Ice House

I seldom find Ice House open when i drive by. today, i walked by and noticed a posting by a real estate agent listing Ice House «for sale».
dailed the phone number. it’s been changed to (415)661−6116
checked google.
phone no. is that of café bakery a few doors over.

A very strong 3.5 stars for lunch. A sure winner is the beef stir fry chow fun. Great wok flavor.
If you like green onion pancakes, try it here. Scallions tucked in between two pancakes. Somewhat different.
The owner, Terry also takes your order. She is very hospitable. Brought us hot soy milk in tall plastic glasses in addition to hot tea.
Anything stir fried was very good; however the steamed dumplings were just fair. But they’ve got a good range of items for every palate including clay pots.
Decent prices for what they’re offering.
Parking can be found, but metered during the week.
Why is it called the Ice House when the menu isn’t indicative anything cold or icy? I suppose they bought the business over and just kept the name.

I randomly found this place. I was in the area and craving dim sum, Unilocaled what was close by, and just got lucky with this spot! We were all really pleased with how good everything was. And they have some of the more unusual items that you can’t find at every dim sum place (like tripe.) Some people may or may not like that aspect, but my family appreciated it!
I can’t remember everything we got, but I recall the Shanghai dumplings, chinese donuts, and onion cakes being really good! And it is pretty cheap. You can get stuffed on $ 10.

I don’t know what took me so long to look for fan tuan in the city. I had become dependent on my South Bay friend to locate and procure fan tuan for me. Maybe I was afraid that I would find EXCELLENT fan tuan so close to home that I would indulge in the sodium-​rich, complex carbohydrate treat so often that I would have to buy new pants.
Fan tuan is translated to salty rice stick on most menus.
Ice House uses the full width of the doughnut (some places only use half) and the pickle is brown (not green). Ice House is also generous with the pork and uses just enough rice to coat the stick. Doughnut to rice ratio is EXCELLENT.
Fan tuan is available all day and all week long! Joints in the East Bay and South Bay only have fan tuan available for limited hours on the weekends. So dumb, right?
Ice House makes the fan tuan to order! I ordered it and was told to wait ten minutes. She offered me a seat and a cup of tea. Eight minutes later I had a super hot rice roll! It was so hot that I couldn’t eat it right away…
30 minutes later I unwrap the satly rice stick and tuck in.
SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!
Rice is perfectly chewy, doughnut is still crispy, and pork sung is plentiful.
The only change I would make is the pickle. I wish it was green and I wish there was a smidge more in the mix.
Cash only, $ 2.98

Its not necessarily horrible and apparently my housemates give most their pay checks to this joint but I’ll never go back unless I’m with friends and I’ll recommend anything else first.

Rarely do I give poor star ratings for places who have all but established a good and reputable menu and fan base yet given the inconsiderable circumstances on a number of occasional visits, here, I am compelled to drop the unpleasant.
Restaurant service etiquette is the customary code of polite behavior among members of a particular food establishment. A standard protocol that promotes success reflecting a good business practice. Lack of which overshadows the very reason why most of us are initially drawn to an establishment — popularity. Given the many years of being a foodie, I have not come across a business being completely devoid of professionalism and concern for its paying customers. Which in this case, is us.
45 long minutes of waiting for the simplest selection of menu items to arrive.
The total negligence of our presence.
The lack of etiquette to least fill up our tea glasses or say something.
The complete absence of courtesy to compliment our wait time.
And to top it all off, when we all decided not to wait any longer, the food comes out packed in to go boxes on a full priced bill.
Really? A restaurant business running a full scale operation with little help and shameful nature. I am sick to my stomach.
My observations:
Long wait times are more likely to happen on a busy weekend. Food is okay, «I’m-not-jumping-out –of-​my-​seat» okay.
Two servers, approximately running 15 tables, front counter, to go orders.
One being the owner, if not, the manager.
Short in staff is the reason why incoming customers take 2 seconds to turn right back out.
3 parties have left since we got seated.
Tables are filled with dirty plates and glasses. Shouldn’t happen with enough help. Service turnaround is simply poor.
Neighboring tables are filled with disappointed faces waiting for food to arrive. Poor ventilation. The swinging door is your only good chance for a breeze.
Overall, very unsettling and unprofessional. We will defintely not come back. Without good service, food is never complete. Café bakery is next door. Stress less.

So one day I walk into the office, only to smell this delicious aroma wafting through the air.
I walk into the kitchen area, and I spot 2 colleagues chowing down on some yummy looking vittles. I inquire… I’m provided with a plate full of each… I savor… I like… I inquire some more.
ICE HOUSE down the street they say.
ICE HOUSE down the street?!? I say.
We are in agreement that the food is good.
Today, I just called to place a take out order. «How long», I say. The lady say, «you come now». I say, «okay, I come now.»
I just got back from there, with Shanghai Chow Mein with Cabbage and Pork in hand.
As I munch… I type. Pretty good indeed.
Shie shie.

We were going to moms for dinner and needed some dessert. We stopped by at the bakery next door and got a couple of pies. Just for kicks, we walked over to Ice House and read their menu.
They had two things that we wanted to try even though we had already picked up enough food from another restaurant further down Noriega.
Shanghai Style Chow Mein (4) flavorful; good amount of meat and veg.
Curry Pot Stickers (4) very flavorful; tops of pot stickers had dried out by the time we got to moms (15 minutes), or they hadn’t cooked properly.
The reason that we gave a 3 star instead of a 4 star is because we had to wait. Yes, we know it takes time to make pot stickers. But these were not the thick doughy kind. They were thin skinned, more like Japanese Gyoza. We felt the reason for the wait was the employees were finishing up their lunch meal and didn’t want to break away to cook for us.
20 minute wait and we were not offered tea or water. Too bad…

This place is NOT closed anymore… The menu has changed and is run by one of the original waitresses of Won Ton House which is a couple of doors down…

The menu to this place has the name ice house still so I think they never changed the name from their old business of serving drinks and deserts. They have $ 5 fried chicken and fries and $ 5 pot stickers that’s all I care about. It’s real good and cheap!

I had a sick craving for french fries. My friend wanted to come here since the fried chicken dish comes with fries. This was an odd compromise but totally worth it. We also ordered the «regular» potstickers since they also come «curry». The potstickers were good; the skin wasn’t too thick and was filled with an ample amount of meat. The fried chicken wings and drumsticks were super crunchy and delicious. The french fries came in the perfect amount that satisfied my cravings. Leave it to a restaurant to fry up a perfect chicken wing to also fry up perfectly crispy french fries. The other items on the menu looked good and I would consider coming here again. The strange thing about this place is that I could not for the life of me find the name until I exited. Ice House was printed on the menu that was taped to the window. Unless you can read Chinese I think it would be almost impossible to name this place. Their business cards also all written in Chinese. The woman behind the counter spoke very good English though.

CLAY POT RICE — very good. the best i’ve had in the city. it tastes like the way mom makes it… crispy rice, fluffy rice, and nicely marinated meat…
SHANGHAI DUMPLINGS — not anything spectacular… but also not bad either… just had a feel like it was bought or made elsewhere.
GREEN ONION PANCAKE — didn’t taste right. no layers in it… not flaky. i would not order this again…
OTHER FOOD — had a bunch of chow mein type stuff and none were great… nothing stood out as worth ordering again…
SOY MILK — this was also very good. no burnt taste and good amount of soy. BUT i had it twice and first time as perfect, 2^nd time was watered down and not sweet enough
SERVICE — nice waitresses. kind and they seem happy to be there
PRICE — above average in terms of chinese restaurants are concerned…
OVERALL — come for the clay pot rice and relax in this quiet restaurant… not worth experimenting around the menu…

when this place sold crepes i give it a 5 star. i loved it so much the little old lady who worked here was so nice. she gave me so many strawberries. its been changed into a restaurant now for a while but they still have the crêpe sign up. dont be tricked though. ugh. they were so good. poor little lady i wonder what happened to her.

Ice House has CLOSED… I kept driving by thinking I just came at the wrong time but the windows are covered up.
Update: Maybe they just remodeled and now serve banh mi and dim sum? I can’t read the new sign (it’s in Chinese).
I feel like it was partly my fault. I should have come here more often but I went through a phase of not drinking PT a few years ago. I loved this place. They had the best red bean pearl tea with the most tapioca balls and the most red beans. Real red beans, no powder here. Pearl tea is usually filling but this was also the most filling PT I’ve had. They used real fresh fruit to make their drinks, no syrups. I loved the red bean PT so much that I never had anything else here.
I wish I had tried the snacks. I liked Sweet House on Irving St. for PT too — and they closed as well. Sigh.

i have been coming here for years and years and years. i love this place! they have the best strawberry drink here that is my absolute favorite. i wish i could make it at home but i dont know what that special little thing they put in it actually is. i love it so much i have to come here and each and every time i go to the dentist (down the street). ill drink the cold drink even when my teeth are freshly clean and mouth is sore. sooo good!

Unilocaler Jonas T. introduced me to this place this weekend, and I have to say that the snacks at this place are surprsingly memorable.
The sago drinks are filled with a lot more tapioca than boba drinkers might be accustomed to, but the pork sung rice rolls were spectacular.
In fact, I’m craving another one right this minute.

This is one of my favorite hole-​in-​the-​walls to grab Taiwanese snacks — tea eggs (50 cents each) and pork sung rice rolls ($ 3 each) to be exact. The lady who works here is really nice. My friends and I seem to be the only people here everytime we come. Oh well — More room for us! It also helps if you can read Chinese because from what I remember, the menu is in Chinese. A lot of the drinks are premade so if you’re in a hurry, you can just run in and grab something.
If you like coconut, you’d love the coconut sago drink (around $ 2). JONASAPPROVED!