Eating SF: House of Nanking

Whenever I visit my parents in the Bay Area, I always insist that we have some form of Chinese food for a meal… or four. House of Nanking is one of my favorite spots in San Francisco’s Chinatown and it is a great place to eat while watching the Chinese New Year Parade move down Kearny.

Walking down Kearny in San Francisco’s Chinatown, House of Nanking is hard to miss with its colorful signage, despite being a cozy spot.

House of Nanking’s menu has a great combination of familiar Americanized dishes with a traditional twist. My favorite thing about the menu is that a lot of the dishes are very veggie-heavy- eggplant in chili garlic sauce, stir fried baby pea shoots, dry braised green beans, etc.- instead of super fried and heavy meat and rice. Of course their meat and seafood are amazing and not to be missed, it is nice to see a Chinese restaurant flaunt the fresh veggie options, especially since veggies done Chinese style are out of this world.

While everything on the menu is incredibly delicious (you literally cannot go wrong), my favorites are the steamed pork dumplings, salt and pepper shrimp with mushrooms, the famous sesame chicken and the fried onion cakes.

Don’t let the lines outside deter you from visiting House of Nanking!