San Francisco: Terra Cotta Warrior
For Mother's Day this year, we took our mom to Terra Cotta Warrior:
The place was packed and we ended up waiting a bit outside before our name was called.
The restaurant was much smaller inside than it appeared from the outside. Props to them for squeezing in as many tables as possible though. There was virtually no room to walk in-between tables:
Since it was a special occasion, we went ham on the ordering.
...
Who am I kidding here? We over-order all the time. We certainly don't need the excuse of a "special occasion" to do so.
We got the three-in-one biang biang noodles ($11.25):
Essentially three different sauces in one bowl, I don't really think they were meant to be mixed all together. There was this tomato and egg concoction, soy sauce pork, and chili oil. Interesting sauce combo aside, the noodles were just blech. Way too soft, the texture was almost mushy, as if the noodles had been left in the cooking liquid much too long. (Which is probably what happened.)
The Shaanxi mian-pi ($4.95) had the same problem:
Not only that, but the chili oil was utterly bland. The bread strips managed to soak up a lot of oil, yet none of the flavor.
We also tried the Shaanxi stir-fried wide noodles ($9.95):
Same issue with the noodles. What's the deal, Terra Cotta Warrior?
The cumin lamb burger ($5.95) was an improvement texture-wise:
The chopped peppers in the lamb were ninja. I didn't feel the spice at first, but then it hit me like a semi-truck. It got so spicy that I couldn't handle it anymore and had to stop eating. Wooooo, boy.
The lamb soup with pita ($10.95) was also much better:
The wontons in chili oil ($8.25) were a hit as well:
This was confusing to us because it appeared like the chili oil was the same as that used in the mian-pi, but for some reason, the chili oil in the wontons was much more delicious. We found ourselves spooning the chili oil from the wonton plate into the mian-pi in an effort to add some flavor.
While the service was decent and some dishes weren't all that bad, the disappointment was real at Terra Cotta Warrior. Maybe it was an off-night, but it's enough out of the way that I wouldn't bother giving it another chance.
Sorry, mom. We'll pick a better place next year.
Terra Cotta Warrior
2555 Judah St
San Francisco, CA 94122
(415) 681-3288
The place was packed and we ended up waiting a bit outside before our name was called.
The restaurant was much smaller inside than it appeared from the outside. Props to them for squeezing in as many tables as possible though. There was virtually no room to walk in-between tables:
Since it was a special occasion, we went ham on the ordering.
...
Who am I kidding here? We over-order all the time. We certainly don't need the excuse of a "special occasion" to do so.
We got the three-in-one biang biang noodles ($11.25):
Essentially three different sauces in one bowl, I don't really think they were meant to be mixed all together. There was this tomato and egg concoction, soy sauce pork, and chili oil. Interesting sauce combo aside, the noodles were just blech. Way too soft, the texture was almost mushy, as if the noodles had been left in the cooking liquid much too long. (Which is probably what happened.)
The Shaanxi mian-pi ($4.95) had the same problem:
Not only that, but the chili oil was utterly bland. The bread strips managed to soak up a lot of oil, yet none of the flavor.
We also tried the Shaanxi stir-fried wide noodles ($9.95):
Same issue with the noodles. What's the deal, Terra Cotta Warrior?
The cumin lamb burger ($5.95) was an improvement texture-wise:
The chopped peppers in the lamb were ninja. I didn't feel the spice at first, but then it hit me like a semi-truck. It got so spicy that I couldn't handle it anymore and had to stop eating. Wooooo, boy.
The lamb soup with pita ($10.95) was also much better:
The wontons in chili oil ($8.25) were a hit as well:
This was confusing to us because it appeared like the chili oil was the same as that used in the mian-pi, but for some reason, the chili oil in the wontons was much more delicious. We found ourselves spooning the chili oil from the wonton plate into the mian-pi in an effort to add some flavor.
While the service was decent and some dishes weren't all that bad, the disappointment was real at Terra Cotta Warrior. Maybe it was an off-night, but it's enough out of the way that I wouldn't bother giving it another chance.
Sorry, mom. We'll pick a better place next year.
Terra Cotta Warrior
2555 Judah St
San Francisco, CA 94122
(415) 681-3288
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