Spicy Queen

Used to be the best Sichuan restaurant in SF, but only last for the first week since it opened. The quality of the food there is getting worse every time I visited. At last I got totally disappointed of it and leave it forever.

Came here on a Tuesday night for a table of five and it wasn’t too busy so we got to sit right away. There seems to be only one guy bussing all the tables which made service slightly slower and less attentive.
The chopsticks are a little old since the wooden fibers started flaring out — not appetizing. We started with the cucumber salad which was super tasty and refreshing. Since I’m not a lamb fan, my friends ordered the lamb skewers and didn’t think it was too bad. We then got our main courses of tan tan noodles, spicy beef noodle soup, and guiling noodle soup. The noodles were very long so it took us awhile to scoop out but that’s better than short noodles. They’re very spicy even though I requested for mild since I can’t handle too spicy. My boyfriend had the guiling noodle soup and it was very flavorful, but compared to the spicy noodles, it was much less interesting. I they also serve a yogurt drink to help cool down the spicy, which is also good for the digestive. Not bad for spicy food lovers, but not too bad for me since I could request for less spicy.
For five people, our bill came out to be about $ 20 each person including tips — not bad!

I came here with a friend and it was one of the best authentic Szechuan food I’ve had in town. I ordered beans and meat sauce noodle. I once had it in Chongqing, and this place made even better taste of it.
Some restaurant mistakenly think Szechuan food is only about spicy. But it’s not. The real Szechuan cuisine has rich aftertaste — after the mouth numbing spicy, you should taste some sweetness, as well as the delicate flavor of the ingredient itself. That’s the fascination of Szechuan food — the complex taste burst in your mouth. Unfortunately, only a few restaurant in the Bay Area could do that.
Spicy Queen exceed the standard and does very good job on balancing the flavor. The noodle I ordered is not too spicy. The beans and the pork are perfect match. I will definitely order it again.

Very much a Chinese experience at its worst. I have had high hopes, and a lot of great deal of Sichuan restaurants experiences, both in China and in the states. We walked by this place since it first opened, like million or so times. Really hope that it’ll be good.
Food is oily. I have never had a Sichuan hot oil boiled beef dish with this heavy gravy sauce before. It’s super salty, barely edible. I don’t know what it is called. I can’t imagine any Chinese chain restaurant could survive this kind of non authentic dishes, but maybe they made it for the Americans here, but still the restaurant is filled with mainlander Chinese, you think you’d get at least an authentic dish but no such luck. The ribs were deep fried, flavorful but seemed to be coated with MSG. The Dan Dan noodles should be easy to make, heck I make it at home, but it did not appear to even look like the picture printed on the menu.
Table is greasy. The door is not shut and cannot be shut fully, and there was no heat, so we ate with our coats on, terribly cold winter night. The most horrific experience is the bathroom, where there were literately piss everywhere on the seat, a little dose of China right there and then. To give you slightly more of a taste what a lousy but typical chinese restaurant in China would do, they also announce that they charge a container fee, not much like 25 cents or something, but really? Can’t you just built the price in?
I have eaten in many different Sichuan places. My step mother was from Chongqing. I know what a mediocre place looks like: both in China and in the states. I also know when it’s been Americanized and /​or just a Taiwanese Sichuan joint.
We were debating between this one or Terra Cotta Warrior on the other side of the park. It was really a toss but I think we’d enjoyed it more there, at least it looked cleaner.
Here is the silver lining of eating at a Chinese chain restaurant’s very first outpost in America: you really can get just about anything in the Avenues. even a lousy Chinese restaurant that would be considered lousy in China. Enthusiasm is curbed. We really should have stuck with our original plan of eating at Stein’s.

Great food. Service not an issue as others as noted. Came on one of the coldest nights in San Francisco. Obviously they heat the food but not the restaurant too well.
Plan to come back in the warmer weather to enjoy the food again.

The traditional Szechuan cuisine. The noodles taste so good that we are full just before the hot pot is coming. Also the hot pot is great too.

Minus 1 star for the 50 minute wait time. But everything was delicious and so worth the wait. They only had 1 waiter working during the lunch hours, which I felt wasn’t fair for him. He was running around all over the place, and the place was nearly full. I hope they hire an additional waiter for lunch, to make the service run smoother.

Not a bad place. Everything is like spicy! Lol I guess that’s the name. Didn’t try the hot pot but got a lot of the noodle dishes. Me and my friends got the tan tan noodles, chongqing noodles, beef noodle soup, and the eggplant dish. It’s all very good and the spicy flavor is there. It’s not a bad place and people should try it out. I can’t say it’s super amazing but the food is good for not really waiting. Next time I want to try the hot pot and see how that goes. Place is clean which always a good thing in my book.

Good service and tasty spicy food here, it’s kind of real Szechuan food.
Haha, coz I am a Szechuan people…

I like spicy.
Taste really good… My friends and I went there several times.

Zhuoping said food was great. Very nice China feel décor. Spacious dining area. Bathroom was clean. Friendly service. Bang bang de.

Kinda meh. On the upside, i actually found the service quite fine, unlike most people here. The fish tofu was excellent and the meat was fine. The herbal broth was fine. but the spicy broth was DISGUSTING. not any sort of actual broth, just all oil. i like to actually eat/​drink the broth, and there was no way that was happening here — like drinking a bottle of veg oil. yuck.

I can not tell the different from 3 dishes we ordered. They all had the same flavor/​taste. They’re good spicy tho but too much oil. If i decided to go back again I would get only 1 dish and ask for less oil and try other dishes.
1 star down for service. I don’t need that much attentive service but I did ask for hot tea and a drink which I had to wait for too long and also longer when I ask for more water.

Good spot! Came I and it was super busy. We had to put our name down on a clipboard and wait for someone to call us. Had no idea how long the wait would be but we decided to wait anyway. As we were about to leave, a waitress came over to give us a seat. Let me tell you, so glad we waited. Very different dishes and the food was fresh! I ordered the sweet n sour shrimp and it was beyond good. The sake was also great

Came here randomly because a restaurant up the street was closed and I’m so glad we found this place. I’ve been here a couple of times now and I love it. I always order the vermicelli with minced pork– it’s amazing. I’ve also had the explosive chicken, eggplant, duck chin, fish and tofu pot, and tan tan noodle. I’ve never been disappointed.

This place stands out like a sore thumb at night on Geary St. The multi-​colored neon lights look like something you’d see along a street food alley way in China.
This place looks so tacky from the outside, I knew there had to be great Chinese food inside.
And there was…
Let’s start with the menu, there’s a lot going on there, but realistically, even that’s only half of the food choices served here. They have another paper sheet for hotpot where you can order hotpot food (food you cook yourself) rather than the made-​to-​order dishes from the actual menu. My party came more for the hotpot so that’s what we got!
Hot Pot (Half herbal /​Half Spicy):
The herbal soup is great, once the herbal soup comes to a boil, try a small bowl for taste. The spicy side… could be a bit more spicier and more numbing, I mean for a place that is called Spicy Queen, I expected «Spicy Queen». The meats here are all pretty darn good, the surprising one being the beef tripe, I’m not usually a fan of tripe, but this stuff is good! I would not be afraid to order anything else on the menu after trying this.
Dipping Sauce:
Yes, order the dipping sauces!!! They come in a large bowl each so it’s shareable by the table and they are amazing! The soup bases are already pretty flavorful, but the sauce really seals the deal!
Grilled Squid — pretty damn good and well made, eat this quick while it’s still hot! Don’t let it cool down while you’re scarfing down on your hotpot foods, those can wait!
The inside of the place can get quite stuffing, hot pot, chili spices, crowded space with bad ventilation can make this place feel like a steam room, so it does get quite warm while you’re dining here, grabbing a cold dessert nearby isn’t a bad idea afterwards.
Overall, this place is a 3.5 stars in some areas but the certain unique dishes (like their tripe) and the fact that this place looks so tacky yet still tastes good makes this a solid 4 in my book.

A friend organized a NBA Finals game three party in their 2^nd floor private room which has an 80″ TV. Walking through the main dining room, I was directed to a set of stairs midway down to the left leading there. It’s definitely roomy and comfortable as there were sofas positioned around the big screen.
Arriving a bit late, half of our party of fourteen were enjoying (not really, since the Warriors trailed early on) the game while the other half were having conversations at the large circular table for fourteen. To secure this room, our organizer negotiated a set dollar minimum ($ 500.00) for our party. They ordered appetizers and small bites to start and it was BYOB which is a nice perk for those wanting their choice of imbibe. We munched on a variety of small marinated dishes like preserved egg, tofu, seaweed, pig ears, and chicken (
); the green onion pancakes weren’t bad either. As everyone’s appetites grew, everyone returned to the main table as the waitress set up two burners, one already imbedded in the table and another electric tabletop one (
). The main burner had two broths, an herbal one with goji berries and a spicy one that looked intimidating but wasn’t that bad; the tabletop one had a special spicy lamb broth which I didn’t try since it was a bit of a reach from my seat.
Then, came the proteins which included mussels, shrimp on a stick (easier to cook), thinly sliced beef and lamb, and an assortment of veggies and tofu skin, tofu, quail eggs, enoki mushrooms, and fish and meat balls. Trying to pace myself, I took my time which proved to be at my disadvantage. Around 8:30 pm, the power on both the in-​table burner and the plug in burner both shut off… as in there was no electricity. Interesting since the large screen TV, the wall mounted smaller TV, and the lights were all still operational. After about thirty minutes of searching and checking the wire, fuses, and other causes for this disruption, our waitress found an old school gas (butane can) burner, but only one for fourteen people. As the game winded down after a gallant Golden State comeback, the Cavs prevailed and most everyone was hungover from the loss. Also, since the restaurant closes at 10 pm and it was around 9:30 pm before the burner was back on, we decided to order a variety of drinks, appetizers, and green onion pancakes to bring our total closer to the minimum; we ended up around $ 330.00 before gratuity and, given the technical difficulties, the owner was kind to waive the minimum for our particular situation. Nothing really stood out and the situation was awkward and unusual since we didn’t get a full taste of the potential of this place.
Will try to come back and give it another try, but the experience left more of a bitter taste than a numbing one.

Authentic ChongQing cooking, loved the spicy hot pot that they offer. Great taste and reasonable price for the food, good atmosphere. Every dish for the hot pot was good except the pork blood, not juicy at all, (it is pretty hard to find fresh juicy pork blood anyway) I will just avoid it and get something else next time. Parking was kind of hard but I just had to walk a couple of blocks, so worth it for the food. This restaurant would be on my list whenever I visit San Francisco!

Spicy Queen has an affiliation with Potsticker (chinatown), Spicy Empire (san mateo).
saw van parked in front with eateries’ name printed on it.
Spicy Queen has dim lighting thruout. (probably not to create a romantic ambience but to save $$. didn’t ventured inside. just ordered to go. .
eats: lunch special cumin lamb w/​onions (8.95)
–pricing on menu confusing, thought rice was extra $, wasn’t.
lamb is extra, beef 1 $ cheaper, no problem, not a rice eater.
–confirmed i wanted spicy with cumin, didn’t expect chilis
–some white onions with thinly sliced lamb, tasty
more lamb than CHI in milpitas
3.5 stars.
take outs:
–lunch menu has lots of noodle offering
spotted lamb, a better value.
–would be 4 stars wouldn’t the chili
–service not a problem, serviced quickly…

The food is quite good, especially for Szechuan style hot pot.
Why the low rating? BULL$HIT service.
For a place with hot pot, you would think that they would know it would require more attention. People will need UTENSILS, DRINKS, refills on broth when it gets too low in the pot, refills on their tea, MORE FOOD WHEN WE RUN OUT. It was such a burden to get water. It took over an hour and several requests. Whenever I did ask for something, the one waitress made it seem like I was bothering her and caused her suuuuuch annoyance.
And yea, we came with a group. When it came time to pay the bill, we were calculating the best way to split it. They only allow the bill to be split between 2 cards. Fine with us, we didn’t have an issue with that policy. BUUUUUT the female waitress muttered in Mandarin that we were troublesome. YEA I HEARD YOU, FREAKING BIAO ZI! They didn’t include automatic gratuity even though were were a group larger than 6. Spicy Queen probably should because with their terrible attitude and service, nobody in their right minds would tip them. My friends and I aren’t total a$$holes though and did leave a tip.
but here’s another tip: stop being a biao zi and do your fcking job, sha bi!