Mission Chinese Food

San Francisco, CA

There's been a huge following for Mission Chinese food from a local and national level. The critics say there are things done here that aren't being done anywhere else in the country. Exciting and unique. I've remained skeptical because I just don't like fusion food.  But Chu-Toro and I fell into the hype and felt we needed to give it a try. We arrived at a random time on a Saturday afternoon so we didn't have wait for a table.

Lion's head meatball, napa cabbage, shitake, snap pea, pork jus

We started off with the lion's head meatball, the most "traditional" Chinese dish that we ordered. It was good, but the meatball itself was a little dry and we both decided there wasn't anything earth shattering about the flavor provide that made the dish special. 

Cold Sesame Noodles, Almond milk, cucumber, tomato, chrysanthemum, fermented radish

The cold sesame noodles were served next, a beautiful presentation and refreshing plate. This dish was very useful after we received our next two spicy dishes but it wasn't that great either.

"Chinese BBQ" platter

The "Chinese BBQ" was not a Chinese dish at all, but something you would expect to get a BBQ joint. The platter consisted of smoked beef brisket, pork trotter, hot link, served with pickles, white bread and smoked cola BBQ sauce. The brisket was essentially thick cuts of tasty fat with a spicy cola BBQ sauce. The dish overall was good, but I'm still not sure it was really that special in my mind.

Spicy Chicken Wings

Our final dish were spicy chicken wings and as you can tell in the picture, they were well spiced. We've had spicier dishes like this during our visit to China, but this was pretty damn hot. The cold noodles helped cool our mouths, but we ended up taking this home and finishing it later with a cold beer. 

So, the verdict? Confused and unimpressive would have to be my honest conclusion. Chu-Toro has asked me a week later if we just ordered the wrong things. Maybe? Is it different? Absolutely, because it's not Chinese food. It's Asian food concepts contorted into something fresh and unique. Are the flavors something special? I don't think so. Everything we ate was solid to good, but nothing really made me want to return. Maybe we will one day if our other foodie friends get an itch to check it out, but I wouldn't make the trip back myself. If you're in the Mission and want some really awesome food, go next door to Commonwealth, one of our favorite meals from last year.

July 2nd, 2011

Rating 5.5/10