Grand Taipei Restaurant
Category: Restaurants [Edit]
25036 Hesperian Blvd(between Chabot Ct & Turner Ct)
Hayward, CA 94545 (510) 785-7133
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Private Lot
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: Yes
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Good for: Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol: Beer & Wine Only
55 reviews
Palo Alto, CA
"Fine dining at its best: wonderful ambiance, phenomenal food and extremely gracious service. I was more than impressed with my dining…" read more »
17 Reviews for Grand Taipei Restaurant
Chinese food here is Excellent. For soups, their West Lake Beef soup is tasty! Their fried chicken (and no, it's not the KFC kind) is good, but the sauce they serve with it, makes it even better! The fried Sea Bass, although pricey, is Fantastic!! Everything else falls between average or very good.
**Another great item that may not be on the menu is their: "FIRE POT"...(no, it's not an ancient Chinese marijuana) it's this huge soup with EVERYTHING (e.g. shrimp, vegetables, prawns, etc) in some chicken broth mix....this is perfect for a morning hangover!!
So my friend/accountant/motorcycle dealer person and I have this agreement: I take him out to dinner, he does my taxes.
Granted, this happens once a year, and sure, it's been a while since I've seen him (I'll be writing the review of the LAST time we went out soon), but I actually look forward to Tax Day just so I can spend some time with him. I love Matty. (SHOUTOUT! :D)
See, Matty (real name Matt, I have a pet name for him) is Chinese. He also doesn't speak Chinese. I find this hilarious because his mother and father can barely speak english. So in the interest of trying to get him to learn Chinese, I brought him Rickshaw the first year he did my taxes. See, I THOUGHT we had a great dinner together, but NOOOO. To this DAY he bitches about me bringing him crappy chinese food.
So I don't really know all that much about what's good and what's not good. Therefore, when we did my taxes last tuesday, I threw a temper tantrum for some Chinese food.
"Ok, OK! We'll get some. And it's going to be MUCH better than the shit YOU brought me, and it'll be cheaper too. And we'll get more food."
Sweetheart, don't you remember? I spent 10 bucks the last time. For the BOTH OF US. Regardless, he took me here. The owner is super sweet, and we were seated right away. Immediately we decided on the most expensive dinner for two--with lots and lots of pork. Granted, I stopped eating red meat a while ago, but who can pass up mu shu pork and pork chow mein and pork dumplings with a side of pork sauce?! (OK, lying about the pork sauce and the pork dumplings, but there was a fuckload of pork in there)
Oh and I was reminded, in front of the waiter, that I have a "thing" for Hot and Sour Soup. Yeah, thanks for that shoutout Matt.
All in all, the hot and sour soup was AWESOME, the pork chow mein WICKED GOOD, the mu shu pork was scrumptious, and the fried bananers were fuckin sahWEET. I could nomnom here, which is good I won't feel out of place acting like a Panda.
The servers were a little put-off, though...I don't know why. They gave us forks, and I just sat there waiting for chopsticks. Just because I'm pale as fuck doesn't mean I can't use chopsticks. I've been using them since before I used western utensils! I mean, come on...chow mein with a fork? Now that's just weird.
4 stars! I'll be having him take me here for my 2008 taxes. :D
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the best chinese I have ever had. The best thing to order is the green onion pancakes. it may sound weird but they are awesome. their salt and pepper tofu and taiwan fried rice are also amazing. they are very affordable and service is very friendly
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I grew up going to this place. My family has become close friends with the owner.
Like the other yelp-ers have said, you need to ask the waitresses about the specials of the day. There are alot of off-menu dishes that are delicious.
One of my favorites is the tea-smoked duck. The Chilean sea bass is good too.
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An uncle pointed my family to this place. Place gets crowded which I guess is a good thing. Food portions were small for the price. Some of the food was bland and some good also. So we felt like we were getting ripped off.
This place is as good as it's gonna get for Chinese Food in Hayward. I used to bartend at Paulo's Lounge, which is next door to that plaza, and would order the best Kung Pao Chicken I've eaten there. I wouldn't order anything else....(Well, the occasional order of battered fryed shrimp). I've never had the Taiwanese specialties, but may be adventurous and sway them into serving me that stuff. I'm Filipino, so I'm sure it's not so "adventurous" for me.
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This is my favorite Chinese food haunt in Hayward. The staff is super-friendly, probably because my family, including extended and grandma, have been regulars for years. We even have a nick-name for it -- "the toupee." I simply love it! 5 stars more for the comfort-food factor than for being exquisitely delish. But yea, it is pretty damn good!
My favorite Chinese restaurant, hands-down. I always go with my dad, who has followed the owner/chef Michael since his days at the Newark restaurant by New Park Mall (now owned by his ex-wife, and not as good as it once was).
The previous Yelper is correct -- the secret is to ask the servers or owner what they recommend for today. They'll tell you which veggies are the freshest, which aren't so good, and any other items that aren't on the regular menu.
We always get the deep fried Chilean sea bass with fried onion bits on top, a stir-fried greens with garlic (whichever greens are recommended), kidney w/ Chinese donut, and julienned dried tofu with pork (not sure if I'm translating correctly).
Even the Americanized-style food is delicious, like the kung pao chicken and fried rice, esp. when Michael cooks it.
I'm a huge fan of this restaurant and used to travel there from Fremont, and now from SF, on a regular basis.
been around for a long time, now remodeled. many local elderly chinese come here. so for being located in hayward, it gets 5 stars. be sure to try the nian gao, also da lu noodle soup. xiao long bao pretty good as well. the owner is very friendly.
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I have been going here for as long as I can remember. While it may not be the best Chinese food in the world it is what I rate all other Chinese food against, and its better than any nasty PF Chang crap they try to serve you.
YUM. It is never fail comfort food for me. I can eat it again and again. I get the same thing each time. BBQ pork fried rice, beef with snow pea (because I like the name but I'm switching to beef and broccoli because i like broccoli and not snow peas) mu shu pork, walnut prawns, and their crispy chicken with special sauce.
On occasion I will make a Chinese burrito. I don't know why but I just love anything in burrito form. So here goes, I'm sharing my secret recipe with all you yelpers.
1. Take a mu shu wrapper and give it a good coat of plum sauce
2. Add some egg and mushrooms from the mu shu mix
3. Add beef from the beef and broccoli
4. Top it off with some BBQ pork fried rice
5. Wrap it up. Don't make it too full or it will all spill out
6. Enjoy!
*must eat with fork since it is only a thin wrapper but the combination blends together real well
I will sometimes get this round ball shaped dessert that's somewhat gooey with some kind of warm sweet bean goodness inside dusted with sugar and chopped nuts on top.
It has changed a bit over the years and I could tell when they got a new chef but still taste great. We know the owners and they are all really friendly. Be prepared they can get packed on holidays like mothers/fathers day and valentines day.
5 stars for the memories, and consistency
I have loved this place ever since high-school. This is the place I gauge all Kung Pao Chicken against.
The food is fresh, no MSG, fast service and the best lunch specials around!!! Everything I have tried here is good! Love the crispy fried chicken too!!! A hidden gem in Hayward, and Hayward has few if any at all. This is actually the best Chinese that Hayward had to offer.
If you come here at lunch time, you get a cross between the local junior college crowd and local business people.
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Food is good, portions are good and service is ridiculously fast. I guess they have everything sitting in pots in the back because usually it is so fast the waiter is back inside 5 minutes with my lunch. If you need a menu before ordering though it will really slow down your/their service!
Lunch prices are great and even when this place is packed the service is good. You know it's a good authentic Chinese restaurant when there are actually chinese people eating there and they aren't ordering in english either... If service and prices weren't so good I would deduct 1 more star. Being next door to "Quickly" Pearl Tea and their zany Engrish signs is a nice desert option for those so inclined. "He who break chair, you buy!"
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Wow. I can't believe I'm the first to review this place... I mean, it's been voted "Best of the East Bay Express" multiple times. Or was that "Best of Hayward Express?" Or was that "Best of Hayward Express between Hwy 92 and Winton?" Well I forget.
We (the fam) had dinner here tonight to bid Dad good riddance, errr... bon voyage as he's going to Taiwan for a few weeks. And what does he request before his trip? Taiwanese food. Yeah, he's Mr. Excitement, ain't he? (I kid you Dad. I heart you. And whatever you're going to leave me in your will.)
It's been a while since we've eaten here though it use to be Dad's fave restaurant. The place has changed quite a bit since our last visit (maybe a year?). The host now was a Mexican dude and all the patrons were of the non-Asian persuasion. WTF???
The menu, fortunately, had not changed and there was still a large selection of vegetarian dishes for mom & dad. We ended up ordering vegetarian hot & sour soup, vegetarian mu-shu, eggplant in garlic sauce, fried tofu, kong-xing cai (chinese spinach?), a crispy pork thing, and fried sea bass. The hot and sour soup was neither hot nor sour but instead peppery. Everything else was so very salty. It's no wonder that all the Asian people have fled. But do the other nationalities not have taste buds??
The service, however, was exceptional. They came and picked up the tea pot for refill before we lifted open the lid. They were very generous with the iced water. And when they weren't doing the above two things, they'd stop by and ask if everything was okay. I guess they needed to make sure the one table of Chinese peeps were looking happy to lend them some cred. Luckily our family values quantity over quality and as long as our mouths were full and we weren't required to converse, we all looked content.
I probably won't come back again as there are other better tasting Chinese restaurants around here. But hopefully you enjoyed your meal Dad. And now you can go eat some REAL Taiwanese food.
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After coming here over the years, the food remains just about average. Prices have gone up but quantity on the plate has gone down. I hate to say this but this probably the best in Hayward, because there aren't any other quality Chinese restaurants in Hayward to compare them to? With a party of 6 we had a very small dinner and it came out to $63.00 including an automatic 16% gratuity (because of the size of the party) There's parking on the side and rear of restaurant. If I'm ever in the area Chinese food is tapping on the taste buds, I think that I may have to find somewhere else to go!
I grew up in the hayward area, and have been here many times through out the year. The food remains consistantly average. I wonder where all the chinese people went? Probably to other chinese restaurants to get more bang for their buck, because this place is kind of pricey for the food/service you get.
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In my opinion this is the best Chinese restaurant within the Hayward city limits, but that doesn't say much. Beyond Grand Taipei, there aren't many Chinese restaurants within Hayward that can compare, except for maybe West Lake. At least it's safe to say that they deserve to win the Daily Review's Best Chinese Restaurant of the Year Award every single year for who knows how long now. If you want a step above the regular boring Chinese take-out, this is the place to go. The service is good and the servers are very helpful, attentive, and enthusiastic.
Food-wise, Grand Taipei doesn't disappoint. Recommended items are BBQ pork fried rice, walnut prawns, and string beans western style (which is string beans with a little bit of ground pork). The beef wonton manages to be very good without relying on too much salt. My parents and I have come to this place for years now, and the owners have come to recognize us. We don't come here as often as we used to though, but this place is a good compromise when we want consistently reliable quality but are too lazy to leave Hayward for Union City or Palo Alto.
The only downside I can think of is that in recent years they've come to cater to more of an American clientele, which can result in less authentic menu offerings.
So I might have an "in" at this restaurant - I've been here a number of times with my family. Here's the trick - talk to the wait staff and ask for their recommendation. If you're feeling particularly brave, ask the waitstaff (or the owner), and tell him you want the most authentic meal possible, and just sit back.
This is the only place I know of in the Bay Area where you can call ahead and have them make a Taiwanese specialty - "lions-head meatballs." I have no clue how you'd say this in English, but in Mandarin it's "shr-jr toh." Very tasty and definitely not on the menu. It requires a 24 hour call ahead time.
I was really surprised that inviting my whole family out (including me and a couple of friends, 8 people) only cost around $100 including the tip. It cuts both ways - they didn't give me an opportunity to add an additional tip on top of the normal gratuity - just rang up the whole amount and had me sign. Wow!
Oh yeah... this is the only restaurant between Oakland and Fremont my grandfather is willing to go to. I guess that says something about its authenticity! It's convenient to both 92 and 880 and is right across the street from Chabot.
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