Topic: Empress Of China

A visit to the Empress of China restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown is recounted, highlighting the "tourist trap" nature of the classic establishment. The planning of the dinner was complicated by the Nokia T9 predictive text system on a Symbian phone, which erroneously changed "Empress" to "Express" and "funky" to "funky" in text messages.

Dvorak proposes visiting the Empress of China, a classic but faded restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown, for a future review. He describes the venue as a semi-decadent landmark located on the 10th floor of a building overlooking the district. The hosts discuss the merits of reviewing such locations for listeners who frequent the city, contrasting it with the high-end entrepreneurial dinners Dvorak usually attends with figures like Dan Farber.

Dvorak shares an anecdote about a flight attendant in Brazil ordering him to close his laptop while the plane was still parked at the gate. The conversation is briefly interrupted by a phone call for Dvorak regarding a dinner reservation. The hosts confirm they will be dining at Chapeau in San Francisco later that evening, having secured a 6:00 PM seating following a cancellation.