Chef Ku

It's aight. If you are familiar with Henry's Taiwan in Seattle, this restaurant is by the same business under a different name going for the higher-end group of folks.

Overall: 3.5/5

Food quality: 3/5
My family is from Taiwan so we have a bit higher standards in food. The dan zai noodles were not as authentic as the ones in Taiwan but they had an okay flavor to them. Stinky tofu was decent but not wowing. Mi fen--I think it's vermicelli (?) was not very flavorful--mostly salty and probably shrimp broth. I've had better. Chives pockets were decently authentic but very oily. Overall it doesn't beat some of the other Taiwanese joints in Bellevue eg facing east and yea's wok--it's aight but not spectacular.

Price: $, pretty decent prices for the amount of food you get and you can walk out pretty full at around $10 per person.

Service: 4.5/5. Staff were nice and attentive. The guy walking around who I presume to be Chef Ku was interacting with customers, helping them get seated, etc.

Speed of service: 4/5. It took about 30 after we ordered for our food to get to us. They were very busy at the time I was there which might have explained it.

Ambience: 4.5/5. Going for a family-style nice casual and bustling environment.

Chef Ku is not a new kid on the block, he's actually opened many Chinese restaurants around the greater Seattle area throughout the years. I met and spoke with him during my meal. Surprise surprise he knows my grandma. How cool is that?

The place is a bit hidden in the back behind Little Mongolian Sheep Hot Pot in Crossroads. Parking isn't great either so heads up. The restaurant itself is small but cute. The menu has a large variety of options and many Taiwanese staples. I love their soup, which I can recall the name but it's a pork meat soup and it has a flavor I can't describe but it's delicious! The only difference with the lunch combo and the regular menu is that you get a free black or green tea. The black tea was better than the green tea in my opinion. The pork chop plate was a good size and the popcorn chicken was perfectly crispy.

Service was great. Everyone was very nice and attentive. A great meal that will keep me coming back for more.

Very solid and authentic Taiwanese food. My first experience was great from the friendly staff to the delicious food.

PROS:

Location/Ambiance: Located in the same area as the Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot. The restaurant is very clean and simple.

Service: Friendly staff. They gave us good recommendations without being too pushy. Our food came out very quickly!

Food: Amazing! Everything that we had was good! My favorite was the garlic ginger chicken and the chicken steak. Even though all the dishes were delicious, those two dishes stood out. The garlic ginger chicken had huge chunks of garlic and the chicken was very tender, moist and savory. The chicken steak was extremely flavorful and balanced very well with the fermented egg.

CONS:

Parking can be a bit tight with all the other establishments near by.

It's Taiwanese food that has made its way over to Bellevue. Unfortunately, I can't get the rest of my family to join me for dinner over here. So I have to come here for lunch. And their lunch specials have seriously spoiled me. Basically, they serve Taiwanese bento boxes on plates instead of in white cardboard containers. And the degree of detail with which they replicate these meals has me keep coming back for more.

Their lunch specials come with an abundance of the famed Taiwanese pickled vegetables. For that matter, they come with an abundance of rice and meat. To top all this off with sweetened green or black tea is just incredible. I can't believe this exists in Bellevue. I'm not going to come back every day because, you know, calories. But that's hardly a concern limited to this particular restaurant.

First time trying this new restaurant in Bellevue.

I ordered the Hakka-style stir fry pork and squid over rice (客家小炒飯). It was really salty. Aside from sodium levels though, it was ok. Good quantity of tofu, pork, not a lot of squid. It comes with a tea egg. :) Also sampled the beef noodle soup and 3 cup chicken; both were very bland. The chicken was not marinated nearly enough. The beef noodle soup broth didn't have much flavor either.

This 2 star review is for the Taiwanese Pork Chop dish.
It was breaded, but not very well.
And it looked/felt like it was fried 3 times.
And finally all I could taste was the breading.

I 2nd all the other reviews stating "off or not enough flavor".

Having been born and raised in Taiwan, my standards for taiwanese food are understandably higher. Chef Ku is a very solid addition to east side selection of authentic taiwanese eateries.

Stuff worth ordering and quite authentic
3 cup chicken - one of the best i've had in seattle area
boiled pork in garlic sauce - very authentic, just like what i've had in taiwan
hakka stir fry - balanced flavor, not too oily

pass for now unless improved
beef noodle soup

I saw people order the braised pork intestines dish, which looked and smelled quite authentic as well.

New place, so probably still working out the kinks. But good start so far, clean welcoming interior, courteous service. I plan to come back when I need my taiwanese food fix.

Ordered using their website which had a lot of customizations available for each dish to the point it was really confusing. When they finally got to my order 20 mins later, they called me to tell me there was too many customizations and asked me if I just wanted the defaults for each dish which was fine. Then, my husband was told that they couldn't do my order; they refunded him and sent him away.

Bad customer experience, didn't even get to eat. Oh, and it's Mother's Day. Yay.

was not a fan.

They didn't deliver 3 items to me, and the food that did arrive wasn't appetizing. Will not order from here again.

Henry's a well known name and known quality in terms of the tastes and amount of food that he brings to the community. Upon driving past his name, we recalled his name and went in a few days ago. Food was great!! And so we are back again!

Update: no longer Henry's I think. Standards have dropped and menu has changed.