. Again, the transit experience was painless and fast–and actually quite fun for the kids.

I probably wouldn’t ride BART after dark with the little ones. I had a bad experience of getting stranded in the Mission later in the week. But for riding in the day with a big group, transit worked great–and avoided the hassle and expense of parking in the city, as well as the challenge of transporting so many people in one vehicle.

If you’re looking for a tasty outing in SF, I absolutely recommend pairing Amorino Gelato with some Chinatown dumplings. And if you’re brave enough to take your kids and ride BART, all the better!