Sun Jin Deli & Restaurant

Today was my first visit to this restaurant and definitely not my last. The sizzling rice soup was not that great but the kung pao chicken and the mongolian beef were some of the best I’ve had in a long time. They have many dishes with bitter melon which I love. I will order that when I’m not sharing, as it is not a favorite with many people. It is a tidy small space with lots of take out business going on. Street parking is very difficult.

The word Deli should be removed from this place. Sun Jin changed hands about 3 months ago, and no longer serves deli food. There are no ducks hanging in the window and there doesn’t appear to be anymore lunch specials on the menu. However, there is a chalkboard outside with some lunch specials and some sort of menu on the window that indicates a wider variety of food served than listed on the pink menu. Additionally, they are closed on Sundays and not open 7 days/​week.
The 14 Mission bus parks in front and there seems to be a gathering of Muni riders. When we ate there today, two jive-​talking and noticeably loud women were in front. Our waitress was kind enough to close the front door. The area where the deli might have been seems a little barren. The kitchen is located in the back and you need to walk through to the single stall restroom. The restaurant is generally clean and quiet with a soft background music. Parking is difficult on Mission, though if you park on side streets or a few blocks further south on Mission, you can find free parking.
It wasn’t very busy when we arrived (about 1230 hours) and we ordered 3 items — the oxtail over rice lunch special ($ 6.95), sizzling rice soup ($ 6.95), and sauteed string beans ($ 7.95). Our soup was amazing and one of the best sizzling rice soup since the old Kam’s on Balboa went bankrupt. It had a large quantity of deep fried rice, with shrimp, fake crab, fish, oysters, calamari in a smooth broth that was not overly salted. It was enough for 3 – 4 persons. Certainly I would come back for this soup.
The ox-​tail consisted of a few pieces drenched in a brown gravy adjacent to a pile of white rice. The meal also had chunks of sliced potatoes, broccoli, and carrots. I’ve had better ox-​tail, but this was adequate considering the price of ox-​tails.
Our string beans were spicy and had drippings of hot oil. They were not overpowering and the beans were crispy. We had to take the food to go as we couldn’t eat everything.
When our fortune cookies arrived, a cracked one open and laughed at one of the fortunes. It said «A happy life is full of surprises. Moon everyone in this room right now.» We plan to come back again.

You know Sun Jin? You know, that place your eyes slide over? The Chinese restaurant between Tsing Tao and Taqueria Vallarta? Yes, that’s a restaurant. They make food there. This place is easy to overlook. When you finally do lay eyes on it, it doesn’t look like much, but looks are often deceiving. If you want Chinese food that’s pretty good, very cheap, and made to order, you’ve come to the right place.
Order whatever, safe in the knowledge that it’ll be delicious and won’t cost you very much money. Which is good, because this place is cash only. Take your spoils back to your place, relax, and dig in. Rush in, rush out, pig out.

I haven’t written a review in so long, but because this place is so good and I’m craving some Sun Jin in my life, I just had to write about it.
I’ve grown up in the Excelsior my whole life and never noticed this hole in the wall restaurant until I started working down the street. I longer work in the area, hence me craving Sun Jin.
This place is SO LEGIT! Everything is cheap, fast, and delish! I’ve always like salt and pepper pork chops and the only place I liked it from was Andy’s. I’ve only tasted a few things from Sun Jin, given that every potluck we had at work, my coworker would order the same thing each time: salt and pepper chicken wings. Those were good!!! Big pieces of wings and they give you about 12 of those bad boys! For lunch, I’ve tasted a variety of their dishes. Mongolian Beef: delectable! Garlic Eggplant with ground beef: delish! Salt and pepper pork chops: bomb dot com backslash crackin. MSG is probably their secret ingredient, but I’m betting a bunch of other restaurants include it and claim «No MSG is added.»
Don’t be scared of the appearance outside. Go with that infamous saying, «don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Read the book first!» It’s true! Give it a try. Only downfall is that they accept cash only, but with almost every financial institution being within walking distance of the restaurant, I’m sure that wouldn’t be a problem.

I wont lie… it was DAMN good food… but I think there is MSG in it cause me belly swelled up like I was 6 months preggo the night I ate it and I could swear I heard a giant speedboat motor whizz behind me all night long… I swear… it wasn’t me…
it was odd how the night by my house was covered in a green fog…
Do check it out, its a hole in the wall, its a place you wouldn’t think twice of eating in when passing. but man… the Mongolian beef was killlllerrrrr.

Real cheap and real delicious. Does it get any better?
They are your standard chinese take out. I find the food here a littler better than most places around here and you get a good amount too.
Recommended dishes: Beef stew, shrimp and scrambled eggs, mongolian beef, and any of their noodle dishes. They also have duck here too, for all you duck fans. Their lunch specials run around 5 bucks and is good enough for two meals.

The way it look on the outside may scare you. I was hesitant to try this place for years. Boy was I wrong… My first visit I ordered the seafood over Hong Kong style pan fried noodles to take home. It was delicious, really! You know the restaurant is good when the food is still good by the time you get home. My second visit I got the salt & pepper fish over simple fried rice to go. Another wow! I’ve tried all the nearby Chinese restaurants and this is by far the BEST. Chop Sticks, Chief Hunan, etc. all tasted like cheap Chinese food. This place has the taste of much pricier restaurants. I give it FIVE stars because it is the BEST in the area hands down. My next visit will be dine-​in. I’ll post my review of that at a future date.
You MUST try this place!

It’s a great place to grab food if you’re hungry. The salt and pepper chicken and the salt and pepper pork are AWESOME. They have really good lunch specials too. They give you a lot of food for the price you pay. The price is reasonable, which is great.
It’s not a good place to eat if you’re looking for a sit down dinner. It’s really small and only has about 7 tables. It doesn’t look that great inside and out, but the food is worth going to eat. It’s better if you call in and order your food to go.