SoHoMei — Restaurant in San Francisco

tl;dr: I normally don't write poor reviews, but I almost died from eating food at this restaurant. When I went back to the restaurant after to discuss, they did not believe me and take me seriously.

I have a peanut allergy. I asked if the laksa could be made without peanuts, and since the waiter said yes, I ordered it. When I first started eating the laksa, I thought I sensed some peanuts, so I asked the waiter again if there are peanuts and he reassured me that there were none. However, soon after, my airways started to close, I developed nausea, and hives. I went to the hospital where they treated me for my allergic reaction.

After going back to the restaurant, they did not believe me that their dish had peanuts and that they were not at fault. They were adamant about this. They asked me why I did not come back to the restaurant earlier (I went back to complain 6 days after the incident). Well, the delay was because I work full time, and when I went back 4 days after the incident they closed earlier than what their hours on Google and their door state. The real question is, why is this even relevant to the story? I have pictures of proof that I ate the laksa. Second, I showed them articles where restaurants have been criminally charged for feeding their customers food that customers specifically told the restaurants they are allergic to. The restaurant's response to the articles was that these were not from the US. Again, not really relevant to the story. Lastly, the restaurant would not compensate me in anyway unless I showed proof that I was at the hospital for eating their laksa. I have proof that I was at the hospital and that I ate their laksa, but this was not good enough for them. The time and cost of traveling back to the hospital to obtain further evidence is not even close to the value of the $15 laksa I had.

The issue I have with the restaurant's reaction to this incident is that the safety of their customers was not their primary concern. Rather, it was rejecting my story. Overall, I want the restaurant to take allergies more seriously, and for customers to be extremely cautious at...

In trying to find another new spot to try I came upon this new place in the Sunset. I recall this location previously being a pho joint but now SoHoMei has taken over. I think the name made me chuckle so it was worth a try! “Ho Mei” means tastes good so according to my Chinglish (Chinese-English) the name (to me) means tastes so good! 🤪

The menu looks pretty simple but because of the offerings I was confused as to the exact style of the cuisine! Was it Cantonese, Chiu Chow, Malaysian, all three?!!!? I still don’t know! But one thing I do know, is the food was pretty tasty. We ordered the oyster pancake, beef rice roll, fried rice and chicken porridge. I liked the oyster pancake except for the post that I but I to that had a gelatinous texture that made me think the mixture may not have been well-mixed! The fried rice was a hit with us - I mean c’mon it’s got spam - so we killed off a lot of it. I wanted to point out that the fried rice is topped with dried shredded pork so it adds a little sweetness to the salty spam and Chinese sausage. We also liked the different beef rice roll texture that is not your run of the mill dim sum style but tastes really good after marinating in the sweet soy on the bottom. And finally, the chicken porridge is the other dish we had which is super tasty but the chicken meat comes bone-in so be careful eating it. One of my table mates commented that he would have preferred it being boneless. The bill (I included a pic) was $65.50. Im a little torn about paying $0.50 per to go box since the place down the block charges $0.25. The extra $1.50 charge bugged me a little since I really didn’t know how much food to order and the portion size. Be forewarned that if you don’t want to pay the $0.50 per container - bring your own! Also, if you pay cash, you get a 5% discount that covers you container fee! 😬

And finally I didn’t have the desert dry mouth later that evening that comes with MSG overload so I took that as a...

This place has quickly become one of our go-to's for breakfast/brunch. I love the way they make their congee - it's on the thicker side without starchy additives. I particularly enjoy their fish filet and beef porridge varieties. We also always order it with one of their Chinese donut varieties. I personally like the ox tongue bread because it's a little sweet and very bready - perfect for soaking in the congee. The traditional Chinese donut is also good though - they always manage to keep it crispy on the outside and bready on the inside. Most places, these days, over fry it.

Our other favorite dish here is the bahn mi which is still relatively cheap at sub-$6. Mom and I, in particular, love the tofu and pate variety. The tofu here is deep fried which makes a big difference compared to other places that serve firm tofu just pan fried. Their bahn mi does contain the majority of traditional fixins, but for some reason they omit cilantro. I think bahn mi without it is missing that extra bite of freshness.

Other dishes we've tried here haven't quite hit the spot from the garlic noodles and chicken (chicken had good lemongrass flavor, but garlic noodles wasn't garlicky enough) to their seafood tossed rice noodles (noodles were all broken) to their steamed rice noodle dishes (noodles are wayyy too thin). I do see quite a few people order wonton noodles here though so I'll definitely have to check it out some day - it's one of my favorite...