Wanugee "Gung Hay Fat Choy! Chuc Mung Nam Moi!" N.'s Profile

Six of us came here for a Chinese New Year dinner.

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Year 4709, year of the Rabbit.
According to the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco:

"People born in the Year of the Rabbit are articulate, talented, and ambitious. They are virtuous, reserved, and have excellent taste. Rabbit people are admired, trusted, and are often financially lucky. They are fond of gossip but are tactful and generally kind. Rabbit people seldom lose their temper. They are clever at business and being conscientious, never back out of a contract. They would make good gamblers for they have the uncanny gift of choosing the right thing. However, they seldom gamble, as they are conservative and wise. They are most compatible with those born in the years of the Sheep, Pig, and Dog"

We actually had 2 Rabbits in our group, separated by 2 cycles. Some of the above fit them. Some of the above does not. And they don't seem much like each other.

KIrin is famous for its Salads, both their Fish Salad, and their Chicken Salad. They are similar, except for the main ingredient. They have a great combination of opposites: A little sweet,  a little sour; a little crispy, a little soft and moist. Sort of like Yin and Yang. We always get the Fish Salad, and it did not disappoint. Delicious and hard to find nowadays.

However, about half of the other dishes we ordered were disappointing.

Perhaps they weren't Chinese enough? (We had some Americanized palates in the group). The fried Won Tons were awful: poorly wrapped and too dry. Likewise the Char Siu pork slices, too lean, and dry. The sweet/sour pork was too crispy. The Peking Duck was meh, not bad, not great.

The garlic greens were good, but so are mine when I make them at home. The whole boneless chicken with ham slices was decent, the chicken good, but the ham very salty, and the gai lan good but too long.  The shrimp with black mushrooms and snow peas was a better dish.

So the American favorites, not so good. The more Chinese or more seafood, the better the food at Kirin. Being Chinese New Year, we didn't have the traditional Jai, the dish to bring in the new year with Fung Si and black Fat Choy. Maybe we should have.

Come to Kirin with traditional Cantonese Chinese eaters, order the Fish Salad, other fresh seafood dishes, and veggies and you will have a great Chinese meal.

Avoid anything you might consider an "American Chinese" type dish.
How do you know what those dishes are?
If your white friends like it, don't order it here.
Get those at Panda Express.

Night 4 - Sneaky Tiki!

This was a great event, the 4th of 5 nights in the Holiday Hangover series!

Great venue at Bid Daddy's Antiques! i loved it, with the high ceilings, 8,000 sq ft, with little nooks and crannies of food, libation and other vendors offering goodies to the Yelp attendees.

A lot of Noobs got in, which was nice to allow many new Yelpers to experience a great Yelp event. The RSVPs were snapped up quickly on all 5 nights, many Elites not making the cut, to make room for newer Yelpers to get a taste of Yelpness!

But I did see a handful of friendly faces, and many new ones. Of course, thanks to the incomparable Ruggy, Jessica and Christina for pulling it all together, getting us in, and checking our coats. IT must be getting a little old after the 4th night in a row!

The theme was Island, officially "Sneaky Tiki" with live Surfer Music from Drifting Sand, Steel Drum calypso sounds from Ben Glasgow, and many in their Hawaiian or Caribbean gear despite the cold outside. Fortunately, there was a Coat Check to the right, manned by none other than Christina and Ruggy!

There were food morsels from the legendary Ike's Place sandwiches, offering 4 different sammiches to the waiting hordes. Sonoma's Eric Kent Wines was generously offering glasses of their $40 bottles of Grenache, 2 Chardonnays, and a Syrah, while Rye on the Road blended 3 tasty cocktails with exotic Island flavors, and Trumer Pilsner had bottles of ice cold beer. Fiji had cases of their great bottled water, and there was also drip coffee blends to savor or to wake up with!

Desserts included sweet morsels from Sweet Constructions, down-home mini Miz Lyn's Pies, who was at another SF Yelp warehouse event 6 months ago, as well as the always favorite Socola Chocolatier, with bite-sized Truffles of Vietnamese Coffee, Guinness, and Sriracha flavored chocolates.

There was relaxing and fun amusements from Suchada Thai Massage, San Franpsycho Screen printed tees, Hula Hoop lessons, and a Photo Booth from Snap Fiesta. There was also a GoGo dancing Parrot in a cage!

For the altruistic and animal lover, there was http://www.wonder... located in the 600 block of Fillmore, taking donations, of which I gave $10.

For you who didn't get in this night or any other night, well as the saying goes, It's hard to get good Yelp these days!

Thanks to all the wonderful vendors and to the hard working Yelp CMs and crew for another night of spreading the Yelp! Only Friday the 13th is left, and I am sure that will be the Yelperstitious and Gothiest!