Red Hot Wok

The Cupertino location is one of our favorite Chinese restaurants in the Bay so we were ecstatic when they opened a much closer location in Palo Alto.

Our go to's include the three cup chicken (5/5) which is a MUST order. I love the savory, slightly sweet sauce, the fragrant notes from the Thai basil, and the tender chicken. It's one of their most popular dishes, and for good reason.

Their Taiwanese sausage fried rice is also solid and a good carb-filler for little kids.

We also like their braised pork over rice, also known as Lu rou fan (4/5): typically the pork used is ground pork but here, the restaurant minces pork belly, which gives the dish a wonderful richness that is super flavorful and homey tasting.

For vegetable sides, we like the fried green beans in garlic sauce and stir fried eggplant with basil.

We've also gotten the sizzling beef, which I found slightly salty but is nothing that a glass of water and a large bowl of rice can't fix. The beef fried noodle in Kang Kung sauce is also yummy. Honestly you can't go wrong here and we've liked nearly everything we've tried!

Red Hot Wok is the go-to choice for Chinese food for my husband and I whenever we happen to be in Palo Alto, usually after visiting Stanford. We really like their menu selection and the service here is really fast.

We've dropped in as late as 8pm on a Wednesday (they close at 8:30pm) and we've been out of the restaurant by the time they close....maybe this is also a testament to how quickly my husband and I are capable of eating, haha.

Prices are pretty reasonable for the Bay Area; portions aren't HUGE though, and somehow we feel the to-go portions are even slightly smaller than dine-in.

Our favorite dishes here are:
- 3 Cup Pork Intestine: soo flavorful and a must-try if you like pork intestines (don't knock it 'til you've tried it!)
- Stir Fried Eggplant in Garlic Sauce: the eggplant is super tender!

Overall, RHW is solid and will continue to be a Palo Alto go-to, but we likely wouldn't go super out of the way to get here!

The last time I went to the Cupertino location was maybe 10 years ago. I remember it being a small place with long waits and casual bench seating, which actually felt pretty authentic for a Taiwanese stir fry place. The Palo Alto location (in the old Mandarin Roots space) has been open for a while, but we only recently got takeout from here.

- Shrimp cake: deep fried with a sweet chili dipping sauce; a kid favorite
- Salt and pepper spare ribs: nicely wok fried
- Three cup tofu: a bit under salted for me
- Ong choy: tender
- Chicken fried noodle: (kids loved this) not bad for a noodle dish - noodles had good texture
- Lu rou fan (pork belly rice): lots of pork, great flavor, a really solid dish

The lu rou fan was the highlight for me. They have a pretty big menu, so there's something for everyone. Pricing is not bad for Palo Alto, and it's authentic Chinese food!

Great portions, reasonably priced food, and non-greasy! We were impressed by the squash dish and lamb. There was plenty of seating available, casual environment, ample parking on the street, and the service was fast. Our waiter refilled our water multiple times.

Food and service were incredible! This was our first time going there and it was an unforgettable experience. Waiter was so friendly and helped us with the menu. Portions were huge and we had plenty of leftovers! Would 100% go there again.

I love Red Hot Wok in Cupertino and I'm so glad they opened up one up here.

They have awesome lunch specials where you get a couple of nice sides.

I'm regularly ordering the 3 cups chicken, salt and pepper pork, any of the noodles, green beans, lamb, anything satay. You really can't go wrong ordering here. I really like the sizzling tofu in black bean sauce with rice.

This place was delicious, I must say. Some solid Taiwanese food in Palo Alto.
- 3 cup chicken: very flavorful and saucy. The chicken absorbed the sauces, although it wasn't the softest
- beef: the stir fried beef on the other hand, was so tender and cooked perfectly.
- pineapple fried rice: I thought it was pretty standard, but still hit the spot and large portions.
- overall great service. dishes were on the saltier side but tasty for sure!

I'm unfamiliar with the food scene in Palo Alto, but turns out that the city has some really commendable Taiwanese dishes being served up at Red Hot Wok!

I went on a Saturday afternoon with two friends. Not much of a wait time since we came around 1:30pm. Plenty of seating inside and 4-5 tables outside.

We ordered several dishes: Three Cups Tofu clay pot, House Special Grounded Pork Rice Bowl, and Stir Fried Beef w/Kang Kung in Satay Sauce.

Let's start with the start of the show: the Three Cups Tofu Clay pot. A server brings out the dish piping HOT, as it should be. The tofu is braised beautifully and silky in texture, flavored by a dark soy sauce, basil, ginger slices, and garlic. At first, I was caught off guard by the ginger slices, but they were aromatic and soaked up all that savory soy sauce. The ginger is good enough to eat on its own! Phenomenal dish, you know the food is good when you can simply eat the sauce with plain white rice!!!

Next up, the stir fried beef. My only critique is that the beef was tenderized, which affected a bit of the texture. The satay sauce was more like a shrimp paste, rich in umami flavor but not overly salted. Veggies were stirred in and had a nice 'bite' to them.

And third, the pork rice bowl. It was alright, I just wish that it was served warmer. That aside, the pork's flavor profile was a dark soy sauce combined with a noticeable five spice taste. The rice was cooked perfectly.

This is a restaurant I'll have on my radar when I visit Palo Alto again. Great food!

This is a traditional Taiwanese restaurant with fast service and decent food. One thing to note is most of the workers only speak mandarin, so it was hard communicating.

We got seated right away on a Saturday night and we're able to order really quickly. Here's what we got:

- eggplant with garlic: not the best eggplant I've had. I prefer them to be saucier, and they were a bit more firm than other restaurants. 4/5
- chicken clay pot: a pretty good chicken dish with a lemongrass-y taste. It was very tender and fresh, but I didn't find myself wanting more than a few bites. 4/5
- sizzling black pepper beef: super tender and the best dish of them all! Sauce was delicious and everything was to perfection. 5/5

Overall the food did its job, but would I come back? Probably not because it didn't impress me more than other restaurants.

I love the Red Hot Wok in Cupertino and so I wanted to come here to try the (relatively) new location in Palo Alto. This location is better in some ways and worse in others...and I do prefer the Cupertino location. However, Red Hot Wok Palo Alto does live up to its name - delicious and piping hot Taiwanese food that is cooked super quickly! Both locations have talented chefs and efficient service. Below, I will go into detail the differences between each location:

Palo Alto (here) is better:
-- plenty of seating and large interior. Cupertino in comparison is much smaller.
-- seems like it has more servers

Cupertino is better:
-- SOMEHOW the food is slightlyyyy better in Cupertino. Both my fiance and I agree. don't get me wrong, the food here in Palo Alto is great, but the Cupertino food is just next level delicious. Better cook and flavor.
-- Ambiance. The decor in Palo Alto is plain in comparison. I like the homey benches in Cupertino
-- special menu! I could not find the special menu at Palo Alto, while the Cupertino location has daily specials on a chalkboard.