Mission Chinese Food

Ordered take-out from MCF last weekend and just had the leftovers for lunch, so I figured I'd weigh in.

Cold Dishes

Tiger Salad - These were salad rolls, wrapped in a wide rice noodle (not a clear, Vietnamese rice paper wrap). They came with a very spicy dipping sauce. The dipping sauce was overwhelmingly firey, and the rolls on their own were bland, consisting of undressed lettuce and...+READ Ordered take-out from MCF last weekend and just had the leftovers for lunch, so I figured I'd weigh in.

Cold Dishes

Tiger Salad - These were salad rolls, wrapped in a wide rice noodle (not a clear, Vietnamese rice paper wrap). They came with a very spicy dipping sauce. The dipping sauce was overwhelmingly firey, and the rolls on their own were bland, consisting of undressed lettuce and herbs.

"Mouth Watering" Chicken - Another quite spicy dish, with cold, poached chicken breast and chicken hearts. I was surprised at the pleasant texture of the chicken hearts, which were tender and almost a little crunchy. Not my cup of tea in general, but, I can understand the appeal.

Hot Dishes -

Hainam Chicken Rice - This was tasty, a dish I would order again. Tasted almost vinegary (from the Shaoxing wine?), with lots of richness from chicken fat and stock. There were small pieces of meat throughout, but it was mostly rice.

Westlake Rice Porridge - A flavorful, comforting bowl of soup-y porridge. A bit redundant for us to have ordered this as well as the chicken rice, but we did enjoy both. The big sprigs of cilantro and slivers of ginger add nice, fresh notes to the otherwise mellow bowl of porridge.

Broccoli Beef Cheek - The favorite of the night. This came with a generous portion of flavorful braised beef cheek, along with two perfectly poached, plump oysters. The broccoli was actually gai lan, a.k.a. Chinese broccoli, stir-fried to tenderness. Such a great and unexpected take on broccoli beef.

Wild Pepper Leaves - This dish was blindingly spicy. I am baffled as to why it doesn't have the "spicy" icon next to it on the menu. The pumpkin and tofu were very thinly sliced, completely absorbing the incendiary "salted chili broth." I did enjoy the wild pepper leaves themselves, a tasty, tender green I hadn't tried before.-COLLAPSE / REPLY (16 Replies) (by operagirl, created December 5, 2011)

»Mission Chinese Food Needs Lessons On Good Chinese Food

It baffles me how Mission Chinese Food continues to rank among the best, not only in the Bay Area, but also throughout the country. I have traveled all over China, Asia, north America for the past 30 years...and have eatened plenty of wonderful foods. MCF pales and makes a mokery of authentic Chinese cuisine...especially Sichuan foods. There's a huge disconnect between the American palate and...+READ It baffles me how Mission Chinese Food continues to rank among the best, not only in the Bay Area, but also throughout the country. I have traveled all over China, Asia, north America for the past 30 years...and have eatened plenty of wonderful foods. MCF pales and makes a mokery of authentic Chinese cuisine...especially Sichuan foods. There's a huge disconnect between the American palate and true Chinese tastes. There're at least a couple of dozen great Chinese restaurants in the San Francisco area that offer much more better cuisine than MCF.-COLLAPSE (by al Z., created November 7, 2011)

»Bauer's Mission Chinese Rave????

Anybody else find Bauer's Mission Chinese rave perplexing?

I ordered nine dishes delivered from Mission Chinese, back before Christmas, and while they were universally interesting and well executed--raising great hopes as we spread this feast across our dinner table--they were also universally inedible, due to a wildly out of control spice level, in every single dish. Nine dishes represents a...+READ Anybody else find Bauer's Mission Chinese rave perplexing?

I ordered nine dishes delivered from Mission Chinese, back before Christmas, and while they were universally interesting and well executed--raising great hopes as we spread this feast across our dinner table--they were also universally inedible, due to a wildly out of control spice level, in every single dish. Nine dishes represents a pretty substantial portion of their small menu; I'd asked specifically for a few dishes that weren't spicy, so my kids might find something to eat; I'm not a high-spice guy myself, but I'm no spice-wuss, either, routinely dousing my fish tacos with habanero sauce, glugging Sriracha onto my eggs, and sprinkling red chile flakes into my greens; and yet we ended up throwing away nearly a hundred dollars worth of food. The entire order, no joke: five minutes into the meal, we conceded defeat in complete amazement and then shoveled it all into the garbage can. We've never done that with a single other meal, ever, from any take-out joint. So what gives? Does Bauer have an asbestos tongue? Or has Mission Chinese perhaps toned it down, in the past 3 months?-COLLAPSE / REPLY (9 Replies) (by Daniel Duane, created March 8, 2011)

I think this place had a little bit of rough sailing the first week, but I went the other night and I was pretty thrilled with what I got.

General comments: they must be reading feedback. No chunks of ginger, LOTS of numbing pepper, generally pretty spicy, and I have a high tolerance for spice. I haven't been to Old Mandarin Islamic, but this was the spiciest Chinese I've ever eaten, including...+READ I think this place had a little bit of rough sailing the first week, but I went the other night and I was pretty thrilled with what I got.

General comments: they must be reading feedback. No chunks of ginger, LOTS of numbing pepper, generally pretty spicy, and I have a high tolerance for spice. I haven't been to Old Mandarin Islamic, but this was the spiciest Chinese I've ever eaten, including at Spices!! and Brandy Ho's.

Ma Po Tofu: shockingly numbing, more numbing than anything I've had at Spices. Also legitimately spicy and complexly seasoned. No chunks of raw ginger, though I would have eaten around them anyway. The quality and generous serving of the ground pork really added depth to this dish. Probably my favorite rendition ever, and I don't care if it's slightly inauthentic.

Braised lamb over fresh Shanghainese noodles: big wow, we thought about ordering another on the spot but already had too much food. The noodles come from some secret source down in Millbrae, and they had a slightly crinkly texture compared to what I'm used to buying as "fresh" Shanghainese style noodles in markets. Great broth, great noodles, a nice amount of numbing spicy and other seasonings. Slurping the broth off a spoon produced the most mind-bending burst of aromatic flavor that hit every surface of my mouth.

Chicken wings: another big wow that we considered ordering a second serving of right on the spot. Super moist and succulent with a crispy exterior, hidden in a mound of dried chili peppers. These weren't that spicy, but the texture was masterful. I suspect they slow-braise them, then somehow crisp the outside. The last wing was still crisp 20 minutes after they arrived at the table, so these would be great as takeout.

Cha siu pork belly with bitter melon: like others, I might have liked more bitter melon for the novelty factor, but the dish was overall very nicely balanced and delicious. This would travel very well.

Lung Shan Vegan Delight: I thought the filling and broth were tasty, the folded over won ton wrappers tough and uninteresting. I'd like to explore more of their menu and pay them a little attention, since it is their restaurant, but this didn't exactly inspire me. The entire Lung Shan menu is available.

One cheap rose sparkling wine is available, one or two types of beer. The $18 bottle of sparkling wasn't super duper, but the sweetness and bubbles worked well with the blistering seasoning in the dishes. Didn't ask about corkage or capage for beer.

Overall, this was a great meal. I am not well-versed on Szechuan or Hunanese food, so the balance of seasonings may have been slightly off, but I really liked this meal. They are using deeply flavored stocks to add depth of flavor here, and I didn't miss the MSG. I loved how spicy the dishes were that were supposed to be spicy, though next time I would limit myself to fewer of them to get a more well-rounded meal. I love that they use good meat. I love that they offer delivery. I'll definitely be back--probably within the week.

Servings sizes are very generous--I think we ordered a 5th dish, though I can't remember. Two big guys were hard-pressed to eat all the food, and we should have had much more rice to sop up the Ma Po tofu sauce. With the bottle of sparkling and a nice tip, it was $40 each, though we easily could have split this food among 4 people with a bit more rice.-COLLAPSE / REPLY (16 Replies) (by SteveG, created August 2, 2010)

I agree completely about the odd over use of sliced ginger. I love ginger, but prefer it to be tasted not seen. That way it can be constantly subtly there, instead of sharp bursts of it.

I really enjoyed the Beef Cheek dish. Than again, when eating on a budget it is hard to find beef cheeks so i was just happy to be able to be eating them. I am pretty sensitive to spice, so the beef cheek dish...+READ I agree completely about the odd over use of sliced ginger. I love ginger, but prefer it to be tasted not seen. That way it can be constantly subtly there, instead of sharp bursts of it.

I really enjoyed the Beef Cheek dish. Than again, when eating on a budget it is hard to find beef cheeks so i was just happy to be able to be eating them. I am pretty sensitive to spice, so the beef cheek dish was too spicy for me, but i still really liked the flavor. I did taste horseradish, it actually mellowed out the 2 kinds of hot peppers used and gave it a mildly sweet taste. (i did remove all the peppers, so i assume they over powered the horseradish otherwise).
We also tried the Duck Chinito. I think it would have been great if all the ingredients were still hot, but even eaten at the restaurant the dish was room temperature. This gave it kind of a funky aroma/taste. I definitely liked the concept, but would have enjoyed it with more duck meat and less crispy fat... which is better hot in my book.

As for the salt cod fried rice, I really liked the salt cod..... but i prefer less sweet chinese sausage. Or maybe a mix of more than one kind of sausage. i'm a big fan of the darker duck liver sausage, but i guess that would be too strong of a flavor.

The idea that Mission Chinese shares its space with an existing restaurant is pretty cool, but they could have cleaned it up a bit. Our table was pretty greasy and still had food crumbs on it. I'll be really curious to try the chicken dish and the lamb hot pot (minus most of the chili oil for me). And probably with more time under their belts things will run more smoothly. Less flustered waitresses who can't find where the spoons are kept.
I miss mission burger.-COLLAPSE / REPLY (16 Replies) (by kairo, created July 8, 2010)

»Mission Chinese Food report

Tonight I tried takeout from Mission Chinese Food, the brand new permanent restaurant in the old Lung Shan location, where the twice-weekly Mission Street Food used to be, after much chatter on Eater SF (http://sf.eater.com/archives/2010/07/02/mission_chinese_food.php) .
Mission Chinese Food continues the Mission Street Food style of a short menu, applied to traditional Chinese regional dishes...+READ Tonight I tried takeout from Mission Chinese Food, the brand new permanent restaurant in the old Lung Shan location, where the twice-weekly Mission Street Food used to be, after much chatter on Eater SF (http://sf.eater.com/archives/2010/07/02/mission_chinese_food.php) .
Mission Chinese Food continues the Mission Street Food style of a short menu, applied to traditional Chinese regional dishes and mash-ups. They opened on Monday and offer eat-in, take-out, and delivery. Picking up our dinner at 7 pm, only two tables in the restaurant were occupied. The menu is available at www.missionchinesefood.com .

We had five dishes, and I'll refer to the numbers on the website's menu. From my favorite on down:

Salt Cod Fried Rice (#6) -- though too much rice relative to everything else for my taste, I liked the balance of the salty fish and the sweet sausage, will enough egginess to pull the dish together. Perhaps a little dry, but quite flavorful. I did not like the spears of barely cooked ginger; more on this problem below.

Peking Duck Chinito (#1) -- a mash-up of Peking duck (duck, hoisin, cucumber) and the rice-noodle-wrapped donut snack, with the Peking duck stuffed into the donut. A noo-duck-nut? I liked the spicy-sweet hoisin and the rich duck, though the donut was too heavy to have in the same bite as duck. This would have been better immediately after prep rather than taken home and eaten 15 minutes later.

Braised Mongolian Beef Cheek (#5) -- the cheek lacked any textural integrity and was almost as slippery and formless as the chow fun noodles it came with. Perhaps roasting the cheeks before braising would have held them together better? Good beefy flavor with lots of collagen to create a lip-sticking sauce, though too salty. The menu promised fresh horseradish, which I didn't detect.

Baby Choy Sum (#8) with optional country ham. Clean, straightforward, dull. Would have been underseasoned without the optional ham.

Ma Po Tofu (#3) -- I wanted serious ma la, and the Eater SF interview promised "fiery". Really? The chili oil was minimally hot, with a weak Sichuan peppercorn or two thrown in. Many spears of undercooked ginger threw the dish off and overwhelmed the little chili heat and numbing spice there was. Quite disappointing.

Overall, our meal was OK. I'm glad to have fried rice left over, but not sure whether to eat or toss out the remaining half of ma po tofu. The meal was good value, with dishes in the $7-10 range and one per person sufficient for a meal. The Mission lacks good Chinese options, so it's a good neighborhood spot, but no reason to try it if Chinatown, the Richmond, the Sunset, or the Peninsula is closer. I'm puzzled by the aggressive use of ginger, and I wonder if the chef was so conscious of not making the dishes Americanized-Chinese-level sweet that in holding back on sugar they compensated with the sweet-spicy-heat of ginger instead. I think most dishes could have used more sugar to balance flavors, especially in the ma po tofu and braised beef cheeks.

2234 Mission Street, west side, just south of 18th
11 am - 10:30 pm every day
unsure about delivery area-COLLAPSE / REPLY (16 Replies) (by david kaplan, created July 7, 2010)