Chino

I want to try their warm soy milk custard, the general tso wings and pliant fish and leek dumplings.

I’m sad that this has closed! But I’m still gonna write a review on it anyways… hoping they’ll come back! :(
If you have a small appetite and always have a constant struggle w/​wanting to try new things, but don’t have enough room — small plates are for you & me. I was so happy to have found this place just because they served everything in small portions. I thought yay, I could try more than two things on the menu for once!
I ordered:
— XLB (xiao long baos — shanghai dumplings): They give you a little handout on how to properly eat them. I love teaching my friends how to eat them.
— Mushu (not sure what kinda meat) lettuce cups: I love thissssss
— Pork belly buns: I’m not even a fan of pork belly… probably just got this for the picture honestly
I really wanted to give this place another try to try other things on their menu. most restaurants with small plates/​tapas are Mexican restaurants. And I’m all for Asian Fusion.
The ambiance here was very nice. Cute little lights on the ceiling while you eat your dinner. Nice place for a quick bite & drinks!

What happens when a Jewish boy and Chinese girl goes to eat at a place like Chino? Exactly what you’d expect: they feel jipped, so they say things like «well, you gotta try places like this every once in a while.» Or «at least the atmosphere was nice.»
I kinda knew this would happen… But it was Halloween so thought it would be fun to go somewhere hip instead of the more authentic places we usually opt for.
I don’t regret coming here. It needed to happen. But I’m going to make the complaints you’d expect.
It’s really expensive for what it was. I spent how much for xlb that I can get for $ 6 somewhere else? And shiiiit… Don’t correct my pronunciation of xiao long bao. I Chinese, yo!
I don’t think I’d mind it as much if it were really really good. But it didn’t taste double the price of a normal Chinese restaurant good.
And if they were more overtly Asian fusion, it would had been better.
It wasn’t bad… Just not a $ 100 for 2., type of meal.
Drinks were delicious. And atmosphere is certainly nice as usually I am quite irritated when surrounded by my Chinese brethren.
Not likely to be back. This place is more for for white people too afraid to go to a real xlb place and deal with the rude Chinese wait staff. Don’t blame you though.
(Yes… I managed to offend Chinese, Jewish and white people in one review… Whoo hoo!
I’m so edgy.)

Dinner review.
Night market fried chicken — ⁴⁄₅
Taiwanese beef noodle soup — ³⁄₅
Salt pepper prawns — ³⁄₅
XLB — ⁵⁄₅
Mushu style braised lamb — ⁵⁄₅
Szechuan chicken pork bao — ⁴⁄₅
Overall, «as good as it gets.»

Have I not reviewed this place?!
I’ve been there twice. First time it was because we couldn’t get a table at Monk’s Kettle across the street. Boy, was I happy that happened.
Chino has AMAZING food and I’m surprised it doesn’t have 4 stars yet. Drinks are great… try the old fashioned.
For food, a must is the green beans. They’re delicious, perfectly prepared and I would love to know what spice concoction is on them.
I think the signature dish is the pork dumplings XL. I know everyone loves dumplings, and I may be sorry to say this but don’t get them. They’re not that great and there are so many more things on the menu that you will love. The dumplings just don’t do Chino justice.
The salt and pepper prawns are great. Its a heavy meal. There’s deep fried prawns (2) and I wish there were more. You can eat the head, skin and everything because they’re meant to be eaten whole. Weird, but do it. There’s probably too many sauces. There’s a chili sauce on the shrimp and a garlic aoli on the deep fried … is it eggplant? Whatever it is, its delicious but I could do without the aoli.
The star of the night was the lamb. Oh, the lamb. Get the lamb. It’s roasted with cumin and other spices. It’s served with small chinese pancakes and a cucumber-​plum-​vineagar slaw. It’s probably one of the top 10 dishes I’ve had in the last 5 years.
Finally, get the Pimms jello shots. They’re the weirdest things on the planet. Served with carbonat (pop-​rocks) on top, you shoot these tiny jiggling squares with a ginger ale backer. Such a clever idea.
Chino is the best.

Had to pick a spot for a guest really fast and had referenced Unilocal for a bit of guidance. I’ve walked past this place numerous times but for some odd and crazy reason it didn’t spark any interest.
*Might be the best beef noodle soup I’ve ever had. The noodles were incredible — the broth was rich and not overwhelmingly salty (!!! seems hard to find!!!). The meat was very moist and it almost felt like I was eating brisket.
*Two thumbs up for the green beans
*The smoked tea eggs had incredible flavor and were cooked perfectly. I enjoyed the salad on the side
*The matcha soft serve with peanut butter powder was surprising and really fun. The texture was awesome.
Everyone here was incredible attentive (wait staff, host, etc). I saw a few small groups but I’d say this is probably best for up to 4 people.
They take reservations!

We ordered the egg nest, salt and pepper prawn, and the boiled peanuts. The food was so-​so, but the service left much to be desired. The peanuts came quick enough but the egg noodles came much later and worse of all, our prawns came after more than half an hour. Our friends added an order of ribs after we got our egg nest and they still got their food before we got our prawns.
Some people in our party didn’t get their order of Xiao Long Bao but it ended up on the bill anyway. It won’t hurt to check your bill before checking. As for price, the two-​$$ rating is highly misleading because this place is pretty expensive. For what we ordered, we already racked up a $ 50 bill (including average tip).

Well I have to be honest and say I was hesitant to try the new menu at Chino because I was such a fan of so many dishes they offered before. But the change is for the better.
–Passion, quality and flavor; these are things I look for in the perfect dining experience. Chino’s team, staff and new Chef has demonstrated just that. You can noticeably see the quality has gone up in the noodles, dumplings, entrees and overall ingredients that go into the menu.
Our server Kristen explained it beautifully that the Chef and his family are a team in the whole menu. I love that kind of passion in a restaurant. I was a fan before but now I’m a customer for life.
The menu shows great range and has a little something for everyone. The XLB has great flavor and seems bolder than the dumpling we’ve had previously. The kimchi clams are incredible and I highly recommend. The stand out stunner for us was the Mu-​Shu Lamb dish, it was not the run of the mill plum sauce and pancake, this had depth of flavor through the meat to the sauce to the homemade pancakes. All beautifully served in a Le Creuset dish. The perfect presentation.
Thank you Chino for thinking outside the box, we will be back.

I’m so disappointed that I couldn’t have experienced the old Chino before the new one came in. Some of the items that we ordered at the new Chino were possibly some of the most unappetizing, expensive asian fusion dishes we’ve had.
DO NOT get the tofu/​egg custard (I think they call it a soy milk custard), because what we got was a very small bowl (imagine half the size of a coffee mug) with tofu custard and over an INCH of chili oil sitting at the top. All for the spectacular price of $ 9. Are you kidding me.
The soup dumplings were not that great either — hardly any soup at all :(The skin was also too thick even though from the pictures, it looks all right. We also got the black bean clams, which was just a bowl of watery clams — nothing special at all. The last item we got was the fish paste bao, which tasted really really strange. There was literally not a single dish that we enjoyed that night.
Just save your money for elsewhere.

The atmosphere and food at Chino is great, but the food feels overpriced. Went on a double date here had a couple of drinks and ordered several dishes to eat family style and ended up paying $ 50/​person.
This is a great date spot for its classy, fun and festive vibe. I’ll be back to try again.

Surprisingly good!
The XLB was 6 pieces for $ 11. Pretty expensive, but the taste, sauce, juiciness, texture, everything was authentic and excellent.
The chicken wings had a strong lime flavor, but still pretty good.
The fried rice was really good. It had asparagus and nuts in it which gave it a great texture and taste.
The steak was delicious! Pretty expensive, but really soft and tasty.
The green beans were okay, kind of undercooked.
Tables are a bit too close together and the music is a bit too loud. The bartender gave us these alcoholic jellos which were excellent! Service is really friendly. I subtracted one star only because this place is pricey. All that came to about $ 63 for 2 people.

I usually stay away from Asian fusion places because the food is usually just a white man’s take on Asian food, which is almost always worse than the authentic version. Chino actually left me pleasantly surprised. I came with a friend on a Friday night at around 7pm. All the tables were reserved but luckily we managed to get 2 spots at the bar. The ambiance was fun and lively and our bartender was super friendly and helpful.
Chinatown Iced Tea — Honestly can’t think of the last time I saw baijiu on a drink menu. That stuff packs a punch, which was necessary to survive the harsh northern Chinese winters back in the day. Highly recommend!
Bao de Chicharon — Imagine the filling and flavors of a taco but inside a steamed bao. Good to try because it’s something different, but not something that I’d get again.
Nick Balla’s Dope Ass Japan-​O-​Mission Wings — Crispy chicken wings coated in a tangy lime sauce. Bomb diggity
XLB — Star of the night for sure. They were surprisingly bomb as hell. Each dumpling was bursting with soup, and the filling was gingery and delicious. Had this been at any Chinese restaurant, no one would’ve questioned the authenticity. Definitely far exceeded my expectations.
This place is known for their drinks so I’ll definitely be back to try the other goodies on the menu.
Side note: To all the people poking holes in the XLBs, stop. Respect the soup dumpling, you hooligans.

I think they got better!
The service was definitely better than the last time. They paced our meal nicely and everyone was very friendly.
Started off with the wings (3 stars), which were a bit too sour for my liking. I didn’t think having crispy skinned wings sitting in a pool of fish sauce was a good idea — the skin got soggy real fast and they were too salty by the time we picked up the last pieces.
Korean rice cakes (5 stars) were great. Perfect texture with the crispy outside and soft, chewy inside. Good seasoning through and through.
Roasted corn with coconut milk (4 stars) was really well executed. Great texture, not over cooked. Love the bites that tasted fresh, buttery, and fragrant. The lime wedge we freshly squeezed really brightened up the dish.
Spicy pork noodles (3 stars) were forgettable. I liked the noodles, but not so much the seasoning. The pork wasn’t broken up nicely and I got big lumps of underseasoned pork. Smelled too… Porky. Some parts of the noodles were cold when served which was a huge turnoff. I wouldn’t order it again.
Too bad they don’t serve the forbidden rice anymore, which was among my favorite dishes there. Bring it back!
Fun, quirky ambiance and I like that you can see the kitchen action. Go with a big group so you can try a lot of different dishes.

I had a stomachache after I ate here. A Chinese fusion place run by non-​chinese staff. The lamb dumpling had super thick skin and we’re not edible. The seaweed salad focused on quantity rather thsn quality but was decent. Skip the beet salad — not favorable and was a bit dry.
On top of that, the staff was a bit fishy on the billing side. Even though we had 8 people, the 20% tip was hand written in rough estimate and calculated based on post-​tax bill — a bit questionable in practice. Make sure you check your bills at this place.

Accidentally got sprayed in the face by a bartender (i think it was water) AND got water spilled on me by our waitress.
Regardless of that, the food is bomb!
*The owner acknowledged the issue, after the Unilocal review.

Friends and I came here for Sunday brunch. I assumed there would be a hella long wait, so I called to inquire. I was wrong and booked a resy’ on the spot! I was so excited! Upon entering Chino, it was a visually entertaining and hipsterlicious décor. There’s hot pink shoes hanging from a telephone line above the dining area, and a fully stocked bar with impressive drinks, such as alcoholic boba. Friends got one that tasted like a creamsicle with alcoholic boba in it. Tasty, but the boba were starting to freeze in the slushy alcoholic soup.
We ordered up the XLB, shrimp wonton, curry kabocha squash dumplings, pork belly buns, chicken wings, and braised lamb with noodle. Everything comes family style for your sharing pleasure. The standout dishes were the Shrimp wontons and the pork belly buns. The XLB were way over cooked and not soupy enough. I should’ve known better when I saw a pictorial showing you how to eat an XLB (what was I thinking?!) the meal over all was just meh and the price point was pretty high. I don’t think I’d come back again for the food, but definitely will come back for a drink or two and the hip scenery!

This place is amazing. The food is great and the service was awesome. The food was made perfectly and the seasonings were great.
My favorite dish was the lumpia. Very different from traditional lumpia but it wAs great. The portions were a great size and the lumpia is bigger than normal ones. We finished this dish super quick. Also had lettuce cups, XLB, pork belly rice bowl, pork potstickers, and chicken wings. All was very good and would def eat here again. Best food I’ve had on my San Fran trip.
Must try place if you’re visiting San Fran or even live here. Great place with great food. Wish we had one in chicago.

Been here once a while ago, and only 2 things still stand out in my mind:
— XLB: The xiao long bao actually may be the best tasting I’ve had in SF so far, but they are very overpriced to merit coming back often just for this. I think you get better quality: price tradeoffs elsewhere, but they did have a great texture and flavor (even if the skin is not as thin as DTF’s). Lesser places might have too fine a ground pork paste giving it an off texture, or lack in any ginger flavor.
— wings: delicious. We had to get another order of these. I think I prefer this flavor even more than San Tung’s.

I feel weird about giving this place four stars because technically it was serving Chinese food but obviously it’s Chinese fusion food … so yeah. They basically served authentic Chinese food but because it wasn’t so authentic, it was considered Asian Fusion? Nonetheless, the food was all still pretty good.
Thanks to SF Restaurant Week + my friend with a gigantic appetite, we decided to check this place out and try their $ 25 lunch special. We got a total of six dishes – cucumbers all busted up, some medley of random appetizers, XLB, spicy wontons, lamb noodles, and pork noodles. It was weird because they served the appetizers and the noodles up front pretty immediately even though the noodles were supposed to be the third course.
Anyways, I loved the noodles here. They were of the thicker variety which is what I’m a fan of, and just generally pretty good. Weren’t the best noodles ever since I think the flavor game could have been stronger, but as a dish holistically, they were good. The appetizers were decent, but weaker on the flavor side. XLB was okay, but then again, you can get the same stuff in Chinatown or Ranch 99 for much cheaper… so not sure how I feel about that. Ditto for the wontons – good, but still you can get it elsewhere for better and it’ll taste better.
I think it’s all a matter of framing things – in all honesty, the food itself was probably a three if you were looking for authentic Chinese food. It was certainly Chinese fusion in terms of the way they decided to craft these dishes and the ingredients that they put in. But because you know it’s fusion, you let these things go by.
Service was pretty great if you could get their attention, but otherwise a nightmare. We literally watched the waiters walk back and forth doing nothing, and because of the way the seats are arranged, if you’re seated no in the row right next to the waiters, it’s really easy for them to miss you since they’re only looking out for tables in front of them and not on the side of them. But when we actually got ahold of their attention, they were super friendly and just generally great.
Vibe is good though which is what I also liked about this place. Very chill and hip – super Mission yet serving up some good enough Chinese food – that’s really where the fourth star comes in for me.
tldr; okay Chinese food but cool vibes; don’t bother coming here if you want authentic Chinese, but if you want to be in a chill environment and eat Chinese, this is a solid choice

Leave it to SF to hipsterize Chinese food. My sister and I had lunch here one day when both of our first choices ended up being closed (do all ramen shops close on the same day??). Service was great, and the people here are fun and — yes — so hipster.
We shared spicy pork noodles, chili oil wontons, and a kale salad. Food was pretty good, and wasn’t TOO Americanized. The kale salad was really refreshing and a nice light contrast to the heavier carb-​loaded dishes we had.
I’d love to come back and try their XLB, which I think they are known for, pork belly rice bowl, and the chicharron buns. Carbie heaven!