Taisan Huakee Restaurant

This review is for Taisan Huakee Restaurant located in San Francisco, CA. The atmosphere is family friendly, casual setting. Lots of locals come here to eat. They are most known for their claypot rice but other menu items are just as delicious!

Preserved meat clay pot rice:  One of my favorite menu items!  Preserved meat is salty and goes great with the rice. The rice is crispy, but could use some more crisp. In the past the claypot rice took about 20 minutes from the time you order until it arrives on your table and was super crispy on the bottom. This time the rice came arrived to our table in about 10 minutes and wasn’t as crispy.  Still a delicious meal, but I would rather wait a bit longer for more crisp.  It’s possible that they are trying to speed up the cooking time to meet customers’ demands, so I don’t blame them. I’m more of a slow lifestyle person who savors time and delicious food.  Also, another con is that they don’t offer soy sauce with your claypot rice but I believe they may have it on hand if you ask them. Overall, this claypot rice hits the spot if you are craving for homestyle taisan meals, though could improve on the crisp of the rice, and offering condiments to add to the claypot rice.

Rating: 3 out of 5  

Steamed spareribs rice:  This dish came in a bamboo steamer basket and the rice and spareribs are steamed over a leaf for extra earthy flavor. I didn’t taste anything from the leaf so it felt like the leave was for decoration. Though, to be fair this looks like a traditional taisan way of cooking and since most if not all leaves used for cooking are imported then this can affect the flavor of the dish. So can’t blame the cook for not having access to fresh ingredients, it’s more of a new location that cannot produce local ingredients used in traditional Taisan cooking. Otherwise, the rice and spareribs tasted great. Slightly salty. Spareribs are addicting with a good fat to meat ratio. Slight black bean sauce flavor. Reminds me of home cooked comfort food after a long day.

Rating:  5  out of 5 

Peanuts and Frog Stir Fry:  The frogs are cut into pieces and the texture is in between a fish and chicken. Some small bones to spit out which makes this dish addicting to munch on. The peanuts are crunchy and compliment the texture of the frog meat very well.  This stir fry also includes bell peppers, onions, and ginger. Slightly on the salty side if you eat it on its own but perfect when paired with rice.

Rating 5 out of 5

Sweet and Sour Chicken:  The sauce is mostly sweet with a little tang. Pineapple adds a nice burst of citrus and contrast to the chicken. The chicken is freshly fried when you order it, so it’s super crispy on the outside. The chicken is in bite size pieces and in different sizes. Some sizes seem really small with barely any meat in them. I think they should have left those out because it just feels like biting into batter.  Overall, still a good dish especially since they fry it when you order and comes out crispy with delicious sweet and tangy sauce.

Rating:  3 out of 5 

Overall Rating:  4 out of 5.  Though there is room for improvement, most of their dishes are comforting and delicious, especially if Southern Chinese cooking is the type of food you grew up on. I wouldn’t necessarily make a long commute for this place, but if I’m in San Francisco, I often make the trip to come here.