SF is Dominating on the Modern Chinese Front: Enter The Happy Crane
An England-born, Hong Kong-raised chef with two and three Michelin experience on his resumé delivers casually refined modern Chinese creativity in Hayes Valley
Dining at The Happy Crane just one month after it opened on August 8, 2025, it was packed on a weeknight, already booked weeks-ahead. The intimate restaurant glowed, though minimalist, centered by the bar, with glass walls framing a colorful Hayes Valley alley mural outside. What is clear immediately is that it’s about the food from England-born, Hong Kong-raised chef James Yeun Leong Parry.
While many are dubbing it modern Cantonese, Parry clearly pulls from many parts of Chinese cuisine — and his impressive resume at two and three Michelin-starred restaurants, including Tokyo’s Nihonryori RyuGin and Hong Kong’s Bo Innovation. He moved to San Francisco almost a decade ago as chef de partie for Corey Lee’s three-Michelin, The World’s and North America’s 50 Best Benu. Besides his Hong Kong youth, Parry earned his dim sum chops starting in 2019 at SF’s Palette Tea House, cooking artful dim sum for hundreds a day. His Happy Crane pop-up was a cult hit and led to this casually refined restaurant.