about butterfly
Chef/Owner: Robert Lam, named 1 of 6 “Rising Star Chefs” by the San Francisco Chronicle. The food staff of the Chronicle has confidence that he will become a “national star" chef, shaking up culinary expectations and setting trends across the country.
After 3 years of success on Mission Street, butterfly restaurant moved to its current location on Pier 33 in the Fall of 2003. butterfly’s 5,000 sq. ft. dining room has floor-to-ceiling windows, offering dramatic views of San Francisco Bay. The open kitchen offers exciting views of Chef Lam in action.
Butterfly Restaurant offers reasonably-priced innovative dishes from various Asian cuisines.
Chef/Owner Robert Lam is committed to supporting San Francisco’s diverse and innovative artist communities. As part of that commitment, art works by local artists grace the walls of butterfly.
about Chef Rob Lam
Robert Lam, Vietnam-born model student-turned-chef, calls what he does "Asian within Asian," pulling from Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, Japanese and Korean traditions. He traces his devotion to true flavors to his mother, who opened a Vietnamese restaurant, Vien Dong, just outside Los Angeles when the family landed in Southern California after the fall of Saigon.
After graduating from the University of San Francisco with a degree in American History, Lam headed straight for New York and the Culinary Institute of America.
Moving back to the West Coast after graduation, he cooked to high praise at Brannan’s Grill in Calistoga. When Butterfly came up for sale, Lam decided to "swim in the big pond," and bought it. The dream that was stoked in his mother’s kitchen, the skills he learned there, its hibernation while he was in college, the hunger he found at culinary school and the streak of rebellion that informed it all have found wings at Butterfly.
Yet everything still harks back to his upbringing.
"Someday," he says, "I’m going to reopen my mother's restaurant here."
-excerpt from the San Francisco Chronicle