House Of Xian Dumpling — Restaurant in San Francisco

Me and boyfriend went here last year on our trip to San Francisco! And this was our FAVOURITE CHINESE RESTAURANT IN SAN FRAN.

We think about this place at-least every 2 weeks! Wishing we could have this everyday.

Some of the other Chinese restaurants can get pretty pricy. We ordered the boiled chive and shrimp dumplings, boiled chive and lamb dumplings, spicy beef noodle soup, spicy fish noodle soup, beef and broccoli, and Shrimp chowmein. All of this being like $100… which is crazy good. We had so much leftover to take home!

The quality was impeccable, they make their own dumplings and noodles and you can taste it! Everything is so simple, but done so freakin well. Even the beef and broccoli was literally the best beef and broccoli I’ve ever had. Same thing with the shrimp chowmein, hands down the BEST Chinese stir fry noodles I’ve ever had - in all of san Fran and Toronto. You really taste the smoky wok hey flavour. And the freshness of the noodles. My favourite dish we had there!

The dumplings were fire, who knew simple boiled dumplings could taste so damn good? Unfortunately my boyfriend cannot eat pork! And if you know you know pork in dumplings and wonton just bring it up to another level. But eatting these dumplings I didn’t miss the pork at all!

And the soup, it was so comforting. Bouncy noodles, not holding back on the protein portion. And actual spice in the soup! Szechuan chilli style, but balanced so well that you could taste the flavour of the broth not just Szechuan chilli’s.

You cannot go wrong with this place! So I suggest you try it! It’s literally the sweetest old man and his other cook, cooking for the whole restaurant. Busting their ass off. And giving quality food to each table. Just makes the place all the better.

I remember the first time we were here. We overheard a group of Caucasian men eatting the fried rice and saying “see I told you this place is the best Chinese restaurant here”. You know this shits good when not just Asian people are here praising it.

I’m Chinese and I’ve been eatting Chinese food every single day of my life! And I’m telling you, this is the best Chinese food I’ve ever had. Bonus is the affordable pricing.

I truly wish y’all try this amazing food and support the sweetest hard...

Dan Dan Noodles ingredients: roasted peanut, chili oil, peanut oil, shredded pork, bok joy on the semi spicy side which was perfect for my boyfriend - he rated it barely a 2/5 spicy level - it’s enough to tingle your mouth a little but not enough to be dangerous wish it had more meat and peanuts but still a really solid dish would opt for the dumplings in future visits

soup dumplings (8) THE BEST! let me preface that we came here starving after badly timed public transit and i was so down bad that i forgot to take a photo!!! so sorry but trust these hit the spot so good im gonna dream about these soup dumplings. they’re not reinventing the wheel by any means but 100% get them if you stop by

chili oil wontons (9) if you’re a chili oil lover i have the perfect dish for you hehe the flavor of these heavily relies on the chili oil for the punch and the inside broth is also amazing. personally i preferred the soup dumplings over these but my bf would opt for these! it’s up to preference but a really good staple for the dumpling side of the menu!

service: 1/5 - every single person that came in (including us) struggled to know if we seat ourselves or if we stop at the front for a table. they were understaffed and had one person taking orders so we sat ourselves and had to flag down the waitress to take our order and ask for waters. once ordering we got the food as it was prepared which was ok since we were sharing everything but I could see how that would be slightly inconveniencing if you were getting individual meals for a group. overall just expect to spend some time here you won’t be in and out and will have to be brave and ask for things as you need them.

atmosphere: 3/5 - not much seating and kitchen half spills into the dining area in a fun way. they have bathrooms in the back which is always nice in SF. i honestly loved the vibe very nice and felt like it was energetic in the restaurant

food: 5/5 - everything we got was delicious and tasted as expected. overall a very nice meal for a rainy day. we will 100% be back!

price: 3/5 - you get what you pay for, just expect SF prices to be a bit more expensive than you might be used to. I do think it’s slightly overpriced, but again that’s the...

My boyfriend from Hong Kong always said (Rule 1) that the best Chinese restaurants concentrate on their food, not their décor ... this place is the epitome of that rule. I had 2 out of town university administrators that I wanted to impress so this was the first place that I suggested. We had the Shanghai soup dumplings (xiao long bao), dan dan noodles, steamed lamb dumplings, spicy wontons in chili oil, and pan fried potstickers. Everything was excellent! (Rule 2) The food in a great Chinese place will come out in no particular order and definitely not all at once (like in most Western restaurants). Plates arrived little by little over a period of about 15 minutes - this was ideal, really, since nothing got cold. Only one guy was handling the whole place so it took us a minute to get our tea, but I'm certainly not complaining. (Rule 3) A good Chinese restaurant will have mainly Chinese customers - while this rule is problematic for several reasons, it did make my visitors from the flyover states impressed that we were the only ones in the place not speaking Chinese. When a couple of tourists entered later on and started chatting with us, I asked them how they decided on this place. They said "it's pouring down rain and we just said why not. " We told them that our meal was beyond delicious and they thanked us for the recommendation. The restaurant next door always has more customers, but I'll never understand why - I've tried both, but House of Xian is the clear...