Spicy Heaven

The best Chinese sesame pancake (芝麻大餅）, green onion or scallions pancake (蔥油餅）and chives box/dumpling （韭菜盒子）in Bay Area. After I took them to the place, some of my friends from Taipei would go there every time they visited Bay Area. How good a sesame pancake is can be measured by the number of layers you can see from the side. Theirs has about 10 layers while most of the ones served in other Bay area northern Chinese restaurants are more like a bread, with zero or a few layers inside. This makes a huge difference in taste. But you have to be patient to enjoy it, because the chef make them freshly and bake it only after an order. It is well worth the wait! Most green onion pancakes served in area restaurants are deep fried at high temperature, such that it is too hard and also too oily. The ones served here are pan fried at the right temperature, taste slightly crispy and no excess oil. Both the green onion pancakes and the sesame pancakes also taste great when taking home and put in a toaster. I don't know how to describe the chive boxes. They are so different from the ones served in other Chinese restaurants in both taste and appearances. You have to go see and taste it to know what a delicious chive box is. Their other dishes are OK, although my five star rating is primarily based on the above items. In fact I would give them six stars.

Note that I’m *not* a person who enjoys spicy food, here judging a restaurant called “Spicy Heaven” mostly on its few non-spicy dishes. But I’ve passed this establishment many times and finally decided to try out their dim sum selection, pictured so temptingly on their storefront. It’s ok, although the dumplings (and xlb) had a spice (not hot-spicy) that I couldn’t identify but wasn’t expecting in a dumpling. The broccoli chicken was good. DH who *does* enjoy spicy food was neither impressed nor particularly disappointed in his spicy beef. Orders over $50 receive a free dish from the dim sum selection.

Not that I would know first hand but this place seems pretty authentic. Regardless, food was very good and service was pretty good too. The dumplings were just ok with a selection of only 3 but if I want a feast of dumplings, I'll go to a dumpling house. The pork in the braised pork on preserved vegetables was amazing. Definitely a solid experience for our first time there and we will definitely be back!