Top Asian Restaurant in Millbrae
Lai Lai Restaurant
334 Broadway, Millbrae, CA 94030, United States
I drive past maybe thirty asian restaurants to go there, food ALWAYS amazing & service even better. Prices are realistic, and large quantities. It rocks folks...
The Kitchen
279 El Camino Real, Millbrae, CA 94030, United States
We recently started to yum cha at The Kitchen again after a years long hiatus. Our last time there the dim sum was barely edible and we vowed never to return. Recently a friend told us that The Kitchen had come back stronger than before. We were dubious but thought what the heck!We arrived about fifteen minutes after opening on a weekday and they were already almost full.We were surprised to see quite a few staff we knew from the old Asian Pearl a little further north on El Camino from the years when Asian Pearl was one of the top dim sum restaurants in the Bay Area.I could go on and on about how good the dim sum and noodle dishes are but they are very good! Come try for yourself!Thats what weve been doing for the last month. We go maybe twice per week and my wife sneaks in an extra visit now and then.I especially call out their baked goods. Their dan tat, char siu so, char siu bao and bolo bao are all first rate.Its fairly easy to get a table during the week, we usually dont have to wait more than a few minutes but come early or late on the weekends or be prepared to wait for quite a while.We used to be loyal Koi Palace denizens but honestly, the average quality at The Kitchen is better and the price is less.Koi, you had better step up your game, theres a new King of the yum cha!
Ben Tre Restaurant
219 El Camino Real, Millbrae, CA 94030, United States
If I could give this place zero stars I would. I don't know how they got all these good reviews but I will describe my experience here in depth and othersCan judge from there.I came here with my Son on a Monday evening—I had came up to pick my son up from SFSU to come home for the summer (we live in San Diego), so before heading back down, we stopped here because of all the good reviews. We were seated fast, but from there it went downhill fast. My son ordered well done steak and well done brisket pho—he got raw meat instead. I ordered a hot tea—the table across from us had ordered some and I saw that they got it in a tea pot. Mine, however was served in a tall drink glass so since it was glass, it quickly heated up and burned my hand when I even tried to pick up the glass, let alone drink from it. I had to ask for a mug or something with a handle in order to get something appropriate. They finally brought out the tea pot like the other table, but only after I burned myself and asked. My son'sLemonade was 3 sips of lemonade and the restIce. We also saw that our table didn't have hoisin sauce like the other tables did—we had to ask for it TWICE before getting any. When my soup came, the bowl was sitting on old torn order Receipts from the night—basically they sat my bowl of soup on top of their trash and served it to me. I don't know where that would have been appropriate ANYWHERE. I also had to ask for the rice that came with my meal rather than it being served with my meal.Lastly, I noticed that every other table didn't have the same issues as we did and the service to those tables was up to par, despite how we were being treated—-which deeply concerns me. My son and I were the only non-Full Asian or non-white customers there and the service to us was below sub-par.It's really a shame because in San Diego, we frequent Thai and Vietnamese restaurants a LOT and have never experienced a restaurant treating us this way. By the way, we are half Asian, half African American so it was extremely disappointing.So I'm posting this review as a STRONG WORD OF CAUTION TO ANYONE WHO THINKS ABOUT FREQUENTING THIS PLACE ESPECIALLY IF THIS TREATMENT WOULD BE UNSATISFACTORY TO YOU IF IT WAS YOU AND YOUR CHILD.
Stick & Steam
350 Adrian Rd, Millbrae, CA 94030, United States
Contemporary pan-Asian kitchen featuring a selection of dim sum favorites and grilled yakitori-style skewers. A special nod to Southeast Asia with salted egg yolk fries — add Sriracha — and Hainan chicken rice. A handful of options for vegetarians, including a tasty plate of string beans and a grilled eggplant, but offerings could be diversified. Good condiment selection (easy win for the restaurant), but tea drinks were only so-so.
Naked Fish Millbrae
979 Broadway #100, Millbrae, CA 94030, United States
Rating: 4/5I recently visited The Fish Sushi in Millbrae during happy hour and was pleasantly surprised by the experience. The food was tasty, and the prices offered excellent value, especially if you're looking for a few rolls rather than an all-you-can-eat feast. It's definitely a great deal for sushi lovers on a budget.The highlight of my visit was undoubtedly the quality of the sushi. Each roll was fresh, flavorful, and beautifully presented. The menu offered a good variety of options, ensuring that there was something to suit every taste. Given the affordability of the happy hour specials, I found the overall experience to be a fantastic bang for the buck.However, the service did leave something to be desired, though it was clearly not the fault of the hardworking staff. Unfortunately, there was only one server managing the entire restaurant on Memorial Day, leading to delays and a somewhat hectic atmosphere. Despite her best efforts, it was evident that she was overwhelmed, running around like a chicken with her head cut off. It would have been much better if the management had scheduled additional help to handle the holiday crowd.In spite of the service hiccup, my overall experience at The Fish Sushi was positive, and I will definitely be returning. The delicious food and great value make it worth a visit, and hopefully, next time, there will be more staff on hand to ensure a smoother dining experience.Update: I recently came back to Naked Fish in Millbrae for lunch with a friend. The service was a little better this time, but the waiter was still very slow and forgot one of my sushi rolls. I had to ask twice for a refill on my green tea, and my friend had to ask twice for water. Despite this, I think it's still worth checking out for the quality of the food. The sushi is fresh and tasty, making it a worthwhile spot to visit.
Chicken Pho You
292 Broadway, Millbrae, CA 94030, United States
If you avoid restaurants because of punny names, please raise your hand. I admit, I was like this too, until I was drawn in by the amazing smell of chicken soup from Chicken Pho Yous San Mateo branch. Sadly, they are no longer open in SM, so imagine my delight when I found another branch in Millbrae!I love noodle soups and this place serves my second favorite bowl. Cilantro, green onions, boneless chicken, a fat serving of noodles, and piping hot soup. So simple and so good!The chicken soup here seems a bit different from other chicken pho Ive had; the flavor seems more clean. It reminds me of childhood and a little bit of the soup you get from Hainan chicken rice sets.Get a small if youre trying out this place, because theres a deceptively high amount of noodles. I say this as someone who gets hangry easily and loves noodles. Its a GENEROUS portion. ?Stepping in here brings me back in time as a restaurant kid. The chatter, the clients, the service, and food.
Sugandh Indian Restaurant & Bar
333 Broadway, Millbrae, CA 94030, United States
Oh. My. God. Stop the presses. Holy hello. This place is un-bloody-believable.. I pass this place hundreds of times, its literally blocks from my house and Id tried it years ago for a group lunch with my dance class (under different ownership), a Himalayan buffet, and was underwhelmed. It used to be lackluster. I grew up eating Indian food, my Mom drying chilies in the sun, making everything from scratch, meticulous and my Dad a chef in Indian restaurants, sister-in-law Hemalina, cooks Indian food extraordinaire, my husband raised in India--we are picky. And we know our Indian food. Id honestly written this place off, but a colleague mentioned that he drives from S.F. to eat at Sugandh--its a destination restaurant in Millbrae. Seriously. We figured we should give it second chance, and went in for a late lunch/early dinner. No reservation, and when we walked in, it looked like the place was deserted, the front empty, but as we walked to the back and were seated, a beautiful interior, warm wood bricks, colorfully painted with artwork and gorgeous copper lighting sconces on the walls. We sat in one of their booths and ordered 6 dishes: 1.Tandoori lamb chops (3 double chops and a triple rack of lamb huge portion. 2. Garlic naan--fresh out of the tandoor oven, sprinkled with fresh garlic chopped and drizzled with butter and cilantro. 3. Chicken tikka masala--Chicken breast white meat in a tomato cream sauce with flecks of fenugreek. 4. Bhindi--okra perfection nirvana, chopped onions nicely browned with a symphony of spices all in balance and smoky tomato, charred. 5. Bengan Bhartha--smoky eggplant redolent of masala spicing mild. 6. Salmon pakora--this was a first, out of hundreds and I do mean hundreds of Indian restaurants later--we had salmon in chickpea flour--moist, fresh, tender perfection. Most pakoras use some form of white fish, which is okay but not as hard to do. Our second visit, I asked our server to put double the amount of methi ( funugreek, a spice with bitter undertones) in our chicken tikka masala and also raise the spiciness level up a notch--wasnt sure what to expect. Damn, did they ever deliver: perfection, smoky, layered flavors. This was a 5 star experience, and if Yelp had 10 stars, Id in a heartbeat, crown it with 10 of those damn stars. FANTASTIC--the quality, the preparation, the freshness, the quantity, the service, I can wax rhapsodic on and on. They have three levels of heat: mild, medium, and spicy--the beauty of this place is even though we ordered everything mild, they preserved all the complexity of spicing of the Indian dishes and managed to have flavors exploding in our while removing offending chilis and heat (my colon thanks you :-) This is exquisitely hard to do for Indian food: preserve flavor and complexity while removing heat. The service prompt and efficient, attentive, my husbands water class continually refilled without us asking for it. They were sincere and sweet, kind and generous. The price point btw., could not be more reasonable: huge portions for this quality..if they were in S.F. and had fancy marketing juggernaut, theyd be charging twice as much. See photos for the decor and food. Fyi: Sugandh in Hindi means redolent aroma :-)
Little Chengdu
213 El Camino Real, Millbrae, CA 94030, United States
?️I have to say that every dish is really delicious and very spicy (except the brown sugar glutinous rice cake of course), although I wanted a little spicy.?️?Personally, the toothpick meat is the most delicious. The meat is very tender and the doneness is just right. ? The pickled fish is very flavorful, and the more you eat it, the spicier it gets. It goes great with rice. ? The boiled beef is spicy and spicy, and the meat is fresh and tender. The soup base is packed with some potatoes and rice cake, and the taste is still very good, and it can be eaten as a meal. Brown sugar glutinous rice cake is not the sticky glutinous rice cake that we traditionally eat. It looks like it is made by slightly breaking the rice and sticking it together. I prefer the traditional one, and my husband likes the texture very much.?The service attitude is also super good, the lady and aunt are very nice.?The price is really affordable ??Little ChengduLittle Chengdu213 El Camino Real, Millbrae, CA 94030
Tasty Place
1625 El Camino Real, Millbrae, CA 94030, United States
Ugh... I hate leaving negative reviews but I have to be honest. I walked by this place last month because it is maybe half a block down from Yummy Szechuan which is On Point delicious Szechuan eats. They had pictures of their menu out of side the door which was one of the reasons why I wanted to go back and try. Im a big fan of lotus root and I saw two ways that they prepared there. I have an old faded Michelin 2019 taped on their window before you walk in as does Yummy Szechuan and being that the Bay Area brings on the best of the best Chinese food I thought I would give this place a try. When we sat down I was looking for a Lotus root on the menu and the waitress told us they dont have that on the new menu. We had ordered some hot tea which they basically put in plastic cups of hot water which Im not a fan of but hey it was our first time there and just getting to know the place. Had we not ordered the tea before I found out the menu had changed we would have left. But I feel obligated to try out a new local joint. They had a squid with tentacles Hot Pot that I wanted to try so we stayed. And I always judge a Chinese Szechuan place by their mapo tofu bc I like the real deal mouth numbing Peppercorns in my mouth got that dish has to offer. We ordered the spicy dumplings which came out with a medium warm center very average in flavor. I should have sent it back but I figured I would just take it home and reheat it. The squid tentacle Hot Pot was very disappointing it was really heavy on the celery and the squid tentacles were underwhelming in quantity but it was the texture was really alarming for me...... it was like the squid tentacle concoction was sitting in something for a long time and had been overcooked because there was no chew to it and you couldnt even call it tender it was very disappointing to say the least. The Mapo tofu food was probably the best thing we ate... Not the best but it would be considered good if it was outside of the Bay Area. And we got the spicy Dan Dan noodles that were okay maybe they were better but I was just disappointed in the whole experience. It was like a bait-and-switch having the pictures of their menu items in a Michelin 2019 when it seems like it was Under New Management and youre tricked into walking to the place expecting something and being forced to order what you think is going to be at least good Szechuan in the Bay Area but it was far from it . They really should take down the photos of The Many Items they dont have anymore because it was the only reason I went back to that joint. The waitress was nice but she was pretty laid back and didnt check up on us and it wasnt that busy. I hate leaving reviews like this but if youre a foodie says one person like I am this is not the place to go to.
Rice Monster
102 S El Camino Real, Millbrae, CA 94030, United States
This place is located right next to the bart station with a small parking lot in the back. I noticed all the high reviews for their clay pot rice and wanted to try it out. I ordered on my phone for take out since I knew the rice would take a while to cook and planned to just eat there. (I assumed it was cafeteria style based on photos.) When we got there, I realized that you actually order from the table youre seated through a QR code. They also charge an automatic service fee. However, since I ordered prior, the rice was done almost as soon as we were seated. I noticed not many people had ordered rice, but were eating soup noodles as the restaurant is also with grapeholic and social eatery.Since I ordered takeout, the bowls came in foil to go containers. We ordered the eel bowl and pork rib with chicken bowl. We were definitely skeptical of how the food was going to be in the take out containers. But the food was great! The meat was well seasoned with generous portions and went really well with the rice. The rice was cooked perfectly, with the perfect crisp you expect from a clay pot. The bowls are definitely meant to be an individual size. It came with soy sauce, but I felt that the food was salty enough without it. I was really impressed with how the rice came out, considering the food came out in aluminum bowls.I would absolutely order from here again. The food was prepared quickly and really well. I think that the food is really good for take out since you would definitely have to wait at least 20 minutes for the bowl. The only thing I wish was there were some more vegetable options, but for clay pot rice, the food was cooked perfectly and the ingredients were high quality.