Little Giant Chinese Fusion Restaurant

This place is not located where the directions say thet are. They’ve changed the name so irro

My husband and I tentatively decided to give this place (now called Hot Plate Fusion or something like that) a shot tonight. We’ve been putting it off since they first opened, then closed, and then re-​opened. (But we’ve gone to Shabu Bar next door quite a few times and are big fans.)
The place was pretty empty, and the lady there practically fell over herself being nice to us. The first thing that I noticed was the size of the menu – unusually small for this type of restaurant. In fact, there weren’t even that many things that sounded good to me. Apparently I don’t really go for «fusion.» But have no fear – Peking duck was on the menu. Decision made. The husband went with BBQ beef over noodles, and started with wonton soup.
The Peking duck was solid, and the thing that really made me happy was they server proper pancakes with it, and not the steamed buns that SF seems to be obsessed with. YES. The ratios are just so much better with pancakes. The skin could’ve been a bit more crispy, but was fine.
The husband really enjoyed his soup and said the broth was excellent. He also raved about how tender the beef was for his main dish. The noodles, however, had one distinct flavor that was really pretty overpowering. He wanted it to taste like chow mein (which is was supposed to be), but the flavor was off.
Overall the experience was good, and I’ll be back for Peking duck at the very least.

Review no longer valid after new ownership. The new style goes for a mix of elegant fusion but much more emphasis on the western side. As someone that enjoys traditional Chinese cuisine it’s not my cup of tea but maybe fusion lovers will like it.

This place is closed right now to revamp their menu (according to the sign on the window) but the girl in the Shabu place next door says they own it and it may not reopen. I hope they do, we need some great Chinese food nearby in this area.

This is by far the worst Chinese food I’ve ever had anywhere in the world. It’s quite bland. I can’t believe how much we spent here as well (~$ 50 for 2 people), when there were so many other options nearby with better food. It was a big mistake to eat here, especially considering the place is empty, but I was holding out hopes that perhaps it might be good and people hadn’t yet heard of it yet.

The service was terrible; the waitress was oblivious to our requests and we spent most of the «meal» waiting around for her or our food. We had to ask for the soup 3 times and it arrived minutes before the entrée with no time to eat. The foregoing might be bearable if the food was good, but it wasn’t. The food was either oily or bland with no distinctive flavors or spice. The chicken seemed somewhat fried or prepared in some lower quality manner. This is surprising because the Shabu restaurant next door is the same owner and is more decent than this spot. We didn’t finish our meal and now we’re across the street at Amici’s grabbing some awesome pizza.

This reminds me of the fast food Chinese restaurants in a small Midwestern town. The chefs can’t cook, but they assume most Americans won’t be able to tell. We should have known something was wrong when they gave us forks, not chopsticks, and all the dishes on the menu had only English names.
We ordered the wonton soup to start, which wasn’t terrible (+1 star). It had sliced pork inside, which gave the broth some much-​needed flavor. For our main dishes, we ordered the Taiwan Style Chicken and the House Special Fried Rice. Both dishes were an insult to my pallet and lacked any semblance of flavor. The rice was dry like little piece of cardboard and the chicken was cut into large, suspicious looking cubes that were reminiscent of the chicken nuggets served in an elementary school cafeteria.
The service was by no means pleasant, but at least it was fast. The waitress stared blankly at us, demanding our orders, and she got impatient when we asked for another minute.
Not surprisingly, the place was nearly empty on a Friday night.

It was around lunchtime and the place was empty, so I was a little worried at first. Eventually I went in and ordered the Chongqing Beef Noodle Soup. Being empty and having the word fusion in it made me a bit nervous, but the soup came out and looked pretty decent.
The soup itself was a bit spicy and I even noticed some Sichuan Peppercorns in it. The broth itself was a bit oily and the beef was probably brisket and tendon, the latter I don’t usually like.
Overall though not bad and the price is reasonable, for something in the city.

The food is okay — a bit americanized and not authentic but that’s not to blame since the location probably requires that they serve americanized Chinese food. My only other gripe is that the dishes are very expensive :(Literally if you pay a few more dollars than the cost of a plate of stir-​fry you can go next door and have full shabu meal!
If their lower their prices I will be visiting a lot more frequently.

Wait was long. Wanted to grab lunch within an hour but took 25 min to get food out of the kitchen. And they forgot one of the dishes we ordered. Two other tables around us weren’t asked to order and they both left. The food was ok when we actually got it but if you don’t have the time, it’s not worth it.

Not only the foods is sucked here, but also the service is not honor at all.
I ordered the seafood fried rice w XO sauce the other night, and it was tasteless, but spicy. And it costs like $ 14 something plus tax. So we got a opening coupon for 10%, however, they refused to take it and said that I have to use minimum of $ 45 in order to use coupon, which not even mention anywhere on flyer. So I asked them to show me where the require is. So she started making up some stupid stuffs and said its ok that they will do it to me this time.

Asked for separate receipts when we sat down. We were told that it was not a problem. When we asked for the checks they refused separate receipts and insisted on taking our credit cards (without showing us any receipts and just charging the cards separately) then they brought us a single itemized receipt. They also asked for my card a second time after not having yet given it back. Then accused me of trying to steal from them by not providing a card, (they still had my card). They then found my card and didn’t even bother to apologize. They told us separate checks was a systematic impossibility and only possible if we physically sat at separate tables.

I ordered the combo with the beef noodle bowl
The starter dumplings where excellent. Specially with the soy sauce :-)
The beef noodle bowl was also good. Spicy and enough (not to much) for lunch. The beef was a bit fat and I didn’t eat it all.
The waiter is friendly but very hard to understand. And they seemed in a hurry to get me out. The place was empty at 1pm on a Friday.

First of all, please disregard the previous reviews about this being a ramen noodle restaurant; that was a very temporary and ill-​fated incarnation of the restaurant and they quickly decided that it wasn’t the way to go.
Mission Bay has needed a place like this! I went in a couple of days ago, needing relief from a very trying time, and I loved it. I’m pretty well-​versed in «real» Chinese food (i.e., I ask for chopsticks and a bowl), and the food was indeed altered a bit to suit local tastes as admitted by the manager, but I really enjoyed what I had and the atmosphere is very nice as well.
I asked about the original «Asian Fusion» concept that we locals saw on the sign in the window for over a year, because to me, Asian fusion means a mosh-​up of Chinese, Thai, etc. The manager explained to me that he ended up taking cuisines from different parts of China and letting them overlap a bit to be creative, with a dose of American influence (but without «selling out» IMHO). For example, the dish with which I was the most taken, the Salt and Pepper Scallops, consisted of large scallops that were fried in a light batter – but don’t hit the «close window» just yet; these were NOT greasy; they were NOT rubbery, overcooked, or undercooked inside, and they WERE fantastic. The manager explained that in the south of China, this kind of dish might be made with a very light and delicate crispy outer layer, and he decided to give it a more hearty American crunch; it was more like a good fish ‘n chips coating. It is called spicy but it had just a slight kick.
I also liked the Taiwan Chicken.
One note: of the several dishes I tried that were called spicy, some had only a tiny kick like the scallops, whereas the Taiwan Chicken had slices of either jalapeño or spicy Anaheim chile that added plenty of heat if you ate one.
Please support this business; we need them to stay!

This is a great place to watch the game, have a beer and get your noodle fix. Came here twice, once for the ramen which had a very rich broth, and the second time for the beef noodle soup. I’d say the beef noodle soup is the winner. The beef was extremely tender, the baby bok choy in the soup were crisp and sweet. Service here was very accommodating, they let us finish watching the game even after we finished our meal and the game went into overtime.

I was at Lucky Strike and I stumbled across this place when I walked over to Philz around the corner on 3^rd. I walked by and saw the huge grand opening sign outside, I am a sucker for ramen, phở, udon, or any other noodle soup, so I figured I’d give it a shot… but only after my (extra large) mint mojito!
Finished up a little drinking and some bowling with my party at Lucky Strike and I suggested we go check out the ramen place across the street. I was with many other like minded noodle soup phở-​reaks (har har har, see what i did there?), so it didn’t take much to convince the rest of them to try this place out.
We walked in and were immediately greeted by what seems like the manager of the place, he sat us down and gave us some menus to look over.
I ordered the Dan Dan noodle soup. The dan dan noodies I usually have tend to be spicy, these were much more mild. But that what it lacked in spice, it made up flavor! The soup was delicious and I had every last spoonful.
The noodle were also very good and tasted «fresh,» although i’m not sure how fresh noodles taste like. I’ve had lots of noodles in the past and these were different, they tasted like the hand pulled noodles, but with a different texture. I can’t really explain it, but they were good regardless of what they were.
The manager was super nice throughout our entire experience, he messed up on one of our appetizer orders and he ended up giving it to us on the house! If that’s not great customer service, then I don’t know what is!
All in all, a very wonderful experience and some great noodle soup. It is also at a wonderful location right next to the ballpark (go giants!), so I’m sure this place is here to stay for a while.
On a side note, we were there during the second half of the seahawks/​packers NFC game and there was this guy at another table with a giants hat on, cheering for the seahawks. I couldn’t believe my eyes, it just made no sense…

They’ve been open about a week. As soon as we walked in we were greeted by the manager. He was very friendly and asked us what kind of food we’d like, explaining to ignore the menu because they had just opened and it is in flux. Currently the menu is all ramen and will soon be replaced or augmented with traditional Chinese cuisine.
He quickly cooked us several Chinese dishes (orange chicken, fried rice, bok choy, spicy chicken), which cost $ 35 and left two very hungry people completely full.
The food was delicious, on par with the best casual spots in Chinatown or M.Y. China. The atmosphere is basic and reminds me of Wunderful in Millbrae.
I look forward to their new menu and I’m delighted to have a solid Chinese restaurant in SOMA /​South Beach.

We’ve been waiting for Little Giant to open for over a year. Finally it did !
And tonight we had our first and preferably last meal at this unfortunate new addition to Mission Bay neighborhood.
1. The menu posted on Unilocal has nothing to do with this restaurant. I’m posting the picture of the actual menu. This is NOT a Chinese restaurant in a conventional or modern definition. This is a ramen place that offers very few choices for ramen dishes. All spicy.
2. I ordered a combination B. Portion of appetizer was more like amuse bouche. Two tiny prawns (?) and two miniature pot sticker. «Main» dish was small pieces of chicken legs (no other parts) in super spicy broth. The sharp bones poked palate of my mouth when I dug through the skin and fat.
3. The combo was supposed to include rice but was not served until I requested it.
4. It said ice cream was included. Didn’t expect a small scoop of suspiciously pink «strawberry» ice cream, that was ice-​crunch.
5. The owner was jovial and friendly and he maintained his demeanor and told me I should have told the waiter to use only meat for the chicken dish.
6. My boyfriend’s dish arrived after I finished my main dish but it was a wrong one. He ordered a beef wok dish ($ 20) but got ramen with beef.($ 10). We told the waiter but ate the ramen dish cuz it was getting late.
7. The check came with $ 20 wok charge. We asked. The check was corrected, no apology, no courtesy discount.
We walked to Safeway and picked up some Haagen Daz.

La première impression n’est pas forcément la bonne, en témoigne ce snack asiatique à deux pas de l’AT&T Park, qui venait d’ouvrir la veille ! (Premier avis, hehe.)
On était donc à la recherché d’un diner rapide avant d’aller voir le Cirque du Soleil, et le peu d’options disponibles à proximité immédiate a fait que nous nous sommes aventurés à l’intérieur. Aucun client à 7h du soir et une nette odeur de peinture fraîche, pas de quoi inspirer confiance, mais il faut parfois prendre des risques…
Et le risqué a payé car les ramens sont arrivés vite et étaient bons ! Attention, ceux qui sont marqués spicy sont vraiment spicy mais tout de même agréables (traitement recommandé en cas de nez bouché). Service aimable, mais prix pas donnés (dans les 10 USD le grand ramen). C’est le même propriétaire que le resto asiatique juste à côté. Ambiance snack avec la musique de fond et des télés diffusant du sport pour seule déco.
Une bonne solution pour manger vite et bien avant un match ou un spectacle donc, si vous voulez échapper à la bouffe mécanique, malsaine et hors de prix du stade (et dans le cirque c’était la même).