Polydish city guide

Best Chili shrimp in San Francisco

“The Sichuan version has a crisp texture and uses dried chillis, onions, and tomatoes.”

Chili shrimp

What the real thing tastes like

Chili shrimp (simplified Chinese: 干烧明虾; traditional Chinese: 乾燒明蝦; pinyin: gān shāo míngxiā or simplified Chinese: 明虾; traditional Chinese: 明蝦; pinyin: míngxiā) is a dish of stir-fried shrimp in chili sauce (which may use doubanjiang) in Chinese cuisine. It is a part of both Sichuan and Shanghai cuisines. The Sichuan version has a crisp texture and uses dried chillis, onions, and tomatoes. In Japanese Chinese cuisine, ebi-chiri (Japanese: エビチリ) is derived from Shanghai-style Sichuan cuisine. It consists of stir-fried shrimp in chilli sauce. It has a history in Japan. According to Iron Chef, ebi-chiri was introduced to and popularized in Japan by Chen Kenmin, father of Iron Chef Chinese Chen Kenichi. In Korean Chinese cuisine, chili shrimp is called kkansyo-saeu (Korean: 깐쇼새우), a named consisting of the word kkansyo derived from Chinese gān shāo (乾燒, "dry braising") and saeu meaning "shrimp" in Korean, or chilli-saeu (Korean: 칠리새우) with the English-derived word chilli. There is a Singap

0 voices, one story

Chili shrimp travels differently across Asia, each version holding its own character. The Sichuan original arrives crisp, built on dried chillis, onions, and tomatoes — sometimes deepened with doubanjiang. In Japan, Chen Kenmin's ebi-chiri softened the edges and found a devoted following. Singapore flipped the texture entirely: moist instead of crisp, fresh chillis instead of dried, a dish that shares a name with its Chinese ancestor but little else.

Order it here when it has

  • crisp texture (Sichuan)
  • established history across multiple cuisines
  • regional variations

Walk away when you see

    Restaurant-level rankings for San Francisco land as the Polydish review engine processes this city's reviews. Explore the dish itself while you wait —

    Chili shrimp on Polydish →