San Dong House B.B.Q. Gets Rough with Hand-Pulled Noodles

Luis Chong/Yelp

San Dong's noodle maker going aggro on a hunk of dough.

​Centuries before prom couples took their seats at Benihana to watch some chef butterfly shrimp on a flattop, noodle shops in China were treating customers to the spectacle of the thwack, tour-de-force tours de main in which a kitchen master pulled and beat a plug of dough into long strands of noodles. In today's "Eat" column in SF Weekly, Jonathan Kauffman takes his seat at San Dong House B.B.Q., San Francisco's latest maker of the hand-pulled. The place specializes in the slap-and-jerk style of noodle-making practiced in Lanzhou in north-central China. Once you get over the shock of the thwacks emanating from the kitchen, Kauffman writes, you settle into bowls of noodles with an "astonishing elasticity," of a length that'd challenge an eater with the arms of an NBA player to lift them clear out of the bowl. San Dong's dumplings are a delight, too (as SFoodie correspondent Luis Chong discovered back in September), but apply your chopsticks to the barbecued skewers at your own peril.