Spicy noodles, potstickers are amazing. One of my favorite places.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Beef Chow Fun, Shanghai Dumplings, Steamed Dumplings, Deep Fried Meat Dumplings, Crispy Spring Roll, Dry Fried Green Beans
Piotr Nowak
Dining at Mama Ji's in San Francisco CA was a culinary adventure I won't soon forget. The flavors were bold and authentic, and the portions were generous. The restaurant's vibrant atmosphere and attentive service made for a memorable dining experience that I can't wait to repeat.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Beef Chow Fun, Cumin Lamb, Shanghai Dumplings, Deep Fried Meat Dumplings, Crispy Spring Roll, Chinese Broccoli with Garlic
Christopher Chung
Decent Chinese a few blocks from the Castro main drag. Assortment of dim sum and Chinese American standards.For the slightly more adventurous, the Ants Climbing Trees bean thread noodles are tossed in spicy sauce with ground pork, mushrooms and dried red chilis.If seeking flavors truly regional, this may fall short as the menu seems more attune to an Americanized palette. Pricing not cheap neither.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Max Khusid
I came in for lunch and ordered the spicy Cumin lamb dish. I really liked it. All the veggies weren't over-fried, nice and crunchy, yet there was plenty of spicy chilly oil and good pieces of lamb. Often, this dish is served with just onions and lamb, but they have tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, lamb, and other veggies.Then, I forgot my credit card :( After struggling with Apple Pay, we finally figured out a solution. Very accommodating and super nice service. TheCastro can be hit-and-miss when it comes to food. MaMa Ji's is definitely a hit!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
audrey p
It's an easy, fun place... great for a week night's dinner.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Queenie Kasch
For real Chinese ppl, the food here is really so so. But I still like it because it's clean and no typical Chinese restaurant stink smell.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 4
I W
The triple Cs tofu was legitimately amazing so I'm conflicted on whether to give this place 3 or 4 stars.* Absolutely loved the green beans* Twice cooked pork was okay, not remarkable wouldn't come back for this dish.* Chongqing chicken was extremely dry and lacking flavor. I don't have a problem with hot food and usually love this dish in other restaurants, but this was borderline bad.* I got served burnt rice that, quite frankly, ruined my meal. Asked for a replacement and they said it would be ANOTHER charge? You should have never served me something inedible to start with. After explaining several more times they served me something that was inedible they finally settled on taking it off the tab, which isn't the replacement I asked for, but I guess its fine. If they handled their decision to serve burnt rice more appropriately (not threaten with an additional charge), I probably would have gone for 4 stars.* Also service is basically nonexistent after they drop off your food, also took like a solid 10 minutes after dropping off food to get rice, which is critical to eating spicy food. A little disappointing to have spicy fried food and no rice for another 10 minutes? Especially when the rice ended up burnt in the end anyway, I assumed the long rice wait would mean fresh good rice so the disappointment was stacked.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 1
Recommended dishes: Dry Fried Green Beans
Michelle Von Merta-Sustarich
HEALTH HAZARD: Please do not eat here if you have a shellfish allergy. I ordered pork shumai; however, it is pork and shrimp. It says online pork or shrimp. It really is pork AND shrimp. I am SEVERELY allergic to shrimp. DO NOT eat here. Getting a refund was next to impossible and they got me extremely sick.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Thomas Ribeiro
Absolutely delicious, fresh, and honest portions. Owner is super cool and friendly, too.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Brinton Resto
Great lunch. Had Shanghai Dumplings, Spicy Cold Noodle, and Cumin Lamb. Very friendly, nice lady running the place.
Really lovely place with great food. The staff is super attentive and the food was delicious. Can only recommend.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Chongqing Chicken, Dimsum
Parth Patel
Very veggie/vegan friendly dim sum spot! Definitely recommend it.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Carolina Gomez
My favorite sichuan spot in SF <3
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Joe Todaro
Mama Ji's is really good, but I feel that they have slipped a bit since their heyday (i.e., pre-Covid). I like the shrimp dumplings and steamed buns, but after eating the same items at dim sum places in the Richmond I can tell that the ones at Mama Ji's don't have quite the same freshness or depth of flavor. Nonetheless, it's a nice option for lunch in the neighborhood. I hope they bring back the turnip cakes!
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 4
Service: 4
Christopher Chatham
Best Szechuan AND Belgian beer selection in the city! Unmissable: Chongqing chicken, and the dry fried string beans. Make sure to try whatever Belgian beer you don’t recognize on the menu, too.Mama Ji’s had closed for nearly six months due to a plumbing issue and during that time we tried (unsuccessfully) to find a replacement Szechuan place elsewhere in the city. This is the best!
Spicy noodles, potstickers are amazing. One of my favorite places.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Beef Chow Fun, Shanghai Dumplings, Steamed Dumplings, Deep Fried Meat Dumplings, Crispy Spring Roll, Dry Fried Green Beans
Dining at Mama Ji's in San Francisco CA was a culinary adventure I won't soon forget. The flavors were bold and authentic, and the portions were generous. The restaurant's vibrant atmosphere and attentive service made for a memorable dining experience that I can't wait to repeat.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Beef Chow Fun, Cumin Lamb, Shanghai Dumplings, Deep Fried Meat Dumplings, Crispy Spring Roll, Chinese Broccoli with Garlic
Decent Chinese a few blocks from the Castro main drag. Assortment of dim sum and Chinese American standards.For the slightly more adventurous, the Ants Climbing Trees bean thread noodles are tossed in spicy sauce with ground pork, mushrooms and dried red chilis.If seeking flavors truly regional, this may fall short as the menu seems more attune to an Americanized palette. Pricing not cheap neither.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
I came in for lunch and ordered the spicy Cumin lamb dish. I really liked it. All the veggies weren't over-fried, nice and crunchy, yet there was plenty of spicy chilly oil and good pieces of lamb. Often, this dish is served with just onions and lamb, but they have tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, lamb, and other veggies.Then, I forgot my credit card :( After struggling with Apple Pay, we finally figured out a solution. Very accommodating and super nice service. TheCastro can be hit-and-miss when it comes to food. MaMa Ji's is definitely a hit!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
It's an easy, fun place... great for a week night's dinner.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
For real Chinese ppl, the food here is really so so. But I still like it because it's clean and no typical Chinese restaurant stink smell.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 4
The triple Cs tofu was legitimately amazing so I'm conflicted on whether to give this place 3 or 4 stars.* Absolutely loved the green beans* Twice cooked pork was okay, not remarkable wouldn't come back for this dish.* Chongqing chicken was extremely dry and lacking flavor. I don't have a problem with hot food and usually love this dish in other restaurants, but this was borderline bad.* I got served burnt rice that, quite frankly, ruined my meal. Asked for a replacement and they said it would be ANOTHER charge? You should have never served me something inedible to start with. After explaining several more times they served me something that was inedible they finally settled on taking it off the tab, which isn't the replacement I asked for, but I guess its fine. If they handled their decision to serve burnt rice more appropriately (not threaten with an additional charge), I probably would have gone for 4 stars.* Also service is basically nonexistent after they drop off your food, also took like a solid 10 minutes after dropping off food to get rice, which is critical to eating spicy food. A little disappointing to have spicy fried food and no rice for another 10 minutes? Especially when the rice ended up burnt in the end anyway, I assumed the long rice wait would mean fresh good rice so the disappointment was stacked.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 1
Recommended dishes: Dry Fried Green Beans
HEALTH HAZARD: Please do not eat here if you have a shellfish allergy. I ordered pork shumai; however, it is pork and shrimp. It says online pork or shrimp. It really is pork AND shrimp. I am SEVERELY allergic to shrimp. DO NOT eat here. Getting a refund was next to impossible and they got me extremely sick.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Absolutely delicious, fresh, and honest portions. Owner is super cool and friendly, too.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Great lunch. Had Shanghai Dumplings, Spicy Cold Noodle, and Cumin Lamb. Very friendly, nice lady running the place.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Restaurantji Recommends
Really lovely place with great food. The staff is super attentive and the food was delicious. Can only recommend.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Chongqing Chicken, Dimsum
Very veggie/vegan friendly dim sum spot! Definitely recommend it.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
My favorite sichuan spot in SF <3
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Mama Ji's is really good, but I feel that they have slipped a bit since their heyday (i.e., pre-Covid). I like the shrimp dumplings and steamed buns, but after eating the same items at dim sum places in the Richmond I can tell that the ones at Mama Ji's don't have quite the same freshness or depth of flavor. Nonetheless, it's a nice option for lunch in the neighborhood. I hope they bring back the turnip cakes!
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 4
Service: 4
Best Szechuan AND Belgian beer selection in the city! Unmissable: Chongqing chicken, and the dry fried string beans. Make sure to try whatever Belgian beer you don’t recognize on the menu, too.Mama Ji’s had closed for nearly six months due to a plumbing issue and during that time we tried (unsuccessfully) to find a replacement Szechuan place elsewhere in the city. This is the best!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Dry Fried Green Beans, Spicy Cucumber Salad, Chongqing Chicken