Chef Zhu in San Diego

Known for Shanghainese Chinese cuisine. We love it and have been there couple of times. Often have to wait but totally worth it. The meatballs have great flavor, subtle spices and melt in the mouth. Have also tried the hot n sour chicken, lamb scallions which are really flavorful. Must try place.

This place is super authentic Shanghainese food, I’m impressed! We ordered from Hungry Panda APP, and got the food delivered at my door. The whole meal is just very delicious. Everyone enjoyed it. The quantity is pretty big. I order $120 food with tips, and we four just finished a little bit more than half. I totally feel this place is very worthy to give a try if you would love to check out some very authentic Shanghai style food. I highly recommend Lion’s head meatballs and sweet & sour pork ribs, also the scallion oil noodles are pretty tasty as well.

Authentic Shanghainese food! Nicely decorated with a bar. It is nice to see another Chinese restaurant in Carmel Valley! The take out food was delicious. Friendly service. On a Wednesday night, it was a full house at 7pm. Will go back to try some other dish.

The best Asian food in San Diego! Ive followed chef Zhu for the past 20+ years. He kept raising the bar of authentic Shanghai dish. My favorite are the ribs, soup, cold dish, duck and dessert - I know that sounds like all of them but trust me, you will love all of them. Reservations could be made for table 8+. Easy to park in this new location, which is another plus to me.

Interstate 5 goes from Canada all the way to Mexico. Close to the Canadian end there is this Shanghainese cuisine place called Shanghai River, deemed the best Shanghainese cuisine restaurant in Vancouver. I agreed. Now I drove 22 hours along I5 South to San Diego, I found another Shanghainese cuisine gem, Chef Zhu. Like Yin to the Yang, Bonnie to Clyde, Romeo to Juliet, these 2 restaurants are simply the best along the whole west coast. You want really traditional Shanghainese food like Sweet and Sour Ribs (糖醋排骨)? try it here. You want American Chinese food like orange chicken? they have you covered. Want something you never heard of? Like Malantou (Indian aster)? You wont be disappointed.Chef Zhu is the real deal. This place has the most authenticate Shanghainese cuisine you can find. You know what the authenticate flavor means to someone from Eastern China? Sweet memory of the distant home. The long-gone memory of picking wide malantou with mom around Ching Ming Festival, cooking a pot of Sweet and sour ribs and enjoy it with the whole family, enjoying a golden crispy fried dough with a hot bowl of congee in a winter morning before rushing to school. That is what good food means to someone who has left home for 11 years and never had the chance to go back.Thank you for the food and the nice service. Sincerely.

We came here during the soft opening. We had the Orange Chicken and the Hot Braised String Beans. Before our food arrived they served us complimentary fried wonton skins and a sweet and sour dipping sauce. The sauce was clearly made in house. It was very bright, sweet and tangy with back noted of ginger to it. Probably the best Ive had. The orange chicken was outstanding. It is different than the typical orange chicken sold everywhere else. The chicken itself was thinly sliced chicken breast that had been battered and fried resulting in crispy and crunchy wavy shaped pieces of chicken. The shape alone is different. The sauce is much less sugary and more flavorful than most places, which I really liked. Its flavor profile is nicely balanced and nuanced, with a lightly sweet orange flavor balanced with a little bit of acid and a touch of chili. I am definitely coming back for this dish! The green beans were also excellent. They a flash fried giving them a warm crispy texture. They are seasoned Sichuan style with what I am guessing to be garlic, chili and Sichuan chili, soy sauce and maybe a touch of sugar. They are savory and somewhat addictive. They made a great accompaniment to the chicken. Both dishes were very generous portions. My wife and Inshare the two dishes and we still quite a bit of both dishes home. The food was served with white rice. The place was packed, with a wait list, which was great to see. There have been a number of prior restaurants in this location that have always struggled. Looks like there are a lot of people like myself that are happy see a good Chinese restaurant in the area.

A Chinese restaurant featuring Shanghai cuisine. The food is delicious and the service is awesome. The staff are gentle and caring. They also have a bar inside.

I’d give it 5 stars, but there are a couple things I can complain about. First things first, their food is flavorful. We ordered the lettuce wrap appetizer, crispy duck & orange chicken all at once. They brought out the duck before the appetizer, about 10 mins difference. When we asked why, they apologized & brought us some Asian chips (not sure what it’s called) with sauce, also offered to take the duck back so it’s not cold when we’re ready to eat. The lettuce wrap has a lot of flavor in it & actually like it better than PF Chang’s, to each their own. The duck is excellent, again, very flavorful. The orange chicken is very different from other restaurants, so if you like the traditional, maybe order something else.My biggest complain is that their entrees don’t come with steamed rice. That is unheard of in Asian restaurants. Very disappointed.

I stopped in on Friday, August 12, and was pleasantly surprised to be greeted in a very friendly manner and able to order takeout. They hadnt even had their official soft opening yet. We tried the cream cheese wontons, walnut shrimp, sweet-and-sour pork and cashew chicken. All were absolutely delicious! We will definitely be back and very glad to have some good Chinese food so close to home. Welcome to the neighborhood, Chef Zhu!Also the atmosphere inside looks very nice and look forward to dining in next time.

Food: the entree items were very good, we had the Honey Walnut Shrimp, Shanghai spare ribs, Orange Chicken, and Shanghai Noodles. The Wonton Soup is very bland and overcooked, and the 6 serving bowl had only 4 servings. The service was slow. Our party of 6 was at a table for 12, and then they took the lazy Susan away so we had to spend half our meal passing something to someone else. It was very busy and with no fabric anywhere to absorb sound, it was very noisy.