Mission Chinese Food

• Cuisine(s): Asian, Chinese
  Hours: Sun-Tue, Thu-Sat 11:30am-3pm, Sun-Tue, Thu-Sat 5pm-10:30pm
  Price: $$ $, $$
  Payment Types: All Major Credit Cards
• Attire: Casual
  Features: Delivery, Kid Friendly, Takeout, Vegetarian Friendly, Wheelchair Accessible
  Serving: Dinner, Lunch, Snack Food
  Alcohol: Beer/Wine, BYOB
• Reservations: Not Accepted
  Parking: Meters, Street

Description

A Chinese restaurant within a Chinese restaurant in the Mission District, Mission Chinese Food almost defies description. Working out of Lung Shan, the formally trained Danny Bowien (winner of the 2008 Pesto World Championships in Genoa) puts out a short menu of Chinese regional classics tweaked way beyond recognition. His Mongolian beef is made with braised beef cheeks and horseradish, his cumin lamb with lamb belly and soy-pickled long beans. Bowien's love for Sichuan food results in pickled cabbage that burns and buzzes at the same time, as well as deep-fried chicken wings buried in dried chiles, each wing coated with aromatic Sichuan peppercorns and star anise. The chef's restless spirit can result in duds (a salad wrapped in rice noodles), but no one else is making food like this, and for every dud is a Roman candle that explodes in showers of spice and sensation.