Tao Yin opened in 1992, and has been owned by the same Chinese gentleman all these years. We chatted a bit with our server, who was also Chinese but spoke Spanish, as she had been raised in Peru. I love those stories!
Tao Yin has been dolling itself up for years now. Last year, it redid its décor, opting for warmer tones and a few Asian tchotchkes, installed new bathrooms and updated the kitchen, then changed its menu, got a website and new signage. Part of the reason, I think, is to stay current in this era of all the new, hip eateries surrounding it.
Then, for a minute, it even became one of those new hip eateries. Pink Zebra, a pop-up by Chef Jesse Koide of Mission Chinese fame, moved in five nights a week in late 2014. I really wanted to try Pink Zebra, but the BF wasn’t keen on the idea, as he likes Tao Yin just the way it is, and resented the fact that some hipster chef was going to mess with his bento box, especially coming from an alum of Mission Chinese and Commonwealth, neither one of which are, to put it kindly, favorites of his. So, we never got around to it, and Pink Zebra is popping up elsewhere.
I think they weren’t too displeased that Pink Zebra didn’t last. I know the BF was good with it. So, as you can tell, we’ve been coming to Tao Yin as Tao Yin for quite some time now. I use it as an opportunity to get my sushi fix when I’m with the BF because, although he says he likes sushi, I’d say that 99% of the time that means he orders something other than raw fish, and takes a bite or two of mine. He’s a teriyaki boy, through and through.
The menu is split in half – Chinese – mostly Mandarin and Hunan, as the sign says, with some Sichuan thrown in here and there – and Japanese. This is usually worrisome, as how can you be good at all these things? They even have Korean fried wings, and kimchi. I guess this is why their new menus say, “A Mad Asian Eatery.” We’ve noticed that they do a lot of to go orders, and a lot of catering, according to their FB page.
We usually eat off the Japanese side. My dinner, from the left: Hamachi (yellowtail) sashimi, albacore (white tuna) nigiri, and tai (red snapper) sashimi. They always bring me a complimentary bowl of miso soup, too, which I usually slide right on over to the BF. It’s not bad, as miso goes, I’m just not wasting good stomach real estate on soup.
Looks beautiful, right? My issue with their sushi is that the fish is always served too cold. I have to let it sit for about 5-10 minutes to come up to room temperature, at which point, it’s fine. But then, as I’m eating it, and it’s warming up even further, it starts to get just a little bit mushy. Which always makes me think, “Uh-oh. Maybe that’s why they chill it so much….” The cuts are very generous, as you can see. And I’ve never actually disliked the sushi here – I mean, I get it almost every time. I’m just never as happy when I leave as I feel I ought to be, having just eaten sushi. Sushi should leave you on Cloud 9.
I ordered a roll this time, too.
They have a ton of sushi rolls, which I’m usually not super keen on, but this one, Hot Night, was pretty good. Spicy tuna and cucumber inside, topped with albacore and avocado, dressed with ponzu sauce, green onion, and droplets of sriracha. Tasty, with a touch of heat. And better (aka, warmer) than the non-transporting nigiri.
The BF gets a bento box, every. single. time. But, for the purposes of this review, he made the rare sacrifice on our second visit and ordered something completely new and unbox like. But for this visit, he had his old stand-by, known here as The House Special Box.
You get a choice of three of the following: California roll, sashimi, ton katsu (pork) saba katsu (mackerel), chicken katsu, shumai, beef teriyaki, chicken teriyaki, two pieces of nigiri (I think the chef picks which ones), 4 pieces of sashimi (ditto), shio (grilled) mackerel, and beef short rib. The latter intrigues me. I just noticed that tempura is not one of the choices, which is sad. Because if I ever got the bento box, I would choose tempura.
But the BF always gets either beef or chicken teriyaki (neither of which I like), and ton katsu – a panko-breaded and fried pork cutlet, which I LOVE, and which is always perfectly crunchy and flavorful, and which I would order myself if I wasn’t so stuck on their just-ok sushi. He gets the siu mai (little pork dumplings, a la dim sum), too, which are decent enough. And every bento box comes with rice, an iceberg lettuce salad with the ubiquitous sweetish thousand island-like dressing with sesame oil found in every Japanese joint, and miso soup. For $13.95. He loves all the components, and that it basically costs $14.00 to fill him over the brim.
On our next visit, we switched to the Chinese side of the menu, which we don’t know nearly as well.
We ordered way too much food, wanting to make up for lost time. The BF ordered the BBQ pork buns – a favorite of his. They came in a steamer, as is typical, but were quite a bit smaller than the usual ones we see in Chinatown. There were four and I had half of one. They were good, not spectacular – just what you’d expect: doughy, bready things stuffed with a sweetish pork filling.
For my main, I got the Mu shu pork, a childhood favorite. Tao’s is as good as any I’ve had, with the familiar muskiness of the bamboo shoots, and the great textures from the stir-fried pork, scrambled egg, wood ear mushrooms, and cabbage. I particularly loved their sticky-thick hoisin sauce for the mu shu pancakes. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good picture of the pancakes – but, you know, like a thin flour tortilla smeared with a sweetish sauce, and piled high with warm eggy/porky/cabbage-y goodness to form your own Chinese burrito. Comfort food, for sure.
The BF got the Mongolian beef, which was pretty standard, but tasty. There’s really nothing “Mongolian” about this typical Chinese-American dish, but who cares? Usually, Mongolian beef is made with flank steak, scallions, red chili peppers, brown sugar, and ginger. This version was not at all spicy, but the thinly wokked beef was super tender/crispy, and a good combination of sweet and salty.
No rice was brought nor offered; I think she knew we were ordering too much food.
Because, next up…KOREAN FRIED CHICKEN (aka, “KFC”) WINGS!
Holy crow, were these ever good! I’ve had KFC at other more or less “authentic” Korean restaurants, and sometimes they’re just too sweet and sticky for my taste. These were just sweet enough, a little spicy, super crispy, and absolutely delicious. I’d make a dinner of these with just some steamed rice sometime. I don’t know why they brought them out last. We were so full by then, we did end up taking most of them home, but if you think they made it through the night, you’d be dead wrong.
Final words on Tao Yin: Decent enough sushi if you don’t mind it a tad on the chilled side, and pretty standard but often quite tasty Chinese food (there’s a lot more of the menu to explore.) Good for ordering in on a cozy, rainy day at home.
Tao Yin
3515 20th St.
San Francisco, CA 94110
Between San Carlos St. and Mission St.
(415) 285-4926
http://www.taoyinrestaurantsf.com/