Spicy King — Restaurant in San Francisco

I had high hopes for Spicy King but sadly, it is all show, no substance. (With one exception.) If you want tasty Chinese food, do not bother.

Let's start with show. If I remember correctly, Spicy King entered San Francisco less than 10 years ago. Even though its street address is on Waverley, at the corner of Clay with a large sign, it is easily visible from Grant (53m/174ft), Stockton (91m/300ft),Sacramento (97m/317ft), and Washington (101m/332ft). The front windows feature several very large graphic panels depicting the presumed chef owner and awards he won in China. Its Chinese name, 麻辣一品 ("hot and numbing first class"), portrays a lot more premium than its English name. As a bonus, no obnoxious self-promotion is found inside, unlike another bad restaurant I reviewed. But wait till I taste their food.

The advertised flavor is Chongqing, the spicier brother among the Sichuan family. To test this out, we ordered three dishes: Mouth Watering Chicken (口水鸡), Bean Jello in Red Chili Sauce (川北凉粉), and Flaming Spicy Kidney (火爆腰花). Of these, flaming spicy kidney is a common Sichuan dish; bean jello is a Chongqing classic that we use to test authenticity of Chongqing places; and mouth watering chicken is another classic that is closer to Chongqing flavor.

The chicken came first. Taste was very good. Portion was descent, too. This raised our hopes. The bean jello, on the other hand, came as a bad shock. It did not have the definitive flavor. The black fermented beans in the sauce does not stick to the jello. The sauce was simply wrong, with so much oil the jelly was not even flavorful. Then, the spicy kidney also lacked flavor despite lots of spicy ingredients. The sauce was applied wrong. The onion slices were raw, which was not only wrong for this dish, it is wrong for any Chinese stir fry. (If you want authenticity, no. Onion or shallot is not a traditional ingredient in this dish - not in most Szechuan dishes.)

In short, it is a shame that a restaurant founded by a Chongqing chef - an award-winning one nonetheless, cannot even do Chongqing's signature bean jello right. And they butchered (not in the good sense) the really common flaming spicy kidney. Only mouth watering chicken was correctly made. One out of three is better than zero the other all-show-no-substance restaurant did. But I will still give them a failing grade. To be sure, influx of Sichuan-rooted chefs in the past decade have brought these dishes to the San Francisco Bay Area in their full flavor. Why would I want to return to this poor execution?

The restaurant has some elaborate decorations near the entrance. Other than that, the interior is relatively simple, keeping a premium look without being wasteful. Seating is spacier than typical...

Might be my new favorite Chinese place in SF!

I LOVED the decor inside — it felt like sitting in an outdoor courtyard somewhere in Imperial China, with tiled roofs peeking over tables, thatched lighting fixtures, and warm red pillars separating the dining areas. The vibe is perfect for both a catch up with friends and an intimate romantic night out.

The food was, in a word, killer. Bright, fresh, and spicy, this was everything I hoped it would be. The deluxe chicken came out with its own flame burner to keep it warm, which added warmth to the intoxicatingly spicy heat already there!

The sesame chicken was the perfect pairing for the spicy chicken, as the sweetness was a nice break in between bites of chili.

Mapo tofu is my personal favorite Chinese dish, and this place did a good job — the firm tofu and bright, thick sauce made it the perfect pair for some white rice. I do wish there was less ground pepper and more sichuan pepper (I was surprised to not experience any of the signature mouth-numbing effect of mapo tofu from a place called “Spicy King”).

The waiter came once to take our order and we never saw them again — it was a bit of a challenge to flag someone down when we wanted our bill, but otherwise everything flowed nicely.

I’m not kidding when I say this is going to be the new place I take visitors for dinner in Chinatown — the decor makes it unique and fun (without being kitschy) while the flavors seal the deal (for those really looking to impress guests, I’d recommend a nightcap one block down at the mysterious...

At 7 p.m. on Sunday, I made an appointment with my good friend to go to Spicy King in San Francisco for dinner together. Because I had eaten it before and it felt good, I recommended my friend to come with me. But this time, the experience was very, very bad. The dinner time was very busy, but from my waiting for the seat to before and after dinner, it was almost a small. At that time, and we still hurriedly finished eating and gave up our seats to the customers behind us. Because we only saw that a waiter was busy, many empty tables did not have time to clean up for the next batch of customers. We saw that a lot of meals were not delivered to the table in time. The waiter was only busy placing orders for customers... After we sat down, I had to wait for the waiter to place an order, and the water was waiting for a long time. During the meal, the paper towel was also ordered several times before it was delivered... The food was good and delicious, but the service was really the worst service I had ever seen... While waiting for the meal, I chatted with the next table, and they also said that such a big restaurant was so busy and it was the peak of eating. Why does only one waiter go to work?? I hope this comment can show the owner of this store that the food is well made and delicious .But don't forget the service aspect, I believe the boss should not be short of that...