Chef Zhao Kitchen

Definitely a good spot for two types of people: 1) "I love Chinese food!", 2) Chinese heritage.

What's the difference? "I love Chinese Food" consists of "sweet and sour" items, coated and glazed with lots of sugar and soy sauce. Chinese heritage will appreciate the simple dishes like XLB and mapo tofu.

Came here for a reservation of 7, Tuesday lunch rush. We got a family style table near the front with a lazy susan. We were ambitious and ordered:

1. Mongolian beef // YUM! Highly recommend. Huge plate too! Beef is hard to cook, but when cooked properly with the high temperatures, it will be tender and juicy.

2. Sweet and sour pork // ERRR. Not bad, but the pork is a bit too chewy and not pork-y enough.

3. Sweet and sour chicken // Oh gosh, chicken is just no bueno in a Chinese restaurant.

4. Scallion pancakes // Small platter with about 6 pieces. People loved it!

5. Shanghainese style rice cake // Big plate, same rice cake as korean rice cake. I don't think it was chewy enough...

6. Mapo tofu // Huge bowl! I liked it a lot. It can be made vegetarian by removing the ground pork.

7. Sauteed snow pea shoots // Ohh. I like this too! Most asian resturants don't have this...but it's delicious and simple!

8. General chicken // "Dark sauce" glaze...almost like an orange chicken but not as sweet.

9. Kung pao chicken // Has lots of onions, bell peppers, zucchini and chicken! Decent, but not spicy enough.

10. XLB // Good! Skin is thin, juice is yummy.

11. Pan fried dumplings // Hmm..I guess there aren't enough Shanghainese diners around the area to compare, but I've had better. The skin to meat ratio is a little off, and the skin isn't as crispy as it should be. However, still a good introduction to Shanghainese food! Definitely looks homemade too, which is awesome.

12. Tender chicken noodle soup // ERR. I guess I'm not used to chicken broth. Pieces of chicken and ham inside. Noodles are good though! Soft and chewy, definitely homemade.

Pros:
+1 Quick service. Within 10 minutes of ordering, we got our first dish, and then consecutively after.
+1 Clean environment. A bit musty, but the tables and such were clean.
+1 Cheap prices. At the end of the meal, we only paid around $18 each.
+1 Good service. Server was fast and friendly!
+1 Huge portion sizes. Definitely share!!

Cons:
-1 MSG...oh gosh.
-1 Meat quality is meh. Especially the chicken. Tastes really rubbery...but get the beef!
-1 Tea is meh. Literally no tea flavor.

Tips/Observations:
-Reserve if you have a large party!
-Parking is a plenty, in this parking lot.
-If you don't want to dine in, there is a to-go section in the back (scoop and go)
-Seems like they take any type of credit card (woohoo for not being exclusive..)

Overall, I would come here again and try out other items! Good Shanghainese restaurant in the area, especially so close to work.

Chef Zhao's is our go-to place for good Chinese food for a large group when we have a family event at Stanford. They are fast, the food is very good, and it's very convenient to get to campus (15 minute drive to get to Dinkelspiel).

Tonight I hosted a party of 11 for dinner and were all very pleased with the meal, especially the dessert which is super surprising since Chinese desserts are typically just okay at best. These were delicious!

Steam juicy pork bun - 5/5 (rivals Din Tai Fung IMHO)
Shanghai Pot Sticker - 4/5, I didn't have any but kids liked them although they called them sausages because apparently the filling is in the shape of a tube
Shanghai Egg Roll - 3/5, I didn't have any and there was one leftover which makes me think they weren't a big hit with the 5 kids at the dinner
Scallion Pancake - 4/5 solid
Hot & Sour Soup - 5/5
Honey Walnut Prawn - 4/5 (not a mayo prep which we enjoyed, more like glazed shrimp)
General's Chicken - 3/5, I've had better
Salted & Pepper Pork Spare Ribs - 5/5 excellent, although these are small pieces of spare ribs so a bit more challenging to eat
Sauteed Ong Choi - 5/5
Sauteed Green Beans - 5/5
Beef Chow Fun - 5/5
Vegetable Salted Pork Fried Rice - 5/5 - all other fried rice had carrots and peas in them which I do not prefer (I still think it's weird when Chinese fried rice has peas and carrots in them)

Usually with such a big order the restaurant offers a free dessert but maybe because I pre-ordered the menu they did not this time.

However, we were very intrigued by both the desserts offered on the menu so ordered one of each which easily could have served all 11 people at the table. Both desserts were OUTSTANDING. and not adjusted for a Chinese dessert scale. We all agreed the osmanthus sesame mini rice ball soup was the best we've ever had and the unappealingly named "yam cake" is really jin dui (deep fried sesame rice balls with a purple sweet potato filling).

Delicious!

I really love this place. The Beef Chow Mein in particular was really, really good and you get a very large portion ($16).

I also appreciated their ability to accommodate dietary restrictions. We have someone in the group who can't eat garlic nor onions and they were careful to not add those to any of the dishes.

We also got:
Vegetable Buns $9 -- tasty veggie filling
Chicken & Vegetables $19 -- I wouldn't normally order this dish, but someone in our group had dietary restrictions. It was a good version of an intentionally bland dish.
Kung Pao Chicken $19
Brown Rice $3.5 -- I really liked their brown rice, which is the purple-red version that I really like.

Ive been on the search for good+authentic Chinese food and this might just be the spot I've been looking for. I ordered beef chow mein and vegetable chow mein and the flavor was incredible. I'm looking forward to going back and trying more things off the menu.

I came here for dinner with a pretty large group (7 adults, 3 kids) and we had a great meal. The place is a little crowded but there is one large round table where we could all fit. There are a decent number of vegan/vegetarian dishes- we ordered the green beans and celery/lotus root/wood ear, both of which were really good, better than I had expected. Note that the dishes do not come with rice, you have to order it separately. Overall great authentic tasting food and pretty good service, would recommend.

Got take out order of pan fried pork bun from here, and I can only speak to my experience with this particular food.

Pick up was easy. The lady was nice enough when I got my order. So I can't say much about their service. I decided to try the soup dumpling in the car to eat it at its prime, but unfortunately the flavor was lacking. There was tons of soup inside, which I appreciate. However, the flavor of the pork inside was kinda bland.... So far among all the pan fried pork dumpling shops I've tried, I'll have to say dumpling home in SF is the best. Still in search for that perfect shop tho.

After our go-to Shanghai restaurant in Cupertino closed, my family and I had no choice other than to explore other Shanghai restaurants nearby, and this one's the winner! It ranks the highest in my list of Shanghainese spots as the food is more refined but still casual. Service is no frills, and the food comes out fairly fast.

The XLB and pan fried juicy buns were filled with so much soup, and the meat was fluffy. The dumpling skins had the perfect thickness. These come with a lighter vinegar for dipping, but I personally prefer the dark vinegar. Other dishes I recommend are the special fish gluten puff, sweet soybean milk with fried Chinese donuts, fan tuan (sticky rice burrito with pork floss and Chinese donut inside), sweet and spire pork spare ribs, Shanghai rice cakes, drunken chicken, and kao fu. It's worth the slightly longer drive!

This place tastes a lot better than the rating suggests! Came with 3 friends on a weekend for lunch, and I had heard good things about them.

One thing is the service is noticeably slow- we waited a long time just for service and just as long for food. The dishes came out at a reasonable pace though, and the starters did come first.

The XLB was very juicy and the soup was delicious, definitely one of the better ones I've had. The rice cakes were delicious as well!

I'd have to come back to try more dishes as each one was pretty good.

One of my fav Shanghainese restaurants in the Bay Area! My go-to dishes are pan fried pork bun and Shanghai soup in clay pot. The soup is very authentic and the best I've tried in the Bay Area. It is the reason that I keep coming back :)
They also have many authentic dishes which are hard to find in the Bay Area. If you're looking for authentic Shanghainese food, this is a great option!

Tasty authentic Shanghainese - faster service than expected. Enjoyed the dumplings and noodles.

I got to try some of their pan fried juicy pork buns (also known as sheng jian bao, I believe) for takeout. I thought they tasted pretty good, they are not too soft and a bit more crisp compared to some other buns like the steamed buns, with sesame seeds on the outside and meat in the middle. Be careful when you bite into it since you may inadvertently have the meat juice/sauce gush everywhere. A solid choice and I believe Chef Zhao has been involved with several of the other Shanghainese restaurants across the bay too.