House of Nanking
Saturday, April 29, 2006
The most overrated restaurant in SF that I know of. This place is sooo famous, people come from all over the place to eat here. There is always a line out the door. Everyone seems to love how the owner guy likes to step in and do the ordering for you. Heck, I love that kind of thing too... when the food is actually good. But inevitably, he'll stick you with House of Nanking Beef, with is pretty much the same as typical orange beef, but maybe they fry it a few more times? I don't know. It's really not that good though. Yeah, a few things I've had here take the place above your average Chinatown dive, but I can't fathom the legendary status. And I've eaten here enough times that I'm not going off on one meal or one dish that was a fluke. So much is greezy fried and for me, the good stuff in Chinese has fresh ingredients and flavor and that's just not happening here. Like for instance, what they serve right next store at my favorite Chinese restaurant in the WHOLE world (China excluded)… CHEF JIA's!!! Oh, I will add, they serve the most screwed up tea at Nanking. It comes in a really big plastic cup and it's hot water with tons of little sticks and leaves floating in it. I've never seen anything like it at any other restaurant because most people take the loose sticks and leaves out of tea so you can drink it. But not at Nanking. Their undrinkable tea is so bizarre I'd almost like it if they didn't put so much sugar in it… ugh… now, go eat at Chef Jia's...