Top Chinese Noodle Restaurant in Richmond
Mi
3288 Pierce St B101, Richmond, CA 94804, United States
If you dont want to read the whole review heres a summary:-very curt, unwelcoming hostess-decent food that is overpriced-nice atmosphereMy family and I ate here around 2pm on a Saturday. It wasn't busy and we paid $50.25 for four people. As soon as we walked through the door, the hostess stared at us with such distaste that I immediately felt unwelcomed. As she assisted us never once did she smile and she treated other customers similarly, even at the register when we paid for our meals. As a past food service worker I understand that employees may have rough days and they can be too exhausted to smile, but as a hostess tasked with welcoming so many customers into the restaurant, I expected her to be more friendly. She gave us the impression that she did not want to be there and that she didn't care about the guests she was seating. The other waitress didn't smile either but she at least nodded in response when we said “thank you” instead of look away and almost roll her eyes like the hostess did.I enjoyed the atmosphere of the restaurant! Its cozy and there was no intrusive music/background noise. I appreciate this because I could talk to my family. One of the chopsticks provided to us had a waxy, spider-web-like white substance twined around it. It looked like melted plastic or wax and it was on the end of the chopstick meant to pick up food. This flaw was very clearly visible on the darkly-colored utensil and yet the eating hazard was still given to us to use.The dishes were served in filling portions and we were served very quickly. My dad loved his tripe pho! The beef and meatball pho tasted okay but it had a fishy aftertaste. They included bean sprouts already in the soup so the customer can't choose to add or omit it. I say this because the menu doesn't mention that bean sprouts are served already in the soup rather than on a separate dish as other restaurants do, so we didn't know to tell them “no”. The egg noodles are salty but delicious. The beef chow fun was a huge disappointment. Here it costs $12.50 but I have had better beef chow fun for $8.00 elsewhere. Mi's chow fun is strangely slimy and shiny (yes gravy can make it wet but Mi's is a cheap takeout quality slimy). The flavor isn't as good as others I've tasted and as the food cooled down it tasted more and more unappealing. Overall the average-quality food was overpriced and I love the comfortable atmosphere, but the staff was rude enough to drop an average 3-star rating to a 2. I note that the owners of the restaurant read these reviews and a past review mentioned rude staff too, but with my experience today maybe they haven't become any less impolite.
Special Noodle
3288 Pierce St C136, Richmond, CA 94804, United States
I noticed this place was packed when I passed by a few weeks ago so I had to see what it was! What I found was an awesome restaurant serving really good food!My friend and I ordered multiple dumplings and two entrées. The first thing we ate was called Snow Flake Pan Fried Dumplings. We had it with shrimp, egg, and chives. It was a pretty standard dumpling but it also had a crispy texture to to it to mix things up. The dumpling was filled up and moist, didnt disappoint! Next were the traditional Xiao Long Baos. These soup dumplings dont stray far from what you would imagine but thats not a bad thing! The soup was delicious and the dumpling was delicious! Now the soup pan fried buns were the stars of the show! They were chewy on top but crispy on the bottom! It was also filled with meat and soup. I viewed it like an advanced soup dumpling, it was so good! Definitely get these!The first entrée we got was the braised pork belly with rice! The pork was very tender, didnt take much to chew through! The sauce it came with was also very velvety smooth and stuck so well to the meat, veggies and rice! The second entrée was the beef stone pot noodle soup! We got the sour rendition of the broth, I thought it paired so well with the spiciness of the dish. It had a little kick, enough to clear my sinuses! Very similar to a tomyum or sinigang flavor. I wish it had a little more meat but I cant complain too much when it has so much flavor!Its been cold in the area lately and Special Noodle helped so much in warming me up! Good service and good food, cant ask for much more!
Tsing Tao
12372 San Pablo Ave, Richmond, CA 94805, United States
Our favorite Chinese delivery! Even long before the pandemic and definitely through it, theyve continuously provided top quality fresh and delicious food with friendly drivers who are following safety protocols. Good prices for large plates so youll be set for leftovers or plenty for 3+ people. If you havent yet.. give them a try ?Update. March 2022Food is still awesome. Delivery drivers are friendly and fast. HOWEVER: Recent fees and attitude from the staff about it are a huge turn off for me. Delivery fees, convenience fees, and tips when there were none before added about $10-15 to my orders. I ordered lunch specials online, which let me make additions to rice choices for only $1.00 but even with pick up at restaurant there was an additional convenience fee. After I placed the order anyway, they immediate called and said they would not honor my choices from the online order because it was a lunch special. If there wont do that, it shouldnt be offered online and surely they shouldnt argue about it. I canceled the order and went to Panda Express. No, not as high quality but the food there is good, no hidden fees, and no attitude or guilt trips from the staff. I dont know when I will go back to Tsing Tao, but it will be a long time before I call them again.Aug 2023 update: I started ordering and picking up orders to avoid fees, etc. I see different staff who have been friendly and have not had any issues recently so Im happy to be enjoying their great food once again. I have 3 star on atmosphere since its a small, hole in the wall kind of place, but its clean and inviting... I still rather just get take out.
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Dumpling House Mongolian Cuisine (Formally Eura...
12221 San Pablo Ave #6, Richmond, CA 94805, United States
Food here is amazing if you like dumplings (like momos) and meat. Every meat dish Ive had so far has been tender and hearty. And every dumpling dish has been rich and flavorful. The amount of food is very large compared to the cost ($14-18 a dish?). Every dine-in order comes with what I think is their own homemade hot sauce, which adds great flavor complexity to the dishes. Just be warned that the hot sauce is really spicy.Only reason I give them a 4 star rather than 5 is that their service can be really slow, and their food can sometimes be inconsistent. The dishes taste great either way, but the variations in the same dish have made me baffled a few times. If you arent in a rush though, definitely a good eat. Make sure to order some dumplings/momo!
Huong Tra Restaurant
12221 San Pablo Ave, Richmond, CA 94805, United States
I had high hopes for this place, especially since they made their prices super reasonable. But, it was all pretty bland unfortunately.I got the spring rolls with peanut sauce. Bland, & the only think I could reccomend to them to make it not so bland, maybe a bit more salt/msg in the peanut sauce, maybe toast the peanuts? Idk Im not a Vietnamese chef, but flavor is Def lacking.. which is sad because these were priced at $6 for 2 pieces cut in half so, 4 halves. They made up for the fact its cheap by making them rather small in size. But I wont complain about the size, if I want more Id order more @ $6/order.Next was the fried spring rolls that came with a sweet chili sauce. The spring rolls also $6, and also rather tiny in size but, $6 is cheap for an order of spring rolls so again, I see why theyd did this, I have no issues with it. The spring rolls theirselves, also kind of bland, but not as bland as the fresh spring rolls with peanut sauce. The sweet chili sauce is super run of the mill prob right out a bottle, I wish they used that sweet vinegar sauce most Vietnamese restaurants give with their fried spring rolls.Lastly I got the chow fun, $13, and more than ample portion. But again, lacking in flavor... it looked like theres ton of sauce and color, Im not sure why it lacks so much flavor.... as in, all I really tasted was the vegetables.The staff was nice, theres plenty of seating in the restaurant. But I dont think Id come back here for the food, unfortunately.The 4 star rating is because if you wanted just to be filled for a reasonable price and you dont care about big flavor, this would be a just fine place for that. Ie; most born and raised Americans would think this place was top tier because they are terrified of real authentic big bold flavors.
White Elephant Asian Kitchen
3843 Richmond St, San Diego, CA 92103, United States
We are very confused with the high/positive ratings of this restaurant. We ordered the Thai basil with beef and yellow curry with chicken. The beef was ground up; the green beans in the dish were chopped into tiny pieces and the meal was not a desirable texture. The flavor was diluted and spice levels were not met at all (we ordered 7-8 spice level for both dishes). The yellow curry was extremely diluted and tasted like water; very little chicken provided. Jasmine rice was mush and awful in texture. Didnt finish both meals as they were awful. The restaurant is also a little more expensive than its competitors, although the food at the competitors taste much better. Would not recommend if you enjoy and appreciate real/authentic Thai food.UPDATE: in response to the owners response, I have actually been to Thailand and know what good Thai food tastes like. The food (both dishes) lacked flavor/tasted diluted, which were the main disappointments as addressed in the original review. It appears as though the owner cant take constructive criticism, which is a shame as this feedback should help business owners improve their products. We are Asian and our taste buds are different; so again, we are very familiar with authentic Thai food. Thank you.
Jin Ye Restaurant
152 Washington Ave, Richmond, CA 94801, United States
This review is a long time coming. I discovered this place about 4 years ago. When I first found it, I actually enjoyed it very much. I thought it was a step up from some of the other near by small chinese spots in richmond. I used to always think the food was better then the atmosphere and that if they renovated it would really be a decent place to have lunch of dinner...The service has always been less then desired. Feeling rushed to get in and get out..Then maybe 4 or 5 months ago they did renovate and it looks great! Inside is a much better feel but unfortunately maybe they are now lacking on their most important part.. The food!... Today my boyfriend and I called in a pick up order (which I highly suggest around lunch if your picking up because they get busy...anyways, when he came home with the food it was almost inedible and half way through, I found a big black hair in my chow fun... Which tasted gross anyways... It was way overcooked and tasted like mush.... And my fried rice was UNDERCOOKED.... This was a disaster and I will not be returning... Expect maybe to ask for a refund for todays lunch! A few hours later I got super sick and threw up and had to leave work so that really ruined my day and I lost hours.. 100% sure I got food poisoning from here today! Disaponted here for the last time! Not to mention my bf and I are professional chefs haha jokes on us! We should have stayed home and cooked.... consequences of being lazy!
Sichuan Fusion
3288 Pierce St Ste B-109, Richmond, CA 94804, United States
Came here many years ago to have lunch on a whim but totally forgot about it until today when I wanted to try a different Chinese restaurant. I decided to order some food from Sichuan Fusion since I havent gone back there in years but Ive anyways passed by it when Im over at the mall for other things.We were feeling lazy and it was raining like crazy outside and didnt feel like going out so we odered for delivery. We ordered chicken fried rice, vegetarian hot sour soup, spicy Tan Tan mien noodles, and what looked like a combination stir fried hand made noodle dish that we got by mistake which was supposed to be the Beef Chow Fun.The chicken fried rice was pretty good. It was light in oil, seasoned well, and had a decent light wok flavor. The vegetarian hot sour soup was nice and hot when we got it and it was full of ingredients that I couldnt even name. The soup stock was flavorful but a bit heavy on the vinegar. I still enjoyed it alot. The Tan Tan noodle was a bit heavy in oil but that was expected since part of the sauce included hot chili oil. The sesame sauce was very good in flavor but seemed to be missing something. I can only say that after eating the same type of noodle at Shang Dong restaurant in Oakland I havent found any other place that can compare. The mistake dish that we got which I think is a stir fried combination hand made noodle had really nice fresh made noodles that were cooked just right and had a nice chewey consistency. The dish also had large pieces of lightly battered chicken, shrimp and beef. I really enjoyed this mistake. Hahaha. What was that song that had the lyric about being my favorite mistake? ?Overall, I really liked the food and next time Im at the Pacific East Mall Ill stop by and try out some other dishes from Sichuan Fusion.Update March 9, 2024. Came here to celebrate an occasion and decided to try out the Sichuan Fusion restaurant since our previous experience was good with the delivered food. Unfortunately, this time, our sit-down dining experience was very disappointing. We ordered the combination fried rice, beef Cheung Fun, deep fried fish, sizzling beef and mushroom, and tender tofu and egg stew. The fried rice was extremely salty to the point that we had them take it back to get a new one but they came back out with the same dish but just added some extra rice in it. This didnt help at all since the old fried rice was overly saturated with salt and the chicken and other meats were salty as the sea. The extra rice they added only dampened the saltiness by just a tiny bit. The rest of the food was mediocre at best with little flavor. The only thing that was good was the tofu egg stew and the fried fish. We were so disappointed with the food that we didnt even eat half of it and just took it home so I could touch it up for dinner the next day. Not sure what happened between the time we ordered for delivery to the time we came here to eat but cant help but think that it was such a letdown. Maybe they changed cooks or the other one was off.. who knows, but wow.. not good.
Anh Restaurant & Bar
1950 Esplanade Dr, Richmond, CA 94804, United States
I am writing this review not due to the food quality of the restaurant but their behavior of profiling my son who was there to get dinner on evening of 4/22. So this is how it goes . My Son who is 28 year old walks in the restaurant and waits for a table to be seated . Once he is seated, he gets really weird look from the staff . He has no idea that why he is getting this looks from the staff. Then one of the waitresses just walks over to him and questions him in front of everyone if his name is Ahmed and he did not pay his bill when he was at the restaurant the previous night . My Son was really taken back and was in disbelief due to this gesture of accusation . He tells them that his name is not Ahmed and he was not there yesterday at all. The waitress refuses to not belief him till he pulls out his Drivers License and Business card to prove that he is not that person ( Ahmed). After he proves he is not that person the waitress just walks away without any apology. Really.... At this point my Son was very upset and asked to speak with the manager. The manager comes out and says that he is sorry about this and offers him a free drink. How would a free drink rectify the humiliation he just went through by one of their very incompetent and possibly racial staff. Did he get treated like this because he was wearing Jeans and Hoody. The waitress was a white female and my Son looks like Black/Pacific Islander male. What shall we deduce from such am appalling behavior from the Restaurant staff.