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    Happy Chef Restaurant

    3.3 (125 reviews)
    InexpensiveChinese
    Closed 11:00 am - 8:00 pm
    Updated 3 months ago

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    HAPPY CHEF RESTAURANT ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Moderate noise
    Casual
    Good for kids

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    Recommended Reviews - Happy Chef Restaurant

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    Kung Pao Chicken
    Carly B.

    A little hole in the wall restaurant in Burlingame. This was my first time trying Happy Chef and I was amazed at the amount of food they gave me for my lunch special! I ordered the kung pao chicken lunch special with fried rice and the potsticker appetizer. The potstickers are my favorite. They taste like a traditional steamed potsticker. Delicious !

    Boneless salt & pepper chicken
    Frank A.

    This is my go to spot for lunch. I was able to order off menu. Don't get me wrong, the salt & pepper chicken wings are on point, but today I got the boneless chicken salt & pepper and it was good!!

    Mongolian Beef lunch with vegetable fried rice
    Alec W.

    This small to-go Chinese restaurant is a neighborhood staple. It's been here forever and always impresses me with every dish. Today, I ordered the Mongolian Beef lunch with vegetable fried rice. The rice is pure and simple. A perfect complement to any entree. The Mongolian Beef is the best I ever had. The beef is the star in this dish. Sliced thin and full of flavor, it had the best texture and chew of a steakhouse. Not the normal squishy texture you normally find on a Chinese menu. With plenty of chili flakes, whole red peppers, garlic, onions and green onion in the stir-fry, it makes me sweat thinking about it... The owner always greets you with a smile. Quick in and out with hot, fresh food and I am looking toward next week when I can go back.

    the front of the restaurant
    Dan R.

    This was our secret gem every time we would visit friends and family at Mills hospital. It's just a five-minute walk from Mills-Peninsula and all their options at this time are take out only due to Covid19 restrictions. But I have loved to sit and eat here in the past. So many Latino construction workers love eating here. Today we ordered the pan-fried noodle combo, Mongolian beef rice plate, and black bean sauce fish rice plate with two coconut water beverages. I have to mention that the food was much better around 2011-2012 or so which is the first time I came to eat here. The food was fresh, vibrant, and tasty. I'm not sure if the chefs have changed or what but the food here now is about mediocre. Regarding the food we ordered, my Mongolian beef was a bit bland and it didn't have the traditional Mongolian beef sauce that I was used to. It was also a bit dry and reddish color instead of the saucy brown. It did contain red chiles so that was a plus. The accompanying fried rice also was a bit bland and rather strewn together. It used to be really good here but I would say that today it is hovering a little bit around average.

    Almost $20 .that little food

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    3 months ago

    Sorry for typos in my previous review! I dreaming of their delish chicken breast chicken chow mein!

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    3 years ago

    Expensive for what you get. Portions should be bigger for what they charge. Food was mediocre. Will not be returning

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    2 years ago

    good service cashier is nice and friendly. Affordable and good food worth coming back

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    3 years ago

    Wor won ton soup flavor is weak with a hint of cigarettes. Wouldn't survive in SF downtown.

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    Dumpling Kitchen & Bar - Crystal Shrimp Dumpling

    Dumpling Kitchen & Bar

    4.3(148 reviews)
    2.3 mi

    Dined here for late lunch - while I waited to pick my husband from the airport. They were 30 mins…read moreto closing but they still were okay with me grabbing lunch. I got a seat at the bar and ordered the Sichuan dumplings and the Dan Dan. I loved hot hot and flavorful the Dan Dan was - the pork was cooked perfectly and the noodles so soft. The dumplings however, they were flavorful but I felt they were very fatty compared to the ones I've had many times elsewhere. Flavorful nevertheless. I appreciate how accommodative they were. Service was very good - attentive. The food especially the Dan Dan - so good! This is on Mainstreet within Burlingame so parking may not be easy - took me a couple rounds to find a spot.

    High ceilings and a beautiful bar area make this place stand out right away, it looks great both…read moreinside and out, definitely not your typical dumpling spot. At first, I thought it leaned more toward a fusion American style, but after trying a few dishes, I'd say it's not 100% authentic, yet still pretty close. The pork soup XLB was really tasty, you can tell the meat is high quality with no "porky" taste, and the broth is light with a subtle sweetness. The popcorn chicken was a bit bland, but very meaty with a thin, crispy coating, which I liked. The pan-fried buns were juicy, with a nicely cooked, crispy bottom. The braised beef was a bit too soft for my liking and lacked texture. The braised beef noodle soup was decent, the beef pieces were a good size but slightly dry, while the noodles were chewy and well-cooked, though they felt more like spaghetti than traditional noodles. Service really stood out, our server was attentive and welcoming throughout the meal. Also appreciated that they still let us try the seafood dumplings even though they were accidentally cooked incorrectly. Overall, generous portions for the price and excellent service. :)

    Photos
    Dumpling Kitchen & Bar - Inside

    Inside

    Dumpling Kitchen & Bar - Vegetarian Gyoza

    Vegetarian Gyoza

    Dumpling Kitchen & Bar - Pork Pan Fried Dumplings

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    Pork Pan Fried Dumplings

    Mingalaba - Mango salad. Pretty good.

    Mingalaba

    3.9(2.8k reviews)
    2.3 mi
    $$
    Established in 2008
    Locally owned & operated

    I haven't had good food in a while. Sometimes when I eat at Asian restaurants, it's just not as…read moreauthentic. Having said that, Mingalaba is probably the most authentic Asian restaurant I've eaten at so far. You can there that there's no shortcuts with the dishes, nothing is watered down, everything is just real. The coconut chicken soup is something out of this world. It's not spicy at all. I can't describe it but it was really delicious, as with all the other dishes. The service was amazing and they even amended some of our dishes so that we could feed it to our kid (non-spicy). I really like this restaurant. Only such a shame we live so far now and only just discovered it. I'd visit again if I'm around.

    We visit this restaurant occasionally due to its proximity to home, but the experience tends to be…read moreinconsistent. While there are a few highlights, several dishes don't quite justify the premium pricing. The Burmese beef and lamb curries are really good--the meat is consistently tender and the flavors are deep and well-developed. We also really enjoyed the rainbow salad and the paratha with curry sauce, though both felt overpriced for what they are. Other menu items have been disappointing: * Catfish Chowder: This was fairly average and bore a strange resemblance to pea soup. * Walnut Broccoli Chicken: Another mediocre dish that failed to leave an impression.

    Photos
    Mingalaba - Coconut soup

    Coconut soup

    Mingalaba - Mango Salad

    Mango Salad

    Mingalaba - Pumpkin Yellow Chicken

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    Pumpkin Yellow Chicken

    Yuanbao Jiaozi - House special Beef Noodle Soup

    Yuanbao Jiaozi

    4.3(388 reviews)
    0.1 mi
    $$
    Free parking
    Sports on TV

    Potstickers and steamers were good. Restaurants was crowded when we arrived, so quite noisy, but…read morewas seated immediately.

    I was looking for an Asian restaurant for a light early dinner on Saturday, and found Yuanbao…read moreJiaozi. My fellow Yelpers didn't disappoint. This place met everything I was looking for: plenty of parking (inside Burlingame Plaza), near SFO, efficient service, and high ratings. When my daughter and I arrived a little before 5:30pm, they were already pretty full. By the time we left, a little after 6pm, there're people waiting at the door. We got seated right away. Service was minimal. We helped ourselves to the pitcher of water on the table. After looking at the menu on the table, we placed our order by scanning a QR code. Since we're not too hungry. We ordered one appetizer and one noodle dish to share. The special mix salad came pretty quickly. We ordered "less spicy", and it had the perfect amount of heat. All the ingredients tasted fresh and the dish had a bit of everything we wanted to try. I liked the tofu skin the best, and my daughter loved the crunchy cucumber. It would be even better if they included lotus roots as well. It took a little while for the house special beef noodle soup (less spicy) to arrive, but it was totally worth the wait. It came piping hot. The broth was very flavorful, with the right amount of red pepper. It wasn't oily at all. The beef was super tender. I loved the texture of the noodles, and the beef to noodle ratio was not bad. A really solid dish. Would love to come back again to try their other dishes, especially their xiao long bao.

    Photos
    Yuanbao Jiaozi - Crab Roe Xiao Long Bao

    Crab Roe Xiao Long Bao

    Yuanbao Jiaozi - Dumplings in soup

    Dumplings in soup

    Yuanbao Jiaozi - Potstickers

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    Potstickers

    Hot Wok Bistro - Chicken fried rice

    Hot Wok Bistro

    4.2(771 reviews)
    2.9 mi
    $$

    This is a little local spot in San Mateo which is a great spot for Chinese food. Service is quick…read moreand attentive and the owner Jin is super nice and sweet. We ordered the appetizer chicken wings, the scramble eggs with shrimp, walnut shrimp and sweet and sour pork. Most Chinese places the food would be very salty or you could taste the msg but this location the food tasted nothing like that. Flavors were really good, not over fried or battered, and not overly saucy on any of our dishes. I can see why it is one of the best Chinese food restaurants San Mateo!

    Still coming here, still hot, fresh and delicious. For all the times I've been here I've never…read moretried the Chow Fun so I decided to try it today with chicken -- it was outstanding! One of the best chow funs I've ever had. The sauce they use is wonderful and the noodles were perfectly al dente. I think I even like this better than their chow mein. It came with broccoli which tasted so good. The description said it has crispy bean sprouts and I don't like bean sprouts so I asked them to leave it out. What I was not expecting was so much white onion (the scallions were fine) and I put most of it aside on the plate. But that did not take away my enjoyment of the dish. And next time I will ask for no bean sprouts, no white onion -- and extra broccoli! Their hot & sour as wonderful as always, as is their hot tea -- it actually has a unique flavor that I love. Hot Wok Bistro, always a great experience!

    Photos
    Hot Wok Bistro - Interior

    Interior

    Hot Wok Bistro - Salt & pepper chicken wings

    Salt & pepper chicken wings

    Hot Wok Bistro - Inside the restaurant. (it's not very big but it's very cool!) It seems a lot of people order the food to go.

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    Inside the restaurant. (it's not very big but it's very cool!) It seems a lot of people order the food to go.

    Zhen Restaurant - Goose Steamed Vermicelli 五味鵝蒸豬腸粉

    Zhen Restaurant

    3.6(99 reviews)
    0.5 mi

    Surprised on the number of 1 star reviews but after reading it was all service driven as the food…read moredefinitely deserves more than 1 star. Black Pepper beef Ribs- delish! tender pieces with grilled bell peppers and red onion made this dish pair really well with rice. Fried rice with Scallop & egg white- a little light on the seasoning but still a decent fired rice dish which with the beef ribs dish was a match made in heaven. Seafood clay pot- more tofu than seafood but still a tasty and well seasoned clay pot. Also ordered a couple of dim sum plates (Shrimp dumpling & beef Balls). Both were on par with other dim sum locales so nothing negative about their flavors. Overall service was fine; given it was the lunch hour but all the food came out relatively quickly and would definitely have a return visit.

    We celebrated our baby's 100 day celebration here at peak weekend lunch time…read more The staff were so friendly in helping us get set up with the table and attending to our group. The dim sum here was excellent and reminded me of home. Not only did everything taste good but it was served piping hot and came out quickly. The breakdown of our dishes is below: Walnut Shrimp - Hot and plump shrimp that has a bounce in your mouth covered with tangy mayo. We enjoyed the light fry. Dried Scallop Egg White Fried Rice - Fragrant but oily and plenty of flavor. BBQ Pork & Egg Cheong Fun - Soft sheets of rice noodle roll with a generous amount of ingredients. Hargow - Very good with big shrimp and a sesame oil flavor. Shumai - Soft thin skin withmore seafood than pork taste. Chiu Chow dumpling & Beancurd roll were ok but had fresh ingredients. Chicken Feet - I liked the overall flavor but it didn't seep all the way in. Parking is challenging but the taste is well worth a visit!

    Photos
    Zhen Restaurant - Black Garlic Pork Ribs 黑金葡萄骨

    Black Garlic Pork Ribs 黑金葡萄骨

    Zhen Restaurant
    Zhen Restaurant

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    HL Peninsula Pearl - House Special Fish Fillet Vermicelli Soup - a large bowl enough to share for 4 people.  Very tasty

    HL Peninsula Pearl

    3.2(636 reviews)
    1.1 mi
    $$

    Reading through the other reviews, I think we got lucky with our visit and I'll take it! We came on…read morea Sunday at 11am (party of 4). I found parking right away and they seated us almost immediately close to the Bay view windows. It was super busy with people waiting outside and inside was loud and lively (just how you want a dim sim place to be)! Inside is pretty nice and the view is honestly worth it. We ordered the dim sum classics: siu mai, ha gow, rice rolls, chicken feet, ma lai go, beef balls, salted egg yolk lava buns. Everything was honestly solid and portions were bigger than I expected. The dim sum menu is also pretty vast, but some classic dishes have different names so always ask the server. We also got some Chinese herb and fermented rice wine soup.....so good and a lot of chicken in it. Total for our party of 4 came out to be $105 (including their 16% service charge). Honestly not bad at all for the food we got (not all pictured), the fast service, and great views. This might be my new dim sum spot on the Peninsula! I'd definitely come again for dim sum at around 11am, because by the time we left at 12:30ish it was SUPER busy!

    I went to lunch with colleagues hoping HL Peninsula Pearl would fulfill my desire for tasty dim sum…read moreand my experience was mixed. The venue is gorgeous (5/5; high ceilings, chandeliers, amazing views of SFO), the service was mediocre (3/5; our order was taken quickly after we completed writing it. We had to keep asking for things such as knives and bowls but we were accommodated and ultimately one of the dishes they brought out was incorrect despite me telling them they put it in their system wrong...now for the food. We went a bit wild and ordered the following (let's just say we had tons left over): -steamed surf clam w/ vermiccelli in galic sauce (3.5/5; clams tasted decent but I didn't love the texture. clams paired well with noodles and sauce -duo egg fried rice (4/5; my group enjoyed this dish. Large portion) -signature fried rice noodles (4.25/5; good portion and lots of seafood/meat. flavor was good but nothing amazing and quite a good value.) Note, we didn't order this dish but it was beside the dish we ordered on the list/menu and they didn't/couldn't change the order despite letting them know within minutes... -chicken feet in herbal broth (3.75/5; the chicken feet were cooked well and the broth was nice but I was expecting pan fried chicken feet, which i would have preferred. The broth was herbal and comforting) -fried crispy turnip cake in XO sauce (4.5/5; quite nice. crispy and satisfying) -chicken in honey pepper sauce (3/5; sauce left a lot to be desired. Chicken was juicy and cooked well though) -sautéed chinese bocolli (4/5; standard and simple but good) -bbq pork rice noodle rolls (4/5; pretty good. Nice pairing btw the bbq pork and rice noodle), -crispy wild rice shrimp noodle rolls (5/5; my favorite dish. The shrimp were fried which was a nice textural contrast with the rice noodle. It came in a good sauce) -steamed shrimp dumpling (5/5; exactly as advertised. Big, juice, delicious) -siu mai (3.75/5; the flavor for these was good but I feel they were too big to enjoy comfortably in one bite. Not my favorite shu mai) -steamed bbc pork buns (didn't try but my group enjoyed) -Portuguese backed custard tarts (4/5; not too sweet and satisfying. Interesting texture.) -parboiled tripe (4/5; tripe was cooked very well and tender but the sauce was underwhelming Overall, the cook on most of these dishes was spot on but the flavoring left some to be desired. I might come back but I'm definitely still in search of a go-to dim sum spot.

    Photos
    HL Peninsula Pearl - Dining area

    Dining area

    HL Peninsula Pearl - Lobster vermicelli

    Lobster vermicelli

    HL Peninsula Pearl - Egg plant in sizzling plate

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    Egg plant in sizzling plate

    Li's Knife Cut Noodle - Braised Beef Noodle Soup

    Li's Knife Cut Noodle

    4.5(174 reviews)
    5.4 mi
    $$

    Came here again and ordered:…read more Red cabbage with peanuts Popcorn chicken Pork w green chives & shrimp dumplings Braised beef noodle soup House made soy milk The soy milk is so refreshing! All the food was great again and service was prompt. This has become one of our gotos when in San Mateo and fortunately the wait time seems to have dropped off. The shop nextdoor used to also be a noodle place but has changed...so I'm assuming this is the main restaurant on this block if you're in the mood for beef noodle soup or other knife cut noodle/soups.

    Coming to try because a friend recommended and saw their cute bowls and plates. Waiting was easy…read morebecause of online system let you know your table almost ready. It's a really small area with cute decorate Order online, so not much service food comes out fast. We ordered a variety of different items. Soy milk is good, did not have any burn or uncooked bean favor not super sweet. Chinese burger: the meat is good fatty a bit salty but disappointed for the bun. I was hoping it's crispy and flaky but it's really a bun. Popcorn chicken was dry inside Green onions pancakes are crispy but again not flaky and too much layer. Favor is good Garlic green beans, it sure if they are too busy? One bean is crispy one is not, and one is favorful the other one is not, it didn't mix well for sure Lamb dumplings not very juices the skin thicker side a lot of carrots Spicy beef tendon and marinaded beef, it's cured really thick so it's in chewy side. If they cut it thinner will be better the flavor is good Tomatoes egg & stir fried minced pork noodle, we got round noodle, the noodle is good qq, the meat taste about the same as the burger meat and it's not minced it looks so big. The egg and tomato needs more tomato.

    Photos
    Li's Knife Cut Noodle - Inside

    Inside

    Li's Knife Cut Noodle - Lotus root salad

    Lotus root salad

    Li's Knife Cut Noodle - Cute graphics on their wares

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    Cute graphics on their wares

    Happy Chef Restaurant - chinese - Updated May 2026

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