A Toast to Tasting Menus, Biology, and Bologna with Brandon Jew from Mister Jiu's

Mister Jiu’s is a Michelin-starred contemporary Chinese American restaurant owned by James Beard award-winning Chef Brandon Jew. Located in San Francisco’s Chinatown, Mister Jiu’s brings the spirit and excitement of banquet-style parties through a seasonal and locally sourced tasting menu. 

At Toast, we create technology to help restaurants thrive. We also know it takes a team of hardworking people from front to back of house to power great hospitality experiences every day. The “Toast to…” series salutes those individuals and gets to the heart of what makes this industry so special. We sat down with Brandon Jew to talk about his journey to Chinese cuisine, his passion for experiential dining, and his search for balance.

So that’s what I did. I moved to Italy and I cooked there for about a year and a half, mostly in Bologna, [Italy] at a one Michelin star restaurant.

Let’s talk about your restaurant, Mr. Jiu’s. How did you land on the menu structure?

Mister Jiu’s has been around for about 9 years now. This restaurant is a real passion project and represents the accumulation of my training, and also my desire to commit my career to Chinese cuisine. 

Having a tasting menu makes the restaurant feel much more experiential. One of the most special parts about Mister Jiu’s is the dining room—the view into Chinatown, the backdrop of downtown San Francisco, the history of the building, and all that has come before us in this space. There’s no other place like it. People sometimes ask me if I’d consider opening a second location in Los Angeles or New York. But I really feel like the dining room of Mister Jiu’s is what makes it all particularly memorable, special, and impactful. We had to make the experience of eating here match the surroundings. 

For our tasting menu, we select the very best things of the season, what we are inspired by, and ingredients that speak to us. The tasting menu gives us the time and space to tell a story and really showcase the Chinese techniques. Guests may know what a beurre blanc and a béchamel are, but to talk through what’s more specific to Chinese cuisine, I felt like we needed more time at the table to be able to explain and showcase that fully.The dining room at Mister Jiu's

Do you have a favorite menu item? 

That’s a hard question for me because everything is a work in progress. I’m constantly thinking about how to make every dish better. No dish is more special than another dish. I feel like everything should be my favorite, or at least that’s what I’m inspired to do.

What does an average day look like for you? 

My days aren’t super consistent. I generally wake up around 7:30 a.m, start reading my emails, take a peek at the news, and have breakfast and a cup of coffee. My days ramp up quickly so I spend time with my kids in the morning and then take my son to school. 

After that, I check in with my front-of-house and back-of-house managers, and my scheduled meetings start around 12 p.m. I always make sure to ask my staff how I can support them, while also giving them guidance and direction. After meetings, I start gearing up for service. We line up the front-of-house team around 4:30—Mister Jiu’s opens at 5 p.m.—and talk through any outstanding food or service-related things for the night. Mister Jiu’s closes at 10 p.m. most days, but I don’t head out until 11:30 p.m. or midnight. Once I get home, it takes me a good 30 minutes to unwind. 

That’s what an average day at Mister Jiu’s looks like for me, but I spend one day a week at my fast-casual concept Mamahuhu. When I’m there I do a lot of R&D work and tasting, and then I go to [the] farmer’s markets two days a week as well.

What’s the hardest part of your job? And what’s the most rewarding? 

Since the pandemic, I’ve been searching for stability and trying to find balance. That’s the hardest part. We’re still working on it, and still hoping that the density of diners will be there to support us. It’s been a little bit slower than we hoped, and enduring takes a lot of perseverance. The most rewarding part is the mentorship and seeing my staff develop. A couple of my previous sous chefs have gone on to open their own restaurants, and it’s very rewarding to see them grow into and pursue their own concepts. 

How do you use technology at work? 

I love the end-of-night reports that Toast offers. It’s pretty standard for restaurants to have a manager write a night log at the end of the shift, so having it built into the numbers of the night, it makes it easy to cross-reference what a manager is talking about with sales and labor. 

What advice do you have for other restaurant owners or chefs, or those looking to start a career in your field? 

Be goal-oriented, find good mentors, and learn from people who inspire you. There are so many parts of this industry that will require tons of perseverance when things get tough. When a door closes, be persistent in terms of what you want for your next role or your next step. When it comes to training, work to refine your skills to a point that you’re comfortable and able to teach these skills to a team. 

At Toast, it’s our mission to help restaurants thrive — what does “thriving” mean to you? What does a thriving restaurant look like? 

A thriving restaurant is where everybody is feeling really inspired and the energy of the restaurant has a healthy competition. To me, thriving means you’re trying to make improvements every day. 

Who in the industry would you like to toast? 

I’d like to raise a toast to my wife! She does so much to contribute to a healthy culture in the restaurant, and generally does a lot that people don’t see. People see me as the chef and the owner, but she also owns the restaurants with me, and this project is something we did together. She doesn’t always get the same gratitude or recognition that I do, but she’s very involved. 

What are you Toast-ing with today? 

I am toasting with green juice today! I don’t normally drink green juices, not because I don’t want to, but because I’d rather eat my vegetables than drink them. But, I’m trying to get in as many vegetables as I possibly can!

This interview was edited for space and clarity. 

Brandon Jew is the Owner and Executive Chef at Mister Jiu’s. To learn more about the restaurant or to book a table, you can visit their website, or follow them on Instagram.