Spices 3 辣妹子 — Restaurant in Oakland

4 stars for taste but three stars overall due to the following negatives. This review is based on ordering having tried several dishes, including the ma po tofu, orange beef, and mongolian beef.

The good - taste is good, nearly spot-on to what we had in Shanghai in restaurants that featured similar spicy dishes. However, a big negative is way too much oil is used in making these dishes, even after we had asked for less oil. There was about 1/4 inch of oil floating on top of the dish, every dish. This is not surprising since this is how a lot of food is like when we ate in Shanghai, and the chef here probably won't adjust his cooking (how much oil goes into a dish) simply because someone makes that request.

In addition, the menu is not very clear in describing dishes. For example, we ordered the orange beef, thinking that the beef would be wok fried/saute. When it came out, it was obvious the beef had been deep fried, then saute in the sauce. This is not very appetizing, and adds a lot of unnecessary fat and calories to the dish. Moreover, there was barely a taste of orange flavor/scent in the dish. We would not order this one again.

Besides being too oily (which you might be able to spoon out or avoid), the ma po tofu was very flavorful and we would order again, however, we're not sure we would visit again knowing that everything that comes out of the kitchen will be swimming in a pool of oil or red...

I have always liked Spices 3. I always get their Salt and Pepper Stinky Bean Curd. Up until my last visit 2 weeks ago, everything had been very very good. So the last time I was there the stinky tofu was unacceptable quality - 1) It didn't smell right soon as I got to my car. 2) When I got home and opened the box, it didn't look right : some of the tofu were brown and looked stale 3) Eating it confirmed some of the tofu was indeed stale- a lot of the pieces were very soggy.

I called to let the restaurant know and was told that their usual chef left and went out of the country. I explained the whole situation and the gentleman was professional in handling it. He asked what I would like to happen. I did say that if a new batch was to be made, I want to make sure that the tofu is NOT STALE. He then just offered to give me a full refund for the bad dish as he said it was how this 'current' chef prepares it so it may end up the same way. (The tofu was not stale he said. But I know what fresh and stale is.) I don't think I'll be back anytime soon which makes me feel sad because this was a favorite of mine to go to when I'm craving Szechuan and for...

I had lunch here today. The food was incredible. I like spicy food. Their ratings go from one pepper (spicy) to three peppers (EXTREMELY SPICY). My friend and I ate family style. I had the sizzling chicken. It was one pepper and very spicy with jalapenos and red pepper. He had the twice cooked bacon which was two peppers. No discernible difference between the two, but both were very spicy. The taste of the food was great. And the sizzling chicken came out in foil over an iron skillet. I burned my finger and the roof of my mouth. Be careful! Someone else told me that they had the pork intestine and it was great. The food was awesome and I'll be back.

The service was good and the food came out very quickly. We had to ask for water a couple times and they were out of watermelon water - oh well.

A couple downsides are that the place has very little going for it in the way of decor. I like the cute logo, but once you're inside it's like every other Chinese restaurant in Oakland. The second is that...