Oriental Seafood Restaurant
2520 Noriega Street
(between 32nd Ave & 33rd Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94122 (415) 661-8808
- Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- 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
76 reviews
Neighborhood: Glen Park
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26 Reviews for Oriental Seafood Restaurant
Cheap good food. That about sums it up. The place is small so there's often a wait. I recommend making reservations, especially for large groups.
This place is tiny, the mirror they have on the wall makes it look so much bigger when you walk past it on the street. Order to go instead. They give you enough food in one order of noodles that can feed 3 people.
on the downside, i called in and ordered beef chow fun. they told me it was going to be ready in 20 minutes. 20 minutes later, i arrive at the restaurant and they tell me they dont have anymore rice noodles... how could they possible run out of rice noodles?
Eh.. it's sorta cheap. Food isn't always great, but it's okay. If you come at lunch, you'll bump into LOTS of contruction workers here on their lunch break.
Good rock cod with bell pepper in black bean sauce clay pot. Their string beans in hunan sauce wasn't too bad, but as it is a "seafood" restaurant, and many people were eating seafood (fish shrimp scallop etc etc), perhaps we should have ordered something more along those lines... Oh well maybe next time
Dirt cheap and decent food, but I noticed they have a score of 60 from the Department of Public Health, so I decided to look them up on the DPH website. I don't think I'll be going back until they address some of these issues. See for yourself:
http://dphwww.sfdph.or...
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The food here is mediocre and the prices are reasonable. The staffs are nice but when things get busy; everything will turn ugly. Sometimes, the food is way overcooked or just undercooked and oily. I guess overall, it's a decent place for family dinner; not a place to hang with friends or treat guests. It's small, old, and bit dirty; not to mention, the strong odor of Chinese food spreading throughout the restaurant from the back kitchen.
Why is everyone calling it a "hole in the wall"? It ain't fancy, but it is not quite hidden away or super tiny to warrant that overused term. I'd call it "basic" or "sparse".
This is a cheapskate's delight! What I've enjoyed most are the GI-NORMOUS PORTIONS of "sup chow" chow fun and fried rice. I saw a waitress serve on an oval dish chow fun stacked over 4 inches high. Ridiculous. I thought maybe the table ordered a double portion. But when I opened my take out, the plastic container was filled to the top. Could've fed me for three meals! That would work out to under $2.00 PER MEAL! I once took a couple orders to my parent's place and my mom was impressed. She knows a good deal when she sees it!
I hate cooking and usually I get home pretty late so this a great late night take out place . I love how when I say I want to order a takeout they always say " what do you want?" all gruff and mean. Totally reminds me of me working in the restaurant business. Cheap and huge portions.I always order the salt and pepper chicken wings and Singapore chow fun.You definitely quench your Chinese food craving at this place
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The sister restaurant of Emperor Palace (on Balboa). This is also one of my father's faves. Food is ok (again, not very memorable but for the price and portions, you can't beat it).
You can order a fish off the tank. They usually bring it out and show you (and you can see that poor fish squirming from the net as the waiter tells you how many lbs, how much yada yada).
Restaurant space is a bit tight. More like squeezing as many tables as you can in a space.
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This is one of my favorite To-Go resturant if I don't feel like cooking for the nite. One of the reason is, the parent of my son's classmate run this place. So we know them for long time. The other reason is the food and service. For under $30, I can feed my whole family of 5. The only complain will be the restroom....tho
I went here with a large group of about 16 people and they were able to accommodate us. But as for us vegetarians, it was so-so. The eggplant dish was yummy, but a bit greasy, and the tofu/mushroom dish was ok, but tasted like they used the same oil they used for meat dishes. I was unfortunately seated right next to the fish tank, if that's what you can call it. I really just wanted to free the little fishies from the nasty water. Even if I were not vegetarian, I would not want to eat anything that had to survive in that environment. Yuck. A sad life for those fish.
my boyfriend and i always order to go here. good prices good food quick and delicious what more do you want when youre hungry? :]
If you want good local chinese food, order from this place. I usually eat from here once a month but it's mostly take out. Inside, the restaurant isn't the nicest smelling place and not the cleanest, but the food stands up on it's own.
The prices are very affordable and they give you large portions. I usually order the Mongolian Beef lunch special (which comes with rice) and it's only $3.50. The Mongolian Beef has got to be one of the best I've ever had. I can't even finish the lunch special it's so big.
If you're local, I suggest you try this place out.
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it's been a while since dining here. i remember odering off the chalk board for their seafood specials. prices very reasonable.
tables cramp together. bathrooms crapped also. ymmv.
We did takeout from this place and was not disappointed. Very flavorful sweet and sour pork chops, black pepper short ribs, walnut shrimp, and beef and broccoli. all orders were huge. even gave us 2 boxes of rice. i like their rice. it's a bit chewy and doesn't stick together. dry and cooked al dente. call me crazy but rice is important when you need something to suck up the sauces. the lunch rice plates are a deal. $3.50 is like prices from the 80's. i don't think i would eat their either. they need a remodel desperately. but it's been their forever and shows it. 3.65 stars.
Update: Tried the Mogolian Beef. Wow, my mouth is on fire. Hot but good.
Food is actually better than Hing Lung to me personally. Their West Lake beef soup, seafood tofu soup, and fried chicken are the ones I prefer best. But I don't suggest eating here. It's so cramped with tables positioned awkwardly and strangely that it's generally for eating and running. Prices are fair and seem to be less than at other restaurants in the area.
All I can say is that this place is DIRTY! Try wiping the table with a napkin and turn it over. You'll be surprised at how dirty it is. The food is okay, but I feel that it's a little on the greasy side. The price is decent, I guess. Also, one thing to keep in mind, try not to sit near the fish tank because it is disgusting. The water was like all dark and murky, you could barely see the fishes. Well, if you don't mind sitting next to dirty water and fish, then everything should be okay. But if your a clean freak like me, stay away.
It's a Chinese seafood restaurant in SF - food isn't as consistent as you'd like, bathrooms are a nightmare and it's not the cleanest place. But I must say, whenever I'm hungry I go here for a bite to eat. Especially for midnight snacks it's great to just hit them up and say what you want (chance is they have it) and then pick it up. For under five bucks you can get a big thing of chow fun that will last until next day's dinner.
Lots of people complain about the cramped space, but weekdays are usually fine. It's also fine for groups, as long as there's a large table open (duh). Plus there are plenty of other similar restaurants around, so if it's really too busy you could get some grub.
Rather affordable and it's pretty tasty. Bonus points to the fact that the waitress brought me water the first time I asked.
Cantonese style seafood done very well here. kind of a dive. but the food is really very tasty. ginger onion crab, fresh fish (black bass, grouper, rock cod) from the tank and lobster with vermicelli in a clay pot are incredible here. salt and pepper pork ribs and the best ja gee gai (Chinese crispy skin chicken) in town also served. try to come in a group of 8 or more so you can try more dishes ala family style dining!
one way to have the fresh fish is to have one fish served two ways. a really tasty fish soup with tofu, mustard greens, mushrooms and ginger comes out first. and the rest of the fish is served steamed with ginger, soy sauce, scallions, and cilantro at the end of the meal in the traditional Chinese family style dining methodology.
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This is one of our family's favorite authentic cantonese cuisine restaurant in SF. Your experience should be above average if you know what to order. Our favorites are: all lunch specials on the Chinese menu (comes with soup and rice), lobster yee-mein, Fuk Kien fried rice, and the $68 seafood dinner (also on the Chinese menu). This place is crowded daily for lunch and dinner. I definitely recommend making dinner reservations for this place.
good for cheap,local chinese food or take-out if you're in the sunset. i really like their honey walnut prawns and clay pot dishes here. my family usually comes here for get-togethers and i'm usually not dissapointed after eating here. not the cleanest place, but certainly not dirty. for the price i think it's a really good place.
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If you want really really great Chinese seafood, this is the place to be! It's a somewhat hole in the wall, seating is often tight, and there's a wait for big parties when you don't have a reservation but all in all it's well worth it!
I don't usually want to eat Cantonese food but last Sunday I was too hungry. The usual places I go to on Noriega and 31st were packed so I decided to try Oriental Seafood. BIG MISTAKE.
We ordered two dishes, house chow mein and wor wonton. The calamari in the house chow mein was SPOILED! It was so gross. I picked out all the calamari from the chow mein and put it in a bowl. I was not going to complain, but then the waitress came by and said, "Next time you should tell me that you don't like calamari so we don't put it in the dish!" I was so mad. I told her that the calamari was spoiled and she did not even say anything. Instead she just walked away to the cash register and ignored us.
I am never going back to this place. I don't really expect much from these "hold in the wall" Chinese places, but that waitress had some nerve!
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We've been going to this place regular for the past 5 years or so. The food range from mediocre to excellent, depending on what you order. There are essentially 4 menus at any given time. There is a main lunch menu and main dinner menu that are in both English and Chinese. Those menus contain items that you find at most any Chinese restaurants such as sweet & sour pork, chicken with assorted vegetables and walnut prawns. There is a separate printed menu in Chinese only that contains many Cantonese home style dishes as well as set meals. The 2 other menus are on the wall. The seafood menu lists what fresh seafood they have and how much they are. If you do want fresh seafood though, do ask the server what they have as there may be other seafood not listed there. The other menu on the wall is written in Chinese only and contains many specials.
We've found that the food on the Chinese only menu are the better ones. We also enjoy the reasonably priced seafood. There is an advantage with having someone who read (or at least speaks) Chinese when dining there.
For $75, we had the following items for a party of 6:
Whole crab stirred fry with salted egg - we asked for extra salted egg, very meaty crab, nicely flavored
Steamed giant clams (sorry, not sure of the name of those clams in English) - 4 whole ones, served as 8 halves. The clam meats were cut into pieces, placed on a bed of glass noodles on the shells, topped with garlic, scallion and cilantro and steamed. Really fresh and tasty.
Salt & pepper chicken wings - a dish we almost always order. The wings are crispy without a heavy batter.
Beef chow fun - a decent version. We asked for it without onion. It would have been better if more charred.
Pan-fried stuffed 3 treasures - prawn stuffed bell pepper, eggplant and tofu w/ black bean sauce. The first time we tried this dish and is pretty good.
Roasted squab - didn't have any today as I was too busy with the crab. But it's usually good when I've had it in the past.
One more thing. If you like Cantonese style "old fire" soup, it comes free with your meal. However, if you order another soup, the server would not bring you the free soup.
Prices are great. Service is usually efficient and friendly. That could be because we're regulars. (Heck, we even get free beer on demand!) Parking could be an issue in that area. To avoid a long wait, either make reservations or go early. Before noon for lunch and before 6pm for dinner.
this is your basic neighborhood chinese restaurant - nothing fancy, you don't come here for the ambiance. i've never had a negative experience. it's a great place to get take out because it's cheap and their portions are huge. an order of chow mein is $3.50 and you can eat it for days. great for parties.
This place is hit or miss. If this place had consistency, especially in terms of freshness of ingredients (ie their seafood) I would give it a higher rating.
Sometimes the seafood is too old to serve; yet they still serve it. For example, we ordered the black bean clams; they tasted old and disugsting. What's up with that?
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