Make sure to check your receipt!! We were almost overcharged for a bottle of wine that we didn't even order!! Also, it was really understaffing where there were only 2 waitress who served tables and we waited for a long time to get things run. The food here is really good but the incidents occurred made me disappointed. read more

Fresh Elements - Seafood Near Me - Daly City, California

Some faults that taint an experience are excusable, and some are not. Located in the Skyline Plaza (99Ranch) in Daly City, Fresh Elements boasts a trending concept in the Bay - steaming raw food right at your table. Conceptually, you select a la carte from a selection of "live" seafood, sliced beef, chicken, dumplings, and vegetables. The food is steamed on a tray in an steaming apparatus in front of you. Beneath the tray, you can select between a soup base or porridge. The drippings from the food you select flavor this soup/porridge for consumption at the end of your meal. For our 7:30 reservation, we were the only party dining in the entire restaurant. I quickly noticed that the fish/crab/shrimp in the live tanks, weren't exactly alive. All the shrimp were laying on their sides, motionless. Our server however, assured us they were all alive, and that she would "show us". Though not convinced, we ordered a dungeness crab, 2#'s coral prawns, a live sablefish, clams, scallops, dumplings, and a host of appetizers. Note that 75% of the menu was out-of-stock, so we were extremely limited in what we were actually able to sample. I'm particularly sensitive to food safety, as my wife is 8 months pregnant, and I eagerly awaited the display of LIVE coral shrimp - maybe they had some in the back? The shrimp were brought out sandwiched between two plates, and slid onto the steaming tray with the top plate to cover the shrimp (unnecessary when you have the clear steaming cover already). This was rather "fishy" and I immediately lifted the steam cover and plate to reveal what I had suspected - mostly dead shrimp. 2/3 of the shrimp were very clearly opaque, and been dead for some time. The other 1/3 of the shrimp were alive, albeit barely. A child could notice the difference in the dead vs alive shrimp. I did not appreciate the restaurant trying to trick us, especially after I had pointed out our concern prior. The dungeness crab was the smallest I had ever seen, and the sablefish was bony (though we were warned of this prior). The scallops and clams, while pricey ($13/pp), were fine. These were frozen product, lightly prepped, and reheated. The steamer was set on a timer, so none of the food was overcooked. The porridge at the end was satisfying. The meal came out to $100/pp. Ultimately, this restaurant likely suffers from a lack of business volume impacting selection and freshness of their offerings. And trying to pull a fast one on your patrons by feeding them dead product, especially to one that is pregnant, is quite dangerous. read more

Absolutely delicious seafood - this is coming from a canton local born and raised. Get the king crab combo,Great service too. read more

Fresh Elements - Seafood Near Me - Daly City, California

fresh seafood, great service, reasonable price. need to taste razor clam, geoduck, meatball next time.

Service was for 5 people. Enough food! We ordered a 4 people set menu and added a few items off the kitchen cook. All the seafoods and shellfish were excellent So Fresh! Steaming Cook time for the seafoods and meats were very on point. Nothing was over cooked or undercooked !! The wait staff helped on the cooking . They keep the tea pot filled. Take away used plates and replaced with clean plates. I would go again ! Recommend. read more

A little bit pricey but the seafood quality totally worth it. Service was great and the staff was taking great care of the cooking process read more

This restaurant is a very good restaurant.High quality seafood and the customer service is nice VERY recommended ! read more

Fresh Elements - Is a beef appetizer - Seafood Near Me - Daly City, California

The seafood here is most fresh in the Bay Area. You don't need heavy seasoning to make it tasty. It's full of umami on its own out of the steamer. Just dip it in some garlic soy sauce and it's delicious! Staffs are so nice and welcoming. Love the vibe and feel. This is my go to place for the best see food in the Bay Area. read more

Fresh Elements - Seafood Near Me - Daly City, California

Beware and be ready to spend $300-$1000 for your meal with questionable service. This USED to be our all-time favorite place, and my family would travel all the way from Vegas to eat here, sometimes night after night. However, ever since the pandemic, they have been robbing people blind. The servers started to feel like an used car salesman, always trying to up-sell you so they can demand an 18-20% tip at the end of your meal. Keep in mind, this is on top of the gratuity charge. The servers would claim that the boss takes the gratuity so they don't actually make any tip unless you add additional tip. When we first came here between 2016-2019, our bill would generally be around $80-$150 for 4-6 people, and we would leave stuffed and satisfied on fresh seafood. Towards the end, we would get charged $250-$400 per meal. This is because they never tell you exactly how much the seafood weighs. You just end up getting smacked with the overcharge on the bill at the end. You'll know this when they try to get you to order the seafood at MP market price. One of our last meals here, we were up-sold on the king crab, which I know is expensive to begin with. However, since the server said they were running a special on their last crab, we took the bait. The king crab ended up costing us $650 alone (I've had a similar sized crab elsewhere recently for ~$475). Our bill came to approximately $980 with additional $176 for gratuity charge, then the server demanded another $208 (18% tip) which came to a total of $1365. We finally decided we are not going to support this type of business any longer. read more

Bland tasteless steam food, soup was full of chicken bones and hard as a rock.. Condiments like garlic and scallions are fresh and good. $80 for pork spareribs... hard as a Rock Chicken ginger soup... bland Watercress fresh 6 frozen dumplings Not worth the price read more

Don't bother coming if you would like to have their Yunnan Rice Noodles. Came all the way over here for it and the moment I walked in the door they said they didn't have it. With all their advertisements on TV and signage, they should be prepared to make it available. If you do come, don't make the mistake like me and call ahead. read more

Service is poor... lack of attention and telling your customer that you're busy and unable to get the water that you requested. Our food didn't show up accordingly . It was super slow service for a Wednesday lunch hour... one staff running the front and can't multitask with more customers coming in. Sorta sad to see, but I'm not impressed with the attitude provided read more

I really like the concept of this restaurant. First you select and order the items you'd like to have and then the servers will prepare and steam the food over a hot plate for you. Underneath they have rice cooking and all the food that gets steamed feeds into the rice. At the very end of the meal you get to enjoy a tasty bowl of porridge. Since everything is steamed, it's a pretty clean meal and not extremely flavorful but because the food is fresh and high quality you get good natural flavors that come across. With that said, you do pay a hefty price for items. Fresh seafood and meat does not come cheap! I only come here for special occasions with my family for special celebrations. The meal itself can pretty long. It takes time for each dish to come out and cook depending on the meats. By the time you get the very end you'll pretty full. A fun experience to try out! Restaurant is in a plaza so parking is easy. Call ahead and make reservations otherwise thr wait can be long if you have large group. read more

Fresh Elements - Clams steaming - Seafood Near Me - Daly City, California

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I love supporting Asian businesses and restaurants, however it makes it hard to do so when you are clearly being treated differently than everyone else in the place. To start, me and my girlfriend were the only ones in the restaurant who were not Asian. We wanted to try something new, we have never had hot pot before, but this experience made us probably not want to try it again. Here are just a few things that went wrong: - waited over 35 minutes between different dishes, and when we were brought food, it was not what we had ordered. - when asked questions about the menu, the server was extremely cold and not helpful, seemed kind of annoyed that we didn't already know. - 3 parties that came after us were served first, and checked on more frequently, and got better service over all. - 2 items we ordered never arrived and they forgot about them completely. In general, we just felt very out of place and could tell there was obviously a difference in the service we received, and how well the other customers were being treated. Might not be a race thing, however that seemed to be the main issue. read more

This place is very pricey but I do admit their seafood is pretty darn fresh. I suggest you clearly ASK what the MP is for items unless you have money to blow. Because some dishes alone will cost you over $60. We got oysters, geoduck, clams, fish / shrimp paste, beef, a steamed fish & porridge and the total was over $300.... Service was nice & friendly but slow. We waited an hour to be seated & they basically ran out of ALL appetizers.... which kind of forced us to buy the expensive stuff otherwise we'd just be eating bland porridge. However it was a bit late & with covid being a factor, I can only hope this wouldn't normally happen. I would've rated lower if the seafood didn't meet my expectations but they did so they deserve some praise for their freshness during pandemic times. read more

Fresh Elements - Geoduck - Seafood Near Me - Daly City, California

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Came here late at night for a quick meal as I've been meaning to try this chain from Asia. Was super excited for their seafood offerings. After allowing us ample time to look at the menu and we were ready to order, they waitress came to us. As we started to list items, they kept saying oh we are out of that, oh we don't have that either, no shrimp, no crab... I mean, come on now. You could have told us this when we were getting seated and any time in the 10min+ span you let us look at the menu. So no, I can't tell you if most of their seafood offerings are good because we couldn't try them. Being open late is convenient but not much of a benefit to customers if half their menu isn't available. From what we were able to actually try, it was OK. The clams were fresh, the scallops were OK, the beef tongue was mediocre and the the ribeye steak wasn't high quality. The best part of the meal was the congee honestly. Their sauces and side offerings weren't extensive and weren't anything special. Keep in mind you are easily dropping $100+ for 2 so just OK isn't enough. Service was good but it wasn't busy so it's hard to tell how it usually is. Overall, we were not impressed. read more

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Checked out this place for the first time and it did not disappoint. Fresh seafood steamed to perfection with the natural juices adding to the soup simmering underneath was so incredible. Only reason it's not 5 stars is because they were out of a lot of things. Mia was our server and was very patient and cooked everything for us. Definitely returning again! read more

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This is a very interesting and unique concept. First, uncooked rice and water are placed in a large bowl that's sunken into the table. A metal grate is placed on top of the bowl and various raw meat/seafood/veggies are placed on top of the grate and covered with a lid to steam. You cook and eat the raw ingredients in courses, and at the end enjoy a rice porridge that has absorbed all the flavor of the ingredients that were cooked above it during the meal. I'm quite sure my parents would love this place, because of all the fresh seafood options. We were able to just barely squeeze 11 people around one of their large round tables. 1. Extra, extra jumbo shrimp with roe 2. Lobster sashimi 3. Whole Fish 4. Chicken 5. Beef 6. Napa Cabbage & Yams Similar to hot pot, you create your own dipping sauce with ingredients like garlic, jalapeno, hot sauce, and black vinegar. read more

Fresh Elements - Lobster Sashimi. Impressive presentation - Seafood Near Me - Daly City, California

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Services : We made reservations for Mother's Day at 7pm, arrive 6:15pm. And they give the big tables or someone else and we were expect to wait another hour after 7pm. We end up sitting at a 8ppl table for 12 ppl and no place to move. We are not happy. No mention of any compensation. Food: Food is fresh. Some dishes are of great values! Some are expensive. Quality are consistently good. What to order? Shrimp ball, Beef ball, Giant clams Dumplings Clams, Beef. Fresh fish is with tons of bones. I hate picking out small one. Big one I don't mind. What is not too good Beef tongue Shrimp on shells (over cook too easily, you can't eat fast enough cause it is too hot to peel.) read more

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Have been coming here for the past 10 years . Fresh seafood steamed to perfection as always.

In Chinese, we have an expression called "坑爹" (keng die) which is used to describe a place that is dishonest and a ripoff. Welcome to Fresh Elements. Pro tip: always ask whenever something is marked as "MP". One would think it means market price but actually stands for "maximize profit". For example, the standard shrimp is $12/lb but it's described by the waitress negotiator as "frozen and dead... but... we do have live, coral shrimp that's MP." Turns out at the end when you get the bill that this kind of shrimp is $50 for 7 shrimp. I would understand if these shrimp went to Harvard for double the standard price, but for quadruple the rate I hope these shrimp will make me live till I'm at least 100. Won't be coming again or recommending this place to anyone other than my rich enemies. read more

Fresh Elements - This is what $80 will get you - Seafood Near Me - Daly City, California

Pricy but oh so good! I don't come down to Daly City often from the city but Fresh Elements is one of the top reasons I do! The seafood is fresh and perfect for a larger group shared dinner. The best part is the end, where you get to enjoy the porridge that is infused with all the juices and seasoning from the seafood and meat that were steamed. The assortment of fishballs, seafood, meat and veggies on a bed of vermicelli noodles is the perfect treat for a colder NorCal day. You can also choose dipping sauces to complement. The porridge is the best I've had in the Bay Area and I highly recommend the pumpkin flavored one. read more

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Similar to taskee steam kitchen in Oakland but not as flavorful. We had quite a lot of expensive seafood this time, unfortunately they are very much bland. The chicken was even worse, they are tasteless, not marinated, and pretty dole and dry. Also lack dishes like steamed noodles, my most impressed was actually the steam buns, got the ones with juicy sweet fillings and the juices were hot and smooth. read more

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Fabulous seafood option. The restaurant provides a steam pot with 2 layers. On top you can steam your seafood, and on the bottom there is porridge and the seafood sauce dripped into the porridge and add on the freshness. all the seafood were fresh, it's kind of sad to see a live fish become a dish on the table... but it tastes so good lol. Anyways. There were two associates in the store by the time we got there, no wait on a Saturday dinner time. Even the one of them is relatively new, by the way she approached and introduced the products to the customer was very personal and warm. As I always uphold a high standard for restaurants, Service and food Has to go hand-in-hand in order to become an outstanding restaurant. And this one is definitely a five star. Highly recommend!!! Sorry the food was so good and I forgot to take pictures at the very beginning, you guys come and take some yourself :) read more

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Ok I had this for dinner tonight. It's not my first time eating at this place. Store is located inside a plaza but parking can get pack. Everything you cook is base on steam. The store is also not big so expect that you might end up in a waiting list. They have 1 restroom only. My rating is base on food availability on the menu. read more

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Customer Service was great. They were attentive and asked how the food was. Overall the food was very good. The portion size was great. We ordered too much but am able to take it home. read more

Expensive is okay bc I want to eat fresh seafood. but they overcooked all the seafood, it was no longer fresh and I had to trash 95% of the snails. They don't seem to be fresh, nor alive. The abalone was also hard ish. The servants are not that friendly neither. Spent more than $200 for an awful experience. I do not recommend this place. read more

Its tough to find good cantonese food and this is a decent place that we will go back to every now and then Service - our server was very nice- Food - some dishes were above avg. and great - some just okay depending on how picky you are - - for ex-if you're used to great home cooked Cantonese food, then some are probably a bit below avg. we ordered crispy pork - and the skin wasnt that crispy, the special soup was great, the clams in black bean sauce was good, etc.) Decor/cleanliness - typical Chinese restaurant- somewhere in the middle Parking - easy Price - for what you get- decent value read more

Lots of fresh meat, seafood and shellfish. Staffs are very friendly with good services.

Been here a couple times for steam pot. It's a crowd pleaser (especially for people who like seafood), but beware the crowds, pricing, and language barrier. I've been here twice - once, when a Cantonese friend made the reservation and did all the ordering, and a second time, when we made the reservation (through Google assistant) and did the ordering ourselves... food was great both times, but let's just say the first time went a lot more smoothly!! The first time, it was a very pleasant experience. Service was quick, and they were willing to let us sit at a larger table while we waited for our entire party to show up. Our friend did the ordering, so we didn't have to worry that the menu didn't have english for some of the seafood items. Normally, I don't mind if the entire menu isn't in English (I'm quite comfortable pointing at pictures), but when prices aren't clearly listed and I've read Yelp reviews of people being rudely surprised at their bills, it's a must-have! The second time, service was a lot spottier... it could've been a glitch in Google assistant, but they weren't able to locate our reservation. When we pushed them, they seated us at a back table that had been previously sectioned off. It seemed like they were turning the burner on, but they weren't able to get it working for at least 20 minutes - until they decided to move us to another (smaller) table. I figured, perhaps just a technical difficulty, right? Maybe... later in the evening, we witnessed a smaller party being seated there, with the burner clearly working!! We joked that perhaps since they ordered champagne, the staff had decided it was worth giving them the table. I'd still return to Fresh Elements, because the food is good. I love the seafood variety (especially the razor clams) and they put plenty of fresh garlic on everything. Their dumplings and fish balls are also on point. I only highly recommend having a friend to help you navigate the language barrier! read more

Seafood was very fresh and waiters were super nice - cooked a bit long as they noticed my wife is pregnant.

Had lunch at the Fresh Elements today！ Ordered Yun Nan Rice Noodle！试鲜元素的新品：过桥米线系列！今日点左酸菜鱼片汤米线！！味道超赞！汤底够酸够辣！用料丰富！营业时间系11am-4pm！值得再黎！ read more

Fresh Elements - Menu - Seafood Near Me - Daly City, California

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Came here to get the jumbo shrimp, small shrimp, chicken, fatty beef, scallops, clams, and of course the porridge. The idea of this place is that you buy some items of high quality, and just steam it. That's really it. The jumbo shrimp is really big and quite expensive. It's like $40 for 4 shrimps. It's one of the best shrimps I've had ever though (Also by far one of the most expensive ones). The key here is just to get a lot of dishes and let the flavors drip into the porridge. At the end, when you're just a little hungry still, you finish with porridge and all the flavors add so much umani to it, and it's absolutely delicious. This place will set you back more than $50 bucks, but it's really good. read more

SCAMED US $300!!! AVOID THIS PLACE!!! When we were ordering, they told us that a few things we are ordering were out and they recommended their crab. They said its 65 dollars for half of the crab. So we got it. When we got our bill it said $65 per pound!!! When we argued with them they insisted that they said per pound but just didn't tell us how many pounds we were getting. We ended up paying $300. We were pretty sure it was illegal. read more

Fresh seafood, tasty, not over cooked as the other place I went in Oakland (cook time is set up to maintain the tenderness of seafood). It's pretty pricy. Most of the seafood items are market price, a lot of items that are fixed were not available on the day we were there, so we were somehow forced to order few items that are MP (example $25/fresh scallop or abalone). Whatsoever, I still like their food and the sauce selection. We didn't have a reservation but went there as soon as it opened. There was another table at the time we arrived at 5pm but gets busy soon (definitely make reservation if you can). We were told that our table is reserved at 6:30, if we can finish by then then we are good. It was fine with us because they told us ahead of time, plus they took extra care to make sure we get the food in time and leave us enough time to eat so we don't feel rushed. read more

Terrible place you should definitely avoid Very price - cost us about 190 dollar for 2 ppl and just got some simple steamed food Bad service - one waitress is fine but another was disappointed and keep pushing us to order more have got a run!! have got a run!! have got a run!! read more

1. Terrible service but they charge the tips without telling you. 2. Be sure to check the bill when check out. 3. Be sure to ask the price of food marked as MP if you don't want to get a surprise when check out. 4. Will never come again. read more

I wish there were more places like Fresh Elements in the Bay Area so I wouldn't have to drive to Daly City all the time. I've been here twice now, and taking the advice of Yelpers, made reservations both times to make sure I can get seated. I love the concept as many of the seafood items are really at their best when just simply steamed. At the beginning of your meal, they'll bring over 6 different buckets of ingredients so you can mix your own sauce - green onions, raw chopped garlic, sliced chili peppers, chili pepper flakes in oil, soy sauce, and a soy sauce with chili peppers. I do wish they had these on the table later since you only get one sauce bowl but some items go better with different condiments. I really like the geoduck, coral shrimp, sweet shrimp, long clams, sea clams, fish tofu, and homemade shrimp balls as I can't get the same freshness and quality or even availability at a store. The regular clams and red cod were not worth the price as they weren't anything special. We got the plain congee both times, but the 2nd time, we ordered cabbage and it made the congee very watery and less flavorful. I also really like that unlike other hot pot places, they cook for you so I can focus on eating and socializing with my dinner partners. The only downside is that there were a couple of times that they cooked the food more well done than I'd like. Service is spotty - for instance, we didn't get our order of sweet shrimp and had to explain it to three different people before it arrived. read more

The food is okay. A little bit overpriced. However, we have 3 people for our party and they automatically select 18% tip without asking us for the consent. When we asked, they said "since it is Covid, they automatically charge 18% no matter how many people in the party" They should be more transparent about tipping. We left unsatisfied and unhappy with the way this restaurant doing business. No wonder their restaurant is very empty (10pm on weekend). We are the only table sitting there. Beware future customers !!! read more

I would say it's more like 3.5stars because of the huge price tag. The concept is interesting. It's like a steam pot instead of hot pot. You just steam all sorts of seafood. If you get there early, there's no wait. I felt like they charged for cooked food that was specially prepared by a chef. Instead they just bring raw seafood and have it steam in a pot. We ordered razor clams, 2 giant clams, 2 scallops, tender greens, vermicelli, and porridge. The seafood was fresh, tasty, and has a nice hint of sweetness to it. There's also a sauce table for your meal as well. They brought out everything and started cooking. Since seafood steams, pretty quickly, you can eat it right away. They suggest you to put the food on your plate so it doesn't over cook. They don't wait that long before putting in the next type of seafood. I definitely felt rushed in the meal because it was one after another. If you don't eat quickly, then the food will get cold just sitting on your plate. Pretty soon, it seems all the ingredients were cooked and we came at the end of the meal to enough the porridge. Of course the more seafood you steam, the better the porridge will at the bottom of the pot. The steam and liquid that came from the seafood will drip into the porridge making it flavorful and tasty even by itself. Then the bill came. Over $100 for the meal. We didn't order that much. I felt that this place nickel and dimes you. They even charged us $3 for tea. Usually Chinese restaurant provide tea as part of your meal. They have various options for porridge. Some of them have a soup base or pork ribs. But just the basic porridge was $7.95 for a small portion. It's more for a larger portion. All it was was they put plain rice at the bottom of the pot. Rice for $8!!! The margins are ridiculous for this restaurant. It was fun to try, but I don't think it's worth it. read more