Shao Mountain (San Jose) has changed its name to Hunan Impression, the name it filed its liquor license under in 2014.
BBQ Alley (Newark) is closed
The Flame (SF Richmond) closed
[Gallus Pot](https://www. yelp.com/biz/gallus-pot-union-city) (Union City). A description of their specialty, Shenzhen Hot Pot, on one website discusses it as a Hong Kong or Shenzhen interpretation of Sichuan Hot Pot. P
Chang Luong on Durant in Berkeley has a chef from Shandong and offers Shandong items, other northern items, and shao kao (skewers) after 5pm. Here are some menu pics.
No entertainment at all in flight ( unlike norwegian, which is cheaper, and has modern movies & buy-food-through-seat ).
The iceland airport exchange was pretty lousy. Few chairs in the airport, almost no food.
The seats on the airplane were terrible too. They’re the thinnest possible seats, with no recline buttons. Rough for an 11 hour flight. And I had a standard aisle seat, not at the back row or near an exit row.
Won’t even pass out water on the flight. Have to buy water. Ended up arriving home very dehydrated.
All in all - I might have been OK with the experience if I hadn’t tried Norwegian on the flight out, which is running modern 787’s. Norwegian has flights out of Oakland, so if you search “SFO” on any travel site, you might not see them. I was just going to london, which is hub for them. ( I also found I liked Gatwick if your final destination is London. Closer to the city. )
And if the scrum in Iceland hadn’t felt like landing in the old bombay airport.
If there were good things — the flights left on time, and they did leave ( arrived in SFO an hour late, just seemed to be driving very very slowly ). Checkin was just fine. If you can do the thing where you stay in iceland for a few days, I think it would be fun.
What is WOW? Is that a successor to Icelandic? I can remember when Icelandic was the backpacker’s favorite way to go to Europe: cheaper, with free stopovers in Reyjkavik. I had a roommate who headed for Europe on Icelandic, stopped off in Reyjkavik, took a job as a jackhammer operator, and never returned.
Tofu Village is now called Szechwan Cuisine (I think it’s the same people as in the original report, they just got around to replacing the sign). The shui zhu yu at lunch for $8.95 (includes rice, hot/sour soup, and a plate of room-temperature vegetables) is a generous and tasty portion.
Pacific Lighthouse Restaurant (怡景麗宴) opened in Alameda. Official opening today. Banquet for 10 from $400 to $1400 for a table of 10. Any idea what they are offering for $1400?
Went to Shanghai Cuisine based on some positive reviews elsewhere on the web. Huge portion, cheap prices, but didn’t stand out amongst other Shanghai restaurants. The ‘chicken feather’ vegetable was good. The smoked fish appetizer, the sesame bread, and the fish gluten were alright. 10% off during grand opening. Its not distinctive enough, for me, to make a trek. (especially when Yum’s is nearby)
I was jokingly reprimanded for going by someone I know who is Shanghainese and cooks good Shanghainese food, who said that she knows who owns the restaurant (same as another place in Milpitas), and (because the Chinese name of the restaurant says Shanghai Private Kitchen) that I should just eat ‘proper private kitchen Shanghainese food’ from her. In her opinion, there is no good Shanghai restaurant in the Bay Area, though that’s for another discussion.
Chili Boy (San Jose) has “mala hot pot.” The owners are Cantonese and they had a soft opening menu as of 10/7/16 when I stopped in.
Beijing Duck House opened a Milpitas location in the spot of a former Sichuan restaurant
Wu Bai (San Mateo) has knife shaved noodles and “handmade noodles”
Spices I closed in 2015, and Spices II is now known as Spices. The decor is updated, and there’s now a sign on the corner of 6th and Clement. There are a few Shanghainese items on their menu with the words “chef” listed next to them, Lion’s head meataballs, pork shoulder in garlic sauce, and black mushroom with Shanghai bok choi, and (maybe) the house special crab. Otherwise, the menu has been reorganized, but still has hot pot, stinky tofu dishes, and an excellent section for vegetarians dishes. How’s the food now?
The SV location might be the better bet— as of a year ago, they listed things as having zero to 3 chilis, and the 2 chili mala beef noodle wasn’t very spicy (I can tolerate dry heat more so than that from fresh chilies and didn’t record either in my notes) . YMMV. They have lots of veggie appetizers which I don’t recall having chili heat. And one nice thing about a lot of hunan dishes is you can pick out the pickled chilies, and still benefit from their flavor without too much heat.
I wonder what Yelp’s source is for Uyghur Taamliri “closing” until July - did the family who runs the place update their Yelp page, or is this coming from somewhere else? I walked into Chug Pub in October and the bartender made it sound like the elimination of the Uighur menu was a permanent thing.