Customer Alleges Racist Treatment of SF Icon Swan Oyster Depot, Sparks Online Backlash

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San Francisco’s iconic seafood restaurant Swan Oyster Depot had its Yelp page frozen on Monday after an Asian customer’s complaint about what he considered racist treatment sparked a flood of negative reviews on the restaurant review website.

In his Instagram posts on Friday, Tin Dinh said that he and his sister, Tu, who are Vietnamese, had been called ‘dim sum’ several times by a member of Swan’s staff after placing their order at the popular Polk restaurant. Street on August 20. His posts spread on social media over the weekend and through Monday.

Dinh also shared Yelp reviews from several years ago who also called out Swan employees for allegedly racist behavior. He said he hopes the attention given by his messages will pressure Swan to recognize his “racist language” and issue a public apology.

In a post Monday on Swan Oyster Depot’s Yelp page, the rating website explained its temporary freeze on new reviews, saying: “Although racism has no place on Yelp and we unequivocally reject racism or discrimination in all of its real consumer experience (even if that means disabling the ability for users to express views with which we might agree).

Jimmy Sancimino, whose family has run the Polk Street institution for decades, confirmed he used the phrase “dim sum” in his interactions with the Dinhs last Friday, but denied it was racist. Swan uses the term, he told The Chronicle, to refer to customers who order from more than one staff member, as is common in a dim sum restaurant.

Dinh said he started ordering food from Sancimino. He said Sancimino walked away during the process, so Dinh’s sister finished ordering another employee. When they told Sancimino that on his return he walked away, pointed at them and yelled “dim sum”.

“We have a little saying here when people want more than one person to wait for them at a time. We say it’s like a dim sum restaurant (where) you can bring in 10 different waitresses and drop food at your table. But that’s not how it works here, ”Sancimino said. “Unfortunately, this man (and) this young woman took it badly. I’m terribly sorry. But they were obviously in more of a rush and they wanted better service than I could provide.”

Eating fresh oysters and Dungeness crab salads at the 18-seat counter at Swan Oyster Depot is a long-standing tradition in San Francisco. That’s what brought Tu, who was visiting her brother from Utah, at the restaurant on Friday with Dinh’s boyfriend. They had been waiting in line impatiently for an hour and a half before their interactions with Sancimino.

Shocked at his use of “dim sum,” Dinh said, they immediately told another employee about it. This employee told them that it is a term they use in the restaurant and that it “has nothing to do with race,” Dinh said.

But to Dinh, the use of the term sounded like microaggression.

“Violence against Asians is not new. Just because there was no physical harm doesn’t mean there wasn’t harm from this experience, ”he told The Chronicle.

He also questioned Sancimino’s explanation. “Using a dish from a different culture to specifically refer to your customers is absolutely disrespectful. … Why not just say “help” or some other word that doesn’t imply someone else’s cultivation? He wrote on Instagram.

On Monday, Steve Sancimino, Jimmy’s older brother, called the incident a “non-problem”.

“We have a certain jargon that we use and obviously someone interpreted it as a racial statement which it doesn’t,” he said.

“Ask repeat customers what our view of our customers is. I’m sure what everyone will tell you is that we are a very caring and respectful group of gentlemen, ”he added.

Swan Oyster Depot is one of the Bay Area’s most acclaimed and well-known restaurants, hailed internationally by critics and chefs not only for its seafood but also as an unchanged relic of the old school of San Francisco. The restaurant won the James Beard America’s Classics Award in 2000 and was a finalist for the organization’s Outstanding Service Award in 2019.

Elena Kadvany is a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @ekadvany

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