Mission Chinese Food isn't tops in ambience, but its food is both distinctive and inexpensive.Credit: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle
When arriving at Lung Shan restaurant on Mission Street, diners will probably be greeted by a dour woman in a Mao-style jacket carrying two menus: a greasy multifold plastic with more than 150 dishes and a single-page folder with the distinctive red rickshaw graphic with "Mission Chinese Food" across the top.
Diners can order from either, but the majority look no farther than the 23 items on the smaller menu. The names may be familiar - broccoli beef ($10), ma po tofu ($9.50) - but the execution is far different, and more complex, than the surroundings and prices would indicate.
It's strange to have two restaurants sharing one location, and it's an even stranger partnership between an old-line Chinese chef and a young upstart. While the dingy dining room is shared space, the two have separate kitchen setups.
Lung Shan has been owned by Sue and Liang Zhou for nine years. Mission Chinese chef-owner Danny Bowien had never cooked Chinese food until he decided to re-create favorite dishes that he and his chef friends in high-end restaurants loved to eat on nights off.
Bowien, who is Korean but reared in Oklahoma City, adapted to the loose Mission vibe when he moved here nine years ago. He sports partly bleached hair that tumbles below his shoulders, wears goggle-like glasses and spends time helping diners navigate the menu.
Mission Chinese is the poster child for alternative dining scenarios. The relationship between the two restaurants started several years ago when co-owner Anthony Myint opened the pop-up restaurant Mission Street Food a couple of nights a week in the same location. He closed it last year to concentrate on his new project: the more upscale and mainstream Commonwealth, which received a three-star review from me last year.
Bowien took over the space nightly in July, and he's since been cooking for a growing audience, particularly at night, where there's often a wait for one of the 60 utilitarian chairs.
Diners can order from either, but the majority look no farther than the 23 items on the smaller menu. The names may be familiar - broccoli beef ($10), ma po tofu ($9.50) - but the execution is far different, and more complex, than the surroundings and prices would indicate.
It's strange to have two restaurants sharing one location, and it's an even stranger partnership between an old-line Chinese chef and a young upstart. While the dingy dining room is shared space, the two have separate kitchen setups.
Lung Shan has been owned by Sue and Liang Zhou for nine years. Mission Chinese chef-owner Danny Bowien had never cooked Chinese food until he decided to re-create favorite dishes that he and his chef friends in high-end restaurants loved to eat on nights off.
Bowien, who is Korean but reared in Oklahoma City, adapted to the loose Mission vibe when he moved here nine years ago. He sports partly bleached hair that tumbles below his shoulders, wears goggle-like glasses and spends time helping diners navigate the menu.
Mission Chinese is the poster child for alternative dining scenarios. The relationship between the two restaurants started several years ago when co-owner Anthony Myint opened the pop-up restaurant Mission Street Food a couple of nights a week in the same location. He closed it last year to concentrate on his new project: the more upscale and mainstream Commonwealth, which received a three-star review from me last year.
Bowien took over the space nightly in July, and he's since been cooking for a growing audience, particularly at night, where there's often a wait for one of the 60 utilitarian chairs.
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