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We were having a mini-school reunion and looking for dim sum up in Millbrae. Fook Yuen was closed for renovations, so we decided to check out The Kitchen. Overall, it was pretty decent dim sum, without too much of a wait.
As I've come to expect from dim sum in the Bay Area, the food ran the spectrum. Some of it was good, even really good, while some of it was definitely not so good. Highlights included the har gow, the fried radish cake, the deep-fried dumplings (xian shui jiao), the chive dumplings and sticky rice chicken. Mediocre items included the siu mai (too dry) and the chicken feet (not enough flavor). Not so great items included the shrimp chang fen (much too dry) and the Shanghai dumplings (I suppose this can't be helped, but my friends ordered it).
Definitely worth a return trip, as it's probably one of the better dim sum places on the peninsula.
The change in ownership beginning of the year marked a total revamp in the quality of food, service, and atmosphere in this mainly Cantonese resto. Since then every meal that I've had here has been tasty and refined and simply gets better on each visit. I give this a 4 Stars for food and 3 Stars for service, and the only drag down is the cheap decor--the aging flooring, tables, and chairs really need to be replaced, preferably with a more contemporary look.
A very welcome improvement is the wine-friendliness, a trend among many Chinese restos these days--no doubt influenced by the rising popularity of wine back in Hongkong and the mainland. The resto has a wine rack full of bottles and many of the clientele, including myself, I noticed bring a bottle.
The food is a great match for a variety of wines. Last visit I brought a Sagrantino and enjoyed that with braised tofu with mushroom and bokchoy and pan fried noodles with sauteed clams and xo sauce.
Price in a Chinese restaurant of this caliber offering an extensive menu, of course, depends on what you order. If you order a whole steamed rock cod, fresh geoduck, suckling pig, spotted prawns, live snow crab, braised goosefeet with black hairy mushrooms, and foie gras (yes, foie gras is now in the menu) your tab would be correspondingly rich. But I love to come here to explore modest but interesting and highly flavorful regional dishes of Hongkong and China.
Dim sum, although good, doesn't indicate the high quality of the food of The Kitchen. You have to come here for dinner to experience the kitchen's prowess.
I've been to this HK-type restaurant multiple times for dim sum and dinner since it opened and each… Read more »
This review is just for dinner only.
This place has one of best quality Chinese food I've tasted in the bay area! They have some pretty creative Chinese dishes that you probably can't find anywhere around here.
I highly recommend the Dinner Date set course. This dinner set is a 6 courses meal for only $39/person. The dinner course consist of:
- Roasted Squab - its basically a roasted mini chicken. This dish is just like any other roasted squab in any other chinese restaurant... good! :)
- Shark Fin w/Crab meat in Pumpkin Soup - this dish was very good! They give generous amount of shark fin. It is served on a mini prop up bowl that's heated up over a fire in a can. The soup might burn if you let it heated for too long.
- Steamed Boston Lobster w/Garlic Sauce - I actually don't remember how this one was like (its been a while), but i'm pretty sure its good. Can't go wrong with lobster.
- Braised Abalone w/Sea Cucumbers - this dish is also pretty good. It's a small sized abalone and is very moist and tender.
- Diced Oyster Rice Soup - this one is very clean and refreshing. It's basically rice drowned with clear soup and topped with crispy rice. I know sounds weird but quite good and surprisingly flavorful.
- dessert - the last time I had dessert with the set course. They ran out of whatever desert that was listed and the chef created a specially made mango dessert. It was cold mango soup with variety of different tapiocas and beans. This one was also surprisingly very delicious!
Overall, its difficult to find a good chinese restaurant, but The Kitchen is one of the few good ones! The Dinner Date set course is the way to go if you like chinese seafood with a twist.
Been here twice for dim sum; last week and this week, and one other time for dinner some time last year. We tried different things which now allowed me to give a better assessment of this place. Our dinner experience was good, and yet, nothing really stood out. The dim sum was a hit or miss just like other place.
Likes: Chicken Claw/Feet, Silken Steamed Tofu (I didn't like the dried scallop on top part because it was not properly re-hydrated), the Deep Fried Taro Dumpling. Seems like they like to create different dishes than the other dim sum places, which I always applause chefs' creativity.
Just Ok: Shrimp Rice Crepe, Sui Mai or Pork Dumpling.
Dislikes: Steamed Meat in Bean Curd Skin (lacks slight crispy texture), Shanghai Dumpling (skin too chewy and broken, so yummy meaty juice was released prematurely).
Will most likely go back for my dim sum fix for lunch since I now work nearby.
Important Note: Make sure to have some cash on you when dining here, just in case. Yesterday when their credit card charging system went down, they don't have the manual system in place. They were sure lucky I had my emergency money with me.
This review is for the dinner only.
You can tell the economy is bad with this restaurant when there are more wait staff than there are customers. Good for the consumers but bad for the owner..............perfect combination for us.
The Fook Yuens, Koi Palace, Mayflower, Hong Kong Flower Lounge, to the Grand Palace have nothing on this restaurant. This is by far the more refined Chinese restaurant that the bay area has to offer. We used to wait forever to get a table in this establishment, then for our food, and then for our bill. This time.........we finished in an hour, a record time for this restaurant.
We ordered my favorites and I am saying this sarcastically because I am not a big seafood fan:
Crab meat with fish maw soup.....had better but good
The geoduck 2 style (sashimi and deep fried) both were decent
Tony H and his geoduck fascination. bout to get a live one and slap it around his face for always ordering this treacherous dish.
Fried crab house special. one of the best I have ever had
The fried ham hock...........The best I have ever had
pea sprout with pumpkin sauce......very delicious
Roasted chicken..........It was good but I love any kind of chicken
this curled milk with fish.........sounds disgusting but it was very good
7 tsing tao
6 people
total: 235.00
Eh, not a bad meal.
In terms of the quality of the food it was okay.
I give the extra stars for giving us dishes that I have not tried in other restaurants. Either that or I should have my brother in law order for our family more often.
It was pricier than what we normally pay for our family to go our to Chinese dinner also. Again maybe it was the brother in law factor.
Went here for dim sum, as Fook Yuen was closed.
The har gau were big and tasty. The sui mai was just ok....really did not seem to be chopped pork but some "filling". The lotus leaf wraps were good, as were the chinese chive dumplings. I thought it was a bit pricey as we ordered 5 plates, and it was $28.
The dimsum here is really good but damn, I wasn't expecting it to be on the pricey side. Is $65 for lunch pricey enough for 4 people?!
The place is clean and well, I'd come back here again. I know now what to order but try to keep it at a minimum.
It was okay....
When there's nothing opened in the middle of the night and you still haven't had dinner, this place is my savior. But really, do you have to turn the A/C to 64F??? What's with that? Trying to freeze your customer to death??
As for the food, it's just like any other average Chinese restaurants. Food was average, but the wait staff were very rude. Maybe they figured they can be rude to us since there's no where to go. But one thing positive though, they kept changing plates for us. I wouldn't have come here if i have other choices.
Wow, surprising that this isn't at least 4 stars on yelp. I've never been here for dim sum, but The Kitchen is my new favorite place in Millbrae for an authentic Chinese dinner. Their menu is pretty extensive, although a bit more pricey than your standard mom-and-pop Chinese food.
Their shrimp and clam dishes were superb, as was their chicken stew. The papaya beef was also delicious. The service isn't bad, just about the normal Hong Kong standard, which shouldn't surprise those who've eaten at a lot of Chinese restaurants.
Bonus points also for staying open pretty late... like 12:30 am? Definitely the best food you can get at that hour.
Even though The Kitchen and Asian Pearl have practically the same menu, same recipes, I like Kitchen more.
Their dim sum and dinner is pretty good, though over-priced.
I really hate how the hostess', managers give tables to their friends even though the little people like us have been waiting for a table for a long time. It happens allllllllllllllllll the time at this place. It really isn't fair for all the other customers...=(. I guess every restaurant do this though...ehhh
The roasted squab is always a must. They make it very nice here. No gamey taste at all. Tastes fresh (must be the oil). The roasted salt is always a must.
The honey black pepper beef ribs are also quite nice. Sweet and tangy, very satisfying.
Overall, pretty good food, a little pricey.
So, if you are here for dim sum, here's a TIP and you will THANK me =D
Get the menu where you can check off items you want and give it to the waiter/ress. DON'T bother waiting for the nice ladies walking around in carts and trays. Why? Because nice lady #1 has fried taro in her tray, nice lady #2 has sesame balls and fried taro in her cart, and last but definitely not least nice lady #3 has... you guessed it, fried taro. And they were the only 3 ladies walking around serving dim sum. So unless you LOVE and ONLY want Fried Taro, get the check off sheet.
ROASTED PORK LEG. My mom is a health freak and I saw 2 pieces of pork skin laying on her plate. I… Read more »
Opens till 1AM. Came here after we flew back from SAN. The only place that seemed to be open. The food good. They have pictures scattered around the walls - if you don't know what you want - point. They also have good service. Some of their dishes are in a broth base - so its soup-like and will satisfy as good soup w/o ordering another soup.
the shrimp dumpling and pork dumpling were good, the fried shrimp balls were the best, the chinese broccoli was ok, we waited over half an hour for a table sunday morning. the food was worth the wait. we only went here because fook yuen was closed for remodeling. i dont eat dim sum all the time so i really couldnt compare this restaurant to others in the same category. the staff was attentive though.
The dim sum is decent. For some reason, the items I thought were good (ie. buns, chicken feet, fried pork/duck) emitted what felt like a crap load of oil and MSG in every bite. No matter, you're not eating dim sum for the health, right? Or is there such thing? If there is, please refer!
Most of the items we did want were never in the carts when the servers/waitresses walked by. We always had to place a 'special' order; while it's inconvenient if you don't know what you want on the spot, they bring the items directly to your table after the order.
Final Call:
Probably would come here once every four/five months if I come at all.
This is one of those places my family always comes to whenever we're in town. Had dinner with my auntie, uncle and cousin.... my auntie tends to order WAY too much food and tonight was no different.
Shredded chicken with 'fun pei': not bad, but not enough chicken
Oxtail stew: it was okay, I didn't particularly like this dish. There wasn't much depth in the flavors.
Choy sum in a broth with dried shrimps: I thought this was pretty good. The broth was flavorful and enhanced the dish a lot.
Clams in black bean sauce: very nice, the clams were large and plump and the sauce nice and tasty.
Salt & Pepper pork chops: much better than that place I ate at in San Mateo last trip (HK Causeway Bay) but still not the best I've ever had.
Crab tossed with salty egg yolk: this dish tasted weird. The crab was weird too. Although it was supposed to be a whole crab, we couldn't find the body of the crab. Really strange.
Steamed fish (lo shue ban): the flesh was a bit too soft. I couldn't believe they charged us $60+ for it. Wasn't worth it.
Fried tofu with seafood sauce: this was a recommendation by the manager. We all enjoyed it. It arrives on a sizzling plate atop an omelette. Very interesting!
The best part was they gave us complimentary dessert: 4 different types! 2 of them were the soup kind: almond and a mango sago. Then the young man wanted mango pudding which they brought us, plus another flaky pastry type of dessert. I really liked the pastry. The mango pudding was obviously really good since the young man polished it off rather quickly.
Service was better than expected. Only wish the food was totally outstanding too, but it was okay.
The Kitchen specializes in predominantly seafood with dim sum at lunch time. The interior has been… Read more »
I am a royal customer who goes there each week without ever complain a single thing but....the last time I went they had
Worst worst worst sevice ever, the price never looked any better, the live seafood tastes like dead, etc.
Maybe it was a bad day to go there but sorry...I can't take this a second time.
Never return.
Good dim sum and not a very long wait any longer with the current economy. I would definitely stop by and eat here when in town or coming back from SFO.
DO NOT EAT HERE!!!!
I don't give one stars. Fine, I lied. I do, but only for those places that really really suck or make me mad. For the record, this place's food is not bad, in fact if it wasn't for the service i would give this place 4 stars. Too bad their rude asses couldn't get their shit together just for one night. Let me just say that the service will make or break a place and this place just fell apart.
After a long day of traveling (i had just returned home from San Antonio, TX), I just wanted to go home. Desperate Housewives was on in 45 min. and the ride home was only 30 min. from the airport. However, my parents had not eaten, nor had I, so we decided to get some food.
Upon arriving the restaurant was full. Not overly crowded, but just full. We tell them we have 3 people and they tell us. "Okay, the table over there just needs to be cleaned and its yours." 5 minutes later, table still not cleaned. In fact, no one has even gone near that table. My dad finally tells the cashier that the table needs to be cleaned and she goes over and does it herself. STRIKE ONE!
We sit down and take a look at the menu and figure out what to order. Someone comes over, we order, food comes out and i'm thinking maybe they got their shit together. I was sadly mislead. After our second dish arrives, my dad decides that he wants rice, so he tries to get someone's attention. We literally sit there with our hand raised for 5 minutes with servers just passing us, ignoring us. WTF!!! we eventually call the manager over to order our rice from him. STRIKE 2.
3 of our 4 dishes come out and we start to wonder if our 4th dish made it onto the notepad. So we try again to get the attention of a server to check this out for us. AND again, we are left with our arms in the air for over 5 minutes. As if it were deja vu, we had to ask the manager again to check our order. Another long period of time passes and the manager passes by and says "You didn't get your dish yet?" and we tell him "No we didn't!" STRIKE 3
Mind you my hope of getting back in time for Brothers and Sisters had been crushed and I now and resigned to the fact that i will be catching up with the show by watching http://ABC.com. A few minutes later the manager comes out and tells us "Oh, I'm sorry but we're out of that dish. Someone forgot to come out and tell you" WHAT THE HELL!! I was about to flip over the table. We could have ordered something else during the time we were sitting there waiting. STRIKE 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.
At that point, we told them no its fine we just need to get something TO GO for my brother and we needed the check. The order for my brother comes out in 10 minutes. The check never arrives. At this point i was done! My dad was raising his hand again and i just stood up and just yelled at my parents "LETS GO!!! THE CHECK IS AT THE REGISTER AND THESE IDIOTS WON'T EVEN NOTICE IF WE JUST DIDN'T PAY AND WALKED OUT!!!!" Yes, I yelled that loud enough so the two tables next to us heard me. STRIKE 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.
I walk straight up to the cashier, ask for my check which is printed out for me in 15 seconds. We pay the damn thing and i leave never to return to this ridiculous restaurant.
Bottom line is:
I can find a restaurant with food that is just as good, if not better, with service that is just mediocre. After this place, my standards for service have now been lowered. The Kitchen is also expensive. Like I said, DO NOT EAT HERE!! unless you like to be ignored, then yeah, you'll love it.
I finally got to try out this place with my sister yesterday, 9/20. My sister arrived from Alaska at SFO via a very long route with several stop overs so understandably, she was starving. After shopping for a few quick things at Whole Foods in San Mateo, we peeked in at the Japanese Sushi restaurant adjoining the Whole Food shopping center. They weren't open until 11:00. So we decided to head back up to Millbrae and grab lunch at Thai Stick, one of my favorite Thai Restaurants in Millbrae. We got t here at 11:01AM and there was no one in site, even though their sign posted they were open at 11 on Sundays. So we walked down a block to The Kitchen, a Chinese restaurant we walked past about 2 weeks ago with my sister before I took her back to another sister's house to spend the night. She was flying to Alaska early the next morning. We were in luck when we stopped by yesterday--they opened at 10:30AM!
I've often wanted to try out this restaurant because it's always busy and full of patrons--primarily of Asian ancestry. I was very pleasantly surprised. The shrimp dumplings were very fresh and the best dim sum I've ever had. We also had the steamed pork buns (Char Siu Bao) which was delicious, and two other variations of the shrimp dumplings--one with cilantro and mint which was delicious, and one was deep fried with an abundance of green onions. The steamed shrimp dumplings were my favorite.
I would definitely be coming back here the next time I take my sister to SFO, or pick her up from SFO. A nice little surprise! I suppose I'm not a dim sum connoisseur but I've had Dim Sum at Dai Mo Restaurant in Albany, and The Kitchen beats its Dim Sum hands down for freshness and tastiness. Definitely recommended!
Dim sum is always something we stop to eat when we're in the Bay Area because no matter how average it maybe for the bay, compared to what we can get in orange county it's so much better.
My wife's family came here with us for dim sum on our trip to the bay and everything we had was delicious, especially the taro puffs. I ate a lot of things which were good like the chicken's feet. We also tried the vermecelli with these anchovies and bean sprouts. I thought it had great flavor.
At the end we had really superb dessert like molaigoh (sponge cake) and mochi filled with sesame paste and coated with crushed peanuts and sugar.
my dad told me supposedly this is the best dim sum place in millbrae. it was alright.
we ordered the fish porridge/chow fun combo.
the porridge was good, but the chow fun lacked flavor. coulda used some more chives, bean sprouts, or something.
also got some shrimp dumplings, which were good, sui mai, which were also not bad. i think after that we were full. i guess ill have to come back to try again.
My uncles ex gf from back in the day treated us to dinner at The Kitchen. Wow, this place reminds me of a LA restaurant. Fancy dressed waiters, nice lighting, live seafood and signs on the walls displaying specials.
We had like 6 or 7 entrees and each one of them were good. The roast pork had the perfect fat to meat ratio, skin was a nice crisp. The crap was tasty, but i dont recall how we had it made. Steamed fish was pretty good, the soy sauce was served on the side which i haven't tried like that before. There was a thin layer of meat patty on the bottom of the fish which made it look like the fish yacked before it was cooked. The steamed shrimp was fresh and cooked just right. Everything was damn tasty and I was full afterwards. Had food coma afterwards but had to make the drive back to east bay. This place is nom nom nom. Would come back.
I seem to have missed the boat here, since I have never been here for dim sum, and sadly have only been here for dinner.
Granted, it was late and I had just come off a plane, and my dining companions were being annoying. BUT it was nearly 9 pm when we got there and found that there was a WAIT. We waited for like 10 minutes, got seated and decided on what to get (some spicy beef dish, a tofu with scallop and pumpkin dish and a soup--more on that later).
It took them FOREVER to come and take our order. It took FOREVER for each dish to come out (at least 10 minutes!! What kind of Chinese restaurant IS that?!) and the food, while tasty, was not that exciting. Sure the beef was a good kind of spicy and it was abnormally tender (baking soda doctoring, perhaps?). The Tofu was interesting, but the scallops were not "pan-seared" as the menu stated, they were merely slapped on and steamed with the tofu (at least it was egg tofu--my favorite!). The "pumpkin sauce" on the tofu was actually a bit closer to the salty preserved egg yolk that you find in moon cakes, pureed, mixed with a bit of cream and slathered on. Tasty, but not what we signed up for.
I hope their dum sum is better. Their dinner was meh enough to be forgettable.
Maybe we just ordered the wrong stuff.
We had the peking duck, pumpkin/crab peasprouts, salt and pepper prawns, and frog legs/salted egg. The duck was rather small - very fatty, not crisp enough. The peasprouts sounded interesting, but came out kinda bland - needed a touch of salt. Salt and pepper prawns were pretty standard, but skimped on the chili pepper/seasonings. And the frog legs had an odd flavoring - all we tasted was the yolk of a hard-boiled egg. Ugh. I think the best part of the meal was the dessert at the end, bird's nest w/ papaya. Don't think we'll be coming back here again, especially since there are many other choices nearby. What a waste. And spensive too (probably caters to a richer Millbrae Chinese population).
Service was excellent for a Chinese restaurant. But unimpressive food + high prices = one star. Their only saving grace was the service.
I'd rather pay slightly more, drive a little further, be mistreated a bit more, but dine with satisfaction at Koi Palace.
Dim Sum is better than Kol Palace's... seriously.
The food is not fancy and the taste is good (for that price). You can't find anything better in the Bay Area. some of their dim sum is getting close to what you can get in vancouver or hong kong.
if HK is 10, Vancouver is 8.5, then the Kitchen will probably have an 8. With Kol P following at low 7.
Why take off one star... the decoration.
Imagine getting off a long plane ride and needing something quick to eat on our way to Redwood City. One of us is vegan, the other is not. Both of us are starving.
We do not know the area, and proceed to drive around El Camino Real and MIllbrae Ave. Realizing everything was closed, we went to the In and Out in hopes that they have a veggie burger. They do not. We stop at the nearby diner that had an "Open 24 hours" sign on it. It was not open. We try to settle for a Taco Bell. That too, was not open. As a last resort, we venture further down El Camino Real and lo and behold, we see...The Kitchen.
Both of us are Chinese, so our eyes immediately light up when we see any sort of Asian restaurant, especially Chinese restaurants that look authentic so that I could order in my native Cantonese. It's hailed as a seafood restaurant, and my friend could not stop gawking at the gigantic tanks of king crab, lobsters, giant fish, geoducks, and other seafood creatures swimming about.
Immediately they ask us what type of tea we'd like. We love choices and getting to choose our tea beyond just dim sum time is kind of a pleasant surprise, especially at 11pm at night in the middle of nowhere. I chose a Jasmine Chrysanthemum blend. We then ordered a gigantic plate of tofu with sauce and vegetables (bok choy), and for myself a singaporean fried rice noodles (roast pork, egg, curry powder, scallions, chives).
The dishes came promptly. Service was really wonderful. Our waiter was not only friendly and polite, he tried to serve us by helping spoon the noodles into our bowls, a custom only common at large family dinners or weddings.
All in all, we may have been biased since we were starving and frustrated, but thinking about the places I've eaten in Boston and New York, this place is great and totally comparable for evening dining. And completely authentic and delicious.
Best buns.
Did not expected much since this was close to the airport hotel that we stayed. The place was busy on Saturday night. Price seems high, but we were tired and hungry after trying to find a parking in San Francisco with no success. Order buns, pumpkin and taro soup, and seafood with tofu. They all turned out great. Much better than anything we have in Phoenix metro. The service was hit and miss. The wait was long on some dishes. It was crowed and smelly (Food). Anyway, we were happy with the food.
Wow, this place seems to be full of itself. It clearly wants to be a step above other places in terms of quality in service, with dressed-up waiters bustling around and bright, fresh-looking veggies. But you know what? The other Chinese food around here isn't bad. I can get perfectly good braised tofu with mushrooms around the corner for much less (it's $12 here--come on!). Also, it took nearly half an hour for our eggplant clay pot to be ready, and while good, it wasn't worth the $13.
Also, the bathroom is small and nasty. Dirty floors and walls, old facilities. And for a restaurant this size, there really should be more than one toilet (yes, there's also a urinal--but it's a big place).
I won't be back.
Definitely A-OK, Went there last week on the first day of Chinese New Year for New Year special menu. The food is better than the selections on the regular menu. The Fish soup is excellent and tastes healthy, they also put "Shui Jiao" in the soup, so it means lots of good lucks which makes me happy. To be perfectly honest, this was my best experience there.
Went there a few times before, way over priced for the quality and delicacies we paid. Tried the pre-set menu, the pre-set menu is set to be sad and a so so. the pumpkin shark fin soup makes me confused at first and mad at later.
What makes me even madder is the customer service. Sorry, we always have late dinners, but we don't deserve to be ignored and treated with lazzy attitude. All the waiters and managers are supposed to trained( I have always appreciate the Hong Kong restaurant hospitality), but they all seem like having bad days everytime... and it takes them forever to box leftovers...
The othere thing I can't understand is why the menu is exactly same as the restaurant next door. I noticed that they are owned by same owners- Asian Pearl? But I thought "the Kitchen" is supposed to be less fancier but more tasty like family style...
I wish they can improve their work ethic and menu. so I can stop bitching about it.
well, the Floating Eggyolk Buns are excellent though.
so we dont come here that often because my mom doesnt know anyone here and the wait used to be very long. and they used to not tell you how long the wait was. and not let you make a reservation or leave your name. big shots. now it seems business has dwindled a bit. we came in at 6ish and the place was not full. midway into dinner though not a single table was open. and by the time we finished we felt like we had to leave to let others have their meal.
their food is pretty good but has changed slightly. i used to always order this bean curd skin salad here but now it just tastes different. they added chili oil and forgot to put salt or something. the geoduck/giant clam two ways was excellent. we had the head deep fried with salty egg yolk with pumplin. the tail was boiled with sprouts. the pea sprouts we had topped with crab 'stuff' the orange stuff. not sure what its called in english.
we also always order this dish called 'fat cow cross the bridge' or something but we ordered it wrong the other night and got this beef enoki clap pot instead.
Last night, my boyfriend and I happened upon The Kitchen because it was after midnight and our options were limited ~ we were literally driving down El Camino with Yelp mobile on que. Haha Anyway, we barely made it before they closed at 1am. It was 12:45 but, they sat us and fed us without any problem or rushing. (We didn't have any of the service or waiting irritations that most of the low reviews harp on.)
We looked over the extensive menu and quickly made our decision. I went with the House Special Pan Fried Noodle (13$) and my boyfriend got some crab and egg thing (17$). I ask if they had my favorite Chinese dish, rock cod in black bean sauce and though they didn't, the gentleman offered to have it made for me, special order. I declined because it would've been quite expensive. The Kitchen is already more expensive that you'd usually pay at an after midnight joint!
We both loved our food. I am not big on crab but have to admit my bf's dish was good. My noodle jish though, was awesome! It had fish, squid, chicken, mushroom, bok choy and other stuffs in a light gravy... I'll definitely be back for it again!
They have super cool fish tanks to look at while you dine. I'll post pics.
See ya there!
Wow, really mixed reviews! We didn't have any of the service problems, in fact, we found the staff to be very attentive and professional. Parking was a cinch, next door.
We had the papaya with beef short ribs; seemed like a strange combination, but the beef was tasty and tender.
Chicken with green onion/ginger. Pea sprouts. Salted fish and pork.
We checked out the other menu offerings, as the surrounding diners ordered lots of clay pot and flaming casseroles.
We'll be back.
Lunchtime was pretty packed on a Saturday afternoon. Right when you walk in, it smells like chinese food... or more like a kitchen...haha
We ordered
- shu mai
- har gow
- beef balls
- shrimp with rice noodle rolls
- pork with rice noodle rolls
- bbq pork baked pastry w/ sesame seeds
- sweet sesame balls
- and a few other dishes, but i don't know the names for them.
"The Kitchen" restaurant is big. You can't miss it. Service was quick and the tables were clean. I'm not sure about the price because someone else paid the bill. The only turn off was that they rushed us out of the room because the workers needed to eat there??? wtf o.O geez
okay, i almost NEVER come here. We normally hit the other dim sum restaurants in the area, but i haven't been here for years. Anyhow, we came here with family friends who suggested it for Chinese New Year's.
The dim sum was not good at all, I've definitely had better and was really disappointed! the dumplings skins were falling off even after cooling down a bit. all the dim sum seemed to be missing something, whether not being fried enough or wrong ingredients in the dumpling. We were also not very happy about the dim sum selections they had here. Won't be back here for a long long time. (again)
What can I say about this restaurant? I say, so far, sooooo good!
Came here with friends for dinner and didn't really have any expectations....
The decor was a typical chinese restaurant with chinese paintings and bright lighting. Didn't look depressing at all compared to other chinese restaurants with dull colors and dim lighting. So...decor wasn't bad at all.
Food is great! Here are my favorites:
Egg Flower Corn Soup
Walnut Prawns (the prawns were big too)
Garlic Peppered Calamari
Large Steamed Garlic Lobster (MEATY!!!!)
The food is very flavorful and visually delicious. One bite of that lobster will make you black out in awe! Mmmmm! So good, I told my traditional chinese mom to come eat there!!!
Service is good, very attentive to our needs. They changed our dirty plates for clean ones not once, but twice. I also liked the fact that they showed us the live lobster we will be eating to show the size of it.
Overall, great job for the dinner portion! 5-stars!
Dim sum review will come...so stay tuned.
I think the food quality here is pretty good, of course u can't compare to hong kong or china, since the labor cost over there are much lower, so the same dish can go thur more preparation processing, also, it can has nicer presentation.
but based on their price, I think the quality is pretty good already.
service is average, specially in the busy hours, but i think the Kitchen is a place forcus on the food quality instead of service, if you want the waiter come to ask you "how's everything" every 5 minutes, then this is not the right place for u. just like all the chinese restaurant, if they know u, they normally serve u better =)
I've been to The Kitchen at least 10 times for Dim Sum.
9 times its been excellent. 1 time it wasn't that great.
Here's hoping that they keep up their .900 batting average. I'll give them 4 stars for now - I think The Kitchen is the best Dim Sum in the Bay Area. Until I find out otherwise, I'll keep coming.
It was an expensive dinner. But it is also a Chinese family dinner so it is to be expected. For the price though, I probably would've done better with one plate of GOOD food. However, the food was good here, and is one of the more hole-in-the wall places in Millbrae.
We knew the owner, so that helped, and also had 3 tables in the back VIP room. Dinner was served with the following dishes. Now I'm an Americanized Chinese guy so I can only describe some of this stuff, but I know most of it.
1. Cold appetizer
2. Giant clams (spicy) marinated and with green whole peas+leaves?
3. Walnut prawns (in mayo) with pecans
4. Scallop and mushroom with sauteed vegetables
5. Shark fins soup with bamboo innards and fish stomach
6. Lobster (~5lb) sauteed with garlic
7. Abalone and pea sprouts
8. Lobster e-fu noodles
9. Peking duck
10. Fresh fish (2 black bass)
11. Lotus buns
12. Papaya and fungus dessert
13. Cake.
It was great and service was impeccable (maybe due to the fact that we know the owner). However, plates were replaced, and the abalone and noodles were individually served. Fish was boned for us by a waiter and it was just a great night. Dinner started at 7:30 and ended at 10:30. Quality of the seafood was top notch, great lobster and cooked to perfection. Shark fins soup...was thick with NOTICEABLE sheets of shark fin. Fish stomach was also very good.
It's expensive, though for this price, you can eat at even better Chinese seafood restaurants like Koi Palace and Hong Kong Flower Lounge...and Zen Peninsula.
My first and last time eating at this place.
-2 stars: The waiters acted as if we weren't going to pay. Sure, our party (mostly high school seniors) might have amounted to 11 people who looked way underage, but that doesn't mean their attitudes should be THAT sour. We made a reservation beforehand AND we ordered quite a lot of food. That's no reason to try and get us out of the restaurant ASAP.
The waiter hurriedly suggested fish with soup and we agreed because we thought he was really busy (and we needed an extra dish anyway). That was a whole freakin' $90 fish and he didn't even bother telling us the price£s beforehand. So dishonest!
-1 star: Food portions were ridiculously small. For example, we paid $13.00 for half of an emancipated bony chicken. I don't think the size and taste of all of the dishes were worth their prices.
If you want good Chinese food, drive a bit further north and go to San Francisco. Some restaurants serve really good Chinese food! =]]
Millbrae, CA
Category: Chinese
Millbrae, CA
Category: Dim Sum
Millbrae, CA
Category: Dim Sum
Millbrae, CA
Category: Chinese
Millbrae, CA
Category: Chinese
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