Spicy House – A Visit Under New Ownership

Last month I found out that Spicy House was under new ownership. So, after waiting about a month, I decided to drop by and try a couple of dishes. I drove up for lunch and was surprised that the parking lot at Sunrise Town Center where Nijiya, Woomiok, Koon Thai, Karami Ramen, Okan, and a host of other businesses are located was half empty at 1130! Guess, the heatwave and extreme humidity was having an effect on business?

I did notice that huge “We Serve Lunch Special” banner as I walked up to Spicy House.

I took a look at the “lunch specials” posted on the wall and it was all those “Orange Chicken…….General Tso’s Chicken” kind of thing for $12.99. Not my cup of tea. I was guided to a table. I quickly noticed that while there was only one other table of customers during my visit, there was a steady stream of take-out and delivery orders.

I quickly noticed that the prices here seemed quite reasonable for the dishes I was looking at. What I was ordering was limited based on the hot weather. I ended ordering three dishes.

Starting with some Liang Cai – three items for $13.00. I picked Fuqi Fei Pian, Pig Ears, and Smoked Chicken.

This was an interesting start. The beef in the Fuqi Fei Pian, there was no tendon or offal was cut into some unwieldy pieces and sliced rather thick. It did have some decent spice, though not much of the numbingness from Sichuan Peppercorn. Mild garlic tones and a hint of sweetness.

The smoked chicken was quite savory, with good smoky tones.

It was cut into really thick slices and was quite dry and chewy; though the Missus did enjoy the leftovers of this dish later on. Mainly for the flavor.

The best item were the very thinly sliced pig ears. Which had that nice crisp-crunchy texture.

The sauce had a decent spiciness to it. The Missus really enjoyed this….She basically went thru the entire portion of leftovers!

Of course I had to try the Ko Shui Ji (Mouth Watering (saliva) Chicken – $14.99). Man, this was a large portion.

While much better than the version we last got from Spicy City, this was our least favorite dish. Much like that version, this had way too much sesame paste. That earthy, nuttiness really overpowered much of the other flavors in this; especially the red chili oil.

The chicken had been nicely poached with a good toothsomeness. The savoriness of the chicken came thru as well. The peanuts did well in this dish, though more scallions would have been nice.

It’s just that sauce which needed less sesame paste, more hong you (chili oil), ma-la, perhaps a touch of black vinegar, and some additional pungency.

My final dish was the one I last ordered from Spicy House back in 2023, the Chongqing Liang Mian ($11.99), the typical Sichuan cold noodle dish. We were so disappointed in that dish. And to be perfectly honest, when the rather large bowl of noodles arrived at the table, I was ready to be disappointed again.

I appreciated the amount of cucumber, but it looked really plain. Until I dug into the dish a bit.

Tasting the sauce, it actually had a nice ma-la going for it. A hint of sweet and some pungency. Mixing it took a good five minutes to get everything coated. But after a while it was mission accomplished. The noodles were slightly springy and got nicely coated.

This was pretty good. And the noodles even held out as leftovers…the Missus agreed that this was pretty good.

And the prices were quite nice for these times. Though perhaps I had gotten some of the least pricey dishes from the menu….

I think we’ll return once the weather gets a bit cooler to try some of the other dishes on the menu. No, this isn’t even close to what Ba Ren was, but we enjoyed this more than Spicy City and even perhaps Szechuan Chef. So, we’ll see when we return.

Spicy House
3860 Convoy Street #105
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Sun – Thurs 1130am – 830pm
Fri – Sat 1130am – 9pm