Rec's for Szechuan or Hunan in SF?

[shnigglebob]

Looking for best recommendations for spicy Szechuan or Hunan cuisine restaurants in San Francisco. Nothing fancy, just good food. Read a little about Hunan Homes and Szechuan Trenz... but what are your opinions?

[Steve Green]

Another vote for Brandy Ho's. We much prefer their smoked ham dish to Hunan's. Also, Hunan uses too much oil for our taste.

[Nancy Berry]

Another good Sichuan restaurant in a different part of SF is Zone 88. They serve really excellent spicy dishes. Here's a description of a hotpot lunch that 18 of us on Chowhound shared: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/355697

Zone 88 is on San Bruno Ave. between Silver and Silliman in the Portola district of SF.

[Melanie Wong]

With the caveat that my experience with Zone 88 is limited to our one chowdown lunch there, I can say that dish-for-dish of the specific items we ordered, Zone 88 is better than Szechuan Trenz (Spices! or Spices II).

[Calvinist]

Thanks for the Zone 88 mention. I've been interested when I've driven by there, but haven't had a chance to try it yet.

[snw]

I enjoy Brandy Hos very much for Hunan.

[Robert Lauriston]

I like Hunan on Sansome. Always order the hot & sour beef and smoked ham (which need lots of steamed rice). Also like the dumplings, eggplant salad, and chicken salad.

There are three branches, the other two are called Henry's Hunan. But I like the Sansome location the best. I think they're the only one with beer on tap.

[Leadbelly]

I know the one between Minna and Natoma has beer on tap.

And the stewed beef with dumplings is my favorite dish.

[Bob Copeland]

I enjoy Hunan Restaurant, on Sansome near Broadway. I particularly like the Smoked Ham - either by itself or with String Beans. The Diana's Special is good - a spiced ground pork mixture, with onions and lettuce between two light ad flaky onion pancakes.

[Lori SF]

I like Hunan on Sansome as well.

I also like Hunan Homes Restaurant on Jackson, love the hot and sour soup, peppered short ribs, moo shoo pork. Super inexpensive, a bit Americanized but good.

[Windy]

Go to Hunan Homes and Szechuan Trenz (aka Spices I and II). I don't know enough about Hunan food to know if Hunan Homes is authentic--my friends who took me there are from Taiwan--but the food's good. (See today's NY Times magazine for an article on the origins of that classic "Hunan" dish, General Tso's chicken.) Try the hot pot with pork blood.

And I love Spices--also Sichuanese food filtered through Taiwan. Lots of past posts here on what to order there.