Chinatown Kitchenware Store The Wok Shop: Woks From $35

The Wok Shop sells woks and almost nothing else that does not belong next to one. The kitchenware store sits at 718 Grant Avenue, between Sacramento and Clay Streets in San Francisco Chinatown, and it opens seven days a week from 11 am to 5 pm. Its smallest US-made carbon steel wok, a 10-inch pan with a wooden side handle, costs $35, and the shop's own site says it has been selling woks for more than 40 years.

From the sidewalk the store reads as a wall of hanging metal: round-bottom woks, flat-bottom woks, steamer baskets and ladles clipped to hooks around the door frame. Tane Chan started the business in 1972 by stocking a selection of woks, according to Time Out, and the room still works like a specialist counter rather than a general housewares shop. You come in with one question, usually which wok fits your stove, and leave with a pan, a ring and a cleaning whisk.

That narrow focus is why this is the kitchenware store home cooks across the Bay Area name first when a recipe calls for real wok heat. The shop calls itself a source for woks and Asian kitchenware, and the shelves behind the hanging pans carry steamers, cleavers, crockery, tableware, hot pot gear, sushi tools and rice cookers. It is a place for buying a working tool, not browsing for decor, so expect stacks, boxes and product tags that talk in inches and gauges.

The first decision is the bottom of the pan, and the shop's own rule is simple. Choose a round bottom for a gas stove and a flat bottom for an electric coil stove or a grill, although flat bottoms also work on gas. Round-bottom woks need a wok ring to sit steady on a home burner, and the ring costs $2.95. Bring a photo of your cooktop if you are unsure, because the right answer depends on the grate, not on the recipe you have in mind.

For a first wok, the 10-inch wooden handle carbon steel model at $35 is the sensible start. It is flat bottomed, 14 gauge, made in the USA and sized for a single-serving stir fry or a small side dish. Cooks feeding a family usually move up to a 14-inch pan. The 14-inch carbon steel wok set costs $90 and bundles the wok with a lid and tools, and the round-bottom version of that set includes the ring.

Fans of fast tossing over high flame look at the pow wok, a round-bottom pan with a single hollow metal handle that stays cool. The shop sells a version from China in 12, 14 or 16 inch sizes, about 16 gauge, for $35 to $45, and describes it as the Beijing or Peking pan used most often in Northern China. Our honest take: skip the 16-inch size for a home range, since a standard burner cannot heat that much steel evenly.

Carbon steel arrives raw and has to be seasoned before it cooks properly, and the shop spells that out on its wok listings. The shop recommends flaxseed oil, noting that it gives excellent results and stays smokeless if you season the wok in the oven. On gas, seasoning is easy, and a well-seasoned pan is what produces wok hei, the breath of a wok that gives restaurant stir fries their smoky edge.

After that, the care routine is plain. Wash with hot water and a bamboo whisk, dry the wok over the flame and wipe a thin film of oil inside. The store even prints its philosophy on every product page: woks, like friendship, improve with age and care. If rust spots appear in the first month, scrub them out and re-season rather than returning the pan, because a patchy early patina is normal.

The shop is small, and Grant Avenue fills with visitors from late morning on weekends, so the easiest window is a weekday right at 11 am, when the door opens and the aisle is at its quietest. Weekend afternoons bring the heaviest sidewalk traffic on this stretch of Grant, which makes the narrow room slower to move through. If you already know your size, name it at the register and the visit can be a quick one.

Heavy woks and stacked steamers do not travel well on a crowded sidewalk, so plan to carry purchases in a sturdy bag or come by car and use a nearby garage. A toll-free line, handles orders from outside the city.

The Wok Shop is tied to The Breath of a Wok by Grace Young, the cookbook that won the IACP International Cookbook Award and the Jane Grigson Award, and the store sells it alongside the pans. The shop also points customers to Wok Wednesdays, an online group of wok enthusiasts who cook their way through that book, with recipes posted twice a month. It is a useful next step for anyone who buys a first wok and wants a structured way to practice.

Inside, you see the full range of people who need a wok: newcomers buying a starter pan, seasoned home cooks replacing a warped one, and chefs picking up a cleaver. The shop's own wording for its audience is wok newbies and more advanced wokkers, and the catalog is written for both. A short video on seasoning sits on the store's homepage, which is worth watching before you light the burner at home.

Head south on Grant Avenue for a few blocks to reach the Dragon Gate at Bush Street, the green-tiled entrance to Chinatown and the easiest landmark for meeting friends. On the way you pass Old St. Mary's Cathedral at the corner of California Street, where the California Street cable car line clangs past. The cathedral's brick tower makes a good photo stop before you double back toward the shop.

North of the shop, Portsmouth Square opens up between Clay and Washington Streets, with older residents playing cards and Chinese chess at the tables. From there, Ross Alley runs between Washington and Jackson Streets and holds the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory, where cookies are folded by hand. The Chinatown–Rose Pak station on Stockton Street, served by the Central Subway T line, is the quickest rail connection back to Union Square.

Address: 718 Grant Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94108, between Sacramento and Clay Streets in Chinatown. Hours: open seven days a week, 11 am to 5 pm. Prices from the shop's online catalog: 10-inch wooden handle carbon steel wok $35, 14-inch carbon steel wok set $90, wok ring $2.95. No reservations or appointments are needed. Buy flaxseed oil if you plan to oven-season.