Chili House SF

We love getting take out here! Our favorite is the Couple's Delight, but all dishes taste good! This place is typically busy and a little noisy. Saw them prepare some dishes tableside, and serve tea using teapits with very long spouts..

We recently went as a group of 11 (+1 baby) to Chili House and had made a reservation for a banquet on a Saturday night. We were glad to have the reservation, given even if we had gone as just 2 that night, it would have been a very long wait.

The banquet was absolutely spectacular. They bring out the courses as mentioned from the website throughout the evening, although not precisely in the order listed as a heads up. Some of my favorite highlights:

- Soup of winter squash, corn and scallops: had the consistency of an egg drop soup and was very delicious.
- Braised and fried lamb rib coated in cumin and chiles: had a wonderful salty taste with the feeling of melting in your mouth.
-Peking duck - always a classic, and well done here.

Definitely was more food than we needed; by the end we were overwhelmed.

This was the week of Chinese New Year, and we were lucky enough that there was a performer there who both practiced the art of chinese mask switching as well as poured Tea from a super long spout. It really added to the night and the crowd at the restaurant really got into it, clapping along.

Overall, an amazing experience and would recommend to anyone - worth cobbling together a group of friends or family for.

The pancakes lacked veggies, and some of the rolls were undercooked. The veggie plates were good (especially if you like garlic) and the pork & prawn dumplings too. I don't think we will go back because overall it's an average place, we just landed there because we were starving. Also not a huge fan of carpets in a restaurant...

Good Chinese food. Went for the Peking duck and to get some spicy food. Not sure if it was cause it was almost closing time but the duck was meh. Not bad but I've had better. I recommend deep frying the rest of the duck after it's been sliced. I was hoping to get some spicy food but most of the dishes here were pretty tame even the ones with the spicy chili symbol next to it. I expect the food to actually be spicy without having to add a bunch of chili oil on my own. I also recommend the Shanghai rice cakes dish which isn't spicy but very delicious. Also the spicy dumplings. Was not a fan of the spicy pork with garlic. There was too much vinegar and it came out to be more sweet and sour. No spicy or garlic flavor to be had in that dish. Tea costs a lot here. $4 a head for tea is overpriced and ridiculous.

The food is very good but not spectacular. The portions are decent. 3appetizers and 2 mains were good for 3 people (approx $85 - no alcohol). The lamb in chilli oil was great. The wait can get long so plan to arrive early. There is an option to reserve tables via Open Table and customers with online reservations seemed to get preference. However, this process is not managed properly. The service is decent but could be better.