Spices 3

The food seems spicy, but it’s a little more «show» than «go.»
I’ve lived in Oakland all of my life, and it was not until recently that I heard about Spices 3. From what other Unilocalers wrote, Spices 3 is supposed to serve really spicy food. My expectations were high when my siblings and I paid a visit.
We ordered the Scallion Pancake, Chicken Wings w/​Explosive Chilli Peppers, Spicy Stir-​Fried Rice Noodle, and Wontons in Red Oil.
The spice level of all the dishes was underwhelming. I was especially disappointed by the Chicken Wings with «Explosive» Chilli Peppers. I expected to be chugging glass after glass of water to cool down the heat, but I ended up chugging water to wash down the oil. Most of the dishes had a good kick, but they did not live up to my expectations.
Aside from the spice level, I was satisfied with the food here. The dishes had some good flavors, though it was too salty or oily at times. Overall, the food here is better than the average Chinese restaurant (though Szechuan cuisine is different from other Chinese cuisine). I wished Unilocal had the option of 3.5 stars, because I think Spices 3 is better than 3 stars, but not quite up to the 4 stars.
If you like spicy food, then you will like this place. If you like REALLY spicy food, then you should not expect too much.

My favorite Chinese restaurant! I always order Mafu Tofu and Twice cooked Bacon. I never get tired of eating these two.

Our table was full of full so we put 2 cups on the the table next to us and nobody was sitting there. When 2 others customer came to that table, the waitress said to us :” excuse me guys, clean table”. It was so mean

I love Szechuan food. I ordered fried chicken wings, spicy wontons, and a few other items which should’ve been nice and hot. None of it was very spicy or numbing–
It was all tasty enough, but I went because I want to get my tastebuds blown off.
Maybe the problem is ordering while white?
I’m still on the look-​out for a great Szechuan place, sadly.

nothing is actually wrong with the food or the service.
but it seems like this place has been attracting the tech bro, hispter crowd and made things less spicy. nothing wrong with that i guess if thats where your demographics are but why the 3 stars? the other 2 spices are spicier

I am beyond excited to have found this place. I’ve been on the search for a decent Szechuan place and this is it!
They have an option for a three-​dish set for $ 25 or so. I usually order the ants climbing a tree, Szechuan stir-​fry and mapo tofu. I also get the twice-​cooked pork on the side. Cheap, friendly, fast, and delicious. The spices are that great mix of heat on all parts of your tongue. I get the food to go and it lasts several days.

All we had were the crispy spring rolls and Phở, but they were both excellent! Most importantly to me they do NOT use MSG in their soup base which is really hard to find. Great service too. Highly recommended.

I was introduced to this place and I just love it. Very easy to miss if you are walking by, but it’s pretty big inside. The food is EXCELLENT! Fresh food, good serving and size and reasonably priced. The garlic eggplant is one of the best dishes I have ever had! I like this place so much, that I ended up eating three meals from here in one week!

This was our second (and unexpectedly our last) stop in our mini-​food tour of Oakland Chinatown. (The owners of Shan Dong was on vacation… stinker!)
We ordered the twice cooked spicy fish, and the mapo stinky tofu.
I was pretty blown away at how delicately the twice cooked spicy fish was fried– the batter was not too thick, but had a crispiness and also a crumbliness to it (in a good way) that really provided a textural contrast to the fish itself, and also prevented the fish from being soaked through by any kind of sauce. There actually wasn’t an overload on sauce in this dish– just enough to add to your filets if you wanted more, but not enough for the fish to be swimming in it (you see what I did there?). :-) This dish by itself makes me want to go back another time.
The Mapo stinky tofu was indeed stinky as advertised, so thumbs up for that. I was hoping for a bit more numbing and kick in the sauce though. Still a quality offering.

Very good food. Super spicy. The explosive chicken wings are a must. The cold appetizer of pig ear in red chili oil was amazing. I would highly recommend if you are in the area and craving szechuan food. they also have a small option for hunan items as well. very cool. food was good, service (to go) was lackluster but they did seem quite busy for a Tuesday night. i will not count the service against them because it’s an Asian restaurant in Chinatown. Enough said.

Service was surprisingly fast this visit. The pork shoulder is divine, and takes about 30 minutes to prepare, so be ready to talk over tea or start feasting on the rest of your order first. I highly recommend the numbing spice fish (shui zhu) and pork shoulder which is large enough to feed a small army. Take leftovers home… just order it!

Love the name and food. I actually don’t like spicy food but this food is so delicious! I love that the tofu and fish are served in boats.
It’s small so I’ve usually had to wait 15 – 30 minutes but its great for family style. Also some of the foods aren’t really that spicy or it may have been that I ate enough spicy food for my taste buds to go numb haha… I’m not kidding.

The food was solid especially for the price!
I don’t know if I can really give a 4 because I wasn’t blown away but the price and quality are hard to beat.
The specials especially from the Chinese menu are priced very reasonably that you can order multiple items to share without hurting your budget.
I just can’t think of anywhere else (other than Chinatown) where you can get 3 dishes for under $ 25 with tax?
Not old or oily garbage food either. Solid, quality chinese food at a good price.
Maybe I’ll upgrade them later but we’ll see???
We ordered…
1 Spicy chicken room temperature
1 beef in spicy chili oil
1 vegetable dish
took a lot home and were satisfied…

Came to Spices for the first time today, and I can truly say I am a fan! I had the fried rice with chicken, shrimp, and pork, and my friend had the mongolian beef — both dishes were AWESOME! I have found a new eating place near my job and I will DEFINITELY be back.
I would have rated the restaurant a 5-​star, but the Customer Service can use some major improvement. To the young lady who served us — try not walking away while we are still in mid sentence, check on us once in a while, don’t assume all the funds we left were for your tip, and try smiling!

WHO LIKES SPICY?
If you are that «go big or go home» type of spice aficionado, Spices 3 is a guarantee must try restaurant in the Bay Area. I was so surprised that I have never heard of this place before, but was definitely glad that my friend took me there.
I guess since it’s located in Downtown Oakland, Spices 3 may get lost within the other popular establishments around the area such as the infamous Shang Dong or my personal favorite, Phnom Penh. Spices 3 is a legit hole in the wall, but very famous and will get crowded if you don’t come at a good time (we came around 730 and by 8pm it was packed).
The one thing you will realize while looking at their menu is that everything that Spices 3 has IS promised to be SPICY! There are only a few options that don’t have chili and even then they have spicy variants.
The one thing I was a bit turned off at first was that the menu was a bit hard to navigate. They do a really thorough job squishing in as many items as possible that it is a bit difficult to find the options you want. However, Unilocal came to save the day!
We settled on stinky tofu, explosive chili chicken wings, shanghai noodles, and spicy oil wonton.
#1. Stinky Tofu
Now, this was actually mine and my friend’s first time trying stinky tofu. After hearing all the interesting reviews about this, I knew we had to try it. Out of all the items, this one came out last.
To be honest, it really doesn’t smell that bad compared to what other people have said. That said, it smells like feet. Even better? It tastes like it smells! It wasn’t a horrible experience but I felt like it wasn’t worth the smell or taste. I think i prefer normal fried tofu.
#2 Shanghai Noodles
O MY this is perfect. The right blend of scorching spice with delicious oils and all that good stuff. GET THIS. If you love noodles and chili, THIS IS A STEAL. Out of all the things we ordered, I was in love with this dish.
#3 Chicken
The chicken wangs were great. They cut them up into small pieces so you don’t have to touch your hands onto all those chili peppers and accidentally poke your eyes. I wish they give you more but I think its worth the price. Again, the spice is what makes this dish exciting.
#4 Wonton with Chili Oil.
Alas, I still have not found a place that makes chili oil wontons that compare to the one that Din Tai Fung makes. But, the ones here were not bad. I liked that they gave us a lot of chili oil, which I used for my other dishes.
All in all, this is now my go to place for Chinese and spicy food. Spices 3 is a GO.
Eat well and prosper,

I came here multiple times, each time trying something different. I really wanted to like the hotpot but maybe the one we got was too spicy for me. It had 2 peppers but I forgot the name heh whoops. Had to get a drink so I got a peach slush and there was a deal going on (I think buy one get one half off) so I shared with my brother.
I will say this though, I got their eggplant once and it was PERFECT with rice. What I really go crazy for (and yes it can be an acquired taste for some) is the STINKY TOFU. whoo man that thing stinks but it tastes so good and the dipping sauce is good. Ive had more pungent ones but don’t get me wrong this one will hit the spot.
I want to try more of the hotpot, but always with a side of stinky tofu :).

Oh man, this is some GOOD Szechuan. I can’t WAIT to come back and try more items from their relatively enormous menu (especially the hot pot — and, in particular, the Gangsta Murder Style hot pot… wtf).
The neighborhood in which this restaurant is located is a bit sleazy, but you’re within pretty close walking distance to the 14^th Street BART stop, so that at least makes it easy to get to and from here from SF. Just maybe don’t go alone at night as a single woman (or do if you’re cool with some characters, whatever).
The restaurant isn’t the prettiest — it’s really spartan — but the food more than makes up for the aesthetics. For dinner, we had Lamb with Cumin Spice, Tan Tan Noodles, Numbing Spicy Cucumber, Chicken Wings with Explosive Chili Pepper, Combo Fried Rice, and Spicy Fish Fillet Bowl with Flaming Red Oil.
Ok, the Lamb was AWESOME — spicy enough, very savory and well-​seasoned, good texture. The chicken was also amazing, although it would be slightly improved if they served it as boneless nuggets instead of tiny wing chunks with impossibly small bones inside. The fish was shockingly one of my favorite dishes. Large, tender fish chunks; not too fishy; spicy but also flavorful (not just heat); lots of yummy greens. You could probably ask for it extra spicy if you really like the mouth-​numbing feeling… I even really enjoyed the fried rice — they mercifully don’t add soy sauce to it and yet it’s well salted. They also put a ton of meat and egg goodness in it.
The two things we didn’t like were the cucumbers (just gross; soggy and not spicy) and the Tan Tan Noodles (almost no meat; not at all spicy; too peanut-​y). However, the things we did like were so good that I don’t really care if a few things were misses.
Be sure you have enough cash money on you when you visit — we had to limit our food intake based on a lack of cash and only one sketchy ATM nearby.

I didn’t love Spices 3. There, I said it. All those great reviews, what the hell is wrong with me?
First of all, it’s cash only. Not a reason to hate, but not a reason to love.
Maybe I ordered wrong? I didn’t get hot pot which looks like the super popular order. I did go for a few items split amongst friends allow which left a void in my food feeling satisfaction.
The spicy three pepper tofu pot was ok. Not spicy at all. Tofu cooked three ways sauteed with peppers. Eh.
The beef with sizzling rice was interesting. Low grade meat wok fried over rice patties that are sizzling! The rice patties were new to me as they were hard patties once drenched in sauce, would soften to snore chewy consistency. It’s so wonderful to try something new, but I still like regular rice better. This meal was ultimately flavorless and super oily.
The chicken curry casserole Ali Baba Style was good; a nice curry, but again no spice whatsoever. It was what you’d think, with a nice mixture of carrots, mushrooms and vegetables. I’ve had better curry. There was ample chicken, but more stringy then tender. Again you could see the oil congealing.
Service was nice and again this spot was quite full. However, my expectations weren’t met. I was expecting spice and I got muted fare that happened to be very oily. Not worth the time or calories. I’d say money, but it was pretty cheap for quantities!

After having a couple happy hour drinks in downtown Oakland, my friends and I were starving for dinner. We attempted to go to Golden Lotus but sadly they were closed at 8:00 pm on a Tuesday. So we decided to try Spices 3 after hearing good things about the restaurant from my friends.
They have many items listed on their menu as vegetarian and we confirmed with our waitress that the items we ordered contained no egg, especially the chow mein. I was so hungry I wanted to order every veg option on the menu!
Here is what we ordered:
— Tofu Pockets sauteed with Bean Chili Sauce — waitress asked us if fresh tofu was okay and we said yes. The tofu pockets were made out of tofu skins filled with bean sprouts. Loved this dish! This had a bit of a kick.
— Scallion Pancake — can’t go wrong with thin flaky green onion pancakes.
— Kung Pao Fried Tofu — crispy tofu with a slightly sweet sauce, mildly spiced. Enjoyed this dish!
— Dry Braised String Beans — one of my favorite go to veggie dishes at Chinese restaurants. This was perfectly cooked with a bit of a crunch.
— Vegetarian Spicy Chow Mein — we asked for mild but this still came out super spicy! Come with jalapenos in it too! I could only eat a little of this because I can’t take too much heat.
We really enjoyed everything that we ordered and glad that we ended up at Spices. Looking forward to trying more of their dishes. I saw some nearby tables had hot pots and I would love to try those next time!

What we ordered: salt and pepper calamari, diced green beans, spices combo fried rice, stir fried shanghai noodles with pork and chicken wings with explosive peppers.
Our group of 4 were anticipating a lot of spicy dishes, but surprisingly none were to the level that we were expecting (even the chicken wings!) Some of the dishes were on the saltier side, but not overwhelmingly so. Each dish had great flavor and we finished everything that we ordered!