San Fran Day 2 (Part 2) - Chinatown

The Main Entrance into Chinatown

After our awesome lunch we decided to head towards Chinatown. We had a direct bus from our hotel that only took 10 minutes. Bussing there was a cultural experience in itself because in all of 10 minutes we passed through/picked up passengers from the Fishing Wharf, Russian Hill, Little Italy, and then finally Chinatown. Seeing Chinatown was like entering another world. Every sign was in Mandarin or Cantonese, and there were people EVERYWHERE. It was so interesting to see that as well as being a tourist area, it also seemed to be a place the locals actually did their shopping and other errands. There were endless gift shops, laundromats, hair salons, restaurants, grocery shops, markets, and home decor shops.

Garage Mural

While we were walking around the area we saw a really pretty mural that was painted on a garage door...we found it when we were trying to find a place to eat. It wasn't on display like many of the other parts of town, it was just hidden down an alley meant for only the occasional person to see. 

Home Decor Shop

Whilst walking along the streets, we though that we were getting turned around because we kept on passing shops with the exact same items in them. It was the weirdest experience. Shops immediately across the street from each other (or even immediately next door!) were displaying their goods in the window and advertising them as original, hand made, or one of a kind objects! Especially when it came to the home decor and gift shops like the one pictured above! There were giant chandeliers and statues 8 feet tall that claimed to be original antiques taken from the greek isles! It was a very weird experience.

Street in Chinatown

Once we started getting hungry, we checked on Yelp to find the best-rated Chinese restaurant according to locals. We found one called the Z & Y Restaurant. If you look it up, you can see that it has amazing reviews...so it seemed like a logical choice to go. Boy did we think wrong! When we walked in, we were the only people in the place...all the tables were covered with moving cloths and there were supply boxes stacked and thrown around the place. We were seated and then given tea whilst we looked over our menus. I chose the 'Spicy Beef with Flaming Chili Oil'. 

We waited for quite a while for our food, and during that wait a few weird things happened: 

1. We never saw the waiter or hostess again. We were left completely alone in the restaurant. 

2. There were some very well dressed men who would walk into the dining area, open a door, head down the stairs, and then never come back up again. 

3. One employee would occasionally come into the dining area, grab a box from the floor or one of the piles, open the door that the men walked down, and then literally kick the box down the stairs...not throw or toss...kick. And then go back in the kitchen.

After finally receiving our food we were anxious to dig in, and to our disappointment, the food was awful. I'm a big fan of spicy food, but this dish was something different. It was so spicy, but with ZERO flavour. It was literally just hot oil dousing the meat on my plate. The dish was soggy and drowning in unflavoured spice. It was the biggest disappointment of the trip. We were so excited to try some traditional foods, and I don't know if we just made the wrong choice in dish...but it was completely unappetizing. We tried to enjoy our food, but then eventually just left it and went up to pay where they brought our food boxed to us. When I took out my card to pay, the hostess looked at our bill and said that I couldn't pay by card because our bill was under 50 dollars. I was incredibly frustrated because there were no signs or notices that mention this 'rule'. She then asked us to look at the menu and pick some more food to buy...to which I asked her where the nearest ATM was so that I could pay in cash. She said that she didn't know and that I could't leave the restaurant without paying...so we got in a huge debate, and after some heated discussion she agreed to let me pay for the food we ate, and not any more. We gave her zero tip, and then left. 

It was such a frustrating experience, and then on top of that...WE WERE STILL HUNGRY. So we decided to head to Union Square to get some food :)

To see the rest of our day make sure to check out my post for Part 3!

<3 Noelle