Old Mandarin Islamic Restaurant
Chinese restaurant · Outer Sunset
3132 Vicente St, San Francisco, CA 94116
Highlights
Halal Chinese, cumin lamb, beef pancakes, Beijing hot pots
Halal Chinese, cumin lamb, beef pancakes, Beijing hot pots
"Head to the foggy outer avenues to find this family-run Chinese restaurant, which has been serving both the neighborhood and the Bay Area’s Chinese Muslim community for more than three decades. Owner Shuai Yang, whose parents opened the restaurant in 2001, says the restaurant set out to serve the kind of Northern Chinese food his parents grew up eating in the Xinjiang province of China. To this day, the restaurant serves an entirely halal menu of Chinese dishes including regional specialties such as cumin lamb and crispy beef pancakes." - Paolo Bicchieri
"On cold nights prior to the pandemic, many of the regulars who’d crowd the small, scruffy dining room at Old Mandarin Islamic would order one of the spicy Beijing-style hot pots. The restaurant, which specializes in Chinese Muslim cuisine, is a great place to feast on lamb whether stir-fried with cumin, braised, or boiled in a clay pot. Chile-heads will want to test their endurance against the side dish slash condiment known as la si ni, or “spice you to death.”" - Lena Park
"Finding halal Chinese food is a challenge in SF, unless you go to Old Mandarin Islamic. At the Outer Sunset spot, the entire menu of Northern Chinese dishes is halal, and lamb is the show-stopping meat. It’s served folded into dumplings, in rib form, or stir-fried with water chestnuts, onion, and what tastes like a bucketload of cumin that fills the bare-bones space with a sweet-earthy fragrance. The group dinner move on grey nights is an order of noodles topped with smoky fried bean paste, hearty soups, and Beijing-style hot pot." - julia chen 1, lani conway, ricky rodriguez
"Prince range: $$ Blocks from Ocean Beach’s foggy dunes lie one of San Francisco’s restaurant titans, a place where home-y eating merges with destination dining in quintessential Northern California fashion. Old Mandarin’s held it down for more than 30 years, serving Northern Chinese staples including cumin-spiced lamb flanked by water chestnut and peanuts, the correct crunch and chew combo. Big bowls of thick noodles decorate the scene. The beef pancakes are flakey and oily delights. And sugar-dusted mochi stuffed with dates lands on the table, still warm. Best for: Halal-friendly Chinese cuisine to blow the minds of anyone who thinks they have an even decent grasp on “Chinese food.”" - Paolo Bicchieri
"Finding halal Chinese food is a challenge in SF, unless you go to Old Mandarin Islamic. At the Outer Sunset spot, the entire menu of Northern Chinese dishes is halal, and lamb is the show-stopping meat. It’s served folded into dumplings, in rib form, or stir-fried with water chestnuts, onion, and what tastes like a bucketload of cumin that fills the bare-bones space with a sweet-earthy fragrance. The group dinner move on grey nights is an order of noodles topped with smoky fried bean paste, hearty soups, and Beijing-style hot pot." - julia chen 1, lani conway, ricky rodriguez
