Rated: ♣
I’ve been on the hunt for some good, cheap lunch spots near my office and I came across Spice Kit a few blocks away. Spice Kit is a Vietnamese-Korean-Chinese fusion restaurant serving items such as 5-spice chicken Vietnamese sandwiches, kimchi-filled burrito-sized spring rolls, and mini Chinese sandwiches (like those at Chairman Bao). The restaurant suffers from a slight case of identity crisis, and unfortunately, does not execute well.
Twice, I’ve had the spring rolls. These massive rolls can be filled with your choice of meat (5-spice chicken, beef shortribs, roasted pork or vegetables) with kimchi, lettuce, rice, bean sprouts and a special sauce. The rolls have somewhat of a sour taste – not from the kimchi but from the rice paper wraps. Also, the rolls are so large, it’s hard to eat them quickly which leads to cracking in the rice paper wraps. Towards the end of my spring roll, I was struggling to keep everything together. The most disappointing part of the spring roll was the lack of peanut sauce. I asked the server if he had any peanut sauce, and he said they don’t offer it. Instead, they have bottles of Sriracha sauce for dipping. Seriously! People order spring rolls for the peanut sauce! At least, I do. So unsatisfying…
All-in-all, I was pretty disappointed with Spice Kit. I’ll continue trotting over to Out the Door in the Ferry Building for my spring roll fix.
Spice Kit
405 Howard St
(between Fremont St & 1st St)
San Francisco, CA 94105
Neighborhood: SOMA