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Tan. Tan. Noodles. Spicy Wontons. Seasonal Vegetable in garlic sauce. Nuff said.
The only reason this place gets 4 stars instead of 5 is because the way the Tan Tan Noodles are prepared varies from time to time. Sometimes the bowl is super full, sometimes it's lacking, sometimes the noodles are different, sometimes it's super spicy, sometimes it's just mild. All the time though, the taste is delicious. We have Friday nights dubbed as TTNF...Tan Tan Noodle Friday.
One day I'll try other items on the menu, but really...there is no need when your Tan Tan Noodles taste this good.
Yes indeed.
Nevermind.. this place sucks since '06.. so much went wrong.
Ordered the "water cooked beef," also known as Hot boiled beef, and the beef was bad. They dosed it with a lot of xiao shing cooking wine to hide the bad flavor terrible stench of the beef. We also had the garlicy flavored pork, which was decent at best.
Savory saliva chicken is still good, however all of these dishes have lost their main sausy appeal tongue numbing appeal known as "MA LA." (in Chinese). None of the food was spicy enough to achieve that sensation, so I am disappointed after 3 years on and off coming to this joint.
Authentic Szechuan food. I, honestly, am a great fan of Little Sichuan in San Mateo, but my mom… Read more »
When the you enter Panda Country, you remember all the other semi-seedy looking places on this stretch of Geary. Some of the upholstered chairs have tape on them. Some of the table cloths are spotted.
The service, however, is great from the minute you walk in. Someone comes out to greet you almost immediately and they actually smile and seem happy to see you.
I'm no expert on authentic Chinese food, but the food here is good and, to me, seems authentic. The Szechuan/Sichuan dishes suit my taste. I certainly don't find them bland or underspiced. They tend to be oily, often using chile oil as a cooking medium and sauce, but the taste is great.
From what I've read on Sichuan food, the dishes served at Panda Country Kitchen are fairly typical for the region.
I think they rate more than three stars, probably three and a half
It was the eve of Chinese New Year, and we were craving Sichuan food. It was a hard choice to pick among the dozens of Chinese restaurants in the Richmond but we finally decided on Panda Country Kitchen.
This place did not disappoint. The waitresses were friendly. The bf and I had the cold spicy beef shank and tendon, Szechwan fish fillet with tofu, twice cooked pork and bok choy stir fried with garlic. The cold spicy beef shank and tendon had the right amount of Sichuan numbing spice and was tasty. We usually order this dish at Sichuan places because it's one of our favorites. The fish fillet wasn't as spicy as Spice's fish fillet, which I liked. Twice cooked pork was delicious.
I would definitely come back here.
WHERE'S THE FIRE?
We kept wondering after the six dishes we ordered were surprisingly bland.
There were some good flavors--the twice-cooked-pork was very tasty, and I particularly liked the simple concoction of julienned potatoes and chilis, but even that lacked heat. The dandan noodles--I liked the strange flavor--but they were almost like oil soup, and there were some nice dumplings in a very well-lubricated sauce as well.
I'm not really oil or fat phobic, but when there is alot of it on the plate, and it's red but still lacks flame, I mean, why bother?
I would go back; everything was pretty good, but I'd explore some other menu items.
Honestly my go-to for Chinese food in the late evening, seeing as how they're a two minute walk from my apartment. I try to be and adventurous Asian, but that doesn't always happen with a significant other that is wary of new things, super fast service, friendly (enough) waitresses and happy atmosphere (yes "happy", I don't like to be instantly depressed when I walk into an eatery).
Things we've tried so far are:
General Tao (Tsao? Chow? who knows) Chicken (delish!)
Mongolian Beef (yummy spicy and oniony)
Kung Pao Chicken (not one of my favorites, they use this herb that I actually really dislike, even if it does make it authentic)
Sauteed mushroom and bok choy (absolute favorite!)
Excuse the small selection of conquests, we've only been living here
The place usually has quite a few tables full of diners happily eating whenever we go, and they've got some huge tables for big parties, so all in all a good time to be had when you need a quick fix.
This is where I go to titillate my taste buds with numbingly spicy foods. Sichuan food is all about the numbing factor. The food is definitely spicy, but it's not the kind of spiciness that leaves your tongue on fire. Even when you take that first bite, you won't feel the heat until a couple bites later. And then the numbing effect will take on from the peppercorns, leaving your mouth tingling for a few minutes. Such is the cycle of eating Sichuan food.
Panda Country Kitchen serves up very traditional Sichuan fare, and most importantly, they execute them very well. My favorites include:
* Chongqing Style Chicken: a basketful of chili peppers and chopped chicken wings (the ratio of chili peppers to chicken is approximately 20:1)
* "Water-cooked Fish": fish fillets swimming in a chili oil gravy. The sauce is so good, you can you eat this with rice alone
* Tea Smoked Duck: very fragrant and flavorful
* Sichuan Style Pork Chitlns: fresh pork intestines and pork blood make up this spicy stew
* Sauteed Shredded Potato and Jalapeños: subtly spicy and a good mild dish to tame the burning mouth
Of course, there are non-spicy dishes for those who can't handle the heat.
The food is averagely priced and portions are meant for sharing. The restaurant is clean, large and spacious. Tons of tables for large groups. The service is pretty good here, although my only complaint is that they always try to sell you their cold appetizers even though you've already ordered enough for the table. They'll persistently ask you a couple times, but just ignore them and they'll stop.
Went again last night, and was not disappointed. The worst dish there is still better than the best at most other Chinese restaurants in the area. Yum!
Definitely the best Sichuan-style food I have found in the Bay Area, even though they skimped on the… Read more »
Maybe I am spoiled by the super cheap and authentic Sichuan food in LA, I can only give Panda Country 3 starts for the taste of the food. I LOVE spicy food, especially Sichuan food, the spicy and numbing sensation is so incredible! I have been craving good Sichuan food. Found this place on Yelp, and decided to try it. We ordered the fish cooked in hot oil (not the exact English name on the menu), but it's a very common Sichuan dish with fish fillets cooked in chili pepper oil and broth. We also ordered a non-spicy dish, the black bean lamb. My fish was spicy and numbing, but the flavor was lacking... and they put starch in the broth/oil, so it's very starchy. My bf's lamb tasted like American Chinese food, not authentic at all.
That being said, the restaurant looked nice and clean, and the wait staff was super nice and friendly. I'd give it higher rating for the service. But food-wise, it's not bad, but not great either.
I love hot and spicy sichuan food! It was probably a good 55* degrees outside, i mean i was FREEZING that night. My family and I walked into panda country kitchen looking for some nice hot and spicy food to warm us up, and it sure did! I was so hot after eating here... i went through a stack of napkins just to wipe the sweat off of my forehead and i took off my shirt as well, leaving just my wife beater on! Everyone was looking at me like i was crazy. I'M SORRY IT WAS JUST THAT HOT!
Things you must try here
1. Tea Duck
2. Fish cooked in spicy red chili oil
3. Pig intestines with pigs bloods, cooked with preserved cabbage! AH SO GOOD! I love pig intestines.. i mean don't you?
Pretty much everything here hit the spot! The prices are reasonable, and the service is pretty slow at times, but they get the job done!
Great food, the first authentic Sichuan I've had in San Francisco. We had the Dan Dan Noodles, the Cold Sichuan noodles, the Dry Sauteed String beans, dry sauteed shredded beef with spicy sauce, cold shredded potato with chili, wonton in red oil, and the pork-and-shrimp dumplings.
I enjoyed the hell out of everything, especially the cold noodles, the Dan Dan Noodles, and the string beans. My partner felt that the beef was way too salty. I also thought it was salty, but didn't have an issue with it.
You'll notice that there is significant overlap between the dishes I mention and those mentioned by other people. I saw the Dan Dan noodles and the beef on most other tables in the restaurant - these are popular dishes, and for good reason.
This is a good bet for folks who want authentic (but still accessible) Sichuan cuisine. It's not New York, but it's probably as close as you'll come out here.
Masterful, mouth-numbing, complex Sichuan dishes emanate from this gem of a restaurant on Geary. The spices are ample and you'll see plenty of chili peppers, but the food isn't so spicy that you can't enjoy it or taste it. I used to cook extra spicy chow mein that you couldn't even taste because your tastebuds went into shock. PCK isn't like that at all. In fact, the Sichuan spices (chili peppers + peppercorns) kick in AFTER you've taken a few bites. It's spicier than you initially thought.
Looking around the room (it's spacious with plenty of large round tables and pictures of their dishes on the walls), I noticed the most popular dishes were the spicy beef shank, tea smoked duck and sauteed Crab a la Szechwan. Not all the dishes are spicy.
We started with a light soup, fish filet with homemade pickle: interesting flavors, the pickle was a bit sour and the peppercorns added an unusual kick. The shredded pork with fresh pepper was terrific (best dish) - thinly sliced pork shreds, bamboo shoots, wood ear mushrooms in a light, spicy, sweet sauce. The Kung Pao chicken was sweeter than usual. Tender spicy chicken, plenty of peanuts; it tasted fresher than usual and the sauce wasn't goopy. Chong Qing Country Noodle consisted of thick, soft noodles topped with ground meat and a spicy sauce - pretty good but I would skip it to try another noodle dish next time, perhaps the spicy beef noodle soup. The beef shank topped with cilantro was not as tender as I've had elsewhere but it was still very good and spicy too.
The server was very attentive and even poured tea for us multiple times. I've been to many Sichuan restaurants and this is the best one so far - more refined than average (look at how nicely they dice the vegetables and meat), more complex as well. It's Sichuan food, so it is going to have oil and the dishes are typically rich. This place isn't for everyone but if you love spicy Chinese food, you must try it. I would love to try the $4.99 lunch specials during weekdays. I definitely like it better than Little Sichuan in San Mateo; it's not in the same league.
I wasn't very happy with the food or the service. The restaurant was very clean and inviting. Nice large tables, spaced properly for privacy and very comfortable chairs. There were no other diners when we arrived. The order was taken promptly and arrived in a timely manner but we never had a person return to ask if we needed anything else or if things were ok.
The food was very bland and mediocre. We added huge dollops of the "fire" paste on the table to make it more interesting. It was also on the pricey side as there are no lunch deals on the weekend.
I love salt. I eat a TON of the stuff. I add it to everything. I've been known to salt a bag of already salted potato chips. So keep that in mind when I say that the Ma Po Tofu I had here last night was so over salted that I couldn't eat it. As in "burn your mouth with salt" over salted. The friend I was dining with swore that he thought they even salted the steamed rice. I guess this explains why we were the only people there at 7:00pm on a Thursday night.
I was excited about this place as I like Sichuan food, but was somewhat disappointed. Yes it was spicy and numbing, but there just wasn't much taste to the food. On the plus side the staff let me and my friends stay for quite a while (for dinner). We ate, and then just hang around there talking for quite some time.
Picture this: A Chinese restaurant, carpeted, clean, a cute painting of pandas, along with pictures of entrees gracing the walls (with descriptions in English, no less!). Something has to be up.
I enjoyed their green onion pancakes (similar to that of Little Beijing in the Sunset). It was crisp, not too doughy inside, and you didn't need an x-ray to see that green onions were present...
BUT, my friend's dish completely ruined our dining experience: It had a cigarette butt in it. Not only that, but the waiter was denying it even came from them, saying the cigarette was from mainland China, while the kitchen staff only smoked Marlboros. (?!?!) Regardless, the meal was comped.
Beware restaurants with the word "Panda" in their name. They're suspect.
Best hot and sour soup I've ever had. Really good. I had the tea smoked duck and the family style tofu as well, both out standing. Not too expensive, pretty awful looking place, but they are trying new things with tastes and mixing up traditional fair. "A" for effort and results.
Chinese food gets bad and boring fast, if you care about food and not being posh this place is a well kept secret.
Update 11/242008
It has been a long while since we went back. Mostly because the dishes are not very predicable. On a good day, things will still turn out fabulous, on a lousy day, well, dishes turn out lousy. Since we now have other choices in the city for sichuan food. We stopped coming here. :(
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It is unfortunate that people below who had bad experiences at this resturant. We have been going to this place at least once every week since Nov. 2006, sometimes 2-3 times a week, and we've never been disappointed, by either the food or the wait-staff.
My husband is a big fan of szechuan food. Ever since he left New York for SF, we've been hunting up and down the peninsula for an authentic Szechuan restaurant. For a few years, we settled on Spices on 6th Ave. and Clement.
Then we found Panda Country Kitchen! There is no turning back. After we've tasted the more authentic version of Szechuan dishes at Panda Country Kitchen, we couldn't endure Spices' super grease any more. At the end of May we were surprised at seeing the restaurant putting up a "closed for one week annual vacation" sign. We went back a couple times to check on it in the following weeks, it stayed closed. Oh No! We lost our favorite restaurant in the city!
Today we drove by on our way to a different restaurant, and discovered it was back! :) Too happy, we promptly changed our plan and had our usual feast at Panda Country Kitchen. Yumm!
Panda Country Kitchen's chef originally worked at the New York szechuan restaurant Wu Liang ye (it borrows the name from a famous Chinese hard liquor), which is popular among New York Chinese.
You could see the difference in the dish's look, it is professionally made Szechuan style, not the imitator-style at Spices. One obvious visual cue is the lack of the sea of red spicy oil that drenched every dish (for certain dish, such as spicy boiled tender fish, yes, the fish fillet is usually served in a sea of red spicy oil. But often in other Chinese restaurants claims to serve szechuan food, all their dish tend to rely on the spicy oil for flavor, resulted in over-greasiness that are neither authentic nor necessary). At Panda Country Kitchen, the dish tasted just right, with plenty szechuan peppercorn's numbing and the varied pepper style spiciness.
Our favorite dishes include:
- Dry Sauteed Shredded Beef (Gan Bian Niu Rou Si)
This is our favorite dish here. The beef were full of flavor and it was slightly dried on the outside which gave it a very nice chewy texture, and it was still tender inside. Plus the fresh pepper and veggie that accompanied the beef added extra layer of taste to the dish. What a treat!
- Frog Leg with Fresh Home Made Pepper (Duo Jiao Tian Ji)
Enough said, "Home Made Pepper" is a special kind of fresh pepper that are diced in this dish. Try it if you like Frog Legs. and you won't regret it.
Sizzling Rice Tender Pork (Guo Ba Rou Pian)
This is one non-spicy dish we order from time to time. The sizzling rice added more texture to the dish, and the Pork and the Sauce are very tasty.
Sauteed String Beans Szechwan county Style (Shao Zi Jiang Dou)
This is another non-spicy dish. It is made with diced string beans(previously sauteed) and ground pork. Little Szechuan down in San Mateo had a similar dish, but we think this one is better.
Spicy Noodle Cooked with Ground Pork (Dan Dan Mian)
VERY Spicy. The most authentic Dan Dan Mian we've had outside of China. yum yum yum!
Live Fish Cooked in Szechwan Bean Sauce (Dou Ban Quan Yu)
Okay, you can skip this dish if you don't like to see a fish head on a dish.
Otherwise, this is a lovely dish. The sauce explodes in your mouth with all sorts of spiciness, and the fish is oh so tender. drool...
My favorite desert dish here is:
Yum Pancake (Jin Sha Shao Bing)
it is a sticky-rice-like cake, except it is made with yum flour, red bean filling, and the little cake is fried to golden brown. Delicious!
***Update (5/19/2008):
We havent' been to this restaurant for a while cuz 1)we found three other more authentic and "modern" spicy food place in the bay area 2)chef here became less consistent, and we had been disappointed more often since late last year.
The three other authentic spicy restaurants are:
Spicy Town @ Fremont
Little Sheep Mongolia Hotpot @ San Mateo
Chili Palace @ San Leandro
all of them are quite a bit of drive away, but as crazy as it sounds with today's gas price, we have been making the long drive there to get our spicy food fix. What can i say? When there are good Chinese options that don't involve a plane ticket to China, we've gotta do it. :)
In what dialect does "szechuan" mean "food poisoning?" Interested in sampling the six tastes of sichuan cuisine, I stopped by this restaurant located a block from my apartment and almost died a few hours later.
A few things:
1. The twice cooked pork was bland and a bit chewy.
2. The food was not spicy (well, it was mildly spicy... like taco bell fire sauce. weak.)
3. I contracted the worst case of food poisoning from one of their "szechuan style" dishes. Convulsions, hallucinations, fever, vomiting, diarrhea, skin hypersensitivity, profuse perspiration, and a lot of crying like a little girl.
Now, I'm not sure why they were being tight with the peppercorns or why they decided to prepare my food right after touching fecal matter, but the food poisoning took me out of commission for the next four days and caused me to miss my friend's wedding which I'm still pissed about.
Ah, no soap in the soap dispensers. Nice.
http://www.dph.sf.ca.u...
Hubby loves Szechuan so we decided to try this place out. I was optimistic seeing a big 'ol fish tank when we got in. I get warm fuzzy feelings when I see that - a big 'ol fish tank that is, brings me back to my childhood. Blah blah, so the food.
Tea smoke duck ($9.95 half) - very good. Dry sauteed string beans ($7.95) I always love those string beans and dry sauteed shredded beef with spicy sauce ($9.95) - different, I've never had something like this but I likes it.
I liked it all and we didn't have the neon, disco, teeny-bopper atmosphere of Spices for our Szechuan. We got some old school fish tank Szechuan. That's my style and hubby is happy now that we found another good Szechuan place to go to and I get my warm fuzzies from the fish tank.
Recently enjoyed a Chinese New Year's dinner with friends at Panda Country Kitchen. Overall, a good and fun meal, but focusing on just the food, I must say my review is comprised of a mixed bag.
Tea smoked duck and tan tan mien (noodles with ground meat and spicy sauce) were excellent dishes (so good we ordered more of each).
Many of the dishes were soaking in spicy oil. Perhaps this represents authentic Szechuan cuisine accurately, and I did enjoy the lingering spicy heat, but the greasiness was somewhat distracting.
Certainly all the food was packed with flavor, but the final result of some dishes were slightly off in texture or greasy mouth feel.
Service was OK. Atmosphere was just OK - overly bright Chinese restaurant setting with large round tables for families and groups. They charged us a $5 per bottle corkage, which was certainly reasonable.
I'm up for enjoying this restaurant again, but I'd be more picky with which dishes to order.
Authentic Sichuan food - lots of Sichuan pepper flavor, VERY spicy but flavorful food. Better to eat in than take out (which is almost always the case).
Dry fried fish was perfect the first time I had it (maybe one of the best things I've ever eaten), but not as good the 2nd time around. Maybe someone different cooking it? First time it had fresh peppers, cilantro on top, not too spicy. 2nd time was too oily, no cilantro, few peppers, fish not fried enough.
I've had some other excellent fish dishes . But a really horrible sweet kung pao tofu.
Food seems inconsistent - it can be really excellent but also not so good. They need to figure it out.
We hated the food there.
http://www.pandacountr.../
The people told us that this is their village cooking and their expertise, but all we could taste was "hot" and not much complexity.
We ordered Spicy Noodle cook with Ground Pork Sauce and Szechwan Beef, and we ended up having a couple of bites only. The rest we got to-go in containers. Then, we gave it to a street person by Jack In The Box.
We'll probably go and try there again. Maybe we ordered the wrong dishes that didn't suit us, but they were the dishes we normally order at Chinese restaurants.
A lot of people seem to be enjoying the food while we were there. I guess it could be one of those places you either love or hate. I remember going to Brandy Ho's a long time ago and hating their peanut sauce noodle because it was too hot--I couldn't taste anything but hot sauce and vinegar--same at this place. I thought I was the only one until I talked to my dad, and he also didn't like the noodles at Brandy Ho's.
I was a big fan of Little Beijing when Stephen was the Chef there. Their food was magnificent. I was hoping we found a substitute for Dan Dan Mien, but I guess not.
NOTE: I came here with my friend over a year ago, so things might have changed. But this is what I remembered:
Definitely not for the weak-hearted (and stomach) when it comes to spice. Their spicy cold noodles were good, love the fried garlic and julienned cucumbers that they placed on top. There was a really good dish of spicy bean-curd sheets as well.
I definitely agree with the reviewer who said the restaurant was cold. We had to keep our jackets on the whole time... maybe they were expecting the spices in the food to warm us up?
Oh, tremendous! The flavours! Since moving to 14th Ave and finding this place in April it's been a revelation that not all Chinese food has to be thick-sauced with the same MSG flavours and the same predictable menu...
Sure the prices are a dollar or two above the other places nearby, but I can't get enough of the meals here. The spicy napa cabbage, the garlic bacon, the deep-fried spicy diced chicken, and the tea-smoked duck (mmm)...why this very evening I called up not sure what I wanted and asked if maybe there was salt and pepper chicken to be had (knowing full well it's not on the menu). Lady on the phone says, "let me ask the chef if he'll make it for you", and back she comes with a smile saying "Sure, no problem".
Being a recent emigrant from Ireland I may not be the connoisseur, but in the past year I've eaten a *lot* of food in this town - Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, Thai (I even make a killer from-scratch pad thai - known as Paddy Thai in my kitchen)...and I know when I've hit the flavour jackpot.
Plus the staff are unfeasibly friendly, always beaming, even on the phone. And such cute accents!
Surprisingly authentic Sichuan food are to be found at this new Richmond restaurant. Blows away Spices and Szechwan Trenz. I had the fish which was so fresh and tender that you can taste texture in your mouth. The tea smoked duck was one of the best I've ever had. Those who love duck will truly appreciate the aroma and the subtle flavor of tea smoked duck.
It is not necessarily the best tasting Sichuan flavors I ever had but the real standout is the quality of the ingredients.
This will be added to my circle of Chinese restaurants in SF.
I didn't want to like this place. Tacky fish tanks in the front and a name reminiscent of Panda Express. But I had heard from a co-worker (who lived in Sichuan) that this place pwns face pretty hard so was willing to give it a shot.
Mouth-numbing, sichuan peppercorns? Check. Bountiful use of chiles? Check. Burning rectum day after? Check. Yup, it's Sichuan.
They keep it real here with no pandering of lemon chicken or sesame beef to the Chinese food neophytes. Their Ants on a Tree was rocking. Intelligent use of chili oil to kick up the supporting flavors. Paper-fried spicy chicken was one of the best renditions I've had. Skin was perfectly crisp and enough heat from both chile flakes and chile pods to ensure that the weak-sauce is weeded out.
Prices were fair and the service was pretty good. They actually smile when they bring you your food.
Only caveat is that they are a bit too liberal in their use of oil. And I'm not afraid of fat, because you don't get a body like mine with diet and exercise. I just don't like being bribed by greasyness. If not for that, would have gotten 5 stars.
Conclusion: I'd fight a panda to eat it.
I love Sichuan food. I used to go to Spices down on Clement street to take care of my chili oil fix but since discovering PCK, I haven't been back. (Not entirely true...I still go to Spices for salt and pepper squid and chou doufu).
I find the food at PCK to be more flavorful and, if Sichuan food can be described this way, more elegant. Having said that, you must appreciate the two headed Sichuan dragon of chili spice and Sichuan peppercorns. Ma la flavor...Chinese readers will know what I'm talking about. Nearly everything I've tried here is heavy on both of those flavors and, for a change, I find that most of the food is also properly salted. Well seasoned food. I usually get one of the fish and tofu dishes, a stirfried noodle dish and whatever else catches my eye. Try the Sichuan dumplings, a nice change from your usual dimsum.
Check it out if you like spicy food and are looking for a change from your usual Cantonese stir-fry joint. Waiters are friendly and are helpful if you ask them to be. If you're white, they will repeatedly tell you how spicy a dish is. Hell, I'm half Chinese and they still warned me about spice levels! The restaurant is clean and tastefully decorated. Well worth a visit to see if you dig this style of Chinese cuisine.
At first I was no way it has Panda in it's name...
P.C.K does have plates on it's menu that would make Bourdain giggle. Although the girl friend wont go there with the tripe, knuckles and other tasty bit's- I settled for tea duck and shu-mia... Good food though the waitress rushed us out and made us feel like we where rookies to the whole Chinese food experience which is always lame!
We had reservations for party of 6 at 730pm however, it was no qualm moving it to 8:15pm. When we arrived, there were just two other big tables dining.....pretty quiet for a Fri night dinner.
We ordered the following for appetizers:
- Conch with Red Oil Sauce
- Green bean cold Fun with Spicy Sauce
- Spicy Beef Tendon
- Szechwan Home Style Chicken
- Hot and Sour soup
For entree, we had the following:
- Bean Sauce noodle (dan dan mien)
- Smoked Tofu with Shredded Pork
- Tea Smoke duck
- Live Fish in Szechwan Bean Sauce
- Combination Hot Pot A La Szechwan
- Braised melon vege
All for $22 per person, party of 6 including tips.
My favorite dishes were the fish in Szechawan Bean Sauce and smoked tofu with shredded pork. I'm not a big fan of innards but my dining companions liked the dishes that were ordered.
Overall a 3.5 stars.
Easy to find parking, big dining room, quick and efficient service.
Best Sichuan in the city. Hot and sour soup, amazing dan-dan noodles, dry-sauteed green beans, tea smoked duck, an amazing leek/bacon dish. Did you hear me? Giant leeks and giant bacon. YUM. Consistently good food, and you can really taste the sichuan peppercorns.
$45 for three people who ordered three main dishes, three sides, tea and soup, and the 45 includes tip. For delicious Sichuan food, I think it's right on.
Definitely look at the specials menu-- or ask-- and if you are accustomed to Sichuan heat, let 'em know you like it spicy!
Sichuan food!!! Totally dug the grub, though the name of the place didn't nab me at first. The food was spicy, but not on the unbearable side. Rather tasty and wouldn't mind a revisit in the near future. Problem is, you've really gotta drag someone along who KNOWS what to order. IN CHINESE. ;-)
In our never ending quest to find the perfect Sichuan restaurant, Tony decided to try out Panda County Kitchen tonite on the basis of some fellow yelpers. We ordered the basics, Twice Cooked Pork, Dry Sauteed String Beans, and based on some fellow yelpers, the Tea Smoke Duck. While not the best twice cooked pork I have ever had, it was pretty good for the area. The string beans weren't too salty, and had just enough flavor to not be overwhelming. The duck was different, not bad, just different. it was like eating a combination of roast chicken and ham, only it was duck. It didn't blow my mind away, but it was alright. We will come back. I am interested in trying the pickleld string bean with gizzards, and their hot pot selections looked tempting. Of course, we also want to try ants on a tree.
Alas, Panda Country, how I wanted to give you five stars but could not do it! We began coming to Panda Country right when it first opened and the food was great! The smell of the hot chili oil permeates the restaurant and their food is spicy and well-flavored, the way Szechuan food should taste.
Unfortunately, the restaurant is always very cold (cheapos, turn on the heat) so we only order take out now. The prices are also about $2 higher than they should be, even for quality Chinese food. They are also VERY STINGY with their house pickled vegetables. Like Little Beijing on Noreiga, it is the standard to give customers a free dish of the pickled vegetables when you eat in but they are very inconsistent. Once, when I bought take-out, I ordered it since I like it so much and $4 got me only a few mouthfulls. This is a cultural no-no.
Their food quality can also be hit and miss and their service is decent at best. I am hoping they will either lower their prices or give you bigger portions. So now I go only when I am really craving Szechuan food which is a shame because this could have become my favorite Chinese restaurant.
EDIT: We had a party of six this time and were able to order a variety of dishes. Like my previous interview, their food does not disappoint. But their service still sucks. We asked for white vinegar (standard sauce for the dumplings we ordered) and received a tiny dish of it. We did not realize until the bill came that we were charged 50 cents. Are they going start charging for tea and extra napkins too??? I should have thrown down Chinese style and yelled at them for the ridiculous 50 cent charge but my American upbringing stopped me. So again, good food but even worse service than the time(s) before.
This is the only restaurant that server their spicy dishes hot enough for me to like. The cold chicken appetizer is spicy and goes well with sea food dishes. The other outstanding dish in this restaurant is the hot pots. The hot pots come flaming to your table.
RAWR!!!RAWR!!!....I don't know if panda bears roar but that is what I felt when I took a bite into some of the best sichuan cuisine I have dug my paws into. I was so impressed by the food...I am ready to put on a Panda bear costume and canoe down to the Szechwan area located south-west from Chinese mainland. Numerous rivers pass through this province becasue the food is so spicy and you need a glass of water handy at all times. The spicyness did not bother me at all (thanks to my Korean genes....i'm not talking about apple bottoms or rockin' republics). I must admit by the time I was done with my delicious tofu with shrimp...I had a few drops of sweat on my forehead and upper lip. Amazingly, each bite was tasteful and you could taste the spices and flavors dancing in the dish.....creating a melody of MMMMM's and MMM's. I recommend this place if you like tasty and spicy foods.
Spicy, oily, cheap(ish) and zesty! Yes, zesty!
There are so many good restaurants in the City and I don't know why my friend recommended this place. The food was horrible!!!!!! The only other customers that the place was getting were the asian tours.......you know the kind I'm talking about. The ones who's tour guide gets commission for bringing in all the tourist to fill up the restaurant.
That's the only thing that I agree with.........you need to pay me $$$$ to come to this place again. Sorry.....Not coming here anymore.
this place rocks the sichuan peppercorns. ma-la is truly deeply felt if you order any one of these:
la-tze ji
(chili peppers with fried chicken. i'm not kidding when i say the chicken accompanies the chili pepper)
hong shao chang wang
(pork intestine stew with pork blood cake, salted vegetables, tofu and brown stew)
liang mian
(cold noodles with peanut sauce. do not order this dish if you are even thinking about kissing someone in the next day or two. you might kill them with the raw garlic breath.)
some other goodness:
gan bian sichi dou
(long beans dry fried with preserved vegetables and pork, not spicy)
stir fried shredded potato with sichuan peppercorns
(pretty tasty side dish, not spicy)
wontons in chili oil sauce
(hearty appetizer, and spicy as it tumbles into the tummy)
i'm still hunkering to try the rabbit, and some of the random appetizers and some more of the sichuan specialties.
who cares about the decor? it's a chinese restaurant. duh. the shuttle loads of chinese tourists should be an indicator that this place is the real deal. i was witness to a bunch of beijingers ganbei-ing their lunch away with the fire liquor they like to call "wine." sick. but so fun to watch a round table full of red faced, tongue-rolling, beijingnese talk at enormously high volumes about san francisco quirks. all fun times i'm tellin' you.
I came here the other night for a family style dinner and boy was I impressed! I had no expectations coming here and this place did a great job for Szechwan Chinese food! Szechwan food is from the south western part of China and food is very spicy!! Just the way I like it! We started off with 6 different types of cold appetizers. Some highlights were the sugar coated peanuts with sprinkles of spicy peppers. I loved the sweet/savory combination of the nuts. The cold chicken immersed in hot spicy oil was also good. The others were fun to try, but nothing outstanding. I enjoyed every dish we had. In particular:
-Braised whole fish with spicy sauce
-Braised beef with spicy sauce
-Salt and pepper shrimp
-Onion pancake: crispy and good enough flavor
-Tea smoked duck: whole duck smoked with tea. It was very meaty and not fatty
-Deep fried yam mochi with red bean filling: YUM!!! Such a unique little fried ball of goodness!
-Dumpling in soy sauce broth: served at the end before dessert to cleanse your palate. Very light and refreshing
If you never had Szechwan food before, I would recommend coming here. It's very different from your typical "Chinese" restaurant. If you're into spicy food, this is the place to try!
Prix-Fixe Dinner
Neighborhood: Financial District
OPEN on Thanksgiving Day
Neighborhood: Mission
Neighborhood: Inner Richmond
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: Inner Richmond
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: Nob Hill
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: Outer Richmond
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: Outer Richmond
Category: Chinese
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![spicy tofu dish [(c)B.K. - no stealing!]](http://static4.px.yelp.com/bphoto/pOihwbij3CTg5U7MoJVaMQ/m)
![[(c)B.K. - no stealing!]](http://static1.px.yelp.com/bphoto/7gTNJE_W45GduVXQ2zm-1A/xss){kind=small}
