Taisan Huakee restaurant 利桦饭店 — Restaurant in San Francisco

Went here on a Thursday night in December. It was kind of empty, underrated imo!! Just my family and another table. We ordered 3 clay pots from the taishan clay pot list (I think it's the first page) #1, #3, #13. Should be the taishan yellow eel, spare rib & Chinese sausage, and braised beef. For veggies we ordered pea sprouts (? dow mew in canto) and bittermelon. Our meal came with complimentary seaweed soup.

Spare rib & Chinese sausage clay pot rice was SCRUMPTIOUS! Though I may be biased since I just like those flavors more lol Yellow eel comes in second. There were plenty and long pieces of the eel. Braised beef was ok at best. Would not order that again. Just don't prefer it in that format, i.e., prepared differently I would probably enjoy it. Not a knock on the restaurant/chef at all. The veggies were good. I do remember the bittermelon having that wok hey to it.

And with all claypot, expect there to be a wait. I feel like maybe we waited 20 mins? They came out faster after the first one.

Also the crispy "burnt" rice was excellent... Just the right amount of crunch. They will pour soup into it afterwards if you request it.

Lastly, I will say I think they are very underpriced compared to some other claypot restaurants I've been to. And also just SF in 2023. We were a family of 4 and after tip was probably close to $100.

Based on my experience, I would definitely come here again. I'd like to try...

I rated this restaurant 5 stars about 5 months ago. I came here again last month. Their business is better than 5 months ago. But obviously this family is unable to handle the increased volume. Service is not good anymore. I am charging my rating to one star. My original review follows:

Yesterday was July 4th. I was trying to get Japanese food from Bento Peak which is cross street. Unfortunately Bento didn’t open so I came to this place. I made the right decision.

This is a family own restaurant and they just took the ownership a few months ago from the old owner. It was a northeast Chinese restaurant before the ownership change and rebrand.

I definitely like the current Taishan style better. The owner’s wife is friendly and gave me information about which vegetables are fresh at that day.

Highly recommend everyone to give it a try to support local businesses.

On the menu, it lists beer. But actually it doesn’t have. They don’t have...

So delicious! Definitely one of the best Chinese spots in all of SF. It’s super underrated and every time I’ve been it’s been very empty, and I just cannot understand why. The Mapo Tofu is out of this world - spicy, cilantro-y, tangy, and savory. The green beans were done perfectly, and clay pot rice is so reasonably priced and crackly at the edges. All together a must visit! I will certainly be coming back much more in the future 🥰🥰 The service is kind and sweet and it seems to be staffed by a family, but English is not their first language. Regardless they were lovely and very helpful. The prices are insane. For huge portions, each dish is only in 10-15$ range, which is fantastic given that each dish can easily feed 2 and more. We ordered 3 things between 2 people, and the leftovers are more than enough...