Unfortunately, Chef Z's has closed, as of mid-Sept 2025. On the plus side, their spot in the food court is being taken by Tong Dumpling, which is reopening after having closed at the beginning of the year. Tong has the best frozen dumplings I've ever found. read more

Came here for the fragrance ribs and boiled fish. The boiled fish is not as spicy as other boiled fish that i had before at other sichuan restaurants. The color was darker than the usual red boiled fish i had. The fragrance ribs i ordered was totally different than what i expected. The fragrance ribs at other sichuan place were usually cut into small pieces, deep fried, then stir fried with salt and hot peppers. Overall the taste was decent, but i will not be coming back since it did not meet my expectation of the two dishes i ordered. read more

Chef Z's - Stir fried spinach 清炒菠菜 - Szechuan Near Me - San Jose, California

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Delicious! The food came on time as I arrived, and the flavors were spot on. They reminded me of what my mom used to cook in the kitchen. Service was amazing as they were all very nice to me. The portions were super generous and allowed us to get our money's worth. The mapotofu was equally spicy and tasty, and I will be sure to come back and buy more food soon! THE best spot for Sichuan food in San Jose/Cupertino. read more

This is a small hole in the wall in the strip mall, blink and you'll miss as the font is pretty small on their sign board. Only take out. But their food is pure magic. THE BEST Chinese food I have had in a looooong time. Their stir fried silken tofu with chillies, the amazing eggplant in garlic sauce and chou mein are absolute dynamite, Cant wait to do their take out again. read more

Definitely one of the best szhecuan restaurants in the Bay Area! Located inside the mall, more like a mall to me, but inside there are only two learning centers, many food courts, one herbal shop, and one travel agent booth. We ordered: 1. DanDan noodle: very delicious indeed! In fact, we came to this restaurant for their famous dandan noodle. Noodle is very chewy, they put a little bit broth at the bottom, and it's very flavorful! Order this at this restaurant and you won't be dissapointed. 2. Beef noodle soup. Beef was tender, they put quite some veggies, the broth was infused with a bit herbal, I'd assume that made it smells aromatic. 3. Stir fried vegetables. Simple, nice and fragrant of the fried garlic. Nice company to their beef noodle soup. 4. Peppercorn chicken. You can choose between boneless/with bone. We chose boneless. This dish was the winning dish of the day for me. The batter was their winning point. Very crispy indeed. Mixed well with the hot peppercorn oil. Definitely will come back for this dish. Customer service was supberb as well, we were being treated nice. The down part was they only accept cash. read more

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Tasty favors, clear and inexpensive. Ordered many times, never disappointed. Delivery is always on time, fantastic customer service!

Best hidden gem and most authentic Sichuan food in South Bay! We are so glad it's open and has a variety of food choices for takeout. We got two bentos on Saturday - Chongqing Chicken (boneless) and Chicken Noodles with Scallion Oil - both with perfect flavoring and consistency, and the portions are more than generous for $10 each. We ordered through their WeChat mini app, but phone orders seem to be pretty easy. Wish we lived closer so we could take advantage of the week day bento and family meal deliveries. read more

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The absolute best Dan Dan noodles. And the eggplant dish and string bean dishes blew our mind. Some of the best Chinese food i have ever had. Don't miss out on this mind-blowing food experience. read more

Dis some baby making food! In a little corner of worn down Chinese shopping center in Cupertino, CA is this gem! Chef Z's - a Sichuan food court restaurant surrounded by an optometrist, Chinese medicine booth, and several music schools and tutoring centers. The foods: chengdu dumplings (wontons in chili oil), chongqing fried chicken (Sichuan style popcorn chicken), and shredded pork in hot garlic sauce I've eaten at some of the best holes in the wall in San Francisco but THIS is the best chinese food I've ever had in my life. Everything was perfectly cooked in under 10 minutes. This meal felt like a big hug and lifted my mood after the first bite in a run down Chinese strip mall other Chinese people eat there flies menu in Chinese with a splash of english have to ask for water cash only This place is legit! read more

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This is one of the most unassuming restaurants I've ever been to. When my friends insisted that this was THE spot to go for szechuan food, I couldn't believe it. Moral of the story? Never judge a book by its cover! Yes, it's in the back left part of a small shopping mall-like structure. All the dishes are ultra flavorful, spicy (if you want them to be), and plentiful. What to get: - Dan Dan Mian: Holy big bowl of noodles. Plenty of spice, minced meat, and cucumber veggies. Enough to feed 4! - Pork and bean curd: The classic asian dish. Recommendation: add spice - Ma po tofu: Loads of tofu, spice, and meat. Must get! - Fried chicken with explosive chili peppers: Tons of chicken that is nicely diced and super flavorful Chef Z himself came out to greet us and he was super nice and thankful for our support. Cash only, so be prepared! read more

Delicious Dan Dan Noodles! My son, daughter and I got some food to go from Chef Zs. Everything we ordered here was excellent! We have been looking for a delicious Dan Dan noodle and so far this is the place to get them! The noodles were very meaty and the sauce was very flavorful and spicy hot. My daughter especially loved them even though she had to take sips of water between each bite. She said they were spicy hot but also very delicious! Definitely worth drinking water between each bite of noodle. The pot stickers were very good as well. Delicious filling with a nice crunchy skin on the bottom. My daughter and son loved these. The dumplings (Pork) were very tasty too! Nice and meaty and flavorful. We will definitely be back to this little hole in the wall restaurant. Don't let the location or size keep you away from going to this wonderfully delicious restaurant! Love this place! read more

Delicious food, simple atmosphere. Restaurant is in the shopping center, back left. Takes cash only. Service was great/as expected. I had the twice cooked pork and boneless Sichuan chicken based on reviews, and it didn't disappoint! Crunchy Sichuan chicken with just the right amount of heat for that tingle on your tongue. Pork was flavorful with mixed veggies. Will definitely be back. read more

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I came to the very strange makeshift food and retail hall at 1600 S. De Anza Blvd looking to try the Dan Dan noodles at Sichuan Chili, but after sitting down and getting up and sitting down again, I learned that Sichuan Chili has closed and another restaurant reopened in its place a week or two ago. The new restaurant is called "Chef Z's". FYI, all the signs inside and out still say Sichuan Chili rather than Chef Z's - only the menus have the new name, plus some 8.5x11 home-printed signs. I ended up ordering the lunch special listed as "Shredded pork with hot garlic sauce". My selection was completely blind because it was my server's first day, he understandably seemed seriously frazzled and he couldn't offer a single menu comment or recommendation. The lunch specials menu said my dish came with "rice & daily soup". I ultimately received the rice but not the soup - "Sorry, no soup today". No discount on the lunch special price though (mine was $8.95 but others were $7.25). My meal was fine, but these folks are obviously just trying to figure things out. Best of luck to them! read more

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One of my favorite comfort food spots in Cupertino! I have been going here since before COVID-19, and the quality is always consistent. The chef is always so welcoming and excited to see return customers! There are so many choices, but my favorite dish is definitely the Chengdu special dumplings in chili oil--give me the option and I'll eat tens of these in minutes! Before COVID-19, you would be able to preorder a bunch of dishes for a large party and it would all be hot and fresh by the time you and your guests are ready to eat! Now, you can still have those dishes delivered to you, or you can pick up and meet the chef himself if you're lucky! Support a local small business and get yourself some AUTHENTIC Chinese food! read more

CASH ONLY!! This is a restaurant located inside the strip mall. We came here on a Saturday at noon. There weren't too many people so we got seated quickly. They served complementary salted peanuts so that was nice!! Here's what we got: Boiled fish in chili oil 2/5: this is a really standard Sichuan dish but it was BLAND and a bit disappointing. I'd say it was below average for this dish. It didn't have that fragrant flavor of the chili oil. Sautéed string beans 3.5/5: similarly, this was a bit bland. But the string beans were fried perfectly, but just a little oily. Service here was excellent, though the food came out pretty slowly. I would be down to try different dishes since this is close to where I live. The dishes I tried were just bland and underwhelming. read more

I got the dinner set yesterday and I honestly can't say it's good. The meatball soup and the vegetables smell really funky. It stinks and I have to throw them away. I have no idea if that's what it should smell or something is wrong with the food. All I know is that I had the same dishes elsewhere many times and I've never smell such funky smell before. I personally won't order anything from this restaurant any more because I don't wanna waste my money on this kind of food. read more

How can I even describe how magnificent this dinner was? I try to reserve my 5-star reviews for food that's like... life-changing and that's this like omg. We ordered dan dan noodles, string beans with the spicy garlic sauce, and dry fried red pepper spicy chicken. It was fast, ordering on the phone was so easy and friendly, and we sort of snuck in under the wire before they closed (they close at 7:30 not 9:00 -- yelp has it wrong). I was drooling the whole drive home and then we stuffed our faces until we had to lie down and never move again. I don't think we said anything else during the meal except "oh my god this is so good." AND it was enough food for two of us to have a full meal's worth of leftovers tomorrow. I'm honestly so thrilled with this meal I might cry. read more

Chef Z's replaces Sichuan Chili which replaced Chef Ma before it. With so many restaurants opening in the Bay Area, I've hardly had time to return to some of my favorites and Chef Ma and Sichuan Chili (with a former Chef Ma chef) was definitely one of my favorite Sichuan hidden gems of the South Bay. Chef Z's largely continues the Sichuan fare and retains a very similar layout with perhaps a touch more branding. During a late lunch, it was quiet with only another patron or two. Perusing the menu, I was encouraged that many of the dishes of the former two restaurants had been retained. Hoping for the best, I ordered two favorites of yore. Service was earnest albeit a bit inexperienced. Beef Slices with Stomach Intestines in Chili Oil - $7.99. Despite the slightly different name, this dish looked like a carbon copy of Chef Ma's/Sichuan Chili's Cold Sliced Beef Tendon and Honey Tripe in Chili Oil including a similar price. There was lots of garlic, peanuts, diced cucumber and sliced beef and Intestines. Unfortunately, while the dish was good, there was one important difference -- the Chili Oil was nowhere as good. It seemed to be more a mundane soy sauce and Chili Oil combination whereas the prior versions had been sublime. I had asked Chef Ma and Sichuan Chili to box the leftover sauce for me many times. No desire this time. Sichuan Spicy Pork Soup Noodles - $7.99. This was the closest dish I could find to my old favorite Spicy Sichuan Ground Pork Noodle. It turned out not to be the same. Instead of a delectable Chili soy sauce with dry noodles and plentiful ground pork, this dish had a slurry of ground Pork over solid rice noodles in a forgettable soup broth. There were also bok Choy but again the spiciness just wasn't the same. Overall, while I wish Chef Z's well, it's clear that it's a different chef and recipe than Chef Ma and Sichuan Chili. I thought lightning had struck twice when Sichuan Chili was almost just as good as Chef Ma (and the Chengdu dumplings were even better). No such luck a third time. Chef Z's takes cash only. read more

Chef Z's - Sliced Beef with Stomach Intestine in Chili Oil - Szechuan Near Me - San Jose, California

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Great Sichuan restaurant located in at the end of the food court. You can't go wrong with the boiler chicken/beef in hot sauce. It's a perfect meal with chili oil and peppercorns. Perfect spot to go to if your craving Szechuan food! read more

*STILL* my go to spot for Sichuan Style Dan Dan Noodles & Dumplings. I've been a patron since it was called Sichuan Chili. The previous owner ran the front and her husband ran the back. She thought I would like the dumplings, and I've been ordering them every time since. She was so kind. I heard that the owners moved back to China to take care of family, and that Sichuan Chili had closed. Today, I was more than pleased to find out that there is another Sichuan Restaurant in this location, and Dan Dan Noodles and Dumplings are both on the menu. A really nice waitress I remember from Sichuan Chili was still there, and after talking with her about the new restaurant, the Owner/Chef came out and welcomed me and we had a great conversation. His version of both Dan Dan Noodles & Dumplings are EXCEPTIONAL. Thank You! read more

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My favorite traditional Chinese southwest food! Great value with big plate! I love their rice noodle and spicy chicken!

Thank you Chef Z's for feeding me & my fellow healthcare workers! Portions were large and delicious! It's definitely a meal with love :) read more

Chef Z's - Thank you Chef Z's for feeding me & my fellow healthcare workers! - Szechuan Near Me - San Jose, California

I really wanted to like this place more than I did. It's a funny restaurant that takes up space in a funny little food court that also has an entrance to a preschool and various stores. We tried the Dan Dan noodles and the peppercorn chicken based on other reviews. The noodles were pretty good but then I'm a sucker for noodles. The peppercorn chicken we got looked nothing like the picture others had posted. Maybe a different check that night? But, it wasn't very good and was too oily for my taste. Prices a bit high but you get large portions. Our order came out to $29 which is more than what I expected for a couple of takeout items. I may have to go back and try other dishes to reconsider. On a separate note that i just have to share, when we went there was a car that had just hung itself on the curb. You never know what you're going to see around here. Apparently, the driver cut the corner a little too sharp, rode over the curb and continued to go forward so that his front wheels were now off the ground. It's a front wheel drive car! I posted a picture. read more

Chef Z's - Yikes. Went over the curb and now the front wheel is off the ground! - Szechuan Near Me - San Jose, California

Everything was delicious. Chef Z even came out to introduce himself. We ordered Chong qing chicken . Beef noodle soup and fish fillet in hot chili oil. Will be back for more! read more

Good little fiNd:) -Chef Z came over to introduce himself and ask how the meal was. very nice of him! food was good. i'd recommend for a nice meal at great price:) Authentic:) read more

I ordered takeout from here twice and have good experiences. The people who work there are friendly and the food has great portions. I ordered the shredded potato, twice cooked pork, fried fish and other dishes. Solid options! The only downside is they're cash only but if you have Bank Of America, there is one in that same plaza read more

I second the motion that their noodles are amazing, but mostly my family and I live on their different weekly take-out menu that they offer here. It's amazing. Salt and pepper fried fish? Absolutely delicious, especially if you also get it with the sweet and sour sauce. Lion's head meatball? Ooh, the sauce is classic, the meatballs are so rich and flavorful, and they don't skimp on the vegetables underneath either. They even sometimes have a broiled whole fish in sauce for takeout and that is just amazing. Don't forget to eat your stir-fried dark green vegetables, they'll usually have some type of vegetable stir-fried at least every other night. They always have to-go with hot soup and steamed rice too! read more

Very disappointing. The dish was burnt. Looks like charcoal and very salty. Never again.

Even though I am a fan of Chef Z's restaurant, I have to say I am only fan of one dish: the twice-cooked pork. While this restaurant has quite good authentic taste of Szechuan style, it is also a one-trick pony in that only the twice-cooked pork is something that I would order and eat again and again. Having said that, I have visited this place 3 times and tried a variety of dishes including the twice-cooked pork, the Szechuan style spicy chicken (kind of like spicy fried chicken), the Chengdu dumplings (spicy dumplings), and finally the spicy water-boiled fish (fish cooked in spicy oil and spice blend). Risking being over repetitive, the twice-cooked pork is honestly super tasty and authentic. You have to try it! For the rest, I think it heavily depends on your own liking, but I find the spicy water-boiled fish also quite good as the fish is very tender. Beware that this place is CASH-ONLY, but there is a convenient Bank of America located right next to it. Enjoy! read more

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Another take out spot for our quick visit to the area. I was led here by the Yelp reviews as I was craving some Szechuan food. Yelp did not disappoint. Overall, the food is solid. The pick up process was easy. And the service was friendly. Cash only though. We sampled the spicy beef and the Szeschuan spicy pork noodle soups. Both are excellent. I could have used a better balance of the noodles and the other ingredients (meats/vegetables), with more of the latter. Also a hit were both the stir fried green beans, both the spicy and not spicy ones. The eggplant was flavorful. By the time we got to the dan dan noodles, I was honestly a little bit full. The twice fried spicy pork was also okay. I would swing by anytime for another bowl of noodles. read more

A great place for some authentic Szechuan flavored dishes! If you are a Chinese this will remind you a good neighborhood restaurant back home. If you are not Chinese but can eat spicy food, you'll love the intense flavors. My favorite dishes are 蒜泥白肉 garlic pork，文武鸡 spicy and non-spicy boiled chicken，鱼香茄子 garlic eggplant，回锅肉 twice-cooked pork。 Even if you are not fond of spicy food, you will still enjoy the non-spicy dishes, especially the pork ribs 飘香排骨。 Come during weekday lunch or dinner time or off-hours to avoid the crowd, as this is a small operation and can get hectic for the kitchen during weekend peak hours. read more

I liked this place before but the last 2x I've come here, the service was terrible. Ordered the basic chow fun noodle dish last time and this time I ordered the salt and pepper fish filet and it took over 35 minutes to come out!!! And both times were after lunch at 1pm. 2 tables came after me and we're served before me!! The worst part after 40m of waiting, they got my order wrong!!!!! UPDATE The waiter brought out another dish about 10 m later (still not the right one) to compensate for the mistake. read more

The food here is utterly unremarkable. This is surprising given the price of most dishes, which are in the $10-$15 range, including the appetizers. Given this price range I expect better than average food. The Dan Dan Mian was really sweet. The couple's delight was only salty. The family style tofu was tasteless. This is excusable if I were at the only generic Chinese restaurant in some rural America town, but not when there are so many better choices near by. Drop the price by $5 and this place may be passable. Also the wait staff seems pretty new or overwhelmed. We were given leftover tea, no cups, no napkins. It was also hard to get their attention so we can ask for those things. read more

Love this place. It's a bit hidden away in the mall but everything is fresh and tasty. We like the ribs especially

I really love the salt and pepper fillet here. I've only been twice but the workers have been really polite both times. I even got to meet Chef Z! I don't know why the reviews are so mixed. Chef Z says people usually order the chicken wings so maybe people will be happier ordering that? I found the green/string beans to be mediocre but I will keep going as long as the fish is great read more

Great Szechuan food and very friendly staff including Chef Z himself. We had Dan Dan noodles, Kung Pao Chicken and dry cooked string beans. Everything was fresh, flavorful and spicy. The mall it's located in is a bit dated and rundown but the food makes up for it! read more

The place doesn't look like much but the food is on point. The Dan Dan Mien and Chong Qing Chicken are all very good.

Garlic baby rib is so delicious, it is a must try! They also gathering for big party!

Whenever I am craving some mouth tingling Szechuan spice, this place does not disappoint! The first time I went I got the dry fried chicken, mapo tofu, and tan tan noodles - all ama! The service is great - I asked for a non deep-fried recommendation and it was delicious . Highly recommend - best Szechuan in Cupertino! read more

Chef Z's - Szechuan Near Me - San Jose, California

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Service: I usually don't like to rate a restaurant about service, but this is one of the worst experience I ever got. From the start, we were seated on a table with nothing but a teapot. The teapot was from the last customer. Then they gave us a bowl, a plate, and a pair of chopsticks. I then asked for tea cups, but the server gave us those big plastic cups meant for water. I had to ask the server again for TEA cups and fresh tea. After deciding what we wanted to eat, we had to wait 10 minutes before they took our order and then another 10 minutes for the food to start coming out. Food: We ordered 3 items because we were limited by cash (thank God we didn't order more). There first item is 担担面. It looks like legit 担担面 but it didn't taste anything like it. It was sweet and spicy, which is super weird if you've ever had normal 担担面 before. It didn't taste bad. It was actually decent, but it's not 担担面. The second item was 夫妻肺片. It tasted ok, but strictly below average. There was way too much ginger and it was really difficult enjoy the meat with just the green onion because of that. The third item is 家常豆腐. It didn't taste like anything. I felt like it was just old tofu tossed with sauce. But the sauce was also pretty tasteless. Price: The total was a little over $35. I've had way better food for cheaper at most Szechuan places. I thought 4 stars on Yelp means that at least the service or food or both would be good, but I'm very disappointed. To summarize, I think this place is equivalent to an over priced Panda Express. read more

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