Z and Y Restaurant, San Francisco

This is a new restaurant to us in Chinatown in San Francisco, which we found from an article in the San Francisco newspaper.  We arrived just as they were opening for lunch and by the time we left there was an impressive line outside that reflected the fact that we were not the first people to find the food to be quite good.  The menu is broad but emphasizes Szechuan specialties, and I recommend going with a big appetite and as many people as you can round up because there are so many wonderful dishes that you would not want to miss.  Pictured here are two of our favorites that were also a bit unusual.  To the right is a scallion pancake rolled up with a slice of highly seasoned and thinly sliced beef, along with some vegetables that was spectacular.  The other is wontons in a spicy Szechuan sauce and sprinkled with peanuts--hard to manage if you are not adept with chopsticks (they will provide forks, but you have to ask) but excellent practice (especially if you are revving up for some dim sum!) and well worth the effort.