Spicy King

North Beach & Chinatown


When you see shining faces around the table, that's the sign of a happy family – or Spicy King hot pot. Generous dishes are made to share, so you can watch each other's expressions as heat rises from explosive chili-pepper chicken, Sichuan pickled mustard-broth hot pot, ma po tofu, or fish in a sea of red peppers. Brace for impact.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby North Beach & Chinatown attractions

1. Tin How Temple

0.03 MILES

There was no place to go but up in Chinatown in the 19th century, when laws restricted where Chinese San Franciscans could live and work. Atop barber…

2. Waverly Place

0.03 MILES

Grant Ave is Chinatown's economic heart, but its soul is Waverly Place, lined with flag-festooned, colorful temple balconies and family-run businesses…

3. Spofford Alley

0.05 MILES

Sun Yat-sen once plotted the overthrow of China’s last dynasty here at number 36, and during Prohibition, this was the site of turf battles over local…

4. Commercial Street

0.07 MILES

Back when the red lights of Commercial St could be seen from the waterfront, this strip provided many provocative answers to the age-old question: what do…

5. Chinese Telephone Exchange

0.08 MILES

California's earliest high-tech adopters weren't 1970s Silicon Valley programmers – they were Chinatown switchboard operators c 1894. To connect callers,…

6. Chinatown Alleyways

0.08 MILES

If you look close today at the clinker-brick buildings lining these narrow backstreets, past the temple balconies jutting out over bakeries, acupuncture…

7. Portsmouth Square

0.1 MILES

Chinatown's unofficial living room is named after John B Montgomery's sloop, which staked the US claim on San Francisco in 1846. SF's first city hall…

8. Ross Alley

0.11 MILES

Colorful murals hint at the colorful characters who once roamed SF’s oldest alleyway – known during the Gold Rush variously as Mexico, Spanish or Manila…