Spices — Restaurant in San Francisco

An absolute favorite for Chinese in SF. If you like spice, this place is an absolute gem. The dishes are mostly Sichuan with some Hunanese.

The Mapo Tofu is a must. The tofu is soft and velvety and provides a cooling effect to the chili broth that is enriched with numbing Sichuan peppercorns. The addition of pork adds some great texture. This is always one of the spiciest dishes whenever I order.

Chicken wings are incredible. Cut into small pieces for maximum crunch. Dry battered in a bed of sauteed, dried red chilies with some stems of cilantro. The wings provide a bit of heat with a dusting of Sichuan peppercorns for a bit of numbing effect. They are highly additive and a great value for the price.

Pickled long beans with pork is another favorite. When we ordered this, we were looking for a vegetable heavy dish that was spicy and hearty. What an absolute treat! The long beans are cut small and have a slightly sour pickle, so the texture is really crunchy. The pork compliments the pop of the fresh greens really well. The fresh spicy, green peppers sauteed into the dish compliment the dish perfectly. Sour, spicy, and fresh. Apparently, this is a classic Hunanese dish.

Lamb, beef, or fish in flaming red chili oil is perfect for spice lovers. Personally, I prefer the flavor of the fish with the broth is comes in the best, but my partner really enjoyed the lamb. The broth is rich and spicy with a mix of chili flakes and chili oil. The dishes also include some cabbage and small pieces of bok choy. The portion size is generous.

As far as noodles go, I prefer the chow fun over the chow mein. Both seem to incorporate chili oil to achieve the level of spice promised and IMO the thick rice noodle handles the additional oil better. It also keeps a better texture. Though tbh, it's a minor preference to me. I often rotate between ordering the chow mein, beef chow fun, or the combination fried rice.

So many other fantastic dishes oj the menu, but these have been our...

This is one busy place and for spicy food lovers. Parking around this area was not as bad as Geary Blvd, but it will require some patience. We came here around 6PM and it had a few tables seated but within 15 minutes, the restaurant was packed!

Staff here was plentiful but they were slow in getting out drinks, especially their beer on tap, tea and sodas. Their menu is pretty extensive but their three different spice levels all the right notes. For those that have a mild spice taste, you can have them adjust the spice level.

We started with the spicy cucumber salad (1 Chili) to warm up our taste buds. If you can stand it, go for their slat and pepper stinky tofu (2 Chili's) but be forewarned this is an acquired taste and smell as it is very pungent. Their beef wrap is something you can skip. Their stir fried green beans was very good but some were a bit tender and shouldn't have been served. Another favorite is their stir fried lotus root (3 Chili's) that had good taste but would have been better with a bowl of rice to balance the saltiness. The pork knuckle (1 Chili) was another dish worth trying but would be great with a bowl of rice. We also tried one of their huge casserole type but note that it doesn't come with noodles as the menu picture depict. If you have a group of people to share, this would be a good option but you can skip it and stick with the other items on their menu. Their steamed garlic shrimp with vermicelli was a bit on the salty side but it added some flavor to the vermicelli. The eggplant was also a taste bud opener and goes great with the IPA.

This restaurants holds seats over 60 people, yet only have one gender neutral restroom (in my opinion I think they should have some guidelines. For example for every 15 customers there needs to be...

Kind of expensive for what you're getting but pretty delicious. The worst part is that since it is often so dead inside(likely due to location?) You often can hear the shrill cries of the staff, arguing, debating and waxing poetic on what meal they'll share to eat in that moment. Maybe they'll even forget your drinks because they own lunch is a more pressing matter. But, at least the food is relatively tasty. Not $50 I'd spend again but not an experience I regret. Definitely recommend if what you're looking for is averagely spiced Chinese food dressed up as super spicy fancy...