Top Chinese Restaurant in San Luis Obispo
Golden Gong Chinese Restaurant
290 Madonna Rd, San Luis Obispo, CA 93405, United States
For San Luis Obispo, its pretty good. Not much else to choose from. Compared to any other Chinese restaurant in California, its not up to par.
Panda Express
1508 Froom Ranch Way, San Luis Obispo, CA 93405, United States
One of the best Chinese restaurants in SLO, which says more about SLO than Panda. Food is being prepared freshly all day, they are always kind and wave to my 2yr old.
Bamboo Bamboo
1049 Nipomo St, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401, United States
I ordered for delivery and everything was lousy. Even the chicken chowmein. Nothing tasted very good. And it was expensive. San luis obispo needs chinese restaurants but I hope bamboo bamboo closes their doors and they dont take advantage of any other unsuspecting customers.
Mee Heng Low Noodle House
815 Palm St, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401, United States
The food wasn’t very good, got chow mein with chicken and plum sauce (I think it was plum) anyhow, the sauce was the only flavorful part of the meal. I got a to go order and the noodles were placed on top on the sauce and toppings, instead of the sauce and topping being on the noodles which I though was strange, and which caused it to leak in the bag since the Chinese takeout containers are made of paper and not made to hold a spoon full of sauces and toppings sitting all at the bottom of it. The noodles were crunchy at one half and soft on the other, neither side had flavor, chicken only tasted like the sauce. The lady at the front didn’t seem too happy to be working there, and not very welcoming. The restaurant had a cool things to look at as I waited for my food, I had a wait behind 3 other people but wasn’t that bad of a wait. For $20 for a Chinese take out container of unmixed chowmein, this place isn’t that good.Edit for my reply from owner: it’s hard to put sauce on noodles that has already leaked out of the cardboard box and paper bag it was placed in. And the sauce adding flavor doesn’t add to the fact that the noodles were poorly cooked and the chicken had no flavor besides the sauce. And the fact I didn’t see a single Chinese person manning any part of the place, it is not authentic and not very good. And the whole point of a to go box is to eat food, to go, not to have set it up in another dish and eat it, especially if you know, I’m not at home or I went to a restaurant where I wouldn’t have a dish available. It should be the same experience as it is in the restaurant.
Panda Express
789 Foothill Blvd, San Luis Obispo, CA 93405, United States
My last Yelp review was on the Froom Ranch Rd. in SLO Panda stating how I was not going back there because of disappointing service. Now going to the SLO Panda on Foothill Blvd., I arrived @ 7:50pm just before their 8pm closing, an hour earlier than the usual hour of 9 pm because of COVID which I dont understand & I dont believe it matters to the COVID. Anyway, you get to walk in & select from the array of actual food you are going to eat which is always a bonus unlike the Panda on Froom Ranch Rd. where you barely walk thru the door, required to look at a menu & pay, then walk around the building & another business suite to the rear to pick up your food; which is inconvenient to the disabled. At the Panda on Foothill Blvd., I received a friendly greeting.I ordered a 3 item entree dinner takeout, seeing there was plenty of chow mein & veggie rice, but just a little vegetable left being mostly broccoli, I asked for half chow mien & one quarter each of veggies & rice. The associate replied they dont usually do that, but would for me;I thanked her. Moving over to the entrees, I selected kung pao chicken, mushroom chicken & sweet n sour chicken. Wait, what do you meanyou dont have any of those items when there is clearly an item under each name tag. Oh, they are mislabeled, except for the sweet fire chicken whose bowl is empty but for bits of red pepper & less than a serving of mushroom chicken. She named what entrees she did have which were teriyaki & orange chicken, less than their serving spoon of mushroom chicken, a beef entree ( I dont eat beef or pork), vegie spring rolls & wontons. I asked, why empty bowls & mislabeled food & server responded we are closing. My attention turned to the 6 people behind me 2 of whom were being served & the truck that just pulled up to the front door. So I ordered the rest of the mushroom chicken & negotiated throwing in the red pepper bits left over from the sweet fire chicken to fill the serving spoon, the orange & teriyaki chickens which have no vegies in it & 2 of 3 renaining vegie spring rolls. She generously gave me the third one. I handed her a $10 gift card + $2.35 cash for my bill. She had trouble processing the gift card, called the manager over then he left, she stated she would figure it out later, I stated I would like a receipt, she did some register keying & handed me a receipt & my $2.35 cash back stating that she rang everything up so the $10 gift card would cover it. I thanked her & wished her a good night as she did me. I felt I had just won the lottery in customer service, but felt bad for the remaining customers & thier fate. The food was hot, tasted good & cooked perfectly even though it had been sitting out under heat lamps. This Panda would have gotten 5 stars had they had the remaining entrees labeled correctly & not left empty pans out. Im sure this is not the first time they had customers coming in near closing. So why not forsee that & have adequate entrees with vegetables left to choose from or have the cook fire up the wok & cook it because it is all prepped? If it looks like there will be leftovers, they could serve a little more at closingor at the managers discretion, let the staff have it. Yes, I will go back again, maybe next time between 6-7pm to avoid empty pans & mislabeled food.Happy eating!
Top other services in San Luis Obispo:
Kiko Restaurant & Pisco Bar
746 Higuera St #6, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401, United States
Summary: Get drinks and ceviche and youll be happy and have a reasonably priced dinner. Do anything else and well... you can read the review.This is a place I will love once things are tightened up and prices go down. The food is simply too expensive for the portions, quality, and service. Ill be back in probably 6 months to see if thats happened.The best items are the appetizers which are actually the most reasonably priced too. Ceviche is amazing. Anticuchos quite good. Scallops I could pass on, they simply tasted of cheese.The problem is that the entrees are higher priced than most restaurants even in SLO and only taste fine. I cannot believe fried rice starts at $30 for veggie and goes up to almost $40. My parents would be furious (they run a Chinese restaurant). Ossobuco was *really* dry...The atmosphere is acceptable, but has a sort of unfinished vibe on the inside. Again, not helping with the pricing.The service could have been better. Although there are a lot of bus staff and the water people were very attentive, the main waiter seemed to be spread too thin. I think if some of the responsibility for serving the food was spread out itd help balance out the service a lot more.The kitchen seems to be a bit disorganized too. Mains took a long time and even when they did we had half of our tables mains come out about 20 minutes after the others. A disjointed experience but thats ok. The appetizers come out fast though so another sign to just get apps.Drinks tasted great, although I only had a sip.I really like Kiko and love what hes trying to do. I just have a hard time giving this a 5 star review when I have so many reservations about so much of the experience.3.5/5
Sweetie Cup Tea House
1118 Chorro St, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401, United States
A very good approximation of a Taiwanese style bubble tea (boba) shop. The owners work here and the staff they hire are friendly and nice. It does get crowded from time to time since its popularity growing, but the wait is usually short even during a rush because they know what theyre doing. I dont really like my bubble tea to sweet so I usually get black tea with boba (the black, tapioca balls) and ask for no additional sugar. That said, if its your first time is might be worth going all out and getting black tea with milk (its all non-dairy, but you probably wont notice a difference) blended with boba. Its sweet, and pretty nice, just remember the boba are mostly for the texture although they are sweetened themselves. Some people dont care for the taste and/or texture, but its not enough to put you off the tea/milk smoothie. The food is different, and may not be what youre expecting, but is pretty good. Boba tea places usually have flavors that run a little sweeter, saltier, or more sour than restaurant food and this place is no exception. Personally, if youre not getting boba or want some kind of snack, Id recommend the snow fluff. Get the toppings that sound good to you and enjoy something significantly lighter than ice cream. The tea they sell to take home is fine, and they have cute gifts, but for the more elaborate stuff be prepared to pay. Its not a 99 cent store. I think its mostly decoration anyway. The seating can get tight, but is usually adequate. I really like the drinks, food, and staff, and I bet almost anyone would. They also do just tea and just coffee. I highly recommended this place to everyone!
Nautical Bean
2010 Parker St, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401, United States
My partner and I went to the Nautical Bean on Parker St. When we got to the register, the first thing I asked was if any food on the menu was vegan(there wasn't). The cashier was very helpful and suggested the Mediterranean sandwich, subbing out the cream cheese with hummus to make it vegan. I ordered a large matcha latte with oat milk as well. We got our drink first. After a couple of sips, we could tell that they used regular milk instead of oat milk. I brought the drink back and they apologized and replaced it with my correct order. After about 30 minutes, we got our food and we were very excited. The excitement quickly died down when we saw that they had actually just used cream cheese instead of the hummus. I brought the food back and asked that it be replaced with my correct order once again. We were on a time limit and still hadn't gotten our food yet, which was a bagel with hummus, onion, avocado, cucumber, tomato, and olive oil. My partner went to the register to just ask for a refund since we had been there for a while now and we had to get going. When my partner walked over to the register, they saw our newly made food on the inside of the counter and a worker just standing and chatting with another worker who was cleaning up. There was no sense of urgency. Overall just disappointed and if you have dietary restrictions, beware.
San Luis Obispo Public Market
3845 S Higuera St, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401, United States
We really love SLO Public Market. Great selection of food; theres something for everyone. Bings Bao Buns is a real gem. Bottlecraft has great beer and an outstanding wine bottle selection. Theres a great buzz in the atmosphere without too much noise and excessive commotion.The one major ding was a change to the policy of allowing downstairs purchased beer and wine upstairs. The market has given Todo Bueno a monopoly on alcohol upstairs. This goes against the whole public market something for everybody spirit of the facility. Its such a damn shame. Todos options pale in comparison to Bottlecraft downstairs. Upstairs has a beautiful large outdoor patio that is now off limits to those who choose a drink downstairs.We used to hold book club meetings upstairs where it was quieter and tables more available. But weve not been back since this change. ?