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My favorite chinese food near my home in Lafayette.
Great atmosphere, usually very quiet and clean.
They have really good quality food an service.
A+++ in my book.
this review is for the chinese/korean menu over dinner.
I got the basics:
Jang-pong (spicy seafood noodle soup): meh
JaJang Mein (dry soy sause noodles): meh
Ka Pong ki (fried chicken in sweet spicy sauce): not so meh
really nothing special but the fact they are close.
as the other reviews state: dated decor, by 30 years
un-inspired service
I may go back if I don't feel like driving to the City...but the craving will have to be fierce...
Yes, I have been to San Tung...known for their 1.5 hr waits on most weeknights (Sunset district of SF)...and that's why it saddens me so much to find such mediocrity elsewhere.
I have been going to The Great Wall for the past 20 years. The food tastes exactly the same, which could be a plus for consistency but the food is nothing special.
The service is really great. They are warm and gracious and you can get seated fairly quickly on a week night.
The restaurant is fairly large but never really noisy. It definitely is a family place. You see lots of little kids. The decor is out dated (it's been the same for as long as I can remember).
All in all it's a good family restaurant. It's priced respectably well and there are never any surprises with what you order. I guess they found how to make food in a way which can be replicated over and over again and offer service to make it an enjoyable evening.
I used to really like this place (3-4 yrs ago) but when i went back a couple of weeks ago, i experienced the worst chinese food i've EVER had in my whold life. No exaggeration.
First, let me say that the service was GREAT. Super nice and attentive (i guess because they had so few diners). In fact, they were so nice - i couldnt bring myself to send any of the food back. Also, i was so hungry i just wanted to eat and get the heck out of there.
The rice was not fresh. The orange chicken was bright red (really really RED) and ridiculously spicy. The chicken bits were tiny - ever had KFC popcorn chicken? That's what this was like. But extra chicken skin. If you like chicken skin, this dish would have worked for you.
The walnut prawns were OK. The prawns actually were plump and cooked right. But the sauce ruimed it. Waaaay too much mayonnaise.
Really pains me to write this - my first 1 star review. Maybe the regular chefs called in sick or something but management or wait staff still should do quality control, right? Hope they get their act together.
I think this place is great! My grew up in Orinda, so every time I can visit my mother and crave Chinese food, we always go here.
The food is great! The BEST hot 'n sour soup I have EVER had (my myself, I add a bit more vinegar, but it's still AWESOME). My favorite dish is the eggplant in garlic sauce, not on the lunch menu, but they always make dish as a lunch special when I'm there.
The place is very clean compared to other Chinese restaurants.
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Not very good chinese food. Too many dishes are made with that all-to-familiar sugary sauce that all the mediocre chinese restaurants import from the local donut shop trash bin. It's passable, not pleasurable. Yan's in Pleasant Hill is far better.
Did I mention the decor? Exposed painted beamed ceilings in a drab off white/white with cooker grease. The decor kinda looks like a barn with a bar. Bleeck.
If you got a rage on and take it out, swill it down with a 1/8th of 151, you *might* be ok.
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I've been here a few times, but I couldn't remember if I reviewed it or not. And it looks like I haven't.
First off, the lunch special isn't a bad deal. It's decent chinese food. Some things on the menu are hit or miss.
Today we ordered the potstickers, crab puffs and hong kong style chicken chow mein.
The potstickers, I've had twice, are good. You've got to make your own sauce which for most people, kind of sucks. Luckily I'm a potsticker expert and made a great sauce with soy sauce, vinegar and a drop of the oil.
The crab puffs are probably the worst I've ever had. I'm not sure if they use like bitter parmesan cheese with the crab meat, but it doesn't work well. I much rather have either: a) real crab meat with real cheese (monterrey jack is a good choice) or b) imitation crab meat with cream cheese. To add flavor, it's nice if there's some green onion and better yet some water chestnut for crunch.
Anyways don't ever order the crab puffs, they're disgusting.
On to the Hong Kong style Chow Mein, nothing special about this dish. It's good when you're tired of the regular old chow mein and it's a crispy noodle similar to top ramen lol. This dish was flavorful but a little bit too crispy for my preference. Generally I like this style with more sauce and it makes some of the noodles less crispy and it it gives it different texture.
Nevertheless the meal was decent. It was 30 bucks.
The service isn't super great either. The server was halfway decent but not super great. If it were great service then I'd given it 3 stars for decent chinese.
so 2 stars and I'll go to Uncle Yu's for better crab puffs.
Great food and for the price and the service isn't bad. The service is no smiles but thats authentic chinese for you. The decor inside is almost humorous with no chinese feel whatsoever, but thats authentic chinese for you. I recommend the great wall chicken.
Have eaten here several times with friends who love it. I don't see what they like so much about this place. I found the Mongolian Beef quite mediocre, as well as some of the Prawn dishes.
Attentive service though.
I was there for dinner tonight. There special was Sweet and Hot Chicken. It usually comes breaded but they sauteed the chicken for better taste and less fat.
I wish more restaurants did that option.
Also right next to my dry cleaners
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Had lunch here today for the first time. Food was OK for me but my husband ordered off the menu some of the specialty Korean items and he was impressed. I ordered a lunch special: Chicken w/String Beans. Lots of string beans but the chicken came in very small bits and not too much of it.
However the dishes at the other tables looked pretty good and given my husband liked it, I would say this place deserves more like 3.5 stars. Decor needs some updating but service was very helpful. We'll definitely be back to try some other items.
It's a decent, solid place. Yes, the inside decor with the fake (bamboo?) ceiling is ... interesting? I would not run to it, or away from it. If you work /live in Lafayette, it works for an everyday Chinese meal. A 2.5 star rating would be more appropriate, but hey... I know these folks work hard, and I haven't fully explored the menu (but don't plan to).
Service has always been very fast (but not warm), even with large groups from work. The price I noted will be under $10, b/c in the past, I usually have gone there for lunch... I wouldn't recommend it for dinner, unless your friend is pining for it.
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This place is better for lunch than dinner. They serve you good food really quickly at a decent price.
They are consistent and I have never had anything bad there but nothing super special to me.
TALK ABOUT THE HANDS DOWN WORSE RESTAURANT IN LAFAYETTE!
The idiots here pretend they don't understand English. I explained in great detail the food allergy our guest had. They ignored the request to abstain from use of the garlic. When i pointed out the chicken dish was filled with garlic and that was not what we ordered, they left it on the table and never came back and correct the order. But they did come by with the tab for dinner, but since i paid in cash, they got a penny as a tip (to remind them that I didn't forget to tip them).
Avoid this place!
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Review Update:
Great Wall seemed to fall off my list recently. In the last year it feels like their food has gone a bit downhill. Certainly, I have enjoyed it less. Still good, but knocking it down to 3 stars for loss of food awesomeness.
Old Review:
Two words: LOVE...IT'. I have been eating at this place for years now. It is my top choice for Chinese Food for several reasons.
1)The food is awesome. Spicy Ginger Chicken. Spicy, sweet, and covered in some sort of chopped onion/garlic/peppers sauce. It is so good, that when I went there yesterday with my girlfriend and brother, all 3 of us got it. Other favorites of mine are Mongolian Beef, Kung Pao Chicken, and Mushu Pork. They also are great working with tofu, a substance I normally reserve as vengeance for my enemies. They somehow make it tasty, particularly in the hot and sour soup. The won ton soup is top notch too.
2) Reasonable Prices, particularly during lunch special. Seriously, go to their website and check out their prices. Lunch special comes with soup of the day and egg roll, plus tea service. With tax+tip included, it ends up being $8-9/person. They have lunch special 7 days a week 11:30am-3pm, which is pretty convenient for me living nearby.
The family meal things are reasonable too, and give you a taste of a lot of things. Did I mention 10% off all takeout orders??!!
3) Great Service. They make sure that your order gets taken quickly, the food is served hot, your water isn't low, you aren't waiting forever for your check/credit card receipt, etc. Its actually kinda funny, because last time I noticed out waiter patiently scouting us out of the corner of his eye throughout the meal, and making sure we were attended to etc. Water never got below 2/3rds full :-)
4) Fun for birthday party. We had my brother's 30th birthday party here, and we sat 15 at a large round table with a lazy susan. We actually ordered 15 family meals, which is a huge amount of food. Many beers as well. It was hilarious, watching the waiters like a constant stream of ants bringing something to or from our table. Second year a row we had his birthday party here and second year in a row it was a blast.
So, I love this place. And you will too, if you give it a shot. I posted this link to their website. Do yourself a favor, check it out, and then go get some of the best Chinese Food in the East Bay.
Mediocre at best. I live in Lafayette and have eaten-in and take-out from there many times. The food is HIT or MISS. The staff unmotivated and tired.
Some days the food is fresh, flavorful and tasty, on other days it's bland and boring.Last time we ate there everything had been smothered in the same soy and corn starch brown sauce. The Singapore-style rice noodles were burnt, the wonton soup a thick, brown, gunky mess, chicken noodles contained hardly any chicken. Very disappointing. The last time we ate there the staff must have known that the food wasn't good but instead of making up for it with great service service got worse as the night progressed.
My opinion: Save your money and eat elsewhere. Uncle Yu's in Lafayette is incomparably better.
This is my favorite Chinese/Korean restaurant. I've gone there over 10 times and have never been disappointed with the food. I haven't had much of the strictly Chinese dishes but the Chinese/Korean dishes are so good. Some of my all time fave dishes: mushu, the lettuce wrap, sizzling rice soup, mae un sae wu, kkan poong ki chicken, and my very fave yang jam pi.
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The setup is different and hard to describe - there is an upper balcany (where everyone seems to sit) and a lower seating area - there are floor to ceiling windows, huge wood beam ceilings, a mix of rock and wood walls, and beautifully unique chandeliers. The tables are standard chinese style (vinyl covered chairs) with white table cloths. The waitstaff will set you wherever you would like and are always friendly and accomodating. This is my sons favorite restaurant! Just to give you an idea of how accomodating the waitstaff is - imagine 6 12-13 year olds every Friday showing up, without parents, to eat. I don't know what goes on there -- but, the boys all love going there.
One night, I came with a rather rude friend who can never seem to make it to dinner earlier than 8:30 pm. I believe The Great Wall closes at 9:30 -- whenever it was, obviously we got there close to closing time. We were the ones who walk in right before closing and normally would get terrible service only to be rushed out the door by waitstaff; this did not happen here. We were just ordering our food when the last table left the building. My rude friend expected normal service and was taking his sweet time eating and I was just thinking -- these people have families and they have all worked hard long hours and deserve to go home when the business is closed for the day. I apologized that it was so late and the waiter happily said, its no problem, take your time, enjoy yourself! Now, with an attitude like that who would expect them to spend any more time on you...I just wanted to leave so they could be with their families.
OK -- enough about my soft spot. The food is always great! Spicy Ginger Chicken is everyone in my groups favorite. Won Ton soup is another favorite -- I am not a big fan of the won ton soup because the meats are usually bland -- but, not here. This place has my sons favorite chow mein - it is good. I also really like their cashew chicken, garlic spinach, walnut shrimp and that is pretty much our variety every time. The wine is always fresh tasting to me -- never tastes like its been sitting open for days.
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I live in Oakland, and the only place I ever go for Chinese (takeout as well) is Great Wall. Their hot and sour soup alone is worth the drive.
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Chinese/Korean Style Chinese Food... Excellent Service and the food was good.. Try the spicy sea food noodle soup!! Prices are average..
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We read on yelp that this is Korean Chinese style. So we came here for the ja jang myun and I was very satisfied. The decor can use a redesign as it looks more like a seafood restaurant (probably what it used to be in a prior life) rather than an Asian restaurant. I'd start with renovating the restrooms as they are in a dire need of an update. But then again the food was pretty good. Although my wife was slightly disappointed with her chicken and string bean dish. But we'll be back as we want to try out their tang soo yuk.
Lunch special was great! Started off with some great egg rolls, soup, and I ordered the seafood combo thing which was good, and ended with a tiramisu and fortune cookie and tictac all for around 10 bucks. Service was good too.
we were delighted to discover this chinese (korean-style chinese) favorite in lamorinda. we travel for comfort food not easily found in the burbs. they deliver the goods on straight korean dishes, too, that might be on the menu- so ask. [their cooking is to chinese and korean, as tex-mex is to mexican and southwestern cuisines]
good food. decent prices. you won't be disappointed. all dishes were good to excellent. service is good for a chinese restaurant. ask for chinese menu if you're chinese and can read it.
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Lafayette, CA
Category: Chinese
Lafayette, CA
Category: Chinese
Orinda, CA
Category: Chinese
Lafayette, CA
Category: Chinese
Lafayette, CA
Category: Thai
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