Surprised on the number of 1 star reviews but after reading it was all service driven as the food definitely 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. read more

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We celebrated our baby's 100 day celebration here at peak weekend lunch time. 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! read more

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Stop by Zen restaurant for a quick lunch before my flight. Food came quickly. I ordered the pepper and pork intestine stirfry lunch special and Hubs ordered the Peking pork chops. Both were pretty good and because it was a lunch special the value was definitely there. Would come again . read more

Zhen Restaurant - Peking Pork Chop Lunch Special - Chinese Near Me - Millbrae, California

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I'll keep this short and sweet This place got their Chinese food down. The dishes have their "wok hei" flavor and there is a great variety of dishes. Of course, there is the traditional sticky floors and not so clean dishes which is how I knew this place would be smacking. The vegetable dishes as pictured was finished without a drop of calorie left. The black pepper beef was juicy and tasty. The service was quick, honest, and respectful. Would happily take my parents and grandparents there again read more

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Your typical Chinese restaurant but man is it good. The restaurant is pretty standard clean and service but the food is where they are highlighted. Zhen Wei Special Stir Fry and Stir Fried Diced Beef with Black Garlic are my favorite dishes but they can be a bit inconsistent at times. Overall I haven't had anything I really didn't like. read more

First time having dinner here. It was crowded when we arrived. This restaurant has plenty of tables. The menu is impressive. There are many items in the menu. They also has the dush picture with name on the wall so if quite convenient. We ordered dishes for 5 people and it is a lot. The food are yummy and I little the soup the best. The price range from close to 20 and up for each dish. I also like the frog and cube pork. The squid tentacles is a bit tough but chewable. It is cooked with king mushroom. Overall it was great dinner and we have much left over to bring home. The servicev is ok. read more

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Overall really enjoyed finding this spot and will be sure to eat again. Be aware they are heavy on the MSG but all worth it and taste the wok hei for the fried rice. Originally wanted to try their fish maw stew but they didn't have any by the late hours and did the regular soup which was basic. Fried rice was one of the best one I've had and well fried and seasoned. Vegetables were perfectly cooked and not over done. Lastly the stir fried spare ribs was similar to the the Peking spare rib flavor but not quite the same. I did enjoy this version and the grapes worked better than I expected. Solid place and bonus that they open late. Went around 8 pm and didn't wait though you can still see people stopping by to eat. Parking could be hard during peak hours. read more

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My dad and sister picked me up really late at night from the airport and we needed a place that was close by the airport and still open. Found this place that has karaoke and food still open til 1. For a Chinese restaurant open late the staff was very friendly and the place well it and clean. Overall I would say I had a good experience. Since it was late they ran out of rice noodles so we got the Singapore fried vermicelli and it was good. We ordered some congee, I thought was a little too water but the taste was good. The garlic chicken clay pot was also good tasting but the chicken was a little rubbery and dry. Overall decent and good for being opened late. read more

Zhen Restaurant - Chinese Near Me - Millbrae, California

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Driving home from SFO late night and was famished. Found this joint open well into the night so had to jump in. It was 1/2 full even at 10:30pm! And people kept coming in. That's a good sign. Lots of different Taishan dishes which we never had before. So we got the special clay pot eel with rice and the clams. The eel dish was a little dry which is how it's supposed to be I guess but the flavor was interesting. Clams was delicious and a ton of it! Left feeling very satisfied and glad to know this place. Will come back when we're in the area. read more

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Was very excited to try this place since it closes at 1AM and I love Taishan cuisine. Service was actually pretty good and food came quick - of note my wife does speak Cantonese. Food was just ok IMO, I felt it tasted bland when I was expecting a lot of flavor, especially the braised pork belly. Would skip and check out some of the other restaurants down the street read more

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If you're looking for authentic Chinese food that's open late, this is the place to check out! All the uncles and aunties seem to come here to eat good food and lounge for hours while enjoying each other's company. My friend and I ordered two main dishes, a vermicelli stir fry and a yellow chicken dish and it was more than enough. The service was pretty good for the restaurant being almost 100% at capacity. The quality and the cost $$ was def worth how big the portions were. read more

Zhen Restaurant - Chinese Near Me - Millbrae, California

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We stumbled into this late-night Chinese restaurant after my daughter's epic SFSU graduation ceremony, which ran longer than a Marvel movie marathon. It was nearly midnight, and our stomachs were screaming louder than the proud moms in the stadium earlier. This was literally the only Chinese place still lit up like a Vegas casino--open until 1am (allegedly). We walked in at 11pm, saw two perfectly good tables whispering, "Sit here," and thought we were golden. But the staff looked like they'd just survived a dumpling apocalypse--frazzled, flustered, and definitely not feeling festive. We politely asked for a table for two, and they hit us with a plot twist: "We're closed." What?! You're full of people eating noodles, and your sign says 1am. Did we wander into a secret Mahjong club? To add soy sauce to the wound, someone else walked in after us and got seated like royalty while we stood there like the sad extras in a sitcom. The fish tanks looked like they were hosting their own swamp documentary, and the kitchen... let's just say Gordon Ramsay would've fainted on sight. Moral of the story: if you like confusion, disappointment, and a bonus biology experiment in the fish tanks, this is your spot. Otherwise, keep walking. Even instant ramen at home would've been a five-star experience compared to this. read more

Good spot for a casual meal! We were recommended to try this place by two different family friends so we decided to come for lunch on a Sunday. The tables are set really high for some reason so it felt like we all needed a booster seat. Food-wise, everything was surprisingly good, just like recommended. There were a few dishes posted on the wall and we decided to try some of those. The variety and the uniqueness of some of the dishes set them apart from other chinese restaurants nearby. I'm glad I tried it once at least, because I drive by all the time. read more

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HEADS UP, parking spaces here are CRAMPED in this area so beware. We got seated pretty quickly and were able to order everything afterwards. Food came out really quickly despite it being busy on a Saturday night at around 6-7PM. I have to give a shout out to the black truffle chicken because the flavoring was just so addicting and I've never tasted anything like that before. Zhen Wei special stir fry was also delicious with everything that they've included in the dish. I don't know what the crispy stuff is but it's so good!! Beef chow fun was also fried really good. It wasn't too greasy despite it being stir fried. Beef pieces were really tender too. We came here during their 5 year anniversary. Their deal basically included if you ordered Atleast $100 worth of stuff, you get a selected dish worth $10 instead of it being priced at usually $30. They have more discounts as your total gets higher too! read more

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3.5 star Service is nice. Food portion is good even with the lunch special and they have it even on weekends. The tofu with fish rice plate is sumptuous with even mushrooms and veggie, tastes good. The scallion and ginger braised duck rice is also 9.9 lunch special but the sauce tasted the same and they changed the ingredients to dry tofu sheet instead, so I didn't taste much ginger and scallion, -1 point on that. The steamed goose on rice roll is ok, didn't quite taste the specialty of the goose. They did offer to bring in more soy sauce, so that's nice of them. The dim sum are good. Siu Mai is huge and the lava bread is done perfectly right with gooey fillings oozing out and it's more egg yolk than custard. The menu is a bit pricey, the eel clay pot rice is over 49 bucks, otherwise I would like to try it, so -0.5 points. Overall a new addition to the Millbrae restaurant area and a good new variation of Chinese menu. read more

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Their peking style pork chop reminds me of Sam Woo from SoCal (Cerritos). Some may say that it tastes like sweet and sour pork but there's a distinct flavor that you can't tell me nothin'! It's a good value as they prepare a lot for the size of the to-go box. Definitely would like to come back here to try other things on the menu like, for instance, their steamed dim sum offerings and their roast duck plate for lunch. The price point is quite affordable. Street parking is available. read more

Solid spot when you're craving Canto food! We stopped by after a night of too much wine and the century egg jook, wonton soup, and cheung fun really hit the spot. The chicken feet were gigantic, but not the best in terms of flavor. This is a casual spot with no frills, but definitely solid and the prices are really good. read more

Zhen Restaurant - Chinese Near Me - Millbrae, California

I ordered the squab, eel rice, and veggie platter dish. Every was too oily for my taste and gave me a stomachache after. The flavor of each dish was similar and nothing really struck out to me. read more

Zhen was open late, so we decided to give them a try. We ordered the salt and pepper chicken wings, beef chow fun, and string beans. They offered us hot tea and ice water, which was a nice touch. The chicken wings were well seasoned. The chow fun was delicious, and the string beans were full of flavor. We enjoyed every bite of our meal. The decor was interesting, with old vinyl records from various artists displayed on the wall. The service was good they refilled our water when we asked. Nothing fancy, but the food was good and satisfying for a late night spot. We would definitely come back to try more dishes. read more

They were so kind and helpful and very friendly during dinner this evening. Menu and the food and items were so authentic, and the wok hay (flavor of wok intensity) on the beef chow fun was super super impressive to my palate. We got some special items like eel Claypot rice and the steamed fish was quite nice..1.56lb of fresh steamed yummy protein. Solid kaixincai dish, which I found lovely. Water spinach hasn't been in my mouth for years.... Just a place that I would most definitely come back to..:::: also doesn't break the bank. read more

The food had such authentic flavors, and the service was amazing. I always have a good time here either celebrating or having a casual dinner out read more

Foods are in fair price with standard taste, it's a good place for quick meals with dim sum and other Cantonese dishes. And yes, they're petty strict on their business hours, kitchen closes an hour prior to business closing hours. read more

Came here on a weekday for lunch. It's a nice cozy spot. Ordered the beef porridge, beef chow fun, and several dim sum dishes. Loved that there's options for most of the classic dim sums. Tried the turnip cake (wished it was more crispy), turnovers (classic and it was good here) and their chicken feet. Chicken feet were definitely on the basic side. Nothing too special. Even though it was a weekday lunch, there was a lot of people eating in and ordering take out. They have a very cheap lunch special for their rice plates. Will definitely try it next time. It's like $10 a rice plate that comes with soup!! There's parking right in the front but very limited. It's also 1 hour parking only. read more

Food was pretty good, service was prompt and personable (family was from the same village), ambiance is pretty modern. I DO recommend the shrimp with tea leaves, it's not too oily and the shell is crispy enough to eat the whole thing. Other items might be too salty but overall it was pretty good! Also they're connected to a hot pot restaurant so they might be the same chef/owner. Not a bad concept! read more

Zhen Restaurant - Lots of TV's and pictures to help you choose! - Chinese Near Me - Millbrae, California

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Food: 3.5-5 depending on the dish. Service: 5/5 (no problems for us) Value: 3/5 Ambiance: Casual, but they have a nicer feel than a typical traditional Chinese restaurant. We ordered the clay pot eel fried rice and the braised pork belly with eggplant. The pork belly to me was a 5/5 for those who like the sauce a bit sweeter. The eel claypot fried rice was a 3/5 and quite pricey. The eel was kinda bland but the fried rice was good. I'd come back to try lunch specials, rice rolls, other dishes and for specific dishes, but some dishes are definitely a pass. read more

Zhen Restaurant - Eel Claypot Fried Rice - Chinese Near Me - Millbrae, California

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Great food at a solid price point, and their lunch specials are a great deal. We celebrated my dad's 70th birthday here, and the staff was super accommodating, bringing us little plates and a serving knife for the cake, helping us take photos, etc. The sea bass with asparagus and sweet peas really highlighted the spring veggies, the salt-baked chicken had silky flavorful meat, and the shrimp with perilla came in a little half-basket (just $1 if you spend over $160). Will come back to try the eel clay pot rice and the goose! read more

Two weeks ago after new management went with my wife, the food was good, I give 4 stars. Today I went with family and the food quality drops to one star for me. I believe they replaced the cooks. The service is really good though. read more

Food was too salty. The claypot rice with fish was too expensive for just so so food. Dim sum and wok fried dish was okay. read more

Zhen Restaurant - Wok fried - Chinese Near Me - Millbrae, California

Open late around airport, love that they have traditional Chinese food. Service is good, Ambiance is casual and offered tradition Chinese tea. Definitely hit the spot when you crave for Chinese after Cancun for a week. read more

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Parking: street meters, gets busy on the weekend Food: big portions and reasonably priced. - Egg yolk fried Crab was smaller than others but it was $30 whereas it's $60-80 at other places. - seafood vermicelli was different/ flavorful and had a good amount of squid in their with fish roe on top. - big soup potion. It was good but spicier than I would like Ambiance: casual. Some tables were pretty close together where the chairs of the table were touching ours.. Overall, would return and try more dishes! read more

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Zhen is a Chinese restaurant, best recognized for their specialty in authentic Taishanese styled cuisine. My immigrant parents from Taishan have said that the cooking reminds them of home. This place closes quite late (1:00 pm), perfect for a late evening grab! We love coming here for dinner! I've been here several times, and plan to continue to come. We got this fried rice (pictured) and it was very memorable! It was well flavored and presentated - you can't tell from the picture, but it's shaped like a koi fish. The biggest let down I've had is with their eel rice, which is the most popular of Taishan, and it was just not done very well here. That may have to do with where they source their eel, because the quality of the eel was simply lacking - it was soggy and no way near fresh. The ambiance and service were both decent. read more

Zhen Restaurant - Chinese Near Me - Millbrae, California

Very good Chinese food for a reasonable price. Perfect for large parties with these big round tables. I especially like their vegetables and clay pot rice. read more

Very authentic Cantonese food. Very budget friendly. It's one of those establishments where if you live close enough and don't feel like cooking could come here 3-4 times a week. You don't come here for ambiance, you only come here for the food and ignore everything else. read more

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If you craving Chinese food and looking for an affordable lunch option in Millbrae, Zhen Wei Guan is a pretty solid option. They've got a 15+ options on their lunch special menu, and they are all around $10. Being my first time, I had to try a couple things. I got the lunch special Mapo Tofu and the bbq pork/egg steamed rice roll. The steamed rice roll for $5 was a great starter. It needed more sauce and some hot sauce but it's something I'd order again. The mapo tofu was quite good and spicy. The portion size was large and it had plenty of tofu and the good numbing spice from the chilis. Definitely warmed me up on a cold day. If you like spicy, it has enough without being overbearing. If you don't like spicy, I'd specify that to the staff when ordering. Everything was made to order as food took about 10-15 minutes to come out. I initially came because I was craving hot pot, but realized Ipot Plus is no more (they've re-branded and moved next door) and this new restaurant is now in its place. Definitely plan on coming back to try more of the lunch specials. Great addition to the already bustling downtown Millbrae food scene. Perfect for a solo lunch. read more

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Formerly a hot pot restaurant, now a Chinese restaurant also go by the name Zhen Wei Guan. Very easy to locate, street parking is available but tend to be taken during meal hours. We were a family of 6 that decided to go out for dinner on a Monday night, we arrived around 6pm and was greeted immediately by one of the staff and the restaurant only had two tables occupied at the time. By the time we left, the restaurant was almost full with no line. I almost want to give this restaurant a 2 star given it was a pretty good start, but it plummet to a meh experience very quickly. Right at seating, they also brought over a bowl of peanuts as starting appetizer. Someone immediately came over asking us if we're interested in ordering a clay pot rice because it takes longer, it should be ordered right away so it's timed with the rest of the dishes. We decided to skip so he allowed us more time to explore the menu. We put in our orders and the dishes start to come out one by one. First dish landed and we don't recognize it as something we ordered. Went to the waitress and she was clueless as to how that has happened since all of the dishes we did order was listed so it wasn't misheard or anything. They also didn't offer to take it back so we were stuck with the black bean clam dish, adding to our bill. Throughout the meal, they came by periodically asking if we want to swap to a new plate. Somewhat strange because we started with dining plates, but they swap out with an appetizer plate so we eventually dined with a tiny plate after the first round. We ordered the black garlic grape pork ribs, bean curd tong choy, truffle chicken, a tofu dish, and an octopus dish, and an egg white fried rice. Everything came out either too spicy or too salty. The fried rice was decent though, which was very much needed to balance out the overwhelming saltiness of the other dishes. As we were wrapping up, we heard the waitresses offering leaving diners sweet soup so we were excited to have something sweet to counter all the salty food we ate. The staff promptly cleared our table leaving just the teapot behind. We waited and waited....10-15 minutes later, no sweet soup, no bill. There we were just sitting at an empty table waiting while 2 chefs standing at the kitchen doorway and I think 3 floaters at the restaurant walking back and forth helping other tables. We pretty much gave up on the dessert and finally flagged one of the waitress down and asked about our bill. She stood there, frozen and confused for a minute and we asked "is this meal for free?" She stood there for another few seconds confused, until it finally clicked and she went to grab the check. Overall, kitchen staff need to have a lighter hand on that salt and the front staff need to get their sh*t together. They looked flabbergasted and easily overwhelmed. The restaurant is not big so with 3 floaters, they should be able to operate smoothly. Is this restaurant new? If so, give them a chance to work out the kinks. If not, then best of luck but I will not be returning. read more

Stopped by for lunch on a weekday. Their lunch menu is pretty solid with a ton of rice plate options for $9.90 each. We got 2 rice plates and 1 noodle soup. They give you a lot of food for the price, and we had leftovers of every item. That being said, quality is not the best. Our vegetables were stringy and not fresh, and our noodle soup lacked flavor. Service was a huge miss. There were only 2 other tables eating when we walked in, yet we had to wait at the door for several minutes to be seated. We were only given 1 menu across 3 people, and when we were ready to order, we had to flag someone down twice. After we flagged her down for the 2nd time and let her know again that we wanted to order, she continued to clean an empty table and made us wait over 5 minutes before coming over to us. Food came out sporadically; we were basically done with our noodle soup and first rice plate by the time the 2nd rice plate came out. It was a struggle to find someone to give us basic items, like napkins, small bowls, etc. We asked for takeout containers and were only given boxes for the rice dishes. I ended up getting up myself and grabbing a soup takeout container for our noodle soup. An employee saw me as I was doing this and just continued to walk by. read more

Ordered take out food 2 days ago... the pork inside of lotus meat balls was not fully cooked....it was still pink and so disgusting. My friend and I didn't notice that at the beginning and ate two....had stomach upset afterwards.... can you guys make sure the food is fully cooked before serving it???!!!! I don't recommend this place... read more

Zhen Restaurant - Undercooked pork!!! - Chinese Near Me - Millbrae, California

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We got the eel rice and the goose, which I think are both their specialties. The rice was notably good and they don't skimp on the eel here. The goose was ok but a bit grainy, maybe from being overcooked. It is neat we're getting more nicer Teochew restaurants these days (like the similar Porridge and Things a few blocks away. read more

After a late night graduation that ended around 10pm, our large group of 20 went to Zhen Restaurant. The food was fast and good. Everyone was satisfied. Although their hours say they close at 1am, they told us last call for food was midnight. read more

Same as below. Food is ok but the service is horrendous. The waiter literally avoided our table to tend to Chinese tables. They need to do better. read more