Taishan Cuisine – San Francisco, CA

Taishan Cuisine is a modern take on specializing in Taishan claypot rice. They also serve other traditional Southern China/ Cantonese dishes as well as Chinese American dishes.

We ordered:

Preserved Meat Claypot Rice:  This dish comes with a sweet soy sauce if you need more flavor. The meat is savory and delicious. Chinese sausage is slightly salty and sweet and has a nice chew to it. The preserved meat is salty like they should be, but not overly salty. Both the preserved meat and the Chinese sausage goes great with the rice!  The rice is more on the mushy side as opposed to individual grains, so that depends on your preference. What I did not like is that the rice is barely crispy after letting the dish sit for about 20 – 30 minutes. That should have been long enough to allow the rice to continue to cook and become more crispy on the bottom.

Rating:  3.5 out of 5 (Claypot rice is all about the crisp!)

Mushroom and Chicken Claypot Rice: This dish comes with a sweet soy sauce if you need more flavor. Big chunks of chicken compared to other claypot rice places. The chicken is salty and pairs well with the mushroom.  The rice is same as mentioned above – rice is more on the mushy side as opposed to individual grains, so that depends on your preference. What I did not like is that the rice is barely crispy after letting the dish sit for about 20 – 30 minutes. That should have been long enough to allow the rice to continue to cook and become more crispy on the bottom.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Fish Jook (Congee): The rice grains were broken up in the congee and there was a good amount of fish, but it tasted rubbery and was not flaky at all. The congee tasted a bit sweet, but all in all it was comforting and great to have on a cold day, but nothing spectacular.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Sweet and Sour Chicken: The chicken pieces were chewy and a bit tough with a light sweet or sour glaze. The vegetables were nice and crispy, which was refreshing. I definitely would not get this again!

Rating:  2 out of 5

Overall Score:  3 out of 5 

The food was edible with decent quality. Come and try this spot out if you have not tried Taishan food and/or you live in the neighborhood, but it is not a spot I would go out of my way for.