So

«So» guess what??? They RE-​OPENED!!! They are now serving up those delicious dry fried chicken wings in the SOMA – 4 blocks away from my house! Thank you so so much So. Now I can get my fix for «real» Chinese food without venturing out to the Sunset/​Richmond. Your re-​opening is heaven-​sent!!!

Yeah this restaurant has been closed for like years now, but I just wanted to review it and keep it on here so I can always remember how good their food was and how roomy it was when San Tung down the street was too crowd to go to. The place was small but rarely full, so it was a relaxing place to eat good food even though traces of it were splattered all over their yellow wall.
I always remember their:
Fried Chicken Wings
Fried Mushrooms
Fried Fish
Black Bean Noodles
But at least I know I can still go to San Tung and get the better version of the noodles and fried chicken.

Not so sad that So closed, cuz So was just so-​so.
Really subpar. Not impressed by either the noodles or the fried food (wings, mushrooms, etc.) on my last few visits before it closed. It was better in the past, don’t know what changed.

This place used to be So good. Now it is just So-​So. Makes me So sad.
Update: Closed… So long!

I wanted to try this place since it opened but didn’t get a chance until 2 years into its opening. Since San Tung has always been one of my favs, I figured I better try their spinoff at some point. Though it is alright here, I think I would still go to San Tung instead.
I think So tries to be more inventive with their dishes. Add a little modern flair to the classic San Tung dishes. Though some may prefer this, I would rather stick to the old fashioned goodie…

So… What’s so special?
Overly sauced So black bean noodles. That thing was drowning in salty MSG goo. Yeah it tasted fine, but I thought I ordered the sauce noodle, not the soup noodle. Maybe this place has gone down the hill from what it once was, but on my first time there, I wasn’t really impressed. Most likely won’t be coming back anytime soon.

so… not so good
cash only
seems like the neglected step child of San Tung now, with a weird random assortment of menu items (what’s up with dropping dumplings from the offerings?), ragged around the edges and always cold inside. staff seems dispirited.

Went on a Tuesday night around normal dinner time and there was one other person dining inside SO. My boyfriend and I quickly ordered and quickly got our food. He had the pork and mustard green soup noodle and i had the hot and sour soup noodle. Perhaps not the smartest order. I briefly thought about asking the waitress to make the hot and sour soup noodle not too spicy, since SO is related to San Tung, and Shandong food can be spicy. But oh well, how hot can it be, right? It’s not like I am eating Korean or anything.
Well, it was hot. And enormous! The soup bowl serves perhaps 4 people at least. And it’s seriously just noodles in a bowl of your ordinary hot and sour soup from local Chinese restaurants. I like hot and sour soup, but I was sorta expecting a slight bit of a twist. The noodles were chewy and good. But the more I stuffed noodles in my mouth, the more full the bowl looked. I was sniffing, crying because of the spiciness, and after 10 minutes of serious chowing, it looked like I hadn’t touched the dish at all.
My boyfriend’s soup noodle was equally giant. But i liked his flavor much more than mine. He didn’t think his green soup looked appetizing, but I didn’t mind the color. It’s actually something I’d order again if I went back.
But overall, I just don’t know when I’ll ever crave such a large bowl of noodles ever.

Ok, so a fellow Unilocaler just recently commented on my review of zazang noodle on Geary. She didn’t believe that zazang (black bean) noodles are actually Chinese, as I stated. But she was really nice about it, and I appreciate that.
I told her to check this place out, because she claimed that many Chinese places don’t seem to have zazang noodles… which of course calls into the question of zazang noodles really being authentically Chinese rather than Korean.
The reason, as I explained to her, is that zazang noodles were brought to Korea by Chinese immigrants who originated from the San Tung province. That province is in the northern end of China, near the Korean peninsula. Most Chinese people here in SF are from Canton or HK/​Macau, at the southern end of China. Each province has their own unique dishes and style of cooking. Thus, most restaurants in SF are cantonese, and won’t have San Tung style dishes — such as zazang noodles.
So’s is a San Tung style Chinese restaraunt. They have zazang noodles. If you like spicy, get the «So style» zazang noodles. Otherwise go with the original.
Four stars cuz it’s well worth coming back to for more zazang noodles, and because there just aren’t enough San Tung style Chinese restaurants in SF.

Well, they would have gotten four stars from me in the past, but I just went there recently and I was pretty disappointed. I used to like the little tea cups that have hand prints embedded to put your hands in. I thought it was green tea before. Anyway, recently all the dishes changed to the cheap chinese dishes you buy off Irving and the tea is just plain. Plus, they changed it to CASH ONLY. I hate that. How do you go from credit card back to cash? They really cut back on costs. Plus it was freezing cold in the restaurant! I mean, talk about a different experience. They used to give those little soy beans or whatever they are, but they even cut back on that too!
The only thing I can say is that they still have my favorite seaweed noodle soup (the new crappy bowls are smaller now), and the So chicken wings are still the same.
Other than that, service isn’t the best. They are always hiring and also the restaurant hours are totally unpredictable. Sometimes I go there on a Thursday night and it’s closed! And sometimes a Tuesday, Wednesday or some other random day. There’d be a sign on the door saying they’re closed. I guess it’s been a tough business for them. Something has got to change.
Let’s just say that if you were once a fan of So and you haven’t been there in awhile, you’re in for a really different experience, and not a good one.

I LOVE SO… SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!
Sometimes their service could be great and sometimes their service could be awful. but i really don’t care because the fSo wings makes up for it!
I always get SO wings over rice. thats all i could really eat there. i dont like ordering anything else because i really love there So wings. I really dont know how much more i should emphasize that… But anyways. their other selections of food are good too… In addition, its not crazy expensive. the only crappy thing about it is that its so far from home. so i only go on occasion =(. THEY SHOULD EXPAND!

SO is SOOOO good.
SO Wings = SOO GOOD
Cherry Chicken = SOOO GOOD
Curry over rice = SOOOO GOOD
I got off work early to start my three day weekend and i was craving for SO wings but i never actually ate in the restaurant. i usually take SO Wings to go. The restaurant was empty and to tell you the truth, i don’t like walking into an empty restaurant but i was HUNGRY.
David and i ordered two appetizers & 1 rice plate. SO Wings, Cherry Chicken (its like sweet and sour chicken), & Chicken Curry over rice. when the food came to our table, i was surprise with the HUGE portions. By the end of our meal, we had to take half of our food to go! I walked out of SO stuffed and satisfy!
I enjoyed the service our waiter was very attentive and kept refilling our beverages. THANK YOU!
Tip: If you are eating lunch or dinner with just a one other person, i recommend ordering two appetizers, one main plate and share because its just way too much food. Plus you can get dessert next door at Baskin’s Robbins.
Ps. they dont offer pot stickers anymore.

Excellent! Especially for the price. Tip: The appetizers (~$ 5 each) can be ate as a full entrée’. Huge portions of very fresh food for the price. This is the only restaurant I’ll drive 30 min across the city for. Highly recommended.
**EDIT! — 11÷7÷07 — Dropping my rating from 5 stars to 3 stars. What happened to this place? Is it under new management? This was one of my very favorite restaurants in the city. But in the last month, their food has taken a *definite* turn for the worse, seems that the ingredients in menu items even changed. And now (weirdly) — the place is freezing every time I go in. I’m not very picky about restaurant air temperature, but this is crazy — it was like 45 degrees in there last time I went, the few customers were hunkered down in their thick coats, finishing their meal and getting out. The place used to be packed around dinner time. Now ²⁄₃ of the seats are empty at that time. What’s going on here?

So disappointed at So…
Everything here tasted of black pepper. I can eat spicy food with the best of them, but this bucket-​o black pepper flavoring is just too much.
The only pluses are the hand-​made, machine-​pressed noodles and the So chicken wings — their version of Gan Pong Chicken. But I still like the original flavor (wetter, spicier, and not as sweet) better.
It’s more disappointing considering their Shandong heritage to make the noodle dishes taste so one-​dimensional.
Black Bean Sauce noodle — a valiant attempt at improving the original black version found at most of the other Shandong/​Korean-​Chinese style restaurants. Ingredients are good but sauce is lacking the essential black bean sauce flavor.
Peanut Sauce noodle — distant relative to the Sichuan style Tan Tan noodle — tasted like black pepper
Shredded Pork with Garlic noodle — tasted like black pepper
Spicy Combination Seafood Noodle — the only one that is close to its original version, the Chao Ma Mian.
They’ve gotta lay off the black pepper.
So, if you’re looking for traditional Korean-​Chinese flavor, stick with the parent San Tung restaurant or venture down to the south bay or even the east bay for more and far better choices.

So whats do i do when iam going to a pot-​luck/​office party/​BYOF shindig and iam feeling like 2 much of a lazy beeyoch to actually whip something up in the kitchen?
It is So simple my friends– just find some parking near Irving and 23^rd (best bet are the side streets) jump into So and order 4 – 5 orders of So Wings (8 to 10 pieces ea.) and 3 orders of string beans.
You become the talk of the party cause these two dishes are So f*cking spectacular that everyone requests you bring that sh*t to the next BYOF thang. The So wings do have an expiration date So put the order in and allow no more that 2 – 3 hours b4 serving otherwise its just not the same (So don’t go and try re-​heating or u you are So screwed!)
Eating in has been So-So…the main chef who is the son of the family that owns San Tung is hella cool and So accomodating in making sure i can bring his treats when i need em– he has even come in during non-​operational hours to hook me up! So sweet!!!
======Ed M previously had the record of using So 10x… me 14x – I WIN… iam such a loser==============

1 star for the decoration
1 star for the good service.
food? deserve? i don’t know honestly.
obviously it’s not authentic, but please. this stuff is like a panda express but restaurant version and they serve noodles. the rice plate was full of MSG, SALT, SPICE. the appetizer was the same.
this kind of food is suitable for americans (non asians). for me, a true chink born in america, i didn’t enjoy the food. to me this was food just to grab the taste buds of american tongue on irving. i rather go somewhere else.
do i hate it? no i don’t. did i order the wrong food? i don’t know. will i come again? maybe, but most likely not.
maybe if i do decide to give this place a try again, i want some pan fried potstickers and noodles. hopefully that’s a little better

Am I the only person that is picky about their noodles or something?!
Because man… My noodle dish sucked so hard that I can’t even remember what it was called. It was extremely soggy, bland, flavorless.boring. My friend’s noodles were good though. So redeems one star for that.
*yawn*
NEXT

If Santung is closed (Wednesday. must tattoo this on my hand) then definitely try out So. Portion sizes are shockingly big while it seems like everything is around $ 6, entrees and appetizers alike. The wings are good but not as crackalicious as San Tung. The mushrooms were huge and really yummy. All of the entrees are ginormous and can feed 2 – 3 ppl while only being around $ 6!!! Its SO much a good deal.
Food: ⁷⁄₁₀
Service: ⁶⁄₁₀
Ambience: ⁵⁄₁₀

Recommended Dish: Curry Noodles & Spicy Chicken Wings. Although parking is a pain, especially on weekends, try this restaurant out on the weekdays. Less traffic, less wait, and faster service.
I can’t find anything to gripe about at this restaurant itself, only the parking availability. The food is fantastic, the chefs who are constantly scanning the scene sure know what they are doing behind a wok. Their flavors are tasty but not too much to overwhelm the palate. This place is definitely enough to satiate that craving you had for sweet and savory, especially their wings.
Portion and prices are pretty good considering most of San Francisco making this restaurant a great value. It’s pretty hard to find reasonably priced, delicious food, served with a smile, which is exactly what So serves up every night. So’s moving into the Sunset was a great addition to the more residential, low-​key atmosphere of Irving.

So’s is another great Asian Restaurant in the Irving Street Strip.
There fried marinated wings are tasty, and the Curry noodle adds a lot excitement. Loi’s Vietnamese Restaurant is next door to So’s, both great restaurant in the Sunset.
Only ate there once, most likely will eat there again soon with a updated comment.