Mission Chinese Food (within Lung Shan Restaurant)

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Allie Pape

Joined 3 years ago

Citysearch Editorial Review. After a successful couple of years running Mission Street Food-- the chef-rotating pop-up restaurant located inside of decrepit Chinese outpost Lung Shan-- founder Anthony Myint has diversified his empire. Lung Shan now plays host to Mission Chinese Food, a diverse, hip take on Chinese takeout, while Commonwealth (two doors down) carries on the haute-cuisine tradition. MCF head chef Danny Bowien (formerly of MSF's short-lived Mission Burger outpost) offers a range of unique, surprising dishes from across China. He's already famous for his painfully spicy, impossibly delicious ma po tofu ($8.50), a melange of tofu cubes, ground pork, tiny mushrooms, and huge shots of chili oil. Equally spicy and delicious are the braised Mongolian beef cheeks ($9), with a creamy, luscious texture similar to short ribs. Not a spice hound? Try the salt cod fried rice ($10), a savory blend of egg, fish, and Chinese sausage. As if tasty, inexpensive grub wasn't enough of an asset, MCF also delivers citywide, meaning fans will never be too far from their Chinese fix. It's a winning combination that should last for a long time to come.

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Patrick Heig

Joined 5 years ago

On Thursday and Saturday nights, gourmet chefs from some of the city's top restaurants collaborate on one-of-a-kind and one-night-only menus--cooked in the borrowed kitchen of a random Chinese restaur. What started with a taco truck parked in the Mission--hence the name--has grown from a whimsical cooking experiment to a full-on food phenomenon with a fanatical following. Now operating out of Lunch Shan restaurant, MSF brings in one of the city's top chefs each week to design the menu in collaboration with Antony Myint (founder, formerly of Bar Tartine); so far the list has included the former or current chefs of Orson, Slow Club, Sociale, Home and Piccino, among many others. The menu changes twice-weekly along with the chefs, but expect improvisational, ingenious, genre-pushing food: Berkshire Kurobuta pork belly with jicama, pickled jalapeno and cilantro aioli on homemade flatbread; rice fried in duck fat with Liberty duck confit, duck cracklins, shitake and cauliflower; burrata with sea urchin and olive oil crostini. Prices are somehow kept unbeliveably cheap (none of the above cost more than $8) and, on top of that, all profits now go to worthy charities chosen by each guest chef. This is one of those rare, beautiful situations where art, innovation, altruism and fun come together--get it while it's hot because it might just be too good to last.