Spices

Hmm came twice over a week apart, and saw the (same) handwritten note that they are closed that day. We called for further explanation but no one picked up?

I think this place definitely deserves more stars… the food was very authentic and everything we had was delicious! Granted we came on a Wednesday for lunch, they weren’t very busy so we got great service with plenty of attention.
We got:
1. Spicy cucumbers — I personally don’t even like cucumbers, but the flavors are great. The bf loved them and said they got the spot. Also it’s free!
2. Pig ears in chili oil — the spicy oil is amazing! Great texture and big portions. Leftover tasted even better — maybe cuz it had even more time to soak in the flavors? (Side note: foods that’s cooked in chili oil will be oily… that’s how they are cooked! This cooking style is not for you if you need to blot the oil from your food…)
3. Spicy shabu lamb — our favorite dish! The flavors were amazing and the spiciness Is absolutely amazing! One complaint is that the meat had some fats and tendons that could be cut out considering this is supposed to be shabu style lamb (read: thinly sliced meat)
4. Fried tofu with chillies — this came out like a mountain of goodness! It was super hot (temperature wise) since it was freshly fried. Piled on with so much Szechuan peppers. Very flavorful, especially for tofu!
We had so much leftovers that we had enough for another meal coming home! And everything was so delicious that we certainly didn’t mind. There are so many other things that we want to try on the menu that I’m already thinking about the next visit! Oh and don’t forget the rice… you’ll want that for the spiciness!

I’m a big fan of spicy food so I hoped my mouth would be on fire during the meal! Sadly, the lamb pot, chicken wings, and special fried rice did not meet my spicy standards :(The lamb dish was too oily so I had to pat it down with a napkin before eating it. The chicken wings tasted like your typical fried chicken wings. The fried rice was my favorite out of the three, but it was nothing I’d come back for. Overall I felt like I was at a typical chinese spot. There’s wasn’t anything on the menu that caught my attention. On a side note, my boyfriend has been to the Oakland location and says that it tasted way better.

We were very hungry after a five hour hike from Alamere Falls. We ordered Sweet and Sour soup large bowl which was enough for the six people, cumin lamb, beef and onion dish, pork intestine with blood/​tofu soup bowl (I did not eat this), stir fried green a choy, Mandarin noodle with meat sauce, six bowls of rice, and an appetizer. Besides the pork intestine, the meals were excellent. As the name of the restaurant stands, the spices were strong. The cumin lamb was my favorite and the noodles as well. Be careful with the chili peppers or you can get burn! As for the price, $ 99 for all six of us? Not bad. I was full. The place is heaven if you are spice person. I love these Asian spices, and being one of two non Asians here, I was satisfied. Seeking the place, many Asians come here, which is a great sign for the restaurant. I will need to come back and try the duck and other dishes.
***One thing to note, cash only!!!***
Overall: excellent food, excellent price, excellent service

First time ordering delivery from Spices! Very disappointed! Ordered for delivery; took two hours for it to arrive.
Hot and Sour Soup: after microwaved for 2 minutes. Tasted delicious until there was a small fly inside!
Taiwanese Pork Chop over rice: the pork chop became all soggy after it’s been inside the plastic box for two hours! The chef didn’t like a hole to let the air out! Fail
Chicken Wings in Explosive chili pepper: all I tasted was peppercorn; the chicken had no flavor to it whatsoever!
I used to love coming here for its stinky tofu, tasty appetizers and beef noodle soup! I am very unhappy with this delivery experience!

Flavorful, authentic, well executed Sichuan cuisine. Surprised it only has 3.5 stars! Here is a breakdown of all the yummy things we ate:
1) appetizer — couples delight/​spicy sliced beef: thin slices of beef (tendon included!) served drowning in numbing chili oil finished off with a sprinkle of peanuts. Very tasty and tender.
2) cold cucumber appetizer: bright, tangy and garlicky! Great counterpoint to all the heat in our meal.
3) Dan Dan mian — one of the more authentic interpretations of this dish, wasn’t covered in peanut sauce like many other renditions I have tried. Noodles weren’t quite al dente (sad face), but tasted really fresh and the sauce was great — spicy, numbing, and not too oily, with some ground pork.
4) mixed tofu iron pot — came in a iron skillet and mini flame to keep it hot and boiling. 3 kinds of tofu mixed together with lots of dry red chilies and Sichuan peppercorns. The fried tofu was my fav — super soft and flavorful in the middle.
Highly recommended, will be coming here a lot.

Had good hopes for this place but sorely disappointed.
The spicy cucumbers appetizer and the couple’s delight were the best out of everything.
Beef noodle soup was bland without much beef.
Black bean sauce noodles were too salty, and noodles tasted like they’d been sitting out too long.
Dirty environment where we had to shoo away flies away from our table.
There are better places around the same blocks for sichuan food (sichuan home). And south bay is still where it’s at for Taiwanese food

I cannot believe this place has only 3.5 stars. This is amazing, ridiculously authentic sichuan food. We’ve been twice and brought other people, and everyone’s had their minds blown. Ok ok, I’ve never been to China, but my girlfriend is chinese and I trust her on the authenticity point.
It’s not gonna burn your mouth off with spiciness; actual sichuan peppers are both normal capsacin spicy and also slightly numbing, which is a fantastic effect most places aren’t legit enough to pull off correctly.
Everything I’ve had was awesome: exquisite spicy cucumber, fish with flaming red oil, delicious cumin lamb, amazing crispy whole fish, crazy good black fungus that was almost jellyfish-​like, the most delicate flaky scallion pancake I’ve ever had, and probably a couple more I’m not remembering.
It’s not greasy, it’s just primarily cooked in oil, because that’s how legit traditional sichuan food is made. But greasy is absolutely not the right description — it doesn’t taste like fried food at all, and the most out-​and-​out fried-​food-​resembling thing I’ve had (scallion pancake) was actually way more delicate and *less* fried than any I’ve had before.
I think the weakest thing was the kung pao calamari, and even that was pretty decent.
I think a lot of Unilocalers feel like the service was bad; I felt like they were pretty hands off, which I actually like, although I suppose maybe people had specific bad experiences or something that affected their reviews.
But as far as the food: it’s astoundingly good, seriously.

First time I had Szechuan style food! Whoo! Spicy! Even the dishes with 1chili pepper is spicy! Worth trying it though! Wonton soup is full of flavor as well!

I’ve been eating here for years and was super excited to see they delivered through Eat24. I tried to order from them for lunch today (my husband has been sick for the past few days, I popped my hip and we have an 11 month at home), so just wanted some easy comfort food. I ordered pretty close to them opening and over an hour later, still nothing. I call them and she tells me the delivery guy has been out 10 – 30 minutes and it should be there soon. I ask her to call him and call me back to let me know how much longer it is… I never hear back from her and I try calling numerous times to cancel the order and try and go out to get food, no answer. Finally, contact Eat24 to cancel.
From talking to the lady at Spices and finally cancelling my order, it was another 30 minutes and the food never came, which I find interesting. The restaurant responded quickly to not ever sending the food, so did they just never really send it or was she able to talk to the delivery guy quick enough to not have it delivered to us? Either way, I’m unhappy and hungry.

Craving a tian tian mein I decided to come here because I love me some spicy food. This place is very small where it can fit at most 10 tables in total.
I came here and got a tian tian mein, spicy pig ears and a spicy beef noodle soup bowl and the total cost was about $ 20. The tian tian mein gave you a HUGE portion of noodles with some minced pork on top but I felt as if it was too thick and salty for my liking and less spicy than I was expecting. The spicy pig ears were red from all the chili oil and was a quiet a large portion for an appetizer and was delicious. The beef noodle soup my boyfriend liked and he was happy with it as well.
Only problem if you are like me and HATE the smell of stinky tofu BEWARE! If they are making it you can definitely smell it. All in all it was not a bad dinner but don’t forget to bring cash because this is a cash only place!

Solid 3.
Service 2.5
Food kinda ranges from like, 3 – 4.
Let’s start with the food and end with service =_​=
FOOD
On average, the food was pretty damn good, albeit all on the salty side and for the most part, very oily… so not for the diet conscious, and you’ll definitely want a side of rice. VERY flavorful and pretty much everything on the menu was spicy, and the place is even called ‘Spices!” (with an exclamation mark!) so obviously, don’t come if you don’t like spicy food. Apparently only this location has the stinky tofu (the 2^nd location two blocks away doesn’t)
Their menu isn’t online so these aren’t the official item names but here’s what we got:
Free spicy cucumber for checkin — NEVER CAME, but didn’t bother to ask for it =_​=
Spicy beef tendon — yummm, thinly spiced savory perfection (2^nd fav of the night)… but. drowned in ALOT of chili oil
String beans — meh. TOO spicy and usually with these, it wasn’t as dry or fried as I usually like. and there was too much chili oil
Tan tan men (noodles) — I had this once at the other location and I loved it but the one here was way too salty… the actual texture of the noodles were good though
Sizzling lamb with cumin — SO FREAKIN GOOD. Probably because I just love cumin, but the lamb was super tender. And yes, this dish was oily too.
Fried stinky tofu — WOW, first bite was super stank but after a few bites, I actually kinda liked it. Not a stinky tofu noob though. I think everyone should try it once. Texture of the tofu was awesome (crispy on the outside, soft on the inside) but. again, really oily
Hot & sour soup — honestly? This was the best hot & sour soup I’ve had in the city but it was just a tad salty…
Some kinda fried fish with garlic & chili (fav dish of the night!) — DUUUUUUDE this was bomb — hello, fried garlic? How can you go wrong. And it freakin came with fried basil… best thing ever… Fish was lightly fried and delicious as well.
SERVICE
Before coming in, we had a reservation for 6 and 7PM. I walked in, it wasn’t busy, and there was only ONE table that had a ‘Reserved’ sign on it. I walked and said, «Reservation for Jeff at 7 PM.» The girl answers, do you have a reservation? .Yes. Jeff? Yes. For 6? Yes. OMG, DUDE, DID I JUST NOT SAY ALL THAT UPON WALKING IN?! Anyways. Fine. I’ll let you pass on that because I talk pretty fast sometimes.
IDK. The food all came in a timely manner, but I felt like the service wasn’t very pro-​active… we ran out of tea/​water constantly and had to flag them down even though they were pretty much in front of our table. Near the end of dinner, I said to my sister, «eh, I’m not really feeling the service.» She agreed and said, «Yeah, felt like they were just staring the whole time with blank faces.»

Delicious!!! Not over spicy… I had the vegetarian eggplant made them add pork… Wonderful mind numbing cucumbers with check in … Yess

Great restaurant with FAST service and AUTHENTIC Sichuan food!
My friend recommended me this place and it has a lot of reviews on Unilocal,so when my friends and I came on a Friday night (around 6pm), we expected there to be a line. But WE WERE THE FIRST ONES THERE! We were seated immediately, which made us very happy.
When you check in here, you can get a free appetizer (numbing cucumber), which is pretty nice of them. Between the six of us girls, we ordered four main dishes and one side dish, and it was PLENTY! For the main dish, we ordered 1) fish with vegetable in soup, 2) vegetable (I forgot the name… see picture), 3) tan tan noodle, and 4) grilled beef. For side dish, we ordered stinky tofu with bean curd.
The portion size was perfect — not too much or not too little — so each of us got a good portion of each dish. IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH, make sure you let them know to tune down on the spiciness. Or else you will feel like your stomach is on fire for the next few hours of digestion. When eating, make sure to pick out the pepper and seasoning particles. I really liked the vegetable (see picture) and grilled beef. The tan tan noodle was on the salty side, so you will have to mix the sauce with some rice. The stinky tofu was not as authentic as I would have liked, but still good.
Even though I am not a Sichuan native, I would say this place can be considered authentic. I would give this place a five star if my stomach could handle spicy food, but since I could not, I would just give it a four star.
Overall, great experience and great food. Very cozy place!

After we got seated, neither of the two young ladies working paid us any attention. A couple that came in minutes after us finally got some attention and placed their orders. I typed my order on my phone because I was bored. About 20 minutes after being seated, I finally got to recite my order to her. The drinks arrived ten minutes later. Then, they brought Mongolian Beef instead of eggplant. I had to show her the notes on my phone before she was willing to take the Mongolian Beef back.
When we were done eating, it took many tries before we got their attention bring some to-​go containers. We asked for five, she brought four. There were only three other tables. I am sure those two young ladies are nice, but bless their hearts; they have no knowledge of the menu and no relevant skills at all. How’s the food? With service this lousy, the food is irrelevant.
Update:
I received a message from the owner within an hour or so of posting my review. He was apologetic and said the two young ladies were new and will re-​train them. Seeing how sincere he was, I will go there again when I’m in the mood for spicy food.

Good food but TERRIBLE service. We walked through the front door and no server greeted us or even looked at us. They were just doing their things and completely ignored us and other customers arriving. We stood waiting and eventually walked up to them so they would acknowledge our presence. They rudely told us to wait because they were busy. We decided to wait because we never had Schezuan food before and wanted to give it a try because of the good reviews on Unilocal.
After almost an hour later they sat us down and it went downhill from there. They kept on ignoring us for the rest of the night. Took ages for them to come back to our table to take our orders, took forever for the food to come out and took what seemed like eternity to get to go boxes and the check. We literally spent 3 hours with the whole experience which wasn’t pleasant at all.
Food was good and different — there’s no denying on that part but with this type of treatment and service we almost lost our dignities as customers after visiting this restaurant. Other customers were frustrated and those behind us waiting to be seated just took off swearing what terrible service this place had. Never going back here and be treated like this again.

We decided to come here on a whim. We shared a bunch of dishes hoping to take the remaining home.
Tan tan mein — also very good
Salt & pepper fish — super tasty
Dried fried green beans — tasty & delicious
Stinky tofu w/​pork — stinky, literally! It’s different and interesting but not for me
I think I’d come back and try some new things. The ambiance is definitely not there and when you walk in it smells like a balance of peppers and stinky tofu.

this place is legggggggit. Get the string beans and sauteed calamari. Definitely will come back to try more. Caution: don’t eat TOO much or you’ll feel the oil sit in your stomach the next day and then you know will come soon after that…
I left a 3 star before but had to change it because i feel HORRIBLE after eating this place… stomach is extremely upset and i’m pretty sure its because of the oil ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

The Inner Richmond is home to some of SF’s best exotic eats. Feel like stretching your palette? Try Burmese @ Burma Superstar or try the best of fermented Korean foods at To Hyang [when it re-​opens].
This trip, we decided to eat @ Spices — A Taiwanese/​Szechuan style restaurant with amazingly spicy food, free tea and an awesome Unilocal «Check-​In Offer» of free numbing cucumber!
Last time I was @ Spices, I tried stinky tofu for the first time. Not being in a stinky kind of mood, I decided to sample some of the dishes which wouldn’t ruin my interpersonal dealings for the rest of the day.
The food was delicious, just the right level of spice and in true abundance. In honesty, we ordered two more dishes then we needed [it ended up being 2.5 meals for us]. Yet the bill was under $ 40 so there was absolutely nothing to complain about.
The Inner Richmond may not have art deco which screams «Chinatown»; but if you take a look inside, you will see that this diverse enclave packs a great deal of culture per square inch.

A very unassuming hole-​in-​the-​wall. It’s moderately small in size, with a lot of chairs and tables crammed inside. Good thing that it was pretty empty when we were here on a weekday night. There’s a big TV on the wall that happened to be showing the Chinese version of «The Voice» when I was there. It was cozy, casual, and authentic.
Food was delicious. And fast! Food starting coming within 5 minutes of ordering.
Good pricing. We split this food between two of us, but could have easily added two more people to this. Maybe this was because the food was so SPICY that I needed to counter with extra rice.
#88 Numbing Spicy Cucumber — free appetizer with Unilocal check-​in
#45 Sizzling Lamb w/​Cumin Spice $ 12.95
#111 Ma — Po To Fu with Minced Pork $ 8.95 — not as much meat as I would have expected:
#129 Won Tons in Red Oil $ 5.25 (6 won tons total)