Sunday, October 7 Lucky Creation (San Francisco) Rating: 5

When we went to San Francisco last year there were several restaurants we wanted to try, and we did make it to most of them. Lucky Creation in Chinatown was one we missed out on though. We were bound and determined to get there this year since we’d heard it had the best vegan Chinese food in the city. It’s true. We can’t figure out what they do that’s so different, but the food is amazing.  

We ordered way more food than we realized, so our friends who live here were gifted with some bonus leftovers. We started off with some “pork” buns, which were fluffy and yummy and delicious. Next up was the puffed seitan plate. I don’t know what makes it puffed, but it’s a plate of three different kinds of seitan and each is more delicious than the next. (We knew this was too much food, but were planning to bring the extra to our friend who couldn’t make it to dinner, so it was ok.) Seth ordered soup, which turned out to be basically a pot of soup, and was brought to us with bowls for everyone at the table. It was really tasty though, a bean curd noodle soup. It was delicious – thin noodles with thinly sliced tofu, onions and garlic. It is exactly the kind of soup I crave when I have a cold, so I’m now grumbly that I can’t get it in Atlanta. 

We ordered a plate of pot-stickers for the table too. This was about the time we started to realize that the portions at Lucky Creation are enormous. The pot-stickers were enormous too. And there were a ton of them on the plate. I’m a sucker for pot-stickers anyway, but these were so much better than any others I’ve had. If you go to Lucky Creation, be sure to try them. You won’t be sorry. 

After spending a long time deciding on entrees, Seth went with one of the specials, a seitan sausage curry with broccoli and potatoes. Do I have to say how good it was? The sauce was perfect, not too spicy but very flavorful. Seth commented it could have used a little more of the seitan sausage, which was really tasty so I can see his point. And by this time, our table looked like we’d ordered the entire menu, there was so much food on it. 

I had the sweet and sour “pork”. It’s been so many years since I’ve had sweet and sour anything in a restaurant. It was also, of course, delectable. I remember way back when I used to love the breaded and fried little bites coated in the sweet sticky sauce. While I certainly don’t miss meat at all, it was a nice treat to have a dish like this that wasn’t tofu. And it was really good, better than anything similar that I’ve had over the years. So, the bottom line is, if you’re in San Francisco and can get over to Chinatown, go to Lucky Creation. And make sure you’re hungry when you do.