Chili House SF

Easily one of the best Chinese meals I have had in a long time! The restaurant is in Richmond, but don’t expect too much by way of atmosphere on the inside — this is all about the food! I’m not much for spicy food, which some may think makes this place a waste to visit, but I ordered a mild satay beef which was perfect! Worth the visit!

Excellent hidden gem! We went here for lunch this past weekend and absolutely loved it. Food is excellent and service is quick. Must try the 1000 chili chicken which will blow your mind with the aftertaste. The boiled pork was delish as well.
I’m forgetting our server’s name but he was just too good. Took control and gave us excellent recommendations during the entire meal. He was also quick to act when a friend dropped some soup on her shirt by getting us hot water and a towel.
Must try!

I ate a bunch of spicy dishes here, cause how you gonna go to a place named Chili House and not? Wasn’t too spicy on the departure the next day, so I’m going to put this place at intermediate level in terms of spice.

This restaurant gave me my food with bugs in the bag and when I told them about they refused to do anything about it. I guess it was my fault, I was warned when I found them on Unilocal that they had a poor food safety score. I now see why!
I was so hungry too. [insert crying face]

Had a great lunch here around noon on a Friday & it wasn’t super crowded. We ordered a bunch of amazingly delicious entrees and left more than happy.
I’m sad to see that between eating here and the time that this review is posted there is a Consumer Alert in effect for: Poor Food Safety Score from Unilocal due to a recent inspection, where this facility received a food safety rating that is in the bottom 5% locally, and is categorized by inspectors as «poor.»
It kind of makes this review a moot point. However my iron stomach and I will proceed.
–Spicy Dumplings ($ 7.95 at time of review) — Really good. Really, really good. The presentation was super cute and the food was flavorful and filling.
–Beef Pancake (price varies due to market) — HANDS DOWN MY FAVORITE. I was surprised at how much I loved this dish. I am one of those genetically mutated individuals whose taste buds think that cilantro taste like soap. This dish however, was the first time I genuinely appreciated cilantro.
–Peking Duck– AMAZING! The best bet is to call ahead a few days and special order this so you’re not disappointed when they run out. The chef will come out and carve the duck for you. Then once the meat is served they take the rest of the duck in the back and deep fry the bones & leftovers and bring it back out for you. I’m not a huge fan of the fried bones but I know there are some people out there that love it.
–Ma Po Tofu ($ 4. 95 at time of review) — This was good. However due to the other food ordered this dish didn’t stick out as much as it would have if I wasn’t with a group and ordered it alone.
I’m sure that we had two other dishes but to be honest I think that I can’t remember what they’re called because they didn’t stick out to me as much. This is a fun place for a group to come to. There were 5 of us and our bill came out to about $ 35 a person.
Once Unilocal removes the Consumer Alert I’m sure I’ll be back. Until then I’ll be checking to see when it goes away!

Service was outstanding. We arrived ½ hour early and our 2 tables were ready for us. One table had more children than the other so we ordered more age appropriate dishes for each table. The skin on the Peking Duck was perfect… the meat was a little on the dry side and needed a little more seasoning. My favorite was the steam sea bass and the Szechuan fish with flaming chili oil. The basil clam was another good seafood dish.
My best comment is the service was 5 star for my party of 15 for mother’s day dinner.

The food was generally good, some of them could be very salty.
The service was horrible. There’s no hand soup, no toilet cover and no tissues. The waiters were always busy and impatient with no smile on their faces. We didn’t get ice water and rice until we almost finished.
Don’t think I will come again for we got so many other options.

I received an email stating they would like to give me a free lunch, but I am not the kind of person that is looking for a free meal…
I brought some friends to try this place again, hoping it would be better…
This place is the worst customer service ever… they don’t smile, walk by as if they didn’t hear your request, always say wait a minute without returning, just terrible… management needs some serious training…
The duck of course was great as usual, 3 stars for the food…
I didn’t know the big tables have an automatic 15% tip charge, which I normally tip 20 for decent service… but to pay 15% on the taxes added, I don’t think so…

Came in here at around 12:20pm, not a lot of people which is good. A waitress seated us and offered the menu right away.
We ordered there items.
First one is beef stew noodles, my wife picked it and she didn’t like it at all. The broth tastes awful.
I ordered «spicy boiled pork» which is good, but the «beef pancake» is a bit too salty and firm to bite.
Talking about the service, the waitress is nice and professional, but another guy server is kind of rude.
Maybe there are certain dishes that are really good here, but probably won’t come back since there tons of choices in SF.

We were initially drawn to Chili House’s promising looking XiaoLongBao. It turns out that they are a complete disappointment. While they look nice from the outside, there is no juice on the inside. We almost got 2 orders of it and we could barely finish 1.
We also decided to try the Peking Duck. Although we did not order in advance, they were able to bring out the duck after just half an hour. The chef who sliced the duck table side was very chatty with me.
The duck was served with authentic pancakes (not those silly buns) and scallions, cucumber, and sauce. We needed more people to eat a duck as the richness got to me by the end. Overall, it was a solid rendition, particularly for the Bay Area.

I’ve been coming here since they first opened, mostly for their lunch specials. At first my experiences have been good… large portions and relatively affordable. But the past 2 years or so things changed. Their menu changed and the service changed. A few of my favorites were no longer served. But the worse was their service. I think maybe a change in the ownership as the waitresses before were always better. Now with the current waiter and waitress I have to constantly remind them that soup is included in the lunch specials. You would think that they would know their menu by now.
I’ve just about given up on them and will take my business elsewhere. The food is ok but I think it was better when they first opened.

Never let the waitstaff pack leftovers for you. I had a whole plate of duck with meat left, as well as the salt&pepper duck plate — came home, and found the duck w/​meat wasn’t in the bag — that ruined my experience.

Food: 4.0÷5.0
Service: 2.5÷5.0
Value: 3.5÷5.0
Décor: 3.0÷5.0
Overall: 3.5÷5.0
Did not get to try the Peking duck but did get a sampling of the szechuanese stuff. The food is authentic and very good. Prices are a little high for the neighborhood but not high in the context of SF, and certainly not high compared to the sister restaurant Z&Y in FiDi Chinatown.

First thought when I entered the restaurant: There’s alot of people eating here. After waiting for a table with my family I realized that there are not alot of people eating here, but the fact that the employees here are very unattentive, slow, and that customers here were just like me-​first timers, trying the new wave out.
–Apparently, the peking duck cut in front of your table is a delicacy/​their speciality, but I thought that was a joke when I witness it myself. They don’t give you the whole duck, which makes me wonder what they do after they’re finished cutting slices for customers? Probably use it as scraps for their other dishes.
–This restaurant should not be called Chili House, but Pepper House. The majority of the spicy dishes just consist of a few pieces of meat and a load of peppers. I get it-​the theme of this restaurant is spicy, flaming, red. But, how about giving quality food on the dish since this is what we came to pay for?
–The prices here are expensive and I feel like we were paying for the overflowing peppers on the dish.
–Reservation/​seating is a hot mess. There are some customers who reserve a table instead of waiting. There are some customers who are even smarter. I witnessed a couple who wrote their name down on the waiting list, and went outside to their car to wait. Yeah how are the employees supposed to know you’re inside your car when they call for your name? The employee ended up crossing their name off the list, and when the couple came back to check for their name, they noticed that their name got crossed off. They then had to tell the employee that they got skipped. This whole situation wasted so much time, and caused a delay in seating other tables.
–Service was mediocre. There were some waiters who were just standing at the back of the restaurant watching.
The majority of food is just SPICY trying make your throat burn.

Tip: If you go for their famous peking duck, make sure you call to reserve your duck a day before!
I have been trying to find a restaurant who servers real authentic peking duck for years, not the ones served in Cantonese style restaurant, those ARE NOT real period! So one night while channel surfing I saw their ad playing on KTSF and decided to give a try. I have been to Chili house before and didn’t really like their food compared to the other location in Chinatown. We came on Chinese new year’s eve, place is packed but since we had a reservation we were sat down pretty quickly. Ordered bunch food and all of them taste pretty good. Peking duck is prepared at the table, the duck chef pushes the cart to your table, show you the whole duck, then he will carve it in front of you. Very authentic! just like the one you get in Beijing. Duck is very juicy and the flour pancake is home made, this is what you should eat the duck with, NOT with buns. You can choose what you want to do with the leftover, either have the chef make salt and pepper duck or soup. I would go with the soup but salt and pepper is good too.
I am not sure if they really hired a new chef or the chef really listened to the suggestions and improved but the food does taste better now compare to the last time I came. We will be back again more often now to try other beijing style dim sum.
One suggestion to the restaurant if you are reading the review, please do not add sesame oil (香油）into the sweet bean sauce （甜面酱） for the peking duck.

Came here for the Beijing Duck and man, it really hit the spot.
The menu is quite extensive but like the basic Chinese family, we ordered all the staples: Mapo Tofu, Shanghai Dumplings (XLB), and Beijing Duck… and everything was super delicious. The duck comes with the wraps, sauce, and cucumbers, etc for you to eat to your hearts content! Also they cut the duck right in front of you which was kind of fun haha.
The only reason I docked a star was the service was pretty slow/​bad as it is at a lot of Chinese restaurants. We were seated in a little corner and it took so long to flag down a waiter every time we needed something. But the food was sooooo good would definitely come again.

This place makes the BEST spicy wontons but it’s a bad idea if you plan to go out after dinner if you know what I mean… Worth it still if you do plan to ;). Everything I have tried here did not disappoint:
Mapo tofu
Xiao long bao
Sauteed green beans
I usually don’t deviate much from these items (because they are soooo good) but the last time I came here I saw a lot tables ordering the peking duck! Must be new because I came here many times and never saw it on the menu. The chef comes out to cut the duck in front of everyone so that was interesting to watch. Since there were only two of us, there was no way we were going to finish a whole duck! Maybe next time. Be prepared to wait on a Saturday night– it was about a 40 minute wait for two people!

Mediocre experience due to lack of service. Our particular waitress lacked the required facial muscles to smile. But her peers picked up what she lacked. The outstanding Peking Duck made it worth our while.
Weekend lunch reservations are not normally taken, however with advance reservation of a Peking Duck, you will be accommodated with a reserved table.
Your golden Peking Duck is carved table-​side and served with the traditional accoutrements: julienned cucumber, scallions, hoisin, and pancakes in lieu of steamed buns.
After your duck is masterfully carved and served, Chef asks how you’d like the bones prepared: Salt & Pepper or Soup. We opted for the S&P.
Peking Duck 101:
* Lay the slightly chewy steamed pancake on your plate;
* Add fresh cucumbers and a dollop of hoisin to balance the raw scallions;
* Place a couple slices of lean, juicy dark meat down the center of your pancake;
* Top with a few paper thin crispy slices of skin;
* Fold bottom of pancake towards top, wrap up the sides;
* Enjoy your succulent duck burrito — Peking style;
* Eat and repeat.
Skip this dish:
Disappointing Pumpkin in Salted Egg Yolk: Too much batter, not enough salted egg yolk.
Tip — Unilocal Check-​In Offer:
XLB (Xiao Long Bao) soup dumplings served with a side of balsamic and julienned ginger. 50% off one order with Unilocal check in (as of 12.12.15)
We’ll be back. But only for the duck (get your awesome dim sum fix at the hole in the wall next door: Good Luck Dim Sum).

On a Wednesday afternoon treated out the wifey to some supposedly best peking duck /​dim sum.
Just a note everything they served tasted super fresh, the meats and the vegetables were excellent.
Here is what we sampled
steamed dumplings (xia long bao) — dumplings with pork and inside the dumpling is juice — as long as the dumpling does not break when you are handling them the taste is explosive, slight crunch with whatever veggie they threw in there and that juice was piping hot, worth burning your tongue over and over again, must try when here
shu mai bejing style — appearance wise it did stand a little taller then the regular shu mai you would order at any other dim sum place but when biting down there is also a slight crunch from whatever was minced on this dish, definitely would order again
steamed bach choy (probably spelled it wrong) — standard dish with the wifey, no frills, garlic minces and steamed on a white plate
seasoned or dry green beans — helpful serving of veggies almost like salt and pepper anything but with green beans
minced pork with green and red bell peppers, dried red thai chilli’s, red onions, cooked in a light sauce that you can taste through every bite — I would other this again if I could recall the name
The Peking Duck — this is there signature dish $ 39.95 for a whole duck, when it comes out, the duck is whole, the chef personally comes to your table cuts the meat into thin slices and sets them on a total of two plate one for each side of the duck, the third plate is for the rib cage and left over meat on the duck which is deep fried and seasoned with salt and pepper, the sauce, veggies and wraps are served on the side for this dish, the duck is not seasoned, not oily, super tender, skin is super crunchy, meant to be put on a steamed wrap, add some veggies, add some sauce then bite down on all this deliciousness. This dish takes close to 35 minutes to prep they tell you when you order it, glad to have tried this dish, I do recommend you have more people with you not just two people hahaha
For dim sum this place does have some star dishes, again I do recommend coming with more then just 2 people so you can have more dishes to try
food **** fresh produce and meat you can taste it on every bite
price $$ average cost per dish $ 9 peking duck was $ 39.95(35 min wait)
service **** as long as you know what you want or an idea of what you want they can assist you through the menu
ambiance *** no super frills just another restaurant on Clement in the city

The food is ok. Not the greatest but there are a few stand out dishes like the Peking Duck, Basil Clams and the Seafood Stew. I’d skip the Xiao Long Bao, Pork & Chive Dumpling and I didn’t find the Mung Bean dessert worthwhile.
The servers, while nice, are very inexperienced. Upon arriving, they said they were going to combine 2 tables for me after I told them several times how many was in my party and that I already had a reservation. Yet, they still wait and ask me several more times. Took us forever to order. After dropping off our soup, we had to ask for bowls and spoons separately. Not sure how they expected us to drink it. Our table had mismatching utensils — some of us had takeout chopsticks while others had regular.
They stated over the phone that there would be free duck buns w/​the purchase of the duck. What we realized after is that they meant that the duck skin to wrap the duck into little burritos was the free item. So exactly how were we supposed to eat the duck w/​the scallion and cucumber if they didn’t give us the «free» skins? Just as is w/​no rice and such?