David B.
Yelp
I've been concerned about finding a Chinese restaurant staple in downtown Oakland since Bay Fung Tong closed during the pandemic. Spices 3 is on 12th Street, a lot further from the Paramount Theatre which is my usual destination, but it was a brilliant success.
This is a tiny little restaurant, so inconspicuous it could easily be overlooked from the street, and not to be confused with Spices Noodle House directly across the street (another party of several people meeting by prearrangement got confused over that).
Inside are large blocky wooden tables resembling picnic tables, and some stunningly good food. It's spicy, yes, but I didn't find the 2-chile dishes to overwhelm the flavor with heat at all. They were masterfully cooked.
The lamb with cumin was not heavy on the cumin, so the taste of the juicy lamb came through well. Mixed in with, besides the chiles, jalapenos, onion slices, and lots of cilantro, it was in little pieces easily picked up even with those slippery plastic chopsticks. They do not automatically give Western customers a fork, and you'd miss the subtleties of the flavor shoveling in a bunch of ingredients at once with a fork, as well as having trouble stabbing the little pieces so easily pinched with chopsticks.
An appetizer of salt and pepper chicken was similarly made. Not the wingettes with bones, this was little bits of very tender chicken, dark meat I think, lightly breaded and strongly seasoned, with pretty much the same other ingredients.
They also don't serve water: unless you ask, perhaps, which I didn't; the tea that came automatically was sufficient. They did alert me that the restaurant takes CASH ONLY; main dishes are under $20, appetizers under $10.