Spicy House a first look

*** Another post on Spicy House can be found here.

I mentioned that Shanghai City was gone in this post. A few days later the sign went up announcing "Spicy House". Of course being the good Chinese Restaurant they were schedule to open on 08/08.  I was told by several sources that this place was run by the group that owns Spicy City. For some reason, I've never been enamored with Spicy City, but thought we should give this place a try.

 
 The interior has been freshened up slightly.......

And like most of these types of restaurants, there's a selection of cold dishes on display. The interesting thing, was there was one item that gave signal that there was something more then the signature Sichuan-Yunnan Spicy City thing going on here.

  And one look at the menu verified what we thought.

We had spied what looked like Hunan Suan Dou (pickled green beans) as one of the cold dishes.

After a brief discussion with the Server, the Missus found out that they have three chefs working here. They've retained the original Shanghainese Chef, which is why I saw several of the old Shanghai City menus, and have brought on a Sichuan Chef, and a Hunan Chef. Now this sounded interesting, but I was still not sold....... and especially after having a selection of the cold dishes.

The Fuqi Feipian was too tough, and lacked Sichuan Peppercorn. The pig's ear was also lacking in flavor. The Kaufu, wheat gluten was too chewy, not melt in the mouth soft as, say what they serve at Tianjin Bistro.

The pickled long beans were also disappointing; salty, but lacking that true pickled flavor. Earlier in the week, I tried to explain the difference between salty and briney to someone.... and these were a pretty good example.

We were ready to be underwhelmed when our Dried String Beans with Duck($10.99) arrived.

Man, this smelled good! It was a sort of hybrid Sichuan/Hunan dish. The dried green beans, sliced into tiny pieces, almost like a brunoise, were nice savory surprises. Three different types of chilies were used, and the orange/red peppers we enjoy with many Hunan dishes added a nice, fruity sweetness. The addition of minced ginger, slices of garlic, and peanuts, meant that every bite would have a different flavor. The duck was typical of Hunan/Sichuan dishes; it was less meaty, more chewy, with a mild gamey flavor. Not too many seeds as is typical with Hunan dishes, but there were a few there. Not quite Hunan Chilli King, but not bad. 

There were a couple of things that surprised us about the Crisp Fish with Pepper ($10.99):

First was the portion size, it was huge. This was all fish, there wasn't anything in the middle or bottom to "prop up" the food. Second, we noticed this was eel! We found out later that it was supposed to be Crispy Fried Eel with Chilies on the menu, but there was some mix-up. Third was the distinct smell of one of my favorite seasonings hitting me when the dish arrived..... the smell of cumin. And yet, the flavor of cumin was in the background.... I think it was added to the batter. Though the middle pieces were on the greasier side, the pieces of fish on the outside were nice and crisp. I'd say this was a pseudo-Sichuan dish, as there were Sichuan Peppercorns present, though not in large quantities. An interesting note was, even though this dish looks aggressively flavored, you could still make out the taste of the sesame seeds that topped the dish. The Missus, who loves Chinese Eel dishes, thought this was good. Strangely, I thought the dish could have used more salt!

The dishes we had shows enough promise.... i think we'll be back to try more in the future. The service was adequate.... though on a very hot day, they seemed to not want to turn on the A/C which made me do a "double sweat".... one from the chilies, the other from the heat! The portion sizes were generous, and the prices pretty good. We were sad to see Shanghai City go, but this place shows some promise.

Spicy House
3860 Convoy Street #105
San Diego, CA 92111

Comments

[Dennis]

Wow that was quick. But judging by your photos seems not a whole lot changed inside (which I'm sort of glad) except the menu of course.
Curious if the eel dish used the smaller baby eels, or simply chopped fine?

[Cathy]

This looks like it will be another good choice in that mall. Almost every spice can be had, from the subtle Japanese at Okan, the curries at Curry House to Mexican at Palomino's and Americanized jalapenos at Subway...and the various desserts at Sage French Cake and Cafe Hue(that post is in my camera). Now to deal with the parking...

[Kirk]

Hi Dennis - Smaller eels are usually used in Chinese dishes, you'll be seeing a bunch in my future China posts.

Hi Cathy - That's right.... funny, they could fly a whole bunch of different flags in front of that mall.

[Jason]

Since they retained the old chef, does that mean they still have the old Shanghai City favorites? (XLB, etc.)

I hope it doesn't turn into one of those places that tries to do too many different things, and ends up doing none of them well.

[Kirbie]

I'm excited to check out this place! So glad you already did a review!

[kat]

looks delicious!

[Jeff C]

This looks good. I'm sure they've reduced the spiciness to try to accommodate local taste buds.
Eel dish looked great. One of my favorites is baby eel with garlic sauce. Had that dish in Taiwan.
Looks like the Pao Jiao for the long been that my grandmother makes. When those are made right, that pickled long bean wokked with ground pork is just heavenly.

[Didi]

thanks, Kirk. looks promising. how's the comparison to Dede's on the spicy scale?
one of the best Hunan's dish i've had was at Dong Ting Spring in Las Vegas.

[MikeW]

I thought the quality was really going downhill at Shanghai City the last few visits. Love the blog

[Andy]

what a stupid name... has no correlation with the name in Chinese . I was hoping for a remodel out of the 70's era decor but perhaps that might be a stretch.

[Kirk]

Hi Jason - I'll check next time.....

Hi Kirbie - What we had was not bad.

Hi Kat - It seems that we made some pretty good choices.

Hi Jeffrey - It was a pretty good meal, but they need to bump up the "big spicy" to real big spicy, especially since they ask what heat level.

Hi Didi - More spicy than Dede's for sure.

Hi MikeW - We hadn't been to Shanghai City in a while. It seemed that everytime we went, they had bumped up the price of the weekend menu.

Hi andy - I think the owners believe that "Spicy City" is a brand here in San Diego, and wanted to make the association.

[Didi]

Hi Kirk, went last night and it was very tasty. That duck is so very good. We also got the lamb with cumin and it was mild and smoky, and very good. And the mapo tofu was all chili goodness.

One of my friend recognized the gentleman from Dede's and he came over and chatted. He told us they sold Dede's and bought this place, which seems to explain why Dede's was being remodeled during a stop last week.

And yes, they do have Xiao Lung Bao.

[Kirk]

Hi Didi - Now I've got to try out the cumin lamb.... one of my favorite dishes. That's interesting.... it seems to be a cooperative effort between Spicy City and the former Dede's folks then.

[Darren]

We just went there today and got the Crispy Fish with Pepper aka Eel and it was pretty tasty. The portions were huge! I don't think my body could handle more than 10 pieces unfortunately and it looked like the plate had about 50 on it. We also got the Sizzling Beef. That was very tasty and didn't list it as having any spice but it actually was more spicy than the eel. There was quite a bit of pepper in the dish though. Overall, pretty good and well worth another visit.

[Kirk]

Hi Darren - Yes, the portions here look pretty hefty.

[Greg]

I was there on 8/12 for lunch and had a promising meal -- no Ba Ren though. Had twice cooked fish with chilis, which was puffy and kind of like cumin Fish 'n' Chips with peppercorn burn. Now, having read your review, I am super-disappointed to have missed seeing you, my Asian Food Superhero.

[Kirk]

LOL Greg! Maybe we'll run into each other one of these days!

[Andreasie]

my favorite 2 restaurants are
spicy house and spicy city.They actually the same owner.
but spicy house has more choices.
hum..