Daniel "oh hai" C.'s Profile

Noooooo! Please don't hunt me down and impale me because I gave San Tung three stars! Don't worry, they might pull off four before year's end. Yes, the dry fried chicken is THAT good.

The first thing you'll notice when you walk into this unassuming restaurant is that the tables are tightly packed, and every table is strewn with DRY FRIED CHICKEN. If every table seems to order this, then it must be that good, right?  

Yup. Another instant trip to heaven is an order of the leek (and shrimp) dumplings. Don't even try to duplicate these in your kitchen-- you'll never get the chives and leeks right. Just come here and eat them. This is Irving Street, and it tastes great.

So why the three stars, as opposed to four or five? Well, you know about my five-star rule. Then to squeeze at least four stars out of me, it takes a truly sublime experience, which this is NOT.  The waitstaff have to butt-nudge every table while zig-zagging through the tight maze in this place, and that gets nerve-wracking, especially after one hour. Can you imagine how tight their asses must be after 10 years of that?  :)

My credit union for 20 years (actually, the name has changed at least 3 times). The German company Bayer Corporation purchased the local Miles factories, where Alka-Seltzer was made. They opened up this credit union for all its employees, then they turned around and closed the entire Miles campus, crippling the town's economy for years.

But hell, we still have the credit union. Don't ask me why, but for some reason I have never switched, even after moving to SF. This must be a textbook example of brand loyalty. None of our West Coast banks enticed me to switch, and I may be banking with Bayer until Alka-Seltzer stops fizzing.

Edited Nov. 14th:

Yelp is another idea which may or may not evade the fate of so many other "shake-and-bake" startup companies.   For the most part, they have delivered local ratings.  Yelp seems to be managed adequately, however I do have some concerns, such as the confusion surrounding the "mod" badge that some elite Yelpers display.

An even greater concern involves the fact that a Yelp employee from the marketing team emailed me, persuading me to change this review, ironically, of Yelp's own website.  Four months after the fact, this review is now coming under fire by Yelp's own. We're all taken aback when we are asked to modify and sugar-coat a review, hence, the new three-star rating.

In July, a Yelp member (K.) who bears the "mod" badge, emailed me with a personal insult, apparently frothing at one of my reviews, demanding that I take my "personal vendetta to Craigslist where that kinda (sic) thing is welcome" and that I am "whining".   K then took to Yelp's talk channels, issuing further insults such as "cretin" and "weasel" because I reported him to Yelp staff. I just assumed that this was a drug-induced episode of his, and I haven't heard anything since.

Then, four months later, the Yelp employee, who is apparenly friends with K (verified elsewhere in the site), emailed me regarding this review. He clarified what a Yelp "mod" really is and asked me change my review.  It turns out that K's inappropriate and emotionally handicapped behavior is not representative of Yelp at all, which is a relief. After all, does Yelp really want us to patronize Craigslist instead? Of course not.

Asking me to modify a 4 star review of Yelp is rather ungrateful, particularly after what I did to attract plenty of users. I guess that every startup must learn the same lessons the same grueling ways: RESPECT THE USER.  I would hate to see this great idea belly-flop, and I would be annoyed if I had to migrate all of my reviews to the next Yelp-like website.

I think I just died and went to Suppenkuche...

I only give one five-star review per year, but since in 2005 there wasn't a five-star in sight, these folks get the honors.  

Expect group love and jovialty when you walk in here. In true Bavarian style, you'll meet plenty of strangers sitting next to you at the pine tables and benches. Drink ONE beer, or else you'll suffer my same fate (below).

The Kartoffelpuffer (potato pancakes) are divine and pretty authentic, though there should have been more parsley in the recipe. The Spedesild (pickled herring) used a recipe straight out of Munich. It was velvet perfection.

Our main Bavarian courses, including roast suckling pig and venison, were enough to bust our gut.  My Vietnamese dinner mate, who should be able to stomach tons of food, had to sit on his side with one leg in the air.  I had to rip off my belt, roll it up, and unbutton a few buttons. Our best damned meal all year.

The only thing disjointed about this Wirsthaus is that once you've paid your bill, two minutes later you will be asked to continue your conversation at the bar, to make way for the next seating. Holy Hofbrauhaus, Batman!!!