Taipei Restaurant
2666 Ocean Avenue
(between 19th Ave & Lagunitas Dr)
San Francisco, CA 94132 (415) 753-3338
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: Yes
- Delivers: Yes
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Good for: Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol: Beer & Wine Only
82 reviews
Neighborhood: Glen Park
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27 Reviews for Taipei Restaurant
I've been here twice with a group of friends. The service was good and the food was decent. They have a good selection of vegetarian dishes, but some were too bland.
I came here for some take-out. The service was very friendly and prompt. They offer me some water or tea while waiting which was nice. Inside look clean, but a little cramp. I ordered lemon chicken with rice, and unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed. The chicken didn't seem too fresh and not too crispy. So more of 2 1/2 stars, I give 3 for service and should try some other stuff to give it a fair rating.
This is the one place that, I have been to many times for lunch. My favorite items on the menu would be the Beef Fried Rice, Crispy Lemon Chicken Over Rice, Tomato Beef Chow Mein.
Taipei Restaurant, is a pretty good place to have lunch or dinner. The
waitresses that they have at Taipei are very friendly and helpful. I will always come back to this Restaurant.
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The food is mediocre. So why have I come here like 5 times already. Because I am crazy and am a creature of habit and like to abuse myself with bad Chinese food. I guess also because the wait staff is super nice and the owner always sneaks me candy in her hand. The chicken wings were descent. but the taiwanese mi fun was not and the general chicken was not good either.
I drove 20 minutes to get here, thinking "hell yes, finally a decent taiwanese restaurant in San Francisco". I had been craving some pork blood rice, chitterling soup, and oyster pancakes. But NOOOOOOOO, this place doesn't even serve taiwanese food. WTF.
I didn't eat here. I got McDonald's instead. I was just that disappointed.
This isn't good if you like authentic Chinese food.
This isn't good if you like Americanized Chinese food.
This isn't good if you like food.
It just isn't good.
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Chinese in St. Francis Woods - not my usual scene. But I was in the neighborhood for the dentist, and if I've ever going to achieve my goal of trying every restaurant, you seize the opportunity to get the out of the way ones when you can.
This was almost four stars. Very much appreciated that they are more than willing to customize - my request to make my chicken with mangos in water rather than oil was taken no questions asked. And it was really good, but did taste oiler than expected. That very well could have been my fault, as I asked for black bean sauce, which depending on which google link you follow is either loaded with calories/fat or not at all. Clearly not the black bean sauce from my beloved Trader Joe's variety.
So we'll leave it more a 3.5, with an ever so slight edge at 3 because at $11 it was a bit more expensive than I'm used to for Chinese.
Not nearly as bad as some of the reviews on here suggest, but nothing to really distinguish Taipei either. A bit expensive for the quality but the menu is a little more interesting than the typical hole in the wall Chinese-American take-out place, with items like jellyfish, shark's fin soup, and abalone on the menu. The dining room has a cheesy, kitschy charm (fake flowers, poinsettia, fruit, neon, shiny pleather booths), and the waitstaff were very friendly. As for the food, it was fair. I'd say it's better than Emmy's down the street. Emmy's has the advantage of an extensive vegetarian menu, but the food at Taipei, although not refined or authentic by any stretch, is prepared with a bit more care and was more satisfying overall. The dining room is also nicer.
We started with the vegetarian hot and sour soup. It was good, standard-issue, hot-and-sour soup. The portion for a small order was fairly large- about 5 cups for $5.95, not a bad value. We then tried the green onion pancakes (also $5.95). These are basically fried dough with scallions and a peanut-buttery sauce. Not bad, but not something I would order again. For entrees, we went with scallops with mixed vegetables ($12.95) and kung pao fried tofu with peanuts ($7.95). The scallops were a bit bland but very fresh, sauteed in a glutinous, buttery sauce with zucchini, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and carrots. The kung pao tofu was served with peppers, onions, and peanuts. The sauce was very tasty.
Overall the food was average. Nothing was bad but nothing really distinguishes this place from any of the other Chinese places I've tried in the area (if anyone has a recommendation, please message me!). A little pricier than our go-to take-out place, Yummy House, which is two blocks from my house and about the same quality (Our order came to about $37 with 20% tip, AFTER an entertainment book coupon deducting the cost of the kung pao) . Yummy house is strictly take-out. As mentioned above, Taipei does have a somewhat nice, if over-the-top, dining room. They also have beer and wine. I might hit up Taipei again if we were desperate for some Chinese and looking for more of a sit-down restaurant within 5 minutes of my house, but it certainly isn't worth going out of your way to eat here.
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I don't care for Americanized Chinese food, perhaps that's the reason I don't care for the food here. I order take out from here once in a long while, usually when I've forgotten about how bad I felt the last time I got food from here. So, the last time we got take out, it was hot and sour soup, sweet and sour chicken and spicy firecracker chicken. The soup was average. The sweet and sour is the typical red sauce and doughy crusted chicken. The "spicy" chicken, I ordered it "extra spicy", was just a little hotter than mild.
Service is usually friendly. Prices are higher than they should be. The big plus is that you can usually find parking close by.
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They Don't Cook Taiwanese Food...
JUST WHAT DO THEY COOK THEN?
Food: Salty yucky
Service: Ok
Decoration: Ok
Price: Bad
Location: Great
Scale of Ten: 0.9
The only thing on the whole menu that was actually worth the trouble is the salt soy milk.
Note: I guess the name of this restaurant is where the owners came from not what they were going to make.
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Everything we ordered had that awful metallic dirty old wok taste.
I think that pretty much says it all . . . .
Worse "Chinese" food ever!
Sure if you're into 'oriental' food, this place is for you but if you want some authentic Taipei food, I don't suggest going here.
So my boyfriend and I was exploring his neighborhood and we drove by Taipei restaurant and saw that it was beautifully lit. We stepped in and the waitress took us to one of the booth tables. Since we were pretty hungry we order relatively fast. However, it took about 40 minutes to get our food on to the table.
We ordered:
Fried wonton, pretty expensive for 10 pieces of wonton SKIN, if I wanted fried wonton skin I'd spend $1.19 at a Chinese market and get a pack of 50 and fry it myself! Absolutely no filling at all!
Next was our 2 person soup.
There was more fried rice in the soup than there was soup and for $7.5 that soup only fed my boyfriend.
At this point we wanted to cancel our orders but we thought that'd be too messed up especially on a Chinese holiday. So alright alright, we'll wait for the rest of our food to come out. The honey walnut prawns came next with a bowl of rice. Horrid! Some of the shrimp was half cooked and had a weird taste. The only thing I kept eating was the walnuts. The rice, needless to say it was AA brand and quite "cheap tasting" for a relatively expensive Chinese place.
Last but not least, our Hong Kong style noodles with broccoli and chicken came. The noodles were tasteless and stiff. I didn't even bother trying the chicken.
Needless to say, a couple of hours after eating, my stomach was feeling not too good.
Our total was $42 including tip, and it was DEFINITELY NOT WORTH IT. We could've spent less at a Chinese restaurant further up Ocean and have gotten a lot better quality food.
Positives:
Service was nice but a very long wait.
Bathroom was relatively clean.
Decorations were pretty.
Negatives:
The quality of the food.
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Let's play a game, shall we?
If I type "Taiwan" into the Yelp search function with "San Francisco, CA" as the city, the first 4 of 6 reviews that pop up are mine.
If i type "Shanghai" into the Yelp search function with "San Francisco, CA" as the city, the first 2 of 3 reviews that pop up are mine.
If i type in "Chink" into the Yelp search function with "San Francisco, CA" as the city, the first 6 of 10 reviews that pop up are mine.
If i type in "Chinky" into the Yelp search function with "San Francisco, CA" as the city, the first 2 of 4 reviews that pop up are mine. Wait a minute... it also asks me "Did you mean: CHUNKY?" WTF! Yelp's calling me FAT! WTF!!!!!
Anyways, the whole purpose of this demonstration was to let Yelp know that I do in fact eat a lot of chinese food. A LOT. It's pretty much what I crave 4 or 5 days out of the week, and coupled with the fact that I grew up with my mom, grandma, and auntie's all cooking Chinese food for us, I think this makes me if not an expert, someone with more Chink cred than the average person, n'est pas?
Anyways, I'm kind of surprised to see so many positive reviews for this place. It WASN'T good. The xiao lung baos were heavy and stiff, the pork chop noodle soup was bland and flavorless, the dim sum was tepid and a bit dried out, and the green onion pancakes were NOT green onion-y enough, and tasted dough-y and heavy.
So yes, Yelp, I do realize that I probably DO review way too many Chinese restaurants, and I probably DO use "Chink" and "Chinky" a little bit too much, but really, did you HAVE to call me CHUNKY? I get that enough from my mom, yo. Stay classy, Yelp.
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My favorite take-out Chinese food in my neighborhood.
What stands out about Taipei is the freshness of the ingredients and they do not overcook the food (no mushy broccoli - ick)
I love the Pine Nut Chicken Lettuce Wraps, Asparagus Beef, and Chicken Fried Rice. They also make great shrimp dumplings - not easy to find at your local take-out.
Friendly service.
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Super friendly staff, super hot brothers working there, super yummy food. I don't know what Gremlin is talkin' about.
If you don't know what to order, have them order for you. Mama can always make some really nice recommendations.
Seriously though, consistently good Chinese food. Never dissapoints!
Their lunch specials are soooo good and cheap, I guess people overlook them or think they're not even open for lunch during the week. But they are! Buddha knows how much I relied on Taipei when I lived in the neighborhood or got off the gym.
I take one star off because I'm far from them now. Boo-hoo-hoo!
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Opnions are like you know the rest I personally like this place I first tried it for lunch. Since it is next to my bank and I was starving. I went to the japanese place first which sat me down and after waiting 10 minutes and not having my order taken I left.
Im glad I did I liked the food. I ordered the orange chicken Lunch plate and some pot stickers. It was pretty good the food was not greasy, and the plate actually has pretty good presentation. I did not even need the potstickers beacuse I could not even finish my food.
They also give you a lunch card with 5 months to fill it up when you get 10 you geat a free lunch. You can't beat that.
I decided to try it for dinner on a Friday and It was cool good service friendly waiter/waitresses.
Conveniently located on Ocean and 19th Avenue, a bunch of friends and I decided to get a late lunch here one afternoon after playing baseball (catching/batting, not a real game) at Golden Gate Park. From the Outer Richmond/Seacliff, the drive took about half an hour because the traffic on 19th was awful. I was so hungry, had little for breakfast and was at the park from 12:30pm - 3:30pm.
We finally arrived at the restaurant before 4pm, thank goodness! We sat, ordered our drinks and started with hot and sour soup. Everything on the menu was appetizing, so each one of us ordered an entree that we can share with one another. Pat G.: the firecracker chicken, Padmae K.: sesame chicken, Padmae's man: broccoli beef, Padmae's friend: green beans in garlic sauce and I ordered the walnut prawns. Everything was yummy and I'm not just saying that because it was my first real meal of the day. For 5 people, 5 different dishes, white rice and a big bowl of soup, the damage was $82... $95 with the tip. Tons of leftovers we took to-go.
I've never experienced this at any other restaurants, but at the end of our meal, after the lady brought back the check, she asked for my hand, I hesitantly gave it to her, she shook it and gave me a candy. Pretty cool, I thought in addition to the fortune cookies.
*Warning: do not touch the red flowery decoration that comes with the walnut prawns. It sure made someone's fingers really, really red :-)!
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Went there for Mandarin Style Dim Sum today.
The positive - It was tasty and pretty good.
The negative - They over charged the soy bean milk. Normally a bowl of soy bean milk is about $.95 - $1.50. They charged $1.95 - $2.75 and the portion of the soy bean milk was a lot smaller than norm especially for that price. I felt like we had been had. Also other dishes were $2 - $3 above the average.
There's a term for this type of Chinese restaurant and to translate it means - "Tricking the Caucasians."
I would have been a repeat diner if the prices were better. Too bad
i am a real taiwanese, an honest to goodness FOB, therefore i think this makes me an authority on taiwanese food. so, i came here when i was 2, but i was still raised on beef noodles and zhong zhi. i didnt know what mashed potatoes were until i was 8. (And those were from KFC.)
so take my word for it, if you want good taiwanese food this is not the place. if you're going to tout your "taiwanese" cuisine you better be bringing it.
the beef noodle broth was dull and lacked flavor. The xiao long bao were terrible, the skin was thick, chewy, gray and complete blasphemy. (i couldnt even eat ONE.) as far as i am concerned those two dishes were all i needed to make my decision.
a decent "chinese or vaguely asian style place" maybe. for people who eat things like "general tsou's chicken". (no offense.) taiwanese food it is not.
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Excellent food, wonderfully friendly "small-town" service, and the quickest delivery we've ever had (we live close-by in Parkmerced). I don't know if the food is "authentic" but I do know that it's tasty. I've never not liked a meal, and the waitresses and the delivery guy are do nice. We eat there a lot and every time we renew our love of the place.
Oh man their green onion pancakes have been a break-up comfort food for me since I was like eleven years old! Since getting older I have realized I also love their lemon chicken (it actually resembles chicken unlike some other places), Broccoli beef, pot stickers, Cashew Prawn, and many other dishes... But if you go promise me you'll try the green onion pancakes!
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My husband and I used to get delivery several times a week from Tai Pei a few years ago. I was hooked on their pot stickers and kung pao beef. Now we don't eat there as often, and I am hooked on their pine nut chicken lettuce wraps. They are prompt when they deliver, and the delivery guy that we usually get is friendly. If you eat in, you have to ignore the decor. It's bad. That's an understatement. The staff is friendly, and they remember their long time customers. I have not tried the dim sum. I don't plan on it. Other good dishes- cashew chicken, spicy tofu clay pot, garlic green beans, cream cheese puffs.
I'm white as white can be but I've been to Taiwan twice. This isn't Taiwanese food, this place is just gross. Staff is nice, but I'll wait til I go to Taiwan again before I eat at this place again.
it's a little gaudy in there with the overabundance of fake flowers, but the food is good. i usually don't enjoy chinese food, but i kinda like it here. maybe it's because it's a different type of chinese food here, like more basic and clean food rather than the saucy and meaty variety.
lots of good stuff off their mandarin dim sum menu: xiao loong bao, salty steamed rice roll, sweet soy bean milk, chinese donut, fried buns.
i miss the old couple with the hidden candy in the handshake.
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Go for the lettuce wrap chicken, not the ambience.
No msg, that's good. but pricey! The ambience is pretty kitchy but its what makes Taipei restaurant unique. The lady there is so nice too. I particularly like going there on rainy days and ordering onion pancakes. They come with a peanut sauce that resembles peanut butter. SO GOOD. I'd recommend giving it a try!
Excellent food, somewhat bothersome staff.
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