San Dong House BBQ Restaurant Review, San Francisco

San Dong House BBQ is a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco that focuses on hand pulled noodles and late-night snacks including 22 types of skewers, some an acquired taste. The restaurant is open late, till 3 AM, and even has beer by the pitcher!

Cuisine – San Dong Chinese
Location – Inner Richmond district
Opened – September, 2010

Decor, Vibe – A narrow typical Chinese restaurant that used to be a Korean BBQ restaurant, complete with overhead air ducts. San Dong had a nice blend of Asians and non-Asians. This restaurant has been reviewed in several publications, expanding its audience beyond the core noodle fanatic.

Menu

San Dong House BBQ Menu has a lengthy menu with many types of noodles, cold dishes, skewers, soup, meat dishes, and vegetables. They have a lot of none San Dong dishes on the menu which probably should be avoided. This includes Shanghai dishes like steamed Shanghai pork buns. So resist the temptation and stick to the regional specialties.

The eight items printed in Chinese on the placemats are their specialties.

Signature Dishes – Noodles, skewers

Full image and menu set

Picks:

Dan Dan noodles ($6.99) had to be tried. The noodles were definitely top-notch. We had seen the noodle chef pulled these sticky noodles together a couple minutes earlier. The seasoning and spices for this dish are not very authentic. We feel they took some hot sauce from Lo Ganma.
Next time we would try a different one. We’ve read that there broth leaves something to be desired.

Lamb dumplings ($6.99 for a dozen) were not gamey at and were pretty authentic home style. Solid lamb flavor, no eggs, tender meat but quite a bit different than San Tung’s version. Make sure you use the vinegar dipping sauce.

Lamb skewers stick ($1.50) was pretty compact and hot the grill. Fatty, juicy, gamey, and Street food-like at this price.

Sweet potatoes ($1.50) looked very interesting with some cum in powder on top. This sweet/savory skewer was a fun dish.

Goat stomach and intestines soup ($6.99 for small) is one of their specialties, as we had to order it. This is where all the extra parts go. A pure broth with good lamb flavor and cilantro and help balance out the gaminess. We last had this dish keep in the heart of China.

Local flavor lamb ($8.99) was a weird name for a dish. A better name would be stir fried lamb. This was an extremely spicy dish with lots of jalapenos and onions. Only get this dish if you can stand immense heat.

Dried sautéed string beans ($7.99) were done well, crispy, fresh and hot from the wok.

OK: (Order if you like this dish)
None

Pans: (We would not reorder these dishes)
None

Service – San Dong House BBQ had adequate service with a helpful waitress, who pointed us towards better dishes. The place was small so servers were forced to to roam up and down the aisle. We did feel sorry for our server as she was told by the boss to pay for an item that was ordered in error.

Value – Prices are reasonable and portion sizes are big, making this very Good value.

Alternatives – Nearby restaurants include Brothers Korean, Five Happiness, San Tung, and Hong Kong lounge.

Verdict – San Dong House BBQ serves up very good food at very good prices, making this a no-brainer if you love noodles and San Dong style Chinese food. Cash only!