3 Best Restaurants in USA

Since 2011, Emei has been serving the city's best Sichuan food, sizzling and hot with the region's signature mouth-tingling peppercorn. Chef Yongcheng Zhao guides the kitchen crew each night, satisfying the city's need for wok-seared green beans, rich mapo (spicy sauce) tofu, and addictively salty fried chongqing (dried red chilies) chicken. The restaurant does a brisk takeout service, so tables are typically available and the large space is comfortable for groups.

Get bold Sichuan flavors with loads of chili peppers at this restaurant, where food is served family style, and “mild” is not an option. If you speak Mandarin, you're in luck, but if you don't, simply point at the menu with full color photos of every dish, including the top selections like deep-fried chicken cubes with hot pepper, or the fish fillet with chili. The duck with spicy sauce has a kick, as do most items on the massive 175-item menu. This authentic Chinese restaurant liberally uses both spicy chilis and Sichuan peppercorn-like peppers in their dishes, so get ready for a tingling, but pleasant numbing effect with every bite. Fortunately the menu is marked with chili pepper icons as warnings.

San Francisco's signature Sichuan restaurant is a wonderful place to sample the often spicy, mouth-numbing (that's the "mala" heat, then the cooling effect of the peppers and chilies) cuisine of that northern China region. It's a long menu, so ask for advice from the servers. Be sure to book in advance for dinner, as the place is equally popular with visitors and diners from all over the Bay Area.