Wait was quick. Definitely an authentic dim sum joint, from see the customer base, staff, and carts! As a Cantonese American, been to a lot of Dim Sum places. This one was pretty standard, nothing that stands it out from the rest. Cart ladies were friendly. In terms of dishes, they were good, but not the best I've had. Dishes came out in spurts. Egg tarts were very soft and good. Shrimp dumplings were standard and decent. Sticky rice wasn't bad as well.
(4)
Keith C.
I thought this place was pretty good for dim sum. We got there ahead of the rest of my family, so we weren't trying to order anything yet, but the ladies pushing the food around were pretty pushy about us ordering something (but I guess that's to be expected at a dim sum restaurant). I don't remember what dishes we ordered exactly, but most of them were pretty good. I personally really liked the cheung fun noodles with the chinese donuts inside since it mixed a nice crunchy bread with the softer textured noodles. We had no real problems with the staff or anything while there, since after we started ordering food servers just kind of swarmed around us to try to get us to order as much as we could. Overall: It seemed like a pretty standard dim sum restaurant. The food was fine and the service was fine, nothing phenomenal, but nothing bad at all either.
(3)
Carrie W.
A little on the pricey side, but some things worth it: their crispy skinned roast pork was the best I have ever had. Skin was perfect and meat was not too fatty. Also surprisingly good was the Pineapple BBQ Pork Bun. Nice tender bun with crunchy top and tasty bbq pork filling. The rest of the dim sum was okay. There were a few things that tasted bland. The rice noodle around some of the dishes seemed thick and not very tender. I would come back and try again.
(3)
Angela K.
Not impressed with the food at all. And at the time when the lunch crowd was dying down, the service died down as well. I won't be coming back when there are plenty of good dim sum places around the area.
(2)
Roddy D.
My friend suggested me to go this restaurant after I told him that I like to go eat Dim Sum to the "Hong Kong Flower Lounge". I gave it a try and it was really good. It has the atmosphere of most of the chinese restaurants around Millbrae... fresh fish, lobster, crabs, etc. The food is really tasty and good. The service is good, knowing that the Chinese culture in the restaurants are usually not polite and refine. The Dim Sum is pretty good and their combination fried rice was awesome.
(5)
Forrest C.
We had a family lunch there today and will never, ever go back. The food was horrible and service non-existent. As a mostly Caucasian group we felt like we were not wanted there as everyone else was Asian. My son almost puked. The waiters did not clear any dirty dishes and we had to do it ourselves. The fish tank you see as you walk in was filthy and set the tone for the meal.
(1)
Richard F.
Unfortunately, the fate of most Chinese restos seems to have overtaken Z.P, which used to be our favorite local choice for dim sum -maybe best in the area after Yank Sing. Quality has slackened drastically in the last few months, corners are cut, menu changed for the worse, & custom steadily diminishes, in a vicious cycle. On a Sunday at 11:30, when a year ago one might wait an hour, 25 per cent of tables were empty. In short, they're going the way of Fook Yuen, Hong Kong Flower Lounge, & the big Hong Kong in Chinatown of ~25 years ago. After 3 increasingly disappointing visits, we're sorry to say goodbye.
(1)
Jo S.
Review for wedding banquet I've been to multiple wedding banquets here over the past couple of years. Food is always consistent and delish. Wait staff is always friendly.
(4)
Candy Y.
came here after all the other dim sum places we were going to were packed. the food is overpriced, especially for the quality. Most of the food was just barely hot. The only dish that was hot was the portuguese tart. I had been to this restaurant a few years before, but on this particular occasion, the dishes seemed smaller and the prices higher. The chicken feet were cooked so long that they were mushy. really disappointing shrimp dumpling (ha gow). The fish ball and spinach dish was bland. tried a bunch of other dishes that were mediocre at best. our finished dishes were taken away promptly even though we were seated in a corner. the service was acceptable and the food was edible. I expected more when I saw all the live lobster and king crab in the tanks. Also, the restroom was disgusting. It's near the entrance, so you have to squeeze through a sea of people that are waiting to be seated. I will definitely not go again.
(2)
Nini Y.
First time here and didnt like it. The food is soso but the service is worse. We ordered crab noodles and we couldn't find the crab. We called over the manager asked him where the crab was and he took a spoon and found 2 tiny prices of crab in the whole noodle and said, "here it is." Wow. I was shocked and appalled. And found it hilarious how this restaurant treats their customers. I think I've said enough to give you a taste of this restaurant.
(1)
Juvie M.
I don't think i will ever go back to this place again. We came here during lunch so dim-sum hours. Food was nasty. Staff doesn't understand english! Not even the word vinegar!!! Are u serious! Very pricey for nasty food
(1)
wayman w.
Great Food! Excellent service! Love their dim sum. King Crab is to die for. Had it three ways (six different ways) in the past couple of weeks. Sweet and succulent.
(5)
Stephanie C.
One of my favorite Chinese restaurants. I've been here so many times for dim sum or just dinner. Super yummy and great for large groups!
(5)
Christopher L.
This is a review for their dim sum, regular dinner menu, as well as, their specialty food (abalone, shark fin, etc). For dim sum, as long as you know what you're ordering, the food is good and fresh. If you like durian, try their fresh durian pastry. There's not much to say besides that this is a "classier" dim sum place. Regular dinner is great, food is solid, and portions are fair. You can expect to pay a bit more than normal here because the place is better decorated (people hold wedding banquets here). Specialty stuff is pricey, but relatively cheap for the area. Tasty, very tasty, but you can tell there's extra flavor added, if you know what I mean. If you find you've got a bit of extra money, treat yourself to some of their specialty seafood (different menu).
(4)
Diana C.
What's a holiday without eating dim sum with friends? That's how my friends and I roll, and this past fourth of July, we prepared for a long day of car shopping by first filling our bellies up with dim sum at Zen Peninsula. I'm not going to go into detail about all the types of dim sum we had. Let's just say Zen sold us some good, solid food in a flash. We had just been seated for a few minutes and started ordering our dim sum on the form provided by the server when the dim sum cart ladies dashed to our table to offer us all the varieties in the world. It was quite overwhelming as multiple ladies would be talking to us at the same time. Every time the dim sum lady puts a steamer on our table, I had to scratch out what we were requesting on the form. I don't understand why they even bothered with the form anyway that day. It was quite amusing and I shouldn't complain. Afterall, we were able to stuff our faces minutes after being seated. I never knew this but I guess Zen is quite popular for wedding banquets. Their flat screen TVs kept rolling images marketing wedding receptions. I'll see to the banquet food very soon as one of my buddies will also be having his wedding banquet here in a few months. I'm sure the food will be good, just like their dim sum.
Just another dim sum place in the bay area....nothing more to say but to go early to wait in line on the weekends, or unless you have connections ;) To the tourists, yes, you looking at Yelp reviews for dim sum in SF...please DO NOT eat chinatown dim sum...please go to the ones such as Zen or the other restaurants OUTSIDE of chinatown...that's where the best chinese food is...FYI
(3)
Bay Area Yelper S.
If you want a Pleasant dining experience, DO NOT EAT HERE. Service is as distasteful as is the food. Angie the manager is rude and insulting. Waiters are abrasive. Restarurant smells like old reused fried oil.
Food is below average. Everything is overly salty and you can definitely tell that they were not light on the MSG. My mouth feels drier than the desert right now and I've drank one too many cups of tea to make up for it... Service is horrible. All the workers here have a bad attitude. If you ask them more than one question, they get irritated. Or they give you a half assed response. Nobody looks like they enjoy working here. We had to grab the busboy's attention to get our empty bins cleared....there were over 10 empty ones on our table.... And I'm not even exaggerating. It's my first time here and I don't think I will ever come back....
(1)
Precious K.
Happened to be in the area so gave this place a try. Parking & the short wait deserved the 1 star And everything else is just below average! Custard bun: dried custard inside the bun.. Durian puff: nth is puffy here! The durian filling is too little and the outside is too hard & dry Tofu fa (tofu dessert) : nasty!! It was HARD and very rough texture ! Worst I ever had! The other dishes I didn't even bother trying because my husband said it was NOT good at all.. I will not come back for dim sum.. Maybe if I'm in the area I will try their dinner and update my review then :)
(1)
Eddie W.
At Zen Peninsula, they utilize the push cart method to service their dim sum. I am told you can also order off the menu as well. To be honest, I don't recall most of what we had but suffice to say most of everything we had was A-OK. They definitely offer some unique dim sum options that I have not seen in other establishments. Whether that is a good thing or not, I am still not sure. Service is a little splotchy but you really can't expect much more. Overall Thoughts Not the worse dim sum place. certainly not the best I have had
(3)
M C.
Came here for a dinner and realized the parking lot has cracks and potholes. The streets around have limited lighting. And the door is to the side, not in the front. Inside the restroom is uncleaned, maybe once a day. The place has a grungy rug and the tables are lop sided. The waiters are on the young rude side. The food is OK, price for what one gets isn't bad. The flavoring and presentation is what is preventing this place from being better.
(3)
Selina S.
Good food and great service. We had a party of 25 people for private dinner. Three waiters and 2 staff attended to all details from changing plates, filling water prompty and serving food individually on a small plate to each guest. The quality of food is praised by all the guest. I highly remember this restaurants for dinners, wedding and birthday parties.
(5)
Gerry K.
It's just food, but the service is a BIG ZERO!!!!! We had to ask for soy sauce in a Chinese restaurant! And also for hot mustard, and refills of water, as well as hot tea. Yet there were Chinese people eating there. Do they not know good food and service? What a BIG disappointment. Also, quite pricey, food is mostly undercooked, and not very tasty.
(2)
Helen C.
I've been to Zen Peninsula a couple times to attend wedding banquets and had a good experience overall. However, just a heads up for people who are looking to come here and reserve for their prospective wedding banquets. I called them to ask about availability for a wedding banquet of less than 15 tables for a Saturday evening and was informed that their Saturdays for the specified time frame were available. However, a couple days later, we walked in to try and get more info with the intention of trying to reserve a date. We were told by the staff that they only want to book a full house on Saturday nights, but Sundays are more flexible. It's still a nice place to have your wedding banquet, but just would have liked that staff was more up front about the fact that they require a minimum number of tables before they will do business with you.
(3)
Alyssa Z.
This place is very decent. My grandma took my cousin and I out for lunch, and the bill came out to be about $100 for 3 people! We had some leftovers of food we didn't really like.. like some fried egg yolk thing, ew! There are better places.. like Koi palace. Pro--some decent food, and no wait at the time I went (around 2:30pm on a Friday)
(2)
Mona W.
I remember back in the days when Zen peninsula was recommended as one of the top dim sum spot by the older generation Chinese in the Bay area. It had been a really long time since my last visit to Zen Peninsula. Perhaps I was too spoiled by the fierce competitors like Koi Palace, the food was just mediocre to me and I wasn't thrilled. The dim sum was fine. Nothing was wrong and they were perfectly fulfilling to someone craving a dim sum meal. However, their dim sum lacks delicacy and attention to little details. The Roast Pork was too tough and the Crab & Pork Dumplings was too dried. The Egg Yolk Buns was too thick and Beef Rice Crepes skin wasn't thin enough. I know I am very picky when it comes to Chinese food. Can't help it since I grow up in Asia where amazing Chinese food was readily available on a daily basis. This place didn't get too busy even on the Sat. If you are craving dim sum on a weekend and don't feel like waiting over an hour, Zen Peninsula is really not a bad choice. There were still quite a few empty tables when we finished our lunch about 1. Probably not a good sign for the restaurant but I won't complain.
(3)
Ann L.
Finally tried Zen Peninsula for dim sum in Millbrae. It's on El Camino Real & Center St on the Right side if coming from SF & Hwy 101. Parking on the street or in the back their own parking lot. We got there about 10:45am and no wait on Sat 4/16/11. The room is pretty big & service is pretty fast - they have ladies carrying trays, pushing carts, & special made to order items you can check off. Alaskan crab $19/lb. They had a "No AB376" - the ban of shark fin in Calif sign on the host stand. Stuff we got: black bean spareribs - ok, needed to be more tender & have more flavor. bbq pork flaky pastry (cha shiu sow) - fine chicken feet - fine tofu skin rolls - fine shrimp & veggie steam dumpling - fine, 3 pcs. pork porridge w/ tiny bit of friend donut - I tasted it, was ok seaweed salad & mini octopus - fine shrimp rice crepe - can get made to order. ok. foie gras shiu miu $4.5 for 3 pcs - just ok, but very rare to get this item. Only at this restaurant I think. Green tea sesame mochi $3.2 for 3pcs - made to order. Black sesame lava is really hot, be careful! Tea - I asked for jasmine. $1 per person. Subtotal $38.20 + $3.63 tax = $41.83 before tip. Credit cards allowed. Separate bathrooms in the front, left side. Women's 3 stalls, 2 sinks.
(3)
Eric F.
Zen Peninsula admittedly came through with surprisingly well-cooked Cantonese cuisine, but the service here left much to be desired even by Chinese restaurant standards. My family and I opted for a set menu and dishes were quite good across the board with notables including the appetizer platter featuring beef tongue as well as the steamed chicken. Now on that service, the maitre'd didn't even so much as crack a smile upon greeting us and the mannerism of the staff here is just poor in general. I had to repeat myself several times too when asking the waitress to chill my wine after giving me a blank face and no acknowledgement at first. Good (but not great) food, average prices and lousy service. Sums things up pretty well I'd say.
(3)
Wing N.
Customer service is awful here, the waitress "Ivy" has very bad attitude. She let her friends in without any ticket or number during the lunch time on Sunday. I will not come to this restaurant anymore because of the customer service. you just lost my business because of Ivy.
(1)
Lauren K.
I'd say 3.5 stars but I'll round down only because I feel like the people working here don't like me. I come here with family 3-4 times a year usually for dim sum and sometimes for dinner and you would think they would pay special attention to us but unfortunately I really do feel like they neglect us... The food is delicious as always and I have no complaints. For 6 people we ended up eating 6 plates which was more than enough. We ordered the Peking Duck with the buns (my favorite), Panfried seafood chow mein, salt and pepper beans, black bean fillet rock cod, XO beef, spicy seafood tofu, and peking duck. All the dishes were made really well so I'd recommend all of them except the spicy seafood tofu only because I can't stand spicy and I'm not a huge huge fan of tofu.. There's a huge selection on food and the wait time for your dishes to come out is not that long. I only wish that they would serve my rice with the saucy dishes because I like eating it with my rice.. we had to remind them to bring it out. Food is salty, but I guess all Chinese food is salty (I went through 3 glasses of water!). Still one of my usual places to eat Chinese food.
(3)
Doctor B.
Always a friendly place to eat, the food is great and the service is much more relaxed than other dim sum I have frequented. The lack of soy sauce on the table is a bit disappointing, but their ability to cater to even a party of one is a great reason to drop in for a quick dim sum fix.
(4)
Taylor W.
If I could give 0 stars I would. This place is terrible. Terrible service and disgusting food...l would not waste time waiting...because thats what happened today w a party of 2! You wait longer then you wohld at Disneyland on a Saturday! We waited almost 2 hours to be seated. After putting our order in, and waited about 30mins to see if our last items were on the way....we had to call the waiter over. He tells us it was sold out. So we could have been waiting much longer. This place is Terrible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'd rather eat at dim sum king with rats falling out of the ceiling then come here ever again!!!!
(1)
ted n.
CRAB CRAB CRAB CRAB CRAB CRAB CRAB after eating here this is all i can think about for days. i am sad i do not live in sf nor do i have drug dealer amounts of money to spend on luxurious king crab
(5)
Maggie C.
Absolutely ridiculous! I should have taken some time to read the reviews before visiting this place! Seriously avoid at all costs!! I came here a couple weeks ago and I was served some of the worst dim sum dishes I've ever had. The shrimp crepe/direct translation is long noodles with shrimp in the middle was the mushiest blob item I've ever had. You can clearly this dish was lacking in quality just by the looks of it! But looks can be deceiving so I dig in....only to find that my chop sticks were unable to pick up any of the pieces cause they broke the second I tried to pick it up and fell back down like slime! Same with all the other dim sum! The wrapping of the ha gaw tore the second the chop sticks touched it and as a result, it ended up on our plates in a million pieces. Ditto for the chives dim sum and much more. This place is on the pricey side of dim sum as well, and I guess I was expecting much more since I was paying twice as much as I would be at Dim Sum king or elsewhere. Furthermore, I was only greeted by our waitress when she came to collect the money!! The place was half empty so I knew they were not busy, still we had to wave down the busboy/dim sum serving ladies to get napkins,etc. We also found hair surrounded by blocks of black gunk on the spoon served with the shanghai dumpling soup. Again, we had to wave down someone so they could help us exchange the dish, except they said they would ONLY be replacing the spoon! The spoon was in the dish to begin with!!! Yuk so we stayed away from that. So when we got our bill, this was when I meet our waitress! WOW it's so nice to meet you and see you're only interested in getting us to pay our bills rather than making sure we had a pleasant experience. So we tipped 10% and she hawked over us as we placed our money down. As we got up to leave, she started making a scene by saying we did not tip enough and threw the pen down along with a nice death stare. I figured 10% was generous considering the fact that she completely ignored us the entire time. I was so close to taking the bill back and giving her absolutely nothing!
(1)
Steph F.
I guess the saying that restaurants that focus a lot on advertising in newspapers are not that good... I've seen Zen Peninsula ads all over the Chinese newspapers for awhile and my family decided to try it out today. We arrived just before 1pm in time to avoid the wait that I've read about in some of the reviews. The restaurant was still pretty full. There are people going around with carts but you could also order on by checking off the items you want on the sheet you're given. We ordered the pea spouts dumpling, shrimp dumpling, porridge, egg yolk buns, the Shanghai style pork dumping soup, Malaysian style steamed sponge cake, green tea sesame mochi, and the mango and pomelo jello. While this dim sum restaurant had a lot of variety, nothing really stood out as being exceptionally good. The egg yolk buns were not bad. The filling was good but the bun itself was a bit tough. I'm a fan of green tea flavored items and was disappointed that the green tea sesame mochi didn't taste like there was any green tea flavor in it. The mango and pomelo jello was something new. I haven't seen it in the jello form before and am used to eating it with sago as a dessert. The biggest disappointment was the Malaysian style steamed sponge cake. It was practically flavorless and was not cooked properly because the middle was a bit hard. While the dim sum wasn't the best, maybe dinner might be a different story?
(2)
L C.
HELL NO. came here for my brother's birthday. the place was dead. we had 16 people to a table. FOUND 3 DIFFERENT SPECIES OF BUGS in 3 DIFFERENT plates of food. seriously?! they said it's because they sprayed some sort of insect repellent the night before which is why there are many bugs. WTF? IS THAT EVEN A LEGIT ANSWER? oh yea, and they had the nerve to hand me a $600+ bill.
(1)
Trish L.
This place is really good on the weekdays. Great service and large portions. Get the Chow Fun and Chow mein. They are huge. And delish. Free parking too. Don't go during the weekend when there are large parties. No parking. Long waits, and tight tables.
(4)
Fancypants J.
I love the siu mai here and the chiu chow peanut dumplings. Also the custard tarts and the fried milk. The har gow are good too. Honestly there have not been too many dishes that I didn't care for. You have to get here kind of early or no one really comes around with food & you have to order from the kitchen. And that's been a crapshoot in my experience..when we have come by ourselves they either brought the wrong item or didn't bring it out at all but when we came with friends that spoke chinese we got all of our items within 20 minutes. Hmmm. Don't get me wrong-all of the employees are super nice-even with a language barrier. They don't mind showing us what is inside each steamer etc but it's kind of hilarious when we obviously don't speak chinese and a lady will come out and bark something in mandarin at us waving the dish around and we're just like O_______O Well what is it? LOL....it's almost more fun if you don't quite know what you're getting though. Fried milk is a must try-it reminds me of haupia with a batter around it..so good.
(4)
Kimberly H.
What crappy service! This is a dim sum place where you just push carts around and ppl ask for stuff off the cart. They had only two carts so we ordered a la carte half the ordered food didn't even show up and we just sat here for an hour. What a waste of time. The food is not worth the wait or the crappy service.
(1)
Ali C.
Long wait for a seat for dim sum on a holiday. However, once seated and we got dim sum dishes, we were pleasantly surprised. The dishes were quite good, especially the tofu skin wrap. We added a jalapeno salt fried crab and this was excellent. Fluffy and crunchy batter. And the lobster noodle was pretty decent. Service is mediocre. Since they were so busy, it's was hard to flag down a waiter to help us. They have a parking lot with really tight spots.
(4)
Natalia D.
Good food, great service. Great first time dim sum experience. If you dont see what you want coming around just ask for it. I will be back for sure!
(4)
Denny L.
Came here for dim sum with my family. Service is slow, food is ok. There's many other spots Way better then zen peninsula!
(3)
Jay B.
The good: Service & sever Kent hooked it up King Crab= 3 dishes full of king crab Beer Xiaolongbao Salt & pepper chops Ong choy Sweet & sour soup Free dessert (tapioca) The bad: Little pricey The ugly: Carpet Bathroom
(3)
Ruby C.
Dim sum is okay, parking was a breeze, and surprisingly no wait for dim sum on a Saturday morning. You can order specific dim sum dishes or just wait for the push cart to come by. They have sesame roll & durian pastry; two items that not too many dim sum places carry. In general, the size of their dim sum was on the smaller side and the tripe dish was very salty.
(3)
David L.
You Better Know Someone We came here on Sunday with a party of 7. Waited for about an hour an noticed 2 tables large enough for our party were given to other people who just walked in. I know they were not in front of us because the hostess told us we should be next and they didn't have a number. We brought this to the hostess atrention and the look on her face told the whole story. Total BS and I will NOT be back! Unless you got a hook up be prepared to be passed up by other people. The food is decent but not worth that kind of service.
(1)
Angela T.
Just had dim sum lunch here today. There was a private party going on and the restaurant did not provide any screens for them. So everyone can see their party going on along with people dancing and doing Kung Fun demonstrations. Music was very loud. There was no privacy to the party going on. I'm here to eat lunch, not to watch other people dancing with loud music. The place has gone downhill from the last time I came about two months or so. Dishes and tea cups were not clean. I clearly had a plate with stains on it. Service was okay.
(1)
Lily L.
The food was okay, and the service was almost non-existent for an almost empty restaurant. We pretty much had to flag them down for everything. We decide to go here because I had a craving for fried milk and this was one of the few restaurants in the bay area that serves this dish. We had: Peking Duck (1/2) yelp.com/biz_photos/zen-… Average. Tofu & Spinach yelp.com/biz_photos/zen-… This dish was surprisingly good. The tofu was lightly fried and very tender on the inside. It also tasted a bit like egg. The spinach part is pretty much what you would expect. The whole dish was covered in a sweet sauce. I would recommend this just for their delicious tofu. Fried Milk yelp.com/biz_photos/zen-… The dough was pretty thick and the fried milk was just taste-less in general... this dish was very disappointing.
(2)
Jennifer C.
We had our rehearsal dinner here and the food was amazing. I highly recommend the wedding banquet dinner. Unfortunately, we were told that the dinner could start at 5pm, but found out when we arrived that the kitchen doesn't open until 5:30pm. I felt bad for my guests; many people arrived as early as 4:30pm and had to wait around until we could get the dinner started. The restaurant should have told us 5:30pm instead of 5:00pm so that we could plan better. We have come here for regular dinner, which is a hit or miss. Some of the entrees are amazing, and some are just okay. One time we ordered a whole chicken, which did not provide much chicken, despite being extremely expensive.
(4)
Jimmy L.
OK, so came here at 'round 11-11:30a, or so for Father's Day, and the wait was around 25 min - not bad, considering the special day. Aside from the normal dim sum from the carts - har gow, sui mai, ham sui gok, veggie dumplings, char siu bao, etc. I also ordered additional off of the dim sum menu - chicken feet, cheung fun (long flat rice noodles) with bitter melon, pan-fried taro cakes, mini beef brisket w/clear broth, egg custard tarts, beef tendons, and glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaves. Though the wait is longer and it takes the thrill away from taking food from a cart, ordering dim sum from off the menu gets you fresher/hotter food items, which made a huge difference, esp with specialty items such as the brisket and the bitter melon dishes. I was pleasantly surprised at how good these items were! Not too saucy/salty, nor laden with MSG, and well-prepared.
(4)
Kitised U.
Had dinner here for the first time for a friend's wedding banquat. Didnt like any of the food. Some of the stuff is not hot enough and pre fried from the kitchen. The overall quality is disappointing. Service is average. Seating is ok. Will i go back for chinese food? Nope. There are a lot better restuarants in mibrae and other areas. One star because thats the lowest I can give.
(1)
Vivian L.
Nom nom....dim sum, who doesn't love some!? I came here with my parents Sunday at noon and it wasn't busy; we were seated right away. Here, the dim sum ladies carry trays instead of pushing carts so variety's a bit limited; therefore, we decided to grab an order sheet and marked things we wanted. Dim sum ladies here weren't too friendly either, they had a really "salty" look whenever we rejected what they had to offer (sorry, we couldn't lessen your load). Anyways, the food was just average. There was lots of MSG and it kicked in real fast after my meal. The worst item had to be the fried shrimp balls, which so happens to be my favorite item -__-, #sadlife. The shrimp balls here are coated with almond slices instead of the usual fried crisps. It just tasted weird. And when I asked for it to be cut in half, the dim sum lady told me there was egg yolk inside of it, but when I bit in I wasn't able to find anything...was she just too lazy to grab scissors? Overall, average food but not much of a wait so come here if you just want a quick dim sum fix. BUT I don't recommend it nor would I be returning anytime soon.
(3)
Man L.
If you have been to Hongkong and love dimsum, this is the best place for you. Authentic food, fast service, and good price. Cons - long wait on Sunday lunch, which is typical if the place offers good food and good service. I can't help keep coming back. Try it.
(4)
Venus L.
Mm. A while back my family used to come here quite often for our dim sum needs. However, there was a period where we decide not to because their quality of dim sum was slowly decreasing. I'm happy to report now that their dim sum has gradually improved over time and is now yummy again. Located right on El Camino, it's easy to notice this place because they have a huge sign right on the corner with butterflies on it. Their restaurant includes a decent size parking lot, although their spots do get hella cramped. Seriously, not trying to be racist, but watch out for Asian drivers. The inside of this restaurant is big. Yeah, big. They do wedding receptions here and it's understandable why. There's a few TVs scattered around and sometimes they'll change the channel so you can watch sports. Servers here are pretty friendly. If you start coming here often, they'll start to remember you and will be friendlier than those who have never seen you before. Prices are pretty decent for what you get. Then again... My mom usually pays and I usually just eat so.. You'll have to see for yourself. Overall, my family and I still come here once in a while. It's a decent place to go to fill your dim sum craving.
(3)
Daniel S.
The place was full (of Asians) the sign said they were open, but when we walked in they looked at us and then said they were closed. Apparently this place does not like White People. We left and went somewhere else.
(1)
Julane S.
This is our new favorite restaurant , the quality of the food is superb also the waiters are very nice. We would recommend this place to anyone . Amazing food 10 stars
(5)
Shaun t.
I would give negative stars if I could. Myself, my husband and my grandmother went to have lunch there, and they were doing good business. The couple ahead of us, who were Chinese were immediately sat. We asked for a table for 3 and the Manager looked at us, wagged his finger at us and said; "No, we don;t want you". I asked what he meant (we were well dressed, clean, professionals). "No, we are closed, You can't come in". and started pushing us back towards the door. Another couple came in, they were sat. This is blatant racism. I don't care what nationality anyone is, you DO NOT TURN AWAY PEOPLE like this. We looked around the restaurant, no Caucasians or any other nationality except Chinese / Asian. We were so insulted, and offended, we asked why and he just said he did not want us there. No explanation. Please BOYCOTT THESE A-HOLES!
(1)
Angela M.
Came on sat afternoon around 12pm no line at all. The domain is decent and we got the king crab special for $29.99lb! First they steam the crab leg on top of the white noodle! Very fresh and sweet! They add a lot of garlic into the noodle which is a plus! Second dish they deep fried the rest of the crab with the salty egg! Oh mine it is super delicious!! The crab dishes itself is aim right $135! Pretty good deal when elsewhere charging $40lb.
(4)
R B.
We came for a baby christening and had a family style dinner banquet. I really don't like these style of banquets because they serve each courses individually and the table gets so crowded everything is crammed on top of dishes while you are trying to make space for the next plate. They normally don't clear the dishes till the end. My first dislike was that normally Chinese restaurants don't have forks at the table. Therefore the waiter who barely speaks any English comes to each table showing forks and giving one upon request or actually signaling we want one! I hate the fact he was carrying the forks in his bare hands without any napkins. They didn't look very clean. Next comes the 8 dinner courses which are normally served individually. After appetizers and soup comes the main courses. I hate eating only fried rice until the next dish. The fried rice was not typical style. It was yellow with a few bits of bbq pork, shrimp and peas! It was bland and no flavor. The pan fried noodles with mixed seafood was also bland and awful! The rest of the food was just bland no taste at all! We sat around and did notice a crowd waiting so the place gets busy. Also if you don't speak Chinese good luck! This was pretty obvious with the service! Overall the place is typical of these types of dim sum & banquet restaurants. The place looked ok & Bathrooms were at least clean. I'm not a fan of these typical places so I won't be coming back! And good luck if you don't speak Chinese! You get that feeling!
(1)
Joey Y.
I had my family Chinese New Year dinner in Zen Peninsula. We usually order the same dishes almost every time . But this time, we added two special order chicken sticky rice and the 8-treasures Duck. ( you need to per- order a day before ). It was incredibly good and I specially liked the chicken sticky rice. I'm a sticky rice lover and I like deep fried food. They deep fried the whole chicken. So the top layer the chicken skin was very crispy and inside layer the sticky rice was very chewing. Also the portion was very big and tasty too !! The 8-Treasures Duck is a very popular dish in Shanghai. My grandma likes this dish the most. It made of green bean, chestnuts, sticky rice, salty egg yolk, lotus seeds, lily , taro and duck meat stuffed inside the duck. Then they stewed the duck . I didn't know did I missed any ingredients inside the duck. Haha, this was my first try so I looked at each ingredient inside the duck. We had the soy sauce lobster and this is one of my favorite dish in this restaurant. So it will never go wrong.
(5)
Jasmine B.
Warning: If you're not Chinese, you will be ignored. Waiter didn't bother to ask us for our drink order. They have an awkward set up where you're sitting in an aisle and they're bumping into you while they walk by to other tables. Food was tasty, but that could have been because we were starving.
(2)
Nicholas T.
Great dim sum and pretty good for dinner as well. They get busy, so make sure to come early. The major reason we come here is for the Chinese sugar donut. You can't find it anywhere else.
(4)
Crystal C.
Yum yum yummmm, yet another huge, wonderful dinner with my man's extended Chinese family for his Eastcoaster parent's visit. Started things off with a gigantic lobster and fruit salad. The fruit was tossed in what I thought was yogurt, but then someone said it was mayo, whcih made me feel a little odd that I liked it so much. Beautiful presentation, almost everyone took a picture of it. Next we had soup, which was a seafod combo served in a hollowed out Winermellon, very light and tasty, the Wintermellon was subtle and different from anything I've ever tried in soup. The dishes continued to come out, some of my favorites included: Peking Duck Soy Sauce Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Minced Duck Sauteed Filet of Flounder Crab with Double Egg Yolk (which was served with fried pumpkin that tasted like egg yolk, so good!) Honey Walnut Prawns (amazing with sort of a honey-crust on them) Fish Head with Fried Tofu and Eggplant Chinese Broccoli with Garlic and Oyster Sauce I was seriously bursting at the seams, and am very surprised that the family is not hugely overweight, because they all kept eating, sipping tea, and having a lovely conversation, all while I tried not to slip into a food-induced coma and clear my plate as to not be rude. There were several other dishes, and I tried everything that we were served though my waist was like, "please, kill meee!", I perservered. Dessert: I thought maybe, ok, one dessert will be a nice taste-changer, but think again Crys! First we were served little date cookies, then soft pink mochi covered with coconut, then a hot sesame-tapioca pie with almond cookie crust, then steamed egg whites with milk, then fluffy, sweet honey-molasses bread (my favorite, and I got to take it home!). This meal was neverending - but in a good way. It was so awesome to be a part of this dinner, and the restaurant is really nice - hgue tanks of lobster, crab, and prawns to your left when you walk in, simple decor, a little dated but they make up for it with food. Love it and loved all the food. I hope to dine here again once my stomach has digested all the great food!
(5)
Amanda L.
I've had two very different experiences here, but I'll base my rating on the better one. Bad experience: Chinese New Year Weekend, Sunday morning, of course what do you get? An extremely long wait with horrible service. But let's not go there. Good experience: Came here at around 10:05am on a Saturday morning. Super empty! Amazing! We were like one out of 3-4 groups there at the time and we marked what we wanted on the sheet they gave us and all of our food basically came out at once. Definitely loved it that way because I hate waiting for my favorite dish to come around. Everything is good. Plus they have ja lerng (Chinese donut wrapped in noodles) here!! Yum. HUGE note to self: The baked cha siu baos (pork buns) come with a bo lo bao (pineapple bun) crust on top!! So if you want the plain cha siu baos, get them steamed.
(4)
Larry L.
Dim sum standard not met once again. There's a reason why there's no wait on the weekends my fellow tempers!
(2)
Brian O.
My favorite weekend dim sum. Order what you want and sit back. Be adventurous and try the less recognized items brought around on carts. You won't be disappointed. Definitely helps to speak a little Chinese but don't be intimidated if you don't.
(4)
Geoff G.
This review is for dinner only. To the Chinese, it is almost pointless to talk about a restaurant's decor. Food is foremost in their minds. The decor of Zen is a good example of a boring down-to-earth restaurant and for awhile, before I realize it was a restaurant, I thought it was a place for Zen meditation! It consisted of one huge dining room furnished with round banquet tables. The bright lights are definitely not conducive to romantic date nights. There are no chandeliers or padded chairs or booths for your seating comfort. Over the years, I have decided to go with the flow and learnt to ignore ambiance in a Chinese restaurant. There were four of us and the evening turned out delightful. For Chinese dining, it is best to have at least four in your party while six or eight would be even better. The dinner is typically "family" style and with a bigger group, everyone has a better chance of sampling a greater variety of dishes. We started the evening with a big ceramic tureen of their daily double boiled Pork and Watercress Soup ($12.00). This is a must try for watercress lovers. The essence of authentic Chinese soup was to boil for long hours so as to bring out the full flavor of the pork and the robust but yet delicate taste of fresh watercress.The meat was melt-in-your-mouth tender and the watercress was soft w/o the texture being wilted or mushy. For me, a good soup is always a great beginning to a meal. We all had seconds with still plenty of soup leftover. If you love Manila clams, you would love these. As an appetizer, we ordered 2 good-sized Empress Clams (kwai fei pong $7.00 each) that were steamed with garlic and bean thread vermicelli in soy sauce and oil. I prefer the smaller Empress clams, as they tend to be less chewy; the muscles are not as tough and meat tastes sweeter. Anyway, they were still decent although I have had better. The server raved about their Soy Sauce Chicken ($14.50 for half) and we were glad he did. It was a solid rendition and the chicken was doused in the marinating sauce. The sauce kept the chicken moist, tender and tasty, even the breast pieces. It was a little sweet but certainly not over the edge. The meat and skin too were so delectable that I would be a happy camper if I can just have the sauce and chicken over rice as a complete meal. It is difficult to order a steamed fish when there are just two of us as most fish weigh in over a pound. Our friends felt the same way and so steamed fish it was for the four of us. We picked Channel Cod ("red dragon" or "hoon long" in Chinese, $25/lb) all 1.75 lb of it and it was still swimming in the tank. It got its nickname from its red body. The fish can't get any fresher than this! Steaming the traditional way in ginger and scallions in soy and oil was the only way to go. Steaming a fish is an art by itself. Timing in relation to the weight of the fish is everything so as to avoid over or under steaming. The mild and delicate meat was such a joy to savor. The Koreans are known for their kimchi, the Japanese for their tsukemono and the Chinese for their ubiquitous pickled mustard greens. With this in mind, I opted for the Calamari stir-fried with Pickled Mustard Greens ($12.00). It also gave me a chance to test wok hay and the chef's stir-fry skills. The dish was delish no doubt but lacking in wok hay. The chewy calamari and the sweet and sour pickles were an awesome appetite booster. The last course was vegetarian: Eggplant with a mixture of Mushrooms and Chinese Preserved Radish ($12.00). The standout here was the preserved radish that added crunchiness, umami and a salty and savory flavor to this dish. The complementary tong sui dessert was forgettable literally as I have already forgotten what it was! In concluding, I have to say none of the dishes was mind blowing but they were still good enough to warrant return visits.
(3)
Jessica C.
We came in a group of 14 people a couple weeks ago. On the way to getting here I had underestimated the explosion of a box of solo cups on 101 that created a standstill, but imagined an epic flip cup war was waged the night before at this very place on the freeway. Ok, probably not, but isn't it fun to imagine stuff like that when you're sitting on the freeway at a standstill as cars overly-carefully navigate through a sea of red dixie cups? Yes? We're agreed then. The night before an epic war was waged! Which thereby blocked my timeliness or arrival at Zen Peninsula for dim sum with the college peeps. Finally I get there around 1:00pm and their lot is completely full. Have to navigate a block and a half down and over into a residential area just to find parking. Walk into the restaurant, straight to the back to find out table whereby I was sandwiched by the only two toddlers in our group, who both begin to kick me as only my friend's husband notices and laughs at me from the other end of the table. Damn it epic solo cup war! The food comes out fast, and everything is good. Har Kau, Siu, Mai, Rice Crepe rolls, chicken feet, all the stuff I normally adore are piping hot and quickly devoured. Overall this place is great. I'm not sure I'd travel all the way up to Millbrae for it, since I have some local places I like a bit more, but as a midpoint for friends in the city this is not bad.
(3)
Vanessa Y.
Came here for a wedding so I guess these three stars aren't really fair since I haven't tried their dim sum out yet. The service wasn't exactly on point and it was squish and space was tight. The "stage" area was placed awkwardly and we had the nosebleed section so I wasn't even able to see the bride and groom. Guess I'll come here for dim sum and update my review.
(3)
Summit S.
One of the better Cantonese restaurants on the Peninsula. I've had their Dim Sum at least a dozen times or more. I actually came here for Dim Sum two days in a row! They do get busy during the weekend Dim Sum rush, and parking can be an issue but usually there is parking available in their own parking lot. Their Dim Sum is of good quality with decent service from the waiters. The food carts come around often enough for you to pick whatever you like from the carts and by the time you're done with your previous selection, another cart comes around your table. So the flow of Dim Sum items is constant. Their Chicken Feet are some of the best I've tried. I ate 3 whole orders on my own at one time on top of other staple items. Their wrapped sticky rice is done just right. On one occasion it was a bit saltier than usual, but not to the point where you can't eat it. I noticed it because I go there often. Their waiters refill the teapots as often as needed. I get their Crysthanamum & Jasmine tea. The strength is just right and after a couple of teapot refills; they even add in more tea for you to retain flavor & strength of the tea. The only other thing I noticed is that the Chinese customers were getting their complimentary Red Bean dessert at the end of their Dim Sum meals. While the tables with ethnicities other than Chinese were not given their Red Bean dessert. I found that odd. I personally only had to ask for it once. Equality should be the norm everywhere, especially at all restaurants. Treat *every* customer with the same courtesy and respect regardless of their race or ethnicity. I have zero tolerance for this kind of behavior. * Stars deducted due to what I mentioned above.** Read my review for Seoul Jung Korean in Concord
(2)
Matt Y.
11/17/13 Lunch I have come to Zen Peninsula for years and have never experienced such terrible service as I did on Sunday, Nov 17. Lunch time at around 12:30 we checked in and the place was full due to the fact that they have an upcoming party at 1:30pm that will take up half the tables of the restaurant. Fine. I got a ticket and waited. Ticket number 98. About 10 minutes later, two parties---one a party of 7 and another 4, walked in and one of the two hostesses, the older lady, told them to stand by her station and amazingly, BOTH parties were seated before we did. ***Point #1: Obviously Zen has a buddy system that if you're friends with the hostess you can bypass the take-a-number business and be seated right away. I went up to check their seating progress and was shocked that the hostess had crossed out our ticket number! Are you effing kidding me? Another 15 minutes passed. By the time our number 98 was called, we followed the hostess to a table toward the back of the dining room that was already occupied. The people who were at that table walked right in and seated themselves. ***Point #2: Zen has a very disorganized way to seating customers. You can walk right in and seat yourselves without being found out. At this point you might wnder when I haven't left and gone somewhere else. I would had it not been for my grandparents. I didn't want to shuffle them around on a Sunday when all the dim sum restaurants are cray-cray. Now onto the food. Zen uses ingredients of pretty good quality. Their dim sums have been very consistent. *BBQ Pork Plate ($7): has almost be a staple but on that day the pork was too sweet for my preference. *Suckling Pig Plate ($18): roasted pieces of suckling pig with crispy skin were still very tasty, crispy, and worth the money. *Baked Pork Puff ($3.50): always flaky and buttery, good comfort food! *Xiao Lung Bao ($4.50): not too hot, wrapper not thin enough, too much meat. *Siu Mai ($3.80): nothing special but hit the spot. Siu Mai here in America is just too big, too meaty. *Chiu-chow Dumpling ($3.50): the wrapper is tough and about half an inch thick. Forgettable. *Pan-fried Turnip Cakes ($3.50): perfectly done with slivers of turnips. *Pan-fried Rice Cake with XO Sauce ($7): more like stir-fried rice cake with XO sauce. Not too steamy, and they have skipped out on the bean sprouts and leeks. Overall food was okay, better than average. Would I come back? Not out of my own volition. I stomached all that seating crap because of my family. Otherwise I would have walked out and not looked back. These Asian restaurants take customers' patience for granted and I refuse to tolerate rude service. Their parking lot is small and is usually filled up. Look for parking on the street.
(2)
Ambrose L.
You will be able to get seated because not that many people there. Food wise is average...but price is similar to other Chinese restaurants in the neighborhood.... So...I will not go back unless the whole Millbrae area is all full and pack.
(2)
Francis L.
Pretty pleased with the quality of the food. They have some of the more exotic dishes like sweet seasame gelatin rolls. They also had this beef tendon dish that was slightly too salty but was an interesting dish to have. The server also recommended this fried chicken knee and fried pumpkin. I love cartilage so I really liked it. Didn't care much for the pumpkin. The churn fun was pretty good too with the outside rice sheet being the correct consistency. It wasn't super soft like the best ones but it will do. We came in a huge group of 14ish people and so we ordered 4 units of many of the dishes like har gao and siew mai. But when it came to some items, they gave up giving us 4 steam trays and just lumped it together in one plate. It's very understandable they did that to save space, but I would rather have them un-moved.
(3)
Ashley C.
Besides Taiwu in Daly City as my favorite, Zen Peninsula is one of my top choices in the bay area. They are not famous, but I think it has good tastes. Plum flavor pork feet - good amount of sourness mixed with plum flavor, I drank all the sauces in this dish! Egg tart - flaky and tasty as well. Rice noodles - pretty good Thousand layered cake - also one of the two best in the bay area. Zen Peninsula and Taiwu in Daly City. Parking lot is small, but we got lucky twice when we dined here.
(4)
Jason W.
It's no surprise to any of my extended family that I don't like Chinese food that much. The last time I was at Zen Peninsula, I encountered several different preparations of geoduck which is a giant, scary looking clam. It's by far one of the worst things I've ever eaten in my life. Flavorless. Rubbery. Sketchy. Yuck. Today I returned to the scene of the crime and I wasn't happy because I would've preferred to stay at home and watch the World Cup final. Zen Peninsula is a big place with tons of seating and room to move around. We were sat towards the back of the restaurant at a large circular table that could accommodate our big party of 14. When I got there, I was happy to see that some tasty dim sum was already in play as well as 10 different televisions and a big screen projector showing the World Cup! YAY! I think this made my meal much more enjoyable. In fact, my wife noticed that I ate a lot of food and thinks that combining world class soccer with Chinese food is the way to get me to eat it more! Lol. I ate barbecue bun, shrimp shu mai, some custard thing, scallop rice, sticky rice, veggie dumpling, and a bunch of other stuff and it was all very tasty. The reason I'm not giving this place 4 stars is the service. Yeah, I know it's dim sum style. Yeah, I know it's a Chinese restaurant. The problem is that hardly anybody spoke English and some of the ordering was very difficult even when we pointed at things. I am a BIG proponent of preserving culture and authenticity as much as possible, but I also know it would be in the restaurant's best interests to employ somebody with the ability to converse in Chinese and English in order to make this experience as smooth as possible for everybody. I can only imagine how many other dishes I may have tried if there was somebody to communicate with!
(3)
Johnny W.
I cam here with my friends on New Year's Day (01/01/15). Even though this was on a Thursday, it felt more like a weekend. My friend lives in Millbrae and is within walking distance from this restaurant. He has been here numerous times and told us that we had to get there before 11:30am or we would have to wait a very long time for a table. So two of my friends left early to get a table by 11am, while the rest of us arrived around 11:25am. By the time I got there, there was already a long line inside the restaurant. Since two of my friends arrived early, I was able to walk by the line and sit down immediately. Like most Dim Sum places, these restaurants are always chaotic during the rush hours. My two friends that arrived early was able to get a lot of food, as it wasn't crowded yet. By the time I sat down, the frequency of a worker offering different variety of their food was starting to dwindle down. It got to a point where we were no longer being offered the food items that we really wanted. You can get a sheet of paper with all of their food items and mark down the quantity that you want to order, which is exactly what we did afterwards. After we submitted that sheet it was about half and hour later, and we still didn't receive our food yet. We flagged down a worker, showed them our receipt of our items that we ordered. Shortly after we contacted them, we got all of our food items within 10 minutes. By this time, I saw the line that was waiting for a table was already outside the door. I did like their food quite a bit, but it was your typical Dim Sum prices that you would pay for in the East Bay. It wasn't cheap, compared to getting Dim Sum in Chinatown. I would come back here, but only during their non busy hours. If I got here by noon or the heart of their dinner hours, I would avoid this place. I wouldn't have any interest in waiting over an hour and paying their prices for Dim Sum. The best time would be to get here early before the big crowd will arrive and when all of their food items are fresh & available.
(3)
Elaine Y.
Yeah! I found parking right in front of the restaurant. Didn't have to wait long to be seated since the place isn't crowded at 2pm. Delicious Food: Squid and Clams with Pickles 4/5 Siu Mai 3/5 MaLaGou 4/5 (yummy and fluffy) Jook 4/5 (forgot what it is called. Lol) Steamed Beef Tripe 4/5 (very flavorful) Steamed Chicken Feet 3/5 (just alright) The service was ok...errrrr....kind of slow!
(4)
Susan M.
Do NOT COME HERE. Service is awful and they charge 1$ per person for water. Seriously?!?!
(1)
Jennifer F.
Went here for a special occasion. I'm kind of surprised looking at all the 4-5 star reviews because I wouldn't recommend this place to my worst enemy. The parking lot is incredibly small and there's nothing inviting about the exterior. The interior was fairly unimpressive. Things just get worse from here. The massive tanks they have surrounding the kitchen was a cloudy holding cell for a mass amount of dead large fish and lobsters. Out of 6 large tanks 3 were empty (or so it may have seemed), 1 had 4 dead large fish lying on top of one another, the 2nd had like 50 large dead lobsters stacked on top of one another (one of them had some kind of bacteria growing on its claw) and the last tank had about 2 large fish swimming slowly around the bottom of the tank. More then likely they were dying. This was a huge red flag! Im crossing my fingers that food poising doesn't set in from the extremely small amount of food I did taste (snow peas, duck, rice, noodles). I didn't find anything to be impressed with the service about so nothing much to say there. Our last fun experience of the night. A friend of mine vomited after having a few slices of the peaking duck. This place is a health hazard!
Likes: good Chinese food, peking duck, large appetizer dish (yay jellyfish), chicken, chewy peanut pancakey-like dessert was good, giant portions, the restaurant is big enough for wedding reception dinners (chinese banquets), nice service Dislikes: for some reason one of the lobster dishes that came out had a pungent ocean/fishmarket smell to it. and one of the desserts they brought out (pumpkin bread) was expired
(3)
Tiffany S.
This place is just borderline OK - I went here for dinner on a Sunday night. 2 stars for the service, 2 for the food. Service: They were fast, almost ninja-like (+1 star). Granted it wasn't super busy or anything. I liked how there were several floor managers instead of just 1, and they were all helping out (not just standing around)(+1 star). What I didn't like (and it's really disrespectful and bad business practice) was that they decided to fill out my credit card slip for me. Seriously? Do they honestly think I would hand over my credit card to pay if I didn't agree to the additional 16% listed on the bill (or whatever percent tip that was automatically applied)? That was a big turn off, as if I'd run off with the extra $5. However, with that being said, they DO end up capping themselves at 16% tip (what if someone wanted to give them 20% or more?).. Food: The best plate was the honey walnut prawns (+1 star). Fresh, hot, crispy, and not drenched in mayo. The walnuts were glazed and crunchy (+1 star). The bad: The soup was watery (even my grandma said it tasted like water), and 8 out of 9 dishes were incredibly salty and loaded with MSG. Yes, I know all Chinese restaurants use MSG, but this was a ridiculous amount. My dad loves MSG, and even he thought it was too much. I really wanted to ask them if they've ever tasted the food they brought out. Verdict: Will not be coming back. For the price and service, I'd rather go to Asian Pearl or HK Lounge II in the city.
(2)
Maya N.
What a great find! I've been to the other very popular dim sum restaurant in Millbrae many times (Hong Kong Flower Lounge), and it was a wonderful surprise to me to find another great place for dim sum. Parking can be a bit challenging as the lot gets full (it's very popular). We went for Saturday brunch and were seated with 15 mins (shorter wait than Hong Kong). As soon as we were seated, we were swarmed by the serving ladies with yummy dim sum. Within a couple of minutes we were eating delicious food. Overall it was a great experience and I would return again!
(5)
Jimmy C.
Make RSVP @630 but was not seated till 7pm. Service is bad, staff were rude. Didn't get any service till 730pm. Have 10 ppl at table. Gave out only 9 plates, 7 tea cups, 8 pair of chopsticks, these niggas can't count. First dish-cold combo, shit taste burnt. How the fuck something serve cold taste burnt?! Second dish-Peking duck, was brought to the wrong table. Third dish-clam with veggy in broth. Fourth dish-chicken. Fifth dish-veggy dish. Sixth dish-Fukien fried rice. Seventh dish-the dish we all were waiting for.....soup. Came out after everything else, mind as well drinking as dessert. Fuck that gratuity of 18%, I think 5% is too much already.
(1)
Minh M.
My first 1-star review The hostess gives priority seating to her regulars! It's crazy that our party of 14 for dim sum had to wait an extra hour because three big groups--who had walked in much later--were seated before us after they greeted the hostess.
(1)
Nei N.
I came here for lunch with some old coworkers, and most things were pretty mediocre. Ha Gow - Skin was too thick and overcooked. The shrimp stuffing was underseasoned, but did have some slivers of young bamboo and hints of sesame oil. The underlying flavors showed potential, but it was too bland. Siu Mai - This was one of the better things we had. The flavor balance of the savory pork, sweet shrimp, and earthy shiitake was good. The texture of the ground pork was a little on the gritty side, but that's not a huge complaint. Pan Fried Daikon Cake - There's a good amount of Chinese cured meat bits and dried shrimp, but the cakes were a bit too starchy and needed more daikon flavor. Satay Steamed Tripe - They were a little overcooked as their texture was a bit on the soft side. I prefer tripe with a firmer bite, but they're still pretty tasty. They weren't spicy but had a five spice warmness. Green onions, ginger, and garlic added bright and fresh accents, while the finish was highlighted by toasty sesame oil. Mini Beef Brisket in Clear Broth - The slices of beef brisket and daikon were cooked well and tender, but they were bland. Although I could taste the five spice flavor, it needed to be more bold. Suckling Pig - Skin was lean and crispy, and meat was ok. It was slightly on the dry side but seasoned well. There was also a mild gaminess that I thought was weird. It was decent, but it's better at Koi Palace. Zen Peninsula isn't the worst choice, and some items were good. It does hold a special place in my heart, because this is the restaurant that introduced me to Egg Yolk Fried Pumpkin (Gum Sah Lam Gua). I'm sure those are still good here, but the dim sum in general isn't anything noteworthy.
(3)
Athena C.
Two words: FOOD POISONING. Luckily, the 3 of us were hit with symptoms at different times. That would've been a mess with one bathroom...
(1)
Raquel Y.
~ Dinner Review ~ Nice fancy chinese restaurant, elegant where weddings are held here. Food is okay though and expensive. Walnut shrimp for $18?! Crab fish maw soup was good!! - 5/5 Scallop XO sauce was not that great, scallop was overcooked - 2/5 Fish black bean sauce was ok - 3/5 String beans were good though, probably the closest similar to strings at New China in union city - 4/5 They don't speak english and they added gratuity for only 5 of us!! Isn't it supposed to be 6 or 8+ people? With that said, we might not come back here. Maybe just for dim sum, since that's what everyone says is good here.
(3)
J M.
Food has gone downhill over the years and some of the dim sum that were favorites are gone like the rice noodle with fried doughnut and radish. I would say this place is not worth the prices they try to charge. But the kicker is the horrible service. I'm used to rough around the edges service at a lot of Asian places but this place takes the cake. Disorganized seating, people getting seated ahead of you even though one out of eight people are here, etc.
(1)
Lisa C.
It's because I starting to love the food here, but seriously, this review isn't about the food. It's about the managers. SERIOUSLY. GET AN ATTITUDE CHECK. Mostly the male "managers" (in suits and pin stripe pants) are the most fucking douchebag jerks I've ever experienced in a restaurant. I went to lunch MANY times (hence the number of updated reviews I've written). But there's something about today just really made it a bad experience. 1. KENT (yes. I am going to name names now) threw a chair next to me at my 2-seated table, and it hit me. He also in the past told my table we didn't "TIP" enough (hello 20% is plenty for lunch). AND he one time was standing at OUR table, and talking LOUDLY across us to the larger table to the right. 2. Tall one with the square black glasses (late 30s early 40s) gives you stare of "rush" when you're looking at the check But KENT really pushes my buttons every time I go in. SERIOUSLY?!
(2)
Bowdoin S.
I had dim sum here on a Saturday morning. There are not enough parking spaces in the dedicated lot, although there was decent availability in terms of nearby street parking. Service was a bit slow. We had requested a high chair for our two year old when we first arrived. It took them a while to serve the tea as well. Food was ok but not great. The Chinese donut wrapped in rice crepe was pretty dry and bland. The har gou and siu mai were solid, but not spectacular. Xiao long bao was too doughy and was not very tasty. The price was decent for the amount of food. Overall, we shelled out $60 for three adults and two toddlers. Hong Kong flower lounge nearby is much better value - we were planning on going there but there was a one hour wait. Overall, there are better nearby options to choose from.
(2)
Terri N.
My sibling took me to dinner last night for my birthday. Surprisingly, someone at the table next to ours also was celebrating her birthday. When they finished dinner, the manager brought them special desserts (6+ pieces of sweets and two bowls of dessert milk drink) and even placed a lighted candle on the desserts. My sister told the manager that it was my birthday too. She nodded and we waited but she did not do anything for us. We felt discriminated against. Foodwise, I would give them 3 stars. Service-wise, one star is generous.
(1)
Frances C.
Just plain awful food, the dim sums were not fresh, it tasted like it was reheated from yesterday's left over. The texture of shrimp rice roll was rough and overcooked; the turnip cake was cold. Never again.......................
(2)
Ken K.
Yo, iz the Dim Sum Dood O --- yep it's safe to come here again for the 'sum again! / | \ / \ For those who follow Dim Sum Dood, will probably remember a visit 4 months ago, when there was a huge disturbance in the Force...or rather, in the "Zen", where the food tasted like it was made by amateurs with less than ideal quality ingredients. The other joke was that perhaps food sucked so bad that the chefs quit, and the dim sum aunties and grannies had to do double shift of cooking the dim sum and pushing the carts out to upsell the (damaged) goods. Either that or the previous owner lost the restaurant's ownership over a game of mah jong or pai gow poker. Who the F knows. So tha Dood took one for the team, and decided to give it a shot again upon hearing rumor of the kitchen staff and menu shakeup. And yes, it is safe to return. Most of you out there will be sufficiently satisfied. But there's still some work to be done here to take it to the next level. This is a near 3.5 experience for now. Ha gow - the golden standard...but it was just passable and almost on par with M.Y. China. The only difference is that the shrimp filling was a tad bit bland. This was the stark opposite of the April visit when the shrimp filling was overly marinated (too much sesame oil and pepper). What's consistent here is a bit too much egg white binding material. The oversteaming lead to a pretty dry shrimp filling, to the point where it was more like a shrimp meatball, rather than a crispy crunch of a shrimp. A few pieces of gow had skins already punctured, like a tiny punch hole...not the best of aesthetics, unless you like the "torn jeans" look. Cheung fun - almost there. A tad bit thinner and they would be there. Would be better if the skins were also smoother, but this is hard to control. There is definitely room for improvement here Pork dumpling in soup - shark finless version. Decent chicken broth, but the dumpling was a tad lackluster. At least Koi Palace had the right idea of using fish maw, dried scallops, fragrant shitake, to create the dried seafood umami medley, where shark fin was not allowed. Skipworthy rendition but not that bad. Steamed turnip pudding (jing lo bak go) - when I was a wee child I was a siu mai monster (like Cookie Monster loved cookies), then I was a ha gow monster when I was a teen. But now I'm a bit of a turnip cake monster (lo bak monster). It is my excuse to use the house chili sauce with it. But if the steamed version is available, it's the best taste tester...does the kitchen maximize the flavors naturally through steaming? Well this version had the right approach, just over steamed to the point where it was dry and perhaps too much starch powder (and thickened too much). At least they used the less fibrous parts of the turnip. Lots of Chinese sausage bits and dried scallop...but even a little sweet soy sauce didn't save this. Superior version can be found up at the street at Asian Pearl. There is room for improvement here. Tofu custard / tofu fa - not as sloppy as Koi Palace's but not at the right silky texture. Better than the April visit Black sesame rolls - holy smokes....a dim sum dessert item from my childhood, making a reappearance decades later! Why has this become extinct? It's so fun to eat...it's like a jello roll. Darkened to the point where it looks like analog film for cameras. Kids these days probably don't know what cassette tapes and VHS are...but anyways, this was a worthwhile effort....just not heavy enough in the sesame flavor. Have to applaud them for trying. Just like prior shakeup of the menu, the dim sum checksheet has 120 items, but only half of those would qualify for yum cha items....the other 60 are small plate appetizers and Cantonese side dish type eats, but perfectly fine to enjoy for a brunch with tea (some might fare better as dinner "izakaya" type plates with an ice cold Tsing Tao). Hard to say if these are just revival old school gimmicks or not, or just a fusion of items.... e.g. the flowing lava yolk bun, but instead it is done like a fried mochi exterior with sesame seeds....or something called Yuen Long century egg puff pastry, or their pineapple bun with cha siu inside (emulating the success of Tim Ho Wan Hong Kong's signature). Biggest downer was that the Jasmine tea lacked any fragrance. They should be ashamed of serving this flavorless tea....man why not just serve Mr & Mrs Miscellaneous jasmine tea ice cream float and give me some steamers of dim sum on the side? $heeeeeeeit. Definitely safe to return otherwise. Hope they keep it up. Just don't make me order a plate of cha siu to save my meal...
(3)
Rebecca L.
I go there about once a month. It is a decent restaurant for dim sum and I like their not so regular dishes, something other than shrimp dumpling and siu mai. And, make sure you try their desserts. They are yummy!
(4)
Kevin L.
Spacious and the dim sum ladies definitely do the swarming patterns that Hong Kong folks know to be authentic. As soon as you sit down, you're mobbed by Chinese women who will insist that you really have to try their dumplings, crepe rolls, fried tidbits, etc. Most speak Cantonese, some speak Mandarin, but all of them have scrappy English skills, so just point, gesture, and you're on your way to a delicious time. I'm sad that they got rid of one of my favorite dishes here and I haven't seen it replicated elsewhere at all. It was a rice crepe roll filled with fried Chinese dough, and stuffed with pea sprouts, pickled turnip, and finished off with some light soy sauce. It was a hefty dish that mixed texture and flavors, and always seemed to sell out quickly. Their dumplings are very solid here, and the shrimp is generous. Try their desserts too, but snag them early since the popular items do tend to run out well before they close up by 3 pm on weekends.
(4)
Bebe W.
Zen Peninsula has solid dim sum, a parking lot, and big screen tvs (for those watching the world cup). You can have lunch here without missing any of the action. Our party was 14 and the table was a tight squeeze but we managed. The wait staff walks around with trays of dim sum, and you can also order dim sum from a menu. We had dried scallop fried rice, barbeque and baked pork buns, sticky rice, shrimp dumplings, vegetable dumplings, custard buns, green onion pancake etc. The jellyfish in the pork and jellyfish dish tasted too soft, and we've had green onion pancakes better elsewhere. Uncle wanted chicken feet but they ran out! Can you believe that? Who runs out of chicken feet dim sum?! It must be pretty popular. This place is great for large banquets and parties because they are large enough to accomodate and the decor is also more presentable than other chinese restaurants.
(3)
Jacinda C.
Great for dim sum. One of those dim sum places you place your order first and they bring it to you freshly cooked. I love this concept but yet hate it. I love it since you order all the items you want rather looking form it to come out. I hate it because you can easily over order! Parking lot isn't too big so most chances you would park on the street during the busy hours.
(4)
TN C.
I like eating here. Clean, nice, professional, between average and good food. The Dim Sum here has good portions and is tasty. They have marvelous facility for banquets and since the food is good that means your paying 3 arms and 2 legs to book it,.....j/k I dont know. Anyhow, this is another come early or wait long places. TIP, try not to get a table along the edges / perimeter / along the wall. It seems the carts of food jump towards the middle first and by the time they get to you they tell you they have to reload and come back.
(4)
Enrique C.
My friend suggested me to go this restaurant after I told him that I like to go eat Dim Sum to the "Hong Kong Flower Lounge". I gave it a try and it was really good. It has the atmosphere of most of the chinese restaurants around Millbrae... fresh fish, lobster, crabs, etc. The food is really tasty and good. The service is good, knowing that the Chinese culture in the restaurants are usually not polite and refine. The Dim Sum is pretty good and their soups a la carte are great (supoosedly is for two people but I finish it alone).
(4)
tiny w.
HHmmmmm.......how very disappointing. Here are the facts: I am not being paid to give a negative review. Their dim sum menu has a revision date of 6/30/2013. They no longer have the "Fried Mango Shrimp Roll" Think "NEW OWNER".......or "NEW CHEF".......... We went there on 7/6/2013 and found pretty much all of the dim sum basics "different tasting". Har Gow: had no bamboo shoots but in place of it had water chestnuts. Not the same. Shu Mai: No mushrooms, but it had the strands of BLACK FUNGUS. Looked like 1/4 inch long black worms mixed into the pork. Steamed Beef Tripe from the cart: just did not taste the same as before. Turnip Cake: Very salty Steamed Pork Spare Ribs with Black Bean Sauce: Had a completely different strong seasoning. It was as if the cook needed to mask some other flavor so he added strong spices to accomplish this. Like an excess of satay sauce. Pork was over soaked in baking soda too. Way too mushy, no texture at all. Anyone who has a different or same experience I welcome to hear from. If you never liked the dim sum before 6/30/2013 perhaps you will like it now. If you are looking at ZEN to find something different after 6/30/2013 then give it a try, 'cuz you will find it. I cannot see myself recommending this place for dim sum anymore. I hope it improves, more importantly where did that cook go????????
(1)
Leona Z.
I had my traditional Chinese wedding banquet here on 12/13/14 and to be honest, I didn't expect much since I already had a western style ceremony and reception in October. Maybe it was this low level of expectations that influenced my experience, but I was really impressed by Zen Peninsula's high level of service and food! Kent was the server for the head table where me, my husband, and our respective parents sat, and HE IS THE MAN. He was very attentive and efficient in refilling our drinks and serving our food. He also assumed the role of coordinator, telling us when we had to start table toasts and directing us to the next table, and when we had to cut the cake. This was extremely helpful as I didn't hire a coordinator and I kept checking the time to make sure things were running on schedule (see my review below on why you should hire a coordinator). When it came time to cut the cake, we realized the bottle of sparkling cider we brought for toasting was MIA...my mom had given it to the kids table. I was just fine with toasting with Coke, but Kent was able to provide us with another bottle from the restaurant and saved the day! My parents chose the "Perfect Love" banquet menu and all the courses were well worth the money. I am not kidding when I say every guest got their own HALF LOBSTER (and claw). It was like Oprah giving away cars, but with lobsters ("You get a lobster, you get a lobster, everyone gets a lobster!"). Securing the date and working with Jason, the banquet captain, was simple enough, though it definitely helps if you or a family member speaks Chinese (Cantonese in my case). They recently upgraded their banquet chairs to beautiful Chiavari chairs, which can be expensive to rent and worked out for me bc my mom originally wanted these hideous seat covers with bows, and their carpet looked pretty new too. Though I was hesitant to have a Chinese banquet on top of my western style wedding, I was very pleased with how everything turned out and owe it all to Zen Penisula.
(5)
Eugene L.
Ah today was a good day. The Lee side of the Family Posse was having a Red Egg and Ginger Party . This side of the family goes all out . I jumped into my Weekend Whip and rolled to Zen Peninsula . The FamBam had rented the Whole Restaurant out and Ordered the Special Menu. I rolled into the Parking lot , To Bad Boys Bad boys what your going to do.. I stashed my Whip in the lower lot and rolled in on foot . My Cousins wife was working the front table with the Seating Charts . The Lee side of my family is so big and diverse it looked like a Tong meeting. I didn't help I was decked out in a Black Nike Track Suit LOL. We had the run of the place . The Restaurant was set up Banquet style. I rolled to my assigned table and settled in. Each table had a 2 liter bottle of Coke and 7Up. Also a pot of Tea. So I chilled out until my table mates appeared. We were presented and served 1-Suckling Pig and Combination Cold Cut Platter. 2-Honey Walnut Prawns 3-Fish Maw and Sea Cucumber Soup. 4-Pan Seared Scallops 5-Stir Fried Steak Cubes 6-Peking Duck. 7-Stir Fried Whole Lobsters 8-Steamed Whole Bass 9- Combination Fried Rice 10 - Longevity Noodles 11- Mini Dessert Tray. OMG what a Feast , Service was off the Hook . We received a new plate to eat off of after every entree. Definitely a First Class Meal. I bid Goodbye to the Fam Bam and rolled out in the Whip.
(4)
Sean J.
Living in the area and being native Cantonese, we have dim sum at least once a week, and we are judge their quality based on how the best Hong Kong dim sum should taste like. Through the years, we've been to pretty much all good dim sum places from San Francisco to Daly City to the Peninsula both old and new, including Koi Palace, The Kitchen, Hong Kong Flower Lounge, Tai Wu, etc. We have concluded Zen Peninsula overall has the best dim sum. Not only that they have among the largest selection of interesting dim sum to choose from, but also that the quality is always good and they have very good services. Being on the east side of El Camino, they are less noticeable and we in fact did not realize that they exist until a friend told us that it's their most favorite dim sum place. That also means they are less crowded and have very good service, unlike Koi Palace which is like a zoo and you get pushed around, with fine dim sum but not as good as Zen's.
(5)
Douglas K.
Another typical corrupted Chinese dim sum restaurant ... We came in at noon and end up waiting for 1.5 hour for a table. The number system were used for waiting but it was completely useless. They never really called out any number. You need to be the VIP or best friend of those managers and you will get the tables right away. You can see those VIPs walked in from backdoor and served by waiters immediately ... Very sneaky. Anyway ... Food was ok but you probably will be so pissed and lost your appetite
(1)
Chris F.
From first to worst. Some of my favorite dim sum items are now gone - seafood curry pie, mango shrimp rolls. Booo. The items are now smaller and just mediocre. I'm sad about the management / chef change. Won't be back.
(1)
Jenny W.
Pricing: Expensive.Kind of pricey at $12-14 a plate for Chinese food. Quality: Good. Hit and miss with some, but overall was good. Turnaround: Excellent. Food actually came almost all at once. Service: Good-Excellent. Funny manager and servers when helping us take a picture. I am use to paying on average less than $10 an entree at a Chinese restaurant so when everything costed a few dollars more, I felt odd. However, each plate were large enough that we could order 7 entrees and a soup for 9 people. On the food side, some of the dishes were pretty good, especially this chicken wings dish which was full of flavor, but this scallop and egg white dish was super bland. However, at the end of dinner, we were given these mochi and cookies for dessert that were very delicious. The food also arrived very quickly with no lull in between to the point where we almost kept running out of space on our lazy Susan. This worked out for us since we were very hungry and were ravenous with everything that came forward. Near the end of dinner and after our gift exchange, we asked a waiter to help us take a picture to commemorate our gift exchange event. We had asked one waiter, but a second waiter who happened to peer over felt that the first waiter did a crappy job so he made fun of him and took over. They also had a funny manager who would come over to check up on us and exchange funny Cantonese puns with us.
(4)
Elissa C.
I came here for Mother's Day dinner. The place was super packed, but that was expected. They had a "special" menu, which seemed to have a lot of dishes I had never seen before and wasn't that interested in. Where were the pea shoots with garlic??? I picked out two dishes- Korean short ribs and Peking duck. I let my mom pick out the rest. The ribs were quite tasty- enough fat on the meat so it wasn't super dry. The duck was good too, I love making those little sandwiches with the duck skin and hoisin sauce with green onions. We also had a dish of fried pumpkin with fried chicken. We got the customary red bean dessert soup, but I never eat the stuff. We go another dessert... it was baked... was custardy with tapioca. The first time I had it at the restaurant was for Chinese New Year, and it was soooo good. This time, it wasn't as good. I think they threw in some red bean, which I don't like. Overall, a good meal, but I hope the next time we go back, they have their regular menu again!
(3)
John S.
5.5 out of 10, service was excellent but food was mediocre at best. I feel the restaurant has seen its better days since it smells lived in and chairs /tables were well worn. Very few patrons were in the restaurant this evening. I ordered stir fried oysters with scallions & ginger and the portion was good with good flavor. My friend had the Kung pao shrimp and it was very American without any spark. Sweet and sour, and won ton soups were good.
(3)
Jana C.
Happy Snake Year, Yelp!!! Yesterday was dubbed dutiful Chinese daughter day, and thus it was: my folks' design a day of eating and shopping up and down the Peninsula. dimsum until 1430. we arrived about 1310 to a 1/3 full house, salivating... We ordered a pot of the most kickin' tea in China...Longjing cha, or lung zang tsah (Dragonwell.. and it was brewed excellently.. we all drank cupfuls of that gorgeous clear nectar-like wonder) NOTABLES!!! -green tea rice glutinous crepey-roll with ground peanut filling. great balance -filled durian puff rolls.. shaped like a spring roll, it has the lightest of fried batter and a wonderful sweet fruit filling. smooth and pleasure palace on the tongue -steamed cha siu bao. Staple. didn't disappoint. None of the cheap pork fat to plump it up noted in the filling. yum -wonderful, super large, perfectly steamed shrimp-impregnated porky meatballs. different kinds -stewed ngau zeen (rugae in a great braising liquid, with daikon radish). not for the fainthearted. oodles of flavor. they simmered this stock pot well! -loh mai gai (chinese rice tamale, if you will).... so, so bursting with the flavor of the tea leaf in which it is steamed. Love 'em. -wonderfully, thin, translucent skinned chive pork dumplings, shaped like pot stickers. so, so good --ma lai goh: sponge cake made with rock sugar.... so fluffy and light.. not too sweet. more ambery brown than yellow at this location - flakiest egg custard tarts. the center of these petite beauties is just barely cooked, leaving the most silky taste on tongue. thousand layers on the tart itself. I could have seriously ordered a plate and devoured it by myself - little meat pies with the most buttery crust, and sweet/savory filling. a specialty Chinese brunch ran me ~$50. Prices, for me anyway, on the higher side for d.s....but the caliber...oh, that higher caliber! Great food. Better than the first time here.
(5)
Daryl N.
Excellent dim sum and seafood. Great rice rolls - make sure you ask for the off menu enoki mushroom beef rice roll. The choice of fresh beef instead of the frozen kind typically paired with enoki mushroom was inspired. Manila clams with black bean sauce was very fresh as well. You can taste the freshness and the sauce did not overwhelm, which is refreshing in light of your typical Chinese restaurant's liking for heavy sauces. All in all this place reminds me of good Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong.
(5)
Jane L.
We had a reservation for 9 people and early, it didn't seem like a reservation was needed. However, as the night wore on, the place started to get packed. Their parking lot is pretty small, but good thing there was a lot of street parking. We ordered about 8 or 9 dishes and only some stood out. Someone got the cashew shrimp, which was just mediocre, but then again, I am not really a fan of cashew shrimp. We also got a plate of rice noodles and for some strange reason, there was some chow mien mixed in. What? The noddles were definitely in need of some salt. A friend also got a eggs and scallop dish. It was strange looking. It was all egg whites that looked almost fully cooked with a runny egg yolk in the middle and the scallops were shredded. It came with a small dish of soy sauce, since the dish didn't have much taste either. I think the best dish was the chicken wings. The wings were really full of flavor and the meat was tender. Unsure if I would come again as the food is pretty mediocre except for the wings.
(3)
Nicole S.
Ever wonder what it's like to have a grown man, who was probably the manager, throw a tantrum at your table? Come here and you'll find out. I've been to Zen Peninsula a couple times, but Wednesday marked the first time I've came here for dim sum. My friend decided we should try dim sum here since we tend to stick with a couple regular spots. DIM SUM: We arrived at 1pm and were seated immediately. The food was okay, nothing really stood out. They do have certain items that aren't typically found in most dim sum spots such as durian pastry puffs and foie gras sui mai. One of my usual must haves is sharkfin dumpling soup. I was quite disappointed in the sharkfin dumpling because there was barely any sharkfin. I have been here for dinner as well as a wedding banquet. The food quality is better than most Chinese restaurants, but that also comes with a higher price tag. SERVICE: Horrible! The food here is 2-3 stars, but the service totally ruined our lunch and I ultimately decided that Zen Peninsula is a 1 star place. My friend wanted peking duck and buns and ordered HALF a duck. When the dish came, it seemed like a lot and my friend asked if it was half a duck. The server responded "yes...duck", basically responding like that because she didn't understand English. As we picked out our pieces of meat and ate the buns, I said that had to be a whole duck, there were two drumsticks! My friend asked who we assumed was a manager and he said it was a whole duck and proceeded to argue with us that we ordered a whole duck. Finally, he threw a fit, got an empty plate, took most of our duck, and walked away with the plate. He took away most of the skin! I'm assuming he threw the duck away but who knows, hee could have let us keep it and adjust the price. I believe his name is Jason since that was the name who had adjusted the duck order on our receipt. PARKING: A private lot with limited parking or street parking is available. At 1pm on a Wednesday, the lot was filled but street parking was easy to find.
(1)
Connie L.
I have fond memories of this place because it was my grandma's favorite restaurant. Now when me and my family come here we like to reminisce. I don't know if they got a new owner or new cook but the quality of the food seems to have gone down. A lot of the buns have gotten smaller and the baked taro bun we got today had a tiny smear of taro paste inside. The chicken feet, according to my sister, was missing out on flavor. I'm giving my review now because we received incorrect information from a supervisor. I love the sesame mochi dessert but most places will roll it in crushed peanuts. I'm allergic to peanuts, so we asked if we could get one that wasn't rolled. When we came here frequently a few years back they did as we requested without any problems. But the supervisor we asked this time assured us that it was rolled in sweetened green bean flour/powder. When it finally came to our table we saw that it was covered in crushed peanuts.
(2)
John W.
Came after the lunch crowd. Staff was friendly; didn't rush us in ordering. Option of five teas. Had combo seafood pan fried noodles, steam bbq pork buns, & haw gaws ( shrimp dumplings). All were fresh & favorful. Will come back again.
(4)
Gwen L.
You know the restaurant isn't up to par when there's a 45 minute wait at Koi Palace and multiple free tables at Zen Peninsula. We were perplexed as to why this place was empty enough that there were plenty of parking spots in the lot. That has never happened to us before. We were seated immediately in an AC vacuum, which quickly sucks the heat from the food. We ordered most items off the dim sum menu and got a couple that were circulated by the waitressed. Much of the food that was circulated came out lukewarm. The items brought out from the kitchen tasted ok but nothing to rave about. The biggest disappointments were the salted fish with chicken fried rice and combination chow main. Both were excruciatingly bland; I almost resorted to the big no-no of adding soy sauce. The final tab for all the food was a whopping $85 for only three people. *smh* I would have been happier with dim sum from a take out place. Onto my quest to try as many dim sum restaurants as possible in the Bay Area.
(2)
Darryl Y.
Zen Peninsula opened about a dozen years ago, about the same time I was finishing up at the school across the street. It's surprising that I hadn't been to Zen Peninsula until just now, because it was a great experience. My grandma recently had her 90th birthday party here. We went here to try out some dishes beforehand. The manager showed us a giant lobster, and then proceeded to let us name it before they cooked it. The lobster was so large, they cooked it in two different ways. It's hard to describe, but all I know is that it was THE. BEST. LOBSTER. EVER. Overall, my family was very impressed by the service. We were blessed with having the main area with lots of space instead of the two side areas that feel a little bit too crammed. The restaurant made sure all of our needs were accommodated, including let us bring our own cake and wine, and they even showed us some Chinese birthday traditions that our party got a kick out of.
(5)
Wendy L.
I came here for dim sum and it was packed. I waited about 20 minutes for a table for two around 1:30pm. The dim sum was okay and it was nothing spectacular. My Shrimp Dumpling definitely had a wardrobe malfunction as noted in the pictures by other Yelpers. I would come back for their special for porridge though. I saw a lot of tables order the fish porridge cooked two ways and the lobster porridge. I thought that was pretty cool and makes the restaurant different from other typical Chinese restaurants.
(3)
Scott L.
Small parking lot was full but there was plenty of free two-hour street parking on El Camino. Spacious restaurant with a lot of big tables that are not crammed together. We went on Saturday, November 30th and waited a few minutes to be seated for a party of seven. Little old ladies pushing their steamer carts up and down the aisles without bumping into the diners. Very orderly.... This restaurant has all of your typical dim sum and more. We were impressed with the flavors of the Siu Mai, Beef Rolls, Chicken Feet, Har Guow, etc...we especially liked the Chicken Feet as the feet were nice and plump and cooked to the point that it easily separated into little pieces in your mouth. I hate it when feet are under cooked. The feet were also very flavorful. As to the more unusual dishes, Zen had Steamed Yam Dumplings, Steamed Minced Mushroom-Funghi Dumplings (sesame oil taste to it) which we ordered twice, stinky Durian Dessert Rolls (still don't like this), Fried Milk, and Steamed Bitter Melon Rolls. Zen appears to have a lot more variety than some of their big competitors. We were disappointed with the Po Tarts as they were not as flaky, hot, and creamy as that of Hung's up the road. Overall, we were satisfied with the variety, freshness/temperature, and taste of the food. Will return to this place!
Takes Reservations : Yes Delivery : No Take-out : Yes Accepts Credit Cards : Yes Good For : Lunch Parking : Private Lot Bike Parking : Yes Wheelchair Accessible : Yes Good for Kids : Yes Good for Groups : Yes Attire : Casual Ambience : Casual Noise Level : Average Alcohol : Full Bar Outdoor Seating : No Wi-Fi : No Has TV : Yes Waiter Service : Yes Caters : Yes
Vigor L.
Wait was quick. Definitely an authentic dim sum joint, from see the customer base, staff, and carts! As a Cantonese American, been to a lot of Dim Sum places. This one was pretty standard, nothing that stands it out from the rest. Cart ladies were friendly. In terms of dishes, they were good, but not the best I've had. Dishes came out in spurts. Egg tarts were very soft and good. Shrimp dumplings were standard and decent. Sticky rice wasn't bad as well.
(4)Keith C.
I thought this place was pretty good for dim sum. We got there ahead of the rest of my family, so we weren't trying to order anything yet, but the ladies pushing the food around were pretty pushy about us ordering something (but I guess that's to be expected at a dim sum restaurant). I don't remember what dishes we ordered exactly, but most of them were pretty good. I personally really liked the cheung fun noodles with the chinese donuts inside since it mixed a nice crunchy bread with the softer textured noodles. We had no real problems with the staff or anything while there, since after we started ordering food servers just kind of swarmed around us to try to get us to order as much as we could. Overall: It seemed like a pretty standard dim sum restaurant. The food was fine and the service was fine, nothing phenomenal, but nothing bad at all either.
(3)Carrie W.
A little on the pricey side, but some things worth it: their crispy skinned roast pork was the best I have ever had. Skin was perfect and meat was not too fatty. Also surprisingly good was the Pineapple BBQ Pork Bun. Nice tender bun with crunchy top and tasty bbq pork filling. The rest of the dim sum was okay. There were a few things that tasted bland. The rice noodle around some of the dishes seemed thick and not very tender. I would come back and try again.
(3)Angela K.
Not impressed with the food at all. And at the time when the lunch crowd was dying down, the service died down as well. I won't be coming back when there are plenty of good dim sum places around the area.
(2)Roddy D.
My friend suggested me to go this restaurant after I told him that I like to go eat Dim Sum to the "Hong Kong Flower Lounge". I gave it a try and it was really good. It has the atmosphere of most of the chinese restaurants around Millbrae... fresh fish, lobster, crabs, etc. The food is really tasty and good. The service is good, knowing that the Chinese culture in the restaurants are usually not polite and refine. The Dim Sum is pretty good and their combination fried rice was awesome.
(5)Forrest C.
We had a family lunch there today and will never, ever go back. The food was horrible and service non-existent. As a mostly Caucasian group we felt like we were not wanted there as everyone else was Asian. My son almost puked. The waiters did not clear any dirty dishes and we had to do it ourselves. The fish tank you see as you walk in was filthy and set the tone for the meal.
(1)Richard F.
Unfortunately, the fate of most Chinese restos seems to have overtaken Z.P, which used to be our favorite local choice for dim sum -maybe best in the area after Yank Sing. Quality has slackened drastically in the last few months, corners are cut, menu changed for the worse, & custom steadily diminishes, in a vicious cycle. On a Sunday at 11:30, when a year ago one might wait an hour, 25 per cent of tables were empty. In short, they're going the way of Fook Yuen, Hong Kong Flower Lounge, & the big Hong Kong in Chinatown of ~25 years ago. After 3 increasingly disappointing visits, we're sorry to say goodbye.
(1)Jo S.
Review for wedding banquet I've been to multiple wedding banquets here over the past couple of years. Food is always consistent and delish. Wait staff is always friendly.
(4)Candy Y.
came here after all the other dim sum places we were going to were packed. the food is overpriced, especially for the quality. Most of the food was just barely hot. The only dish that was hot was the portuguese tart. I had been to this restaurant a few years before, but on this particular occasion, the dishes seemed smaller and the prices higher. The chicken feet were cooked so long that they were mushy. really disappointing shrimp dumpling (ha gow). The fish ball and spinach dish was bland. tried a bunch of other dishes that were mediocre at best. our finished dishes were taken away promptly even though we were seated in a corner. the service was acceptable and the food was edible. I expected more when I saw all the live lobster and king crab in the tanks. Also, the restroom was disgusting. It's near the entrance, so you have to squeeze through a sea of people that are waiting to be seated. I will definitely not go again.
(2)Nini Y.
First time here and didnt like it. The food is soso but the service is worse. We ordered crab noodles and we couldn't find the crab. We called over the manager asked him where the crab was and he took a spoon and found 2 tiny prices of crab in the whole noodle and said, "here it is." Wow. I was shocked and appalled. And found it hilarious how this restaurant treats their customers. I think I've said enough to give you a taste of this restaurant.
(1)Juvie M.
I don't think i will ever go back to this place again. We came here during lunch so dim-sum hours. Food was nasty. Staff doesn't understand english! Not even the word vinegar!!! Are u serious! Very pricey for nasty food
(1)wayman w.
Great Food! Excellent service! Love their dim sum. King Crab is to die for. Had it three ways (six different ways) in the past couple of weeks. Sweet and succulent.
(5)Stephanie C.
One of my favorite Chinese restaurants. I've been here so many times for dim sum or just dinner. Super yummy and great for large groups!
(5)Christopher L.
This is a review for their dim sum, regular dinner menu, as well as, their specialty food (abalone, shark fin, etc). For dim sum, as long as you know what you're ordering, the food is good and fresh. If you like durian, try their fresh durian pastry. There's not much to say besides that this is a "classier" dim sum place. Regular dinner is great, food is solid, and portions are fair. You can expect to pay a bit more than normal here because the place is better decorated (people hold wedding banquets here). Specialty stuff is pricey, but relatively cheap for the area. Tasty, very tasty, but you can tell there's extra flavor added, if you know what I mean. If you find you've got a bit of extra money, treat yourself to some of their specialty seafood (different menu).
(4)Diana C.
What's a holiday without eating dim sum with friends? That's how my friends and I roll, and this past fourth of July, we prepared for a long day of car shopping by first filling our bellies up with dim sum at Zen Peninsula. I'm not going to go into detail about all the types of dim sum we had. Let's just say Zen sold us some good, solid food in a flash. We had just been seated for a few minutes and started ordering our dim sum on the form provided by the server when the dim sum cart ladies dashed to our table to offer us all the varieties in the world. It was quite overwhelming as multiple ladies would be talking to us at the same time. Every time the dim sum lady puts a steamer on our table, I had to scratch out what we were requesting on the form. I don't understand why they even bothered with the form anyway that day. It was quite amusing and I shouldn't complain. Afterall, we were able to stuff our faces minutes after being seated. I never knew this but I guess Zen is quite popular for wedding banquets. Their flat screen TVs kept rolling images marketing wedding receptions. I'll see to the banquet food very soon as one of my buddies will also be having his wedding banquet here in a few months. I'm sure the food will be good, just like their dim sum.
(4)Erika C.
Decent. Portions are a little large, which isn't a good thing for dim sum, but I can't complain about more food. The foie gras and shark fin pork siu mai would be more accurately described as pâté and shark fin pork siu mai. Quick service. I asked for a sauce that they wouldn't give me. Boo. I didn't press further, but weird. Four stars because many places are a lot worse.
(4)Justin L.
Just another dim sum place in the bay area....nothing more to say but to go early to wait in line on the weekends, or unless you have connections ;) To the tourists, yes, you looking at Yelp reviews for dim sum in SF...please DO NOT eat chinatown dim sum...please go to the ones such as Zen or the other restaurants OUTSIDE of chinatown...that's where the best chinese food is...FYI
(3)Bay Area Yelper S.
If you want a Pleasant dining experience, DO NOT EAT HERE. Service is as distasteful as is the food. Angie the manager is rude and insulting. Waiters are abrasive. Restarurant smells like old reused fried oil.
(1)Jenny T.
My mom has been guilting me into taking her out for a long time now. So, I decided to take her to this place. If it was a hit, we would have brought the entire family over here for our usual festive family dim sum feasts. But O.M.G., it was about the worst dim sum I've ever had in my life...yes, in my life!!!!! To top things off with bad against bad, the cost was hefty, the quality was bad, the service lacked, and taste was not good. Hefty hefty hefty is the right way to describe this. It was a big bag of garbage. Where do I begin?!?! I guess with all the bad dishes... 1) Har Gow (shrimp dumpling) - it fell apart when I picked it up with my chopsticks. The skin stuck to the bottom of the paper along with the other 3 dumplings in the steamer. I ruined my har gow and the other 2 by picking this one piece up. When it falls apart like this, it means the skin is either too thin, it's been on the steamer too long or they are not fresh. It's probably a combo of all 3. 2) Seu Long Boa (shanghai dumplings with pork and crab) -the skin was too think, the skin broke apart when I picked it up, the meat juice fell to the bottom of the steamer, the crab was non-existent, and it was just too big to pop into your mouth. The bad service came when I asked for a spoon to allow the juice from flowing all over the place, the burst of soup in this dumpling is supposed to be the best part of this dish. So, when the server came by to give me my spoon, he saw that the dumpling fell apart and the meat juices were wasted!!! My mom being a Chinese BOLD lady told our server immediately...I know he saw what happened and heard my mama but he casually walks away like nothing happened. If he gave a crap about this establishment, he would have reacted to this right away. 3) Blackbean chicken feet - no flavor and over steamed. The skin was MUSHY. 4) Snow peas and dried scallops rice crepes - WTH! It looked so silly when it came out. It was a 3-4 inch diameter filled snow peas wrapped with rice crepe. It lost its dim sum delicate-ness by showing up on our table in this size. The thought behind this could had been more refined. And it could have been hot, it was barely Luke warm. 5) Lo bok gow (pan fried taro cakes) - the taro flavors didn't shine through, it tasted mostly of dough. The cut of the piece were uneven, some taller than others, some were square and others rectangular. My mom was quick to point that out since presentation is part of this experience. 6) Baked shredded taro rolls - my mom ordered this one and told me she never seen this on any menu in the Bay area before and had only tried them in China. They are supposed to be good. Well, not these. Never had one before but already, it didn't taste like anything that my mouth would crave again. It was a tasteless thick dough baked with shredded taro inside. My mouth turned upside down with this one. 7) Lychee jello - yuck. Again, it was jello with no flavors. Where was the lychee?!? It should had been called 2 color no flavor jello. 8) Steamed honey cake - this was okay. My mom said that it was okay. She said that the holes in the cake should have been more bigger and more plentiful, which is supposed to show cooking skills and technique. I didn't know that but mom did. 9) Steamed custard/preserved egg bun cake - it looked pathetic when it arrived. The top layer should had been plump and as smooth as a babies bottom. But instead, it was lumpy and wrinkled up like a 110 year old lady that lives in a shoe! Then when you bite into it, the top layer was hard and the custard was overly sweet. Oh, this was bad bad badabing bad! 10) Liver pork seu Mai dumpling - I did not like this one at all. The liver overwhelmed the pork and it was a bad combination. Their attempt of fusion style dim sum was lost with the liver pâté. Now for the GOOD! 11) cha seu sow (baked BBQ pork roll) - I'm not a big fan of this dish but my mom loves it. This was the only decent item we tasted. It was a crispy buttery exterior dough that flaked off perfectly and inside had a nice balance of flavors with BBQ pork. It was topped off with roasted sesame seeds, which I thought added an extra layer of nice crunch to it. I'm not a fan of this dish but I thought this one was pretty spectacular. We really wanted to like this place because it was an adventure on its own to try a different restaurant. But we both came out really disappointed. Since my mom guilted me into going out with her, I really wanted her to be impressed with my restaurant selection. I blew it. Tip: don't waste valuable tummy real estate space for this dim sum restaurant. If there was a zero star, that is what I would have given this place. Yea, that bad...
(1)Michelle F.
Food is below average. Everything is overly salty and you can definitely tell that they were not light on the MSG. My mouth feels drier than the desert right now and I've drank one too many cups of tea to make up for it... Service is horrible. All the workers here have a bad attitude. If you ask them more than one question, they get irritated. Or they give you a half assed response. Nobody looks like they enjoy working here. We had to grab the busboy's attention to get our empty bins cleared....there were over 10 empty ones on our table.... And I'm not even exaggerating. It's my first time here and I don't think I will ever come back....
(1)Precious K.
Happened to be in the area so gave this place a try. Parking & the short wait deserved the 1 star And everything else is just below average! Custard bun: dried custard inside the bun.. Durian puff: nth is puffy here! The durian filling is too little and the outside is too hard & dry Tofu fa (tofu dessert) : nasty!! It was HARD and very rough texture ! Worst I ever had! The other dishes I didn't even bother trying because my husband said it was NOT good at all.. I will not come back for dim sum.. Maybe if I'm in the area I will try their dinner and update my review then :)
(1)Eddie W.
At Zen Peninsula, they utilize the push cart method to service their dim sum. I am told you can also order off the menu as well. To be honest, I don't recall most of what we had but suffice to say most of everything we had was A-OK. They definitely offer some unique dim sum options that I have not seen in other establishments. Whether that is a good thing or not, I am still not sure. Service is a little splotchy but you really can't expect much more. Overall Thoughts Not the worse dim sum place. certainly not the best I have had
(3)M C.
Came here for a dinner and realized the parking lot has cracks and potholes. The streets around have limited lighting. And the door is to the side, not in the front. Inside the restroom is uncleaned, maybe once a day. The place has a grungy rug and the tables are lop sided. The waiters are on the young rude side. The food is OK, price for what one gets isn't bad. The flavoring and presentation is what is preventing this place from being better.
(3)Selina S.
Good food and great service. We had a party of 25 people for private dinner. Three waiters and 2 staff attended to all details from changing plates, filling water prompty and serving food individually on a small plate to each guest. The quality of food is praised by all the guest. I highly remember this restaurants for dinners, wedding and birthday parties.
(5)Gerry K.
It's just food, but the service is a BIG ZERO!!!!! We had to ask for soy sauce in a Chinese restaurant! And also for hot mustard, and refills of water, as well as hot tea. Yet there were Chinese people eating there. Do they not know good food and service? What a BIG disappointment. Also, quite pricey, food is mostly undercooked, and not very tasty.
(2)Helen C.
I've been to Zen Peninsula a couple times to attend wedding banquets and had a good experience overall. However, just a heads up for people who are looking to come here and reserve for their prospective wedding banquets. I called them to ask about availability for a wedding banquet of less than 15 tables for a Saturday evening and was informed that their Saturdays for the specified time frame were available. However, a couple days later, we walked in to try and get more info with the intention of trying to reserve a date. We were told by the staff that they only want to book a full house on Saturday nights, but Sundays are more flexible. It's still a nice place to have your wedding banquet, but just would have liked that staff was more up front about the fact that they require a minimum number of tables before they will do business with you.
(3)Alyssa Z.
This place is very decent. My grandma took my cousin and I out for lunch, and the bill came out to be about $100 for 3 people! We had some leftovers of food we didn't really like.. like some fried egg yolk thing, ew! There are better places.. like Koi palace. Pro--some decent food, and no wait at the time I went (around 2:30pm on a Friday)
(2)Mona W.
I remember back in the days when Zen peninsula was recommended as one of the top dim sum spot by the older generation Chinese in the Bay area. It had been a really long time since my last visit to Zen Peninsula. Perhaps I was too spoiled by the fierce competitors like Koi Palace, the food was just mediocre to me and I wasn't thrilled. The dim sum was fine. Nothing was wrong and they were perfectly fulfilling to someone craving a dim sum meal. However, their dim sum lacks delicacy and attention to little details. The Roast Pork was too tough and the Crab & Pork Dumplings was too dried. The Egg Yolk Buns was too thick and Beef Rice Crepes skin wasn't thin enough. I know I am very picky when it comes to Chinese food. Can't help it since I grow up in Asia where amazing Chinese food was readily available on a daily basis. This place didn't get too busy even on the Sat. If you are craving dim sum on a weekend and don't feel like waiting over an hour, Zen Peninsula is really not a bad choice. There were still quite a few empty tables when we finished our lunch about 1. Probably not a good sign for the restaurant but I won't complain.
(3)Ann L.
Finally tried Zen Peninsula for dim sum in Millbrae. It's on El Camino Real & Center St on the Right side if coming from SF & Hwy 101. Parking on the street or in the back their own parking lot. We got there about 10:45am and no wait on Sat 4/16/11. The room is pretty big & service is pretty fast - they have ladies carrying trays, pushing carts, & special made to order items you can check off. Alaskan crab $19/lb. They had a "No AB376" - the ban of shark fin in Calif sign on the host stand. Stuff we got: black bean spareribs - ok, needed to be more tender & have more flavor. bbq pork flaky pastry (cha shiu sow) - fine chicken feet - fine tofu skin rolls - fine shrimp & veggie steam dumpling - fine, 3 pcs. pork porridge w/ tiny bit of friend donut - I tasted it, was ok seaweed salad & mini octopus - fine shrimp rice crepe - can get made to order. ok. foie gras shiu miu $4.5 for 3 pcs - just ok, but very rare to get this item. Only at this restaurant I think. Green tea sesame mochi $3.2 for 3pcs - made to order. Black sesame lava is really hot, be careful! Tea - I asked for jasmine. $1 per person. Subtotal $38.20 + $3.63 tax = $41.83 before tip. Credit cards allowed. Separate bathrooms in the front, left side. Women's 3 stalls, 2 sinks.
(3)Eric F.
Zen Peninsula admittedly came through with surprisingly well-cooked Cantonese cuisine, but the service here left much to be desired even by Chinese restaurant standards. My family and I opted for a set menu and dishes were quite good across the board with notables including the appetizer platter featuring beef tongue as well as the steamed chicken. Now on that service, the maitre'd didn't even so much as crack a smile upon greeting us and the mannerism of the staff here is just poor in general. I had to repeat myself several times too when asking the waitress to chill my wine after giving me a blank face and no acknowledgement at first. Good (but not great) food, average prices and lousy service. Sums things up pretty well I'd say.
(3)Wing N.
Customer service is awful here, the waitress "Ivy" has very bad attitude. She let her friends in without any ticket or number during the lunch time on Sunday. I will not come to this restaurant anymore because of the customer service. you just lost my business because of Ivy.
(1)Lauren K.
I'd say 3.5 stars but I'll round down only because I feel like the people working here don't like me. I come here with family 3-4 times a year usually for dim sum and sometimes for dinner and you would think they would pay special attention to us but unfortunately I really do feel like they neglect us... The food is delicious as always and I have no complaints. For 6 people we ended up eating 6 plates which was more than enough. We ordered the Peking Duck with the buns (my favorite), Panfried seafood chow mein, salt and pepper beans, black bean fillet rock cod, XO beef, spicy seafood tofu, and peking duck. All the dishes were made really well so I'd recommend all of them except the spicy seafood tofu only because I can't stand spicy and I'm not a huge huge fan of tofu.. There's a huge selection on food and the wait time for your dishes to come out is not that long. I only wish that they would serve my rice with the saucy dishes because I like eating it with my rice.. we had to remind them to bring it out. Food is salty, but I guess all Chinese food is salty (I went through 3 glasses of water!). Still one of my usual places to eat Chinese food.
(3)Doctor B.
Always a friendly place to eat, the food is great and the service is much more relaxed than other dim sum I have frequented. The lack of soy sauce on the table is a bit disappointing, but their ability to cater to even a party of one is a great reason to drop in for a quick dim sum fix.
(4)Taylor W.
If I could give 0 stars I would. This place is terrible. Terrible service and disgusting food...l would not waste time waiting...because thats what happened today w a party of 2! You wait longer then you wohld at Disneyland on a Saturday! We waited almost 2 hours to be seated. After putting our order in, and waited about 30mins to see if our last items were on the way....we had to call the waiter over. He tells us it was sold out. So we could have been waiting much longer. This place is Terrible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'd rather eat at dim sum king with rats falling out of the ceiling then come here ever again!!!!
(1)ted n.
CRAB CRAB CRAB CRAB CRAB CRAB CRAB after eating here this is all i can think about for days. i am sad i do not live in sf nor do i have drug dealer amounts of money to spend on luxurious king crab
(5)Maggie C.
Absolutely ridiculous! I should have taken some time to read the reviews before visiting this place! Seriously avoid at all costs!! I came here a couple weeks ago and I was served some of the worst dim sum dishes I've ever had. The shrimp crepe/direct translation is long noodles with shrimp in the middle was the mushiest blob item I've ever had. You can clearly this dish was lacking in quality just by the looks of it! But looks can be deceiving so I dig in....only to find that my chop sticks were unable to pick up any of the pieces cause they broke the second I tried to pick it up and fell back down like slime! Same with all the other dim sum! The wrapping of the ha gaw tore the second the chop sticks touched it and as a result, it ended up on our plates in a million pieces. Ditto for the chives dim sum and much more. This place is on the pricey side of dim sum as well, and I guess I was expecting much more since I was paying twice as much as I would be at Dim Sum king or elsewhere. Furthermore, I was only greeted by our waitress when she came to collect the money!! The place was half empty so I knew they were not busy, still we had to wave down the busboy/dim sum serving ladies to get napkins,etc. We also found hair surrounded by blocks of black gunk on the spoon served with the shanghai dumpling soup. Again, we had to wave down someone so they could help us exchange the dish, except they said they would ONLY be replacing the spoon! The spoon was in the dish to begin with!!! Yuk so we stayed away from that. So when we got our bill, this was when I meet our waitress! WOW it's so nice to meet you and see you're only interested in getting us to pay our bills rather than making sure we had a pleasant experience. So we tipped 10% and she hawked over us as we placed our money down. As we got up to leave, she started making a scene by saying we did not tip enough and threw the pen down along with a nice death stare. I figured 10% was generous considering the fact that she completely ignored us the entire time. I was so close to taking the bill back and giving her absolutely nothing!
(1)Steph F.
I guess the saying that restaurants that focus a lot on advertising in newspapers are not that good... I've seen Zen Peninsula ads all over the Chinese newspapers for awhile and my family decided to try it out today. We arrived just before 1pm in time to avoid the wait that I've read about in some of the reviews. The restaurant was still pretty full. There are people going around with carts but you could also order on by checking off the items you want on the sheet you're given. We ordered the pea spouts dumpling, shrimp dumpling, porridge, egg yolk buns, the Shanghai style pork dumping soup, Malaysian style steamed sponge cake, green tea sesame mochi, and the mango and pomelo jello. While this dim sum restaurant had a lot of variety, nothing really stood out as being exceptionally good. The egg yolk buns were not bad. The filling was good but the bun itself was a bit tough. I'm a fan of green tea flavored items and was disappointed that the green tea sesame mochi didn't taste like there was any green tea flavor in it. The mango and pomelo jello was something new. I haven't seen it in the jello form before and am used to eating it with sago as a dessert. The biggest disappointment was the Malaysian style steamed sponge cake. It was practically flavorless and was not cooked properly because the middle was a bit hard. While the dim sum wasn't the best, maybe dinner might be a different story?
(2)L C.
HELL NO. came here for my brother's birthday. the place was dead. we had 16 people to a table. FOUND 3 DIFFERENT SPECIES OF BUGS in 3 DIFFERENT plates of food. seriously?! they said it's because they sprayed some sort of insect repellent the night before which is why there are many bugs. WTF? IS THAT EVEN A LEGIT ANSWER? oh yea, and they had the nerve to hand me a $600+ bill.
(1)Trish L.
This place is really good on the weekdays. Great service and large portions. Get the Chow Fun and Chow mein. They are huge. And delish. Free parking too. Don't go during the weekend when there are large parties. No parking. Long waits, and tight tables.
(4)Fancypants J.
I love the siu mai here and the chiu chow peanut dumplings. Also the custard tarts and the fried milk. The har gow are good too. Honestly there have not been too many dishes that I didn't care for. You have to get here kind of early or no one really comes around with food & you have to order from the kitchen. And that's been a crapshoot in my experience..when we have come by ourselves they either brought the wrong item or didn't bring it out at all but when we came with friends that spoke chinese we got all of our items within 20 minutes. Hmmm. Don't get me wrong-all of the employees are super nice-even with a language barrier. They don't mind showing us what is inside each steamer etc but it's kind of hilarious when we obviously don't speak chinese and a lady will come out and bark something in mandarin at us waving the dish around and we're just like O_______O Well what is it? LOL....it's almost more fun if you don't quite know what you're getting though. Fried milk is a must try-it reminds me of haupia with a batter around it..so good.
(4)Kimberly H.
What crappy service! This is a dim sum place where you just push carts around and ppl ask for stuff off the cart. They had only two carts so we ordered a la carte half the ordered food didn't even show up and we just sat here for an hour. What a waste of time. The food is not worth the wait or the crappy service.
(1)Ali C.
Long wait for a seat for dim sum on a holiday. However, once seated and we got dim sum dishes, we were pleasantly surprised. The dishes were quite good, especially the tofu skin wrap. We added a jalapeno salt fried crab and this was excellent. Fluffy and crunchy batter. And the lobster noodle was pretty decent. Service is mediocre. Since they were so busy, it's was hard to flag down a waiter to help us. They have a parking lot with really tight spots.
(4)Natalia D.
Good food, great service. Great first time dim sum experience. If you dont see what you want coming around just ask for it. I will be back for sure!
(4)Denny L.
Came here for dim sum with my family. Service is slow, food is ok. There's many other spots Way better then zen peninsula!
(3)Jay B.
The good: Service & sever Kent hooked it up King Crab= 3 dishes full of king crab Beer Xiaolongbao Salt & pepper chops Ong choy Sweet & sour soup Free dessert (tapioca) The bad: Little pricey The ugly: Carpet Bathroom
(3)Ruby C.
Dim sum is okay, parking was a breeze, and surprisingly no wait for dim sum on a Saturday morning. You can order specific dim sum dishes or just wait for the push cart to come by. They have sesame roll & durian pastry; two items that not too many dim sum places carry. In general, the size of their dim sum was on the smaller side and the tripe dish was very salty.
(3)David L.
You Better Know Someone We came here on Sunday with a party of 7. Waited for about an hour an noticed 2 tables large enough for our party were given to other people who just walked in. I know they were not in front of us because the hostess told us we should be next and they didn't have a number. We brought this to the hostess atrention and the look on her face told the whole story. Total BS and I will NOT be back! Unless you got a hook up be prepared to be passed up by other people. The food is decent but not worth that kind of service.
(1)Angela T.
Just had dim sum lunch here today. There was a private party going on and the restaurant did not provide any screens for them. So everyone can see their party going on along with people dancing and doing Kung Fun demonstrations. Music was very loud. There was no privacy to the party going on. I'm here to eat lunch, not to watch other people dancing with loud music. The place has gone downhill from the last time I came about two months or so. Dishes and tea cups were not clean. I clearly had a plate with stains on it. Service was okay.
(1)Lily L.
The food was okay, and the service was almost non-existent for an almost empty restaurant. We pretty much had to flag them down for everything. We decide to go here because I had a craving for fried milk and this was one of the few restaurants in the bay area that serves this dish. We had: Peking Duck (1/2) yelp.com/biz_photos/zen-… Average. Tofu & Spinach yelp.com/biz_photos/zen-… This dish was surprisingly good. The tofu was lightly fried and very tender on the inside. It also tasted a bit like egg. The spinach part is pretty much what you would expect. The whole dish was covered in a sweet sauce. I would recommend this just for their delicious tofu. Fried Milk yelp.com/biz_photos/zen-… The dough was pretty thick and the fried milk was just taste-less in general... this dish was very disappointing.
(2)Jennifer C.
We had our rehearsal dinner here and the food was amazing. I highly recommend the wedding banquet dinner. Unfortunately, we were told that the dinner could start at 5pm, but found out when we arrived that the kitchen doesn't open until 5:30pm. I felt bad for my guests; many people arrived as early as 4:30pm and had to wait around until we could get the dinner started. The restaurant should have told us 5:30pm instead of 5:00pm so that we could plan better. We have come here for regular dinner, which is a hit or miss. Some of the entrees are amazing, and some are just okay. One time we ordered a whole chicken, which did not provide much chicken, despite being extremely expensive.
(4)Jimmy L.
OK, so came here at 'round 11-11:30a, or so for Father's Day, and the wait was around 25 min - not bad, considering the special day. Aside from the normal dim sum from the carts - har gow, sui mai, ham sui gok, veggie dumplings, char siu bao, etc. I also ordered additional off of the dim sum menu - chicken feet, cheung fun (long flat rice noodles) with bitter melon, pan-fried taro cakes, mini beef brisket w/clear broth, egg custard tarts, beef tendons, and glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaves. Though the wait is longer and it takes the thrill away from taking food from a cart, ordering dim sum from off the menu gets you fresher/hotter food items, which made a huge difference, esp with specialty items such as the brisket and the bitter melon dishes. I was pleasantly surprised at how good these items were! Not too saucy/salty, nor laden with MSG, and well-prepared.
(4)Kitised U.
Had dinner here for the first time for a friend's wedding banquat. Didnt like any of the food. Some of the stuff is not hot enough and pre fried from the kitchen. The overall quality is disappointing. Service is average. Seating is ok. Will i go back for chinese food? Nope. There are a lot better restuarants in mibrae and other areas. One star because thats the lowest I can give.
(1)Vivian L.
Nom nom....dim sum, who doesn't love some!? I came here with my parents Sunday at noon and it wasn't busy; we were seated right away. Here, the dim sum ladies carry trays instead of pushing carts so variety's a bit limited; therefore, we decided to grab an order sheet and marked things we wanted. Dim sum ladies here weren't too friendly either, they had a really "salty" look whenever we rejected what they had to offer (sorry, we couldn't lessen your load). Anyways, the food was just average. There was lots of MSG and it kicked in real fast after my meal. The worst item had to be the fried shrimp balls, which so happens to be my favorite item -__-, #sadlife. The shrimp balls here are coated with almond slices instead of the usual fried crisps. It just tasted weird. And when I asked for it to be cut in half, the dim sum lady told me there was egg yolk inside of it, but when I bit in I wasn't able to find anything...was she just too lazy to grab scissors? Overall, average food but not much of a wait so come here if you just want a quick dim sum fix. BUT I don't recommend it nor would I be returning anytime soon.
(3)Man L.
If you have been to Hongkong and love dimsum, this is the best place for you. Authentic food, fast service, and good price. Cons - long wait on Sunday lunch, which is typical if the place offers good food and good service. I can't help keep coming back. Try it.
(4)Venus L.
Mm. A while back my family used to come here quite often for our dim sum needs. However, there was a period where we decide not to because their quality of dim sum was slowly decreasing. I'm happy to report now that their dim sum has gradually improved over time and is now yummy again. Located right on El Camino, it's easy to notice this place because they have a huge sign right on the corner with butterflies on it. Their restaurant includes a decent size parking lot, although their spots do get hella cramped. Seriously, not trying to be racist, but watch out for Asian drivers. The inside of this restaurant is big. Yeah, big. They do wedding receptions here and it's understandable why. There's a few TVs scattered around and sometimes they'll change the channel so you can watch sports. Servers here are pretty friendly. If you start coming here often, they'll start to remember you and will be friendlier than those who have never seen you before. Prices are pretty decent for what you get. Then again... My mom usually pays and I usually just eat so.. You'll have to see for yourself. Overall, my family and I still come here once in a while. It's a decent place to go to fill your dim sum craving.
(3)Daniel S.
The place was full (of Asians) the sign said they were open, but when we walked in they looked at us and then said they were closed. Apparently this place does not like White People. We left and went somewhere else.
(1)Julane S.
This is our new favorite restaurant , the quality of the food is superb also the waiters are very nice. We would recommend this place to anyone . Amazing food 10 stars
(5)Shaun t.
I would give negative stars if I could. Myself, my husband and my grandmother went to have lunch there, and they were doing good business. The couple ahead of us, who were Chinese were immediately sat. We asked for a table for 3 and the Manager looked at us, wagged his finger at us and said; "No, we don;t want you". I asked what he meant (we were well dressed, clean, professionals). "No, we are closed, You can't come in". and started pushing us back towards the door. Another couple came in, they were sat. This is blatant racism. I don't care what nationality anyone is, you DO NOT TURN AWAY PEOPLE like this. We looked around the restaurant, no Caucasians or any other nationality except Chinese / Asian. We were so insulted, and offended, we asked why and he just said he did not want us there. No explanation. Please BOYCOTT THESE A-HOLES!
(1)Angela M.
Came on sat afternoon around 12pm no line at all. The domain is decent and we got the king crab special for $29.99lb! First they steam the crab leg on top of the white noodle! Very fresh and sweet! They add a lot of garlic into the noodle which is a plus! Second dish they deep fried the rest of the crab with the salty egg! Oh mine it is super delicious!! The crab dishes itself is aim right $135! Pretty good deal when elsewhere charging $40lb.
(4)R B.
We came for a baby christening and had a family style dinner banquet. I really don't like these style of banquets because they serve each courses individually and the table gets so crowded everything is crammed on top of dishes while you are trying to make space for the next plate. They normally don't clear the dishes till the end. My first dislike was that normally Chinese restaurants don't have forks at the table. Therefore the waiter who barely speaks any English comes to each table showing forks and giving one upon request or actually signaling we want one! I hate the fact he was carrying the forks in his bare hands without any napkins. They didn't look very clean. Next comes the 8 dinner courses which are normally served individually. After appetizers and soup comes the main courses. I hate eating only fried rice until the next dish. The fried rice was not typical style. It was yellow with a few bits of bbq pork, shrimp and peas! It was bland and no flavor. The pan fried noodles with mixed seafood was also bland and awful! The rest of the food was just bland no taste at all! We sat around and did notice a crowd waiting so the place gets busy. Also if you don't speak Chinese good luck! This was pretty obvious with the service! Overall the place is typical of these types of dim sum & banquet restaurants. The place looked ok & Bathrooms were at least clean. I'm not a fan of these typical places so I won't be coming back! And good luck if you don't speak Chinese! You get that feeling!
(1)Joey Y.
I had my family Chinese New Year dinner in Zen Peninsula. We usually order the same dishes almost every time . But this time, we added two special order chicken sticky rice and the 8-treasures Duck. ( you need to per- order a day before ). It was incredibly good and I specially liked the chicken sticky rice. I'm a sticky rice lover and I like deep fried food. They deep fried the whole chicken. So the top layer the chicken skin was very crispy and inside layer the sticky rice was very chewing. Also the portion was very big and tasty too !! The 8-Treasures Duck is a very popular dish in Shanghai. My grandma likes this dish the most. It made of green bean, chestnuts, sticky rice, salty egg yolk, lotus seeds, lily , taro and duck meat stuffed inside the duck. Then they stewed the duck . I didn't know did I missed any ingredients inside the duck. Haha, this was my first try so I looked at each ingredient inside the duck. We had the soy sauce lobster and this is one of my favorite dish in this restaurant. So it will never go wrong.
(5)Jasmine B.
Warning: If you're not Chinese, you will be ignored. Waiter didn't bother to ask us for our drink order. They have an awkward set up where you're sitting in an aisle and they're bumping into you while they walk by to other tables. Food was tasty, but that could have been because we were starving.
(2)Nicholas T.
Great dim sum and pretty good for dinner as well. They get busy, so make sure to come early. The major reason we come here is for the Chinese sugar donut. You can't find it anywhere else.
(4)Crystal C.
Yum yum yummmm, yet another huge, wonderful dinner with my man's extended Chinese family for his Eastcoaster parent's visit. Started things off with a gigantic lobster and fruit salad. The fruit was tossed in what I thought was yogurt, but then someone said it was mayo, whcih made me feel a little odd that I liked it so much. Beautiful presentation, almost everyone took a picture of it. Next we had soup, which was a seafod combo served in a hollowed out Winermellon, very light and tasty, the Wintermellon was subtle and different from anything I've ever tried in soup. The dishes continued to come out, some of my favorites included: Peking Duck Soy Sauce Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Minced Duck Sauteed Filet of Flounder Crab with Double Egg Yolk (which was served with fried pumpkin that tasted like egg yolk, so good!) Honey Walnut Prawns (amazing with sort of a honey-crust on them) Fish Head with Fried Tofu and Eggplant Chinese Broccoli with Garlic and Oyster Sauce I was seriously bursting at the seams, and am very surprised that the family is not hugely overweight, because they all kept eating, sipping tea, and having a lovely conversation, all while I tried not to slip into a food-induced coma and clear my plate as to not be rude. There were several other dishes, and I tried everything that we were served though my waist was like, "please, kill meee!", I perservered. Dessert: I thought maybe, ok, one dessert will be a nice taste-changer, but think again Crys! First we were served little date cookies, then soft pink mochi covered with coconut, then a hot sesame-tapioca pie with almond cookie crust, then steamed egg whites with milk, then fluffy, sweet honey-molasses bread (my favorite, and I got to take it home!). This meal was neverending - but in a good way. It was so awesome to be a part of this dinner, and the restaurant is really nice - hgue tanks of lobster, crab, and prawns to your left when you walk in, simple decor, a little dated but they make up for it with food. Love it and loved all the food. I hope to dine here again once my stomach has digested all the great food!
(5)Amanda L.
I've had two very different experiences here, but I'll base my rating on the better one. Bad experience: Chinese New Year Weekend, Sunday morning, of course what do you get? An extremely long wait with horrible service. But let's not go there. Good experience: Came here at around 10:05am on a Saturday morning. Super empty! Amazing! We were like one out of 3-4 groups there at the time and we marked what we wanted on the sheet they gave us and all of our food basically came out at once. Definitely loved it that way because I hate waiting for my favorite dish to come around. Everything is good. Plus they have ja lerng (Chinese donut wrapped in noodles) here!! Yum. HUGE note to self: The baked cha siu baos (pork buns) come with a bo lo bao (pineapple bun) crust on top!! So if you want the plain cha siu baos, get them steamed.
(4)Larry L.
Dim sum standard not met once again. There's a reason why there's no wait on the weekends my fellow tempers!
(2)Brian O.
My favorite weekend dim sum. Order what you want and sit back. Be adventurous and try the less recognized items brought around on carts. You won't be disappointed. Definitely helps to speak a little Chinese but don't be intimidated if you don't.
(4)Geoff G.
This review is for dinner only. To the Chinese, it is almost pointless to talk about a restaurant's decor. Food is foremost in their minds. The decor of Zen is a good example of a boring down-to-earth restaurant and for awhile, before I realize it was a restaurant, I thought it was a place for Zen meditation! It consisted of one huge dining room furnished with round banquet tables. The bright lights are definitely not conducive to romantic date nights. There are no chandeliers or padded chairs or booths for your seating comfort. Over the years, I have decided to go with the flow and learnt to ignore ambiance in a Chinese restaurant. There were four of us and the evening turned out delightful. For Chinese dining, it is best to have at least four in your party while six or eight would be even better. The dinner is typically "family" style and with a bigger group, everyone has a better chance of sampling a greater variety of dishes. We started the evening with a big ceramic tureen of their daily double boiled Pork and Watercress Soup ($12.00). This is a must try for watercress lovers. The essence of authentic Chinese soup was to boil for long hours so as to bring out the full flavor of the pork and the robust but yet delicate taste of fresh watercress.The meat was melt-in-your-mouth tender and the watercress was soft w/o the texture being wilted or mushy. For me, a good soup is always a great beginning to a meal. We all had seconds with still plenty of soup leftover. If you love Manila clams, you would love these. As an appetizer, we ordered 2 good-sized Empress Clams (kwai fei pong $7.00 each) that were steamed with garlic and bean thread vermicelli in soy sauce and oil. I prefer the smaller Empress clams, as they tend to be less chewy; the muscles are not as tough and meat tastes sweeter. Anyway, they were still decent although I have had better. The server raved about their Soy Sauce Chicken ($14.50 for half) and we were glad he did. It was a solid rendition and the chicken was doused in the marinating sauce. The sauce kept the chicken moist, tender and tasty, even the breast pieces. It was a little sweet but certainly not over the edge. The meat and skin too were so delectable that I would be a happy camper if I can just have the sauce and chicken over rice as a complete meal. It is difficult to order a steamed fish when there are just two of us as most fish weigh in over a pound. Our friends felt the same way and so steamed fish it was for the four of us. We picked Channel Cod ("red dragon" or "hoon long" in Chinese, $25/lb) all 1.75 lb of it and it was still swimming in the tank. It got its nickname from its red body. The fish can't get any fresher than this! Steaming the traditional way in ginger and scallions in soy and oil was the only way to go. Steaming a fish is an art by itself. Timing in relation to the weight of the fish is everything so as to avoid over or under steaming. The mild and delicate meat was such a joy to savor. The Koreans are known for their kimchi, the Japanese for their tsukemono and the Chinese for their ubiquitous pickled mustard greens. With this in mind, I opted for the Calamari stir-fried with Pickled Mustard Greens ($12.00). It also gave me a chance to test wok hay and the chef's stir-fry skills. The dish was delish no doubt but lacking in wok hay. The chewy calamari and the sweet and sour pickles were an awesome appetite booster. The last course was vegetarian: Eggplant with a mixture of Mushrooms and Chinese Preserved Radish ($12.00). The standout here was the preserved radish that added crunchiness, umami and a salty and savory flavor to this dish. The complementary tong sui dessert was forgettable literally as I have already forgotten what it was! In concluding, I have to say none of the dishes was mind blowing but they were still good enough to warrant return visits.
(3)Jessica C.
We came in a group of 14 people a couple weeks ago. On the way to getting here I had underestimated the explosion of a box of solo cups on 101 that created a standstill, but imagined an epic flip cup war was waged the night before at this very place on the freeway. Ok, probably not, but isn't it fun to imagine stuff like that when you're sitting on the freeway at a standstill as cars overly-carefully navigate through a sea of red dixie cups? Yes? We're agreed then. The night before an epic war was waged! Which thereby blocked my timeliness or arrival at Zen Peninsula for dim sum with the college peeps. Finally I get there around 1:00pm and their lot is completely full. Have to navigate a block and a half down and over into a residential area just to find parking. Walk into the restaurant, straight to the back to find out table whereby I was sandwiched by the only two toddlers in our group, who both begin to kick me as only my friend's husband notices and laughs at me from the other end of the table. Damn it epic solo cup war! The food comes out fast, and everything is good. Har Kau, Siu, Mai, Rice Crepe rolls, chicken feet, all the stuff I normally adore are piping hot and quickly devoured. Overall this place is great. I'm not sure I'd travel all the way up to Millbrae for it, since I have some local places I like a bit more, but as a midpoint for friends in the city this is not bad.
(3)Vanessa Y.
Came here for a wedding so I guess these three stars aren't really fair since I haven't tried their dim sum out yet. The service wasn't exactly on point and it was squish and space was tight. The "stage" area was placed awkwardly and we had the nosebleed section so I wasn't even able to see the bride and groom. Guess I'll come here for dim sum and update my review.
(3)Summit S.
One of the better Cantonese restaurants on the Peninsula. I've had their Dim Sum at least a dozen times or more. I actually came here for Dim Sum two days in a row! They do get busy during the weekend Dim Sum rush, and parking can be an issue but usually there is parking available in their own parking lot. Their Dim Sum is of good quality with decent service from the waiters. The food carts come around often enough for you to pick whatever you like from the carts and by the time you're done with your previous selection, another cart comes around your table. So the flow of Dim Sum items is constant. Their Chicken Feet are some of the best I've tried. I ate 3 whole orders on my own at one time on top of other staple items. Their wrapped sticky rice is done just right. On one occasion it was a bit saltier than usual, but not to the point where you can't eat it. I noticed it because I go there often. Their waiters refill the teapots as often as needed. I get their Crysthanamum & Jasmine tea. The strength is just right and after a couple of teapot refills; they even add in more tea for you to retain flavor & strength of the tea. The only other thing I noticed is that the Chinese customers were getting their complimentary Red Bean dessert at the end of their Dim Sum meals. While the tables with ethnicities other than Chinese were not given their Red Bean dessert. I found that odd. I personally only had to ask for it once. Equality should be the norm everywhere, especially at all restaurants. Treat *every* customer with the same courtesy and respect regardless of their race or ethnicity. I have zero tolerance for this kind of behavior. * Stars deducted due to what I mentioned above.** Read my review for Seoul Jung Korean in Concord
(2)Matt Y.
11/17/13 Lunch I have come to Zen Peninsula for years and have never experienced such terrible service as I did on Sunday, Nov 17. Lunch time at around 12:30 we checked in and the place was full due to the fact that they have an upcoming party at 1:30pm that will take up half the tables of the restaurant. Fine. I got a ticket and waited. Ticket number 98. About 10 minutes later, two parties---one a party of 7 and another 4, walked in and one of the two hostesses, the older lady, told them to stand by her station and amazingly, BOTH parties were seated before we did. ***Point #1: Obviously Zen has a buddy system that if you're friends with the hostess you can bypass the take-a-number business and be seated right away. I went up to check their seating progress and was shocked that the hostess had crossed out our ticket number! Are you effing kidding me? Another 15 minutes passed. By the time our number 98 was called, we followed the hostess to a table toward the back of the dining room that was already occupied. The people who were at that table walked right in and seated themselves. ***Point #2: Zen has a very disorganized way to seating customers. You can walk right in and seat yourselves without being found out. At this point you might wnder when I haven't left and gone somewhere else. I would had it not been for my grandparents. I didn't want to shuffle them around on a Sunday when all the dim sum restaurants are cray-cray. Now onto the food. Zen uses ingredients of pretty good quality. Their dim sums have been very consistent. *BBQ Pork Plate ($7): has almost be a staple but on that day the pork was too sweet for my preference. *Suckling Pig Plate ($18): roasted pieces of suckling pig with crispy skin were still very tasty, crispy, and worth the money. *Baked Pork Puff ($3.50): always flaky and buttery, good comfort food! *Xiao Lung Bao ($4.50): not too hot, wrapper not thin enough, too much meat. *Siu Mai ($3.80): nothing special but hit the spot. Siu Mai here in America is just too big, too meaty. *Chiu-chow Dumpling ($3.50): the wrapper is tough and about half an inch thick. Forgettable. *Pan-fried Turnip Cakes ($3.50): perfectly done with slivers of turnips. *Pan-fried Rice Cake with XO Sauce ($7): more like stir-fried rice cake with XO sauce. Not too steamy, and they have skipped out on the bean sprouts and leeks. Overall food was okay, better than average. Would I come back? Not out of my own volition. I stomached all that seating crap because of my family. Otherwise I would have walked out and not looked back. These Asian restaurants take customers' patience for granted and I refuse to tolerate rude service. Their parking lot is small and is usually filled up. Look for parking on the street.
(2)Ambrose L.
You will be able to get seated because not that many people there. Food wise is average...but price is similar to other Chinese restaurants in the neighborhood.... So...I will not go back unless the whole Millbrae area is all full and pack.
(2)Francis L.
Pretty pleased with the quality of the food. They have some of the more exotic dishes like sweet seasame gelatin rolls. They also had this beef tendon dish that was slightly too salty but was an interesting dish to have. The server also recommended this fried chicken knee and fried pumpkin. I love cartilage so I really liked it. Didn't care much for the pumpkin. The churn fun was pretty good too with the outside rice sheet being the correct consistency. It wasn't super soft like the best ones but it will do. We came in a huge group of 14ish people and so we ordered 4 units of many of the dishes like har gao and siew mai. But when it came to some items, they gave up giving us 4 steam trays and just lumped it together in one plate. It's very understandable they did that to save space, but I would rather have them un-moved.
(3)Ashley C.
Besides Taiwu in Daly City as my favorite, Zen Peninsula is one of my top choices in the bay area. They are not famous, but I think it has good tastes. Plum flavor pork feet - good amount of sourness mixed with plum flavor, I drank all the sauces in this dish! Egg tart - flaky and tasty as well. Rice noodles - pretty good Thousand layered cake - also one of the two best in the bay area. Zen Peninsula and Taiwu in Daly City. Parking lot is small, but we got lucky twice when we dined here.
(4)Jason W.
It's no surprise to any of my extended family that I don't like Chinese food that much. The last time I was at Zen Peninsula, I encountered several different preparations of geoduck which is a giant, scary looking clam. It's by far one of the worst things I've ever eaten in my life. Flavorless. Rubbery. Sketchy. Yuck. Today I returned to the scene of the crime and I wasn't happy because I would've preferred to stay at home and watch the World Cup final. Zen Peninsula is a big place with tons of seating and room to move around. We were sat towards the back of the restaurant at a large circular table that could accommodate our big party of 14. When I got there, I was happy to see that some tasty dim sum was already in play as well as 10 different televisions and a big screen projector showing the World Cup! YAY! I think this made my meal much more enjoyable. In fact, my wife noticed that I ate a lot of food and thinks that combining world class soccer with Chinese food is the way to get me to eat it more! Lol. I ate barbecue bun, shrimp shu mai, some custard thing, scallop rice, sticky rice, veggie dumpling, and a bunch of other stuff and it was all very tasty. The reason I'm not giving this place 4 stars is the service. Yeah, I know it's dim sum style. Yeah, I know it's a Chinese restaurant. The problem is that hardly anybody spoke English and some of the ordering was very difficult even when we pointed at things. I am a BIG proponent of preserving culture and authenticity as much as possible, but I also know it would be in the restaurant's best interests to employ somebody with the ability to converse in Chinese and English in order to make this experience as smooth as possible for everybody. I can only imagine how many other dishes I may have tried if there was somebody to communicate with!
(3)Johnny W.
I cam here with my friends on New Year's Day (01/01/15). Even though this was on a Thursday, it felt more like a weekend. My friend lives in Millbrae and is within walking distance from this restaurant. He has been here numerous times and told us that we had to get there before 11:30am or we would have to wait a very long time for a table. So two of my friends left early to get a table by 11am, while the rest of us arrived around 11:25am. By the time I got there, there was already a long line inside the restaurant. Since two of my friends arrived early, I was able to walk by the line and sit down immediately. Like most Dim Sum places, these restaurants are always chaotic during the rush hours. My two friends that arrived early was able to get a lot of food, as it wasn't crowded yet. By the time I sat down, the frequency of a worker offering different variety of their food was starting to dwindle down. It got to a point where we were no longer being offered the food items that we really wanted. You can get a sheet of paper with all of their food items and mark down the quantity that you want to order, which is exactly what we did afterwards. After we submitted that sheet it was about half and hour later, and we still didn't receive our food yet. We flagged down a worker, showed them our receipt of our items that we ordered. Shortly after we contacted them, we got all of our food items within 10 minutes. By this time, I saw the line that was waiting for a table was already outside the door. I did like their food quite a bit, but it was your typical Dim Sum prices that you would pay for in the East Bay. It wasn't cheap, compared to getting Dim Sum in Chinatown. I would come back here, but only during their non busy hours. If I got here by noon or the heart of their dinner hours, I would avoid this place. I wouldn't have any interest in waiting over an hour and paying their prices for Dim Sum. The best time would be to get here early before the big crowd will arrive and when all of their food items are fresh & available.
(3)Elaine Y.
Yeah! I found parking right in front of the restaurant. Didn't have to wait long to be seated since the place isn't crowded at 2pm. Delicious Food: Squid and Clams with Pickles 4/5 Siu Mai 3/5 MaLaGou 4/5 (yummy and fluffy) Jook 4/5 (forgot what it is called. Lol) Steamed Beef Tripe 4/5 (very flavorful) Steamed Chicken Feet 3/5 (just alright) The service was ok...errrrr....kind of slow!
(4)Susan M.
Do NOT COME HERE. Service is awful and they charge 1$ per person for water. Seriously?!?!
(1)Jennifer F.
Went here for a special occasion. I'm kind of surprised looking at all the 4-5 star reviews because I wouldn't recommend this place to my worst enemy. The parking lot is incredibly small and there's nothing inviting about the exterior. The interior was fairly unimpressive. Things just get worse from here. The massive tanks they have surrounding the kitchen was a cloudy holding cell for a mass amount of dead large fish and lobsters. Out of 6 large tanks 3 were empty (or so it may have seemed), 1 had 4 dead large fish lying on top of one another, the 2nd had like 50 large dead lobsters stacked on top of one another (one of them had some kind of bacteria growing on its claw) and the last tank had about 2 large fish swimming slowly around the bottom of the tank. More then likely they were dying. This was a huge red flag! Im crossing my fingers that food poising doesn't set in from the extremely small amount of food I did taste (snow peas, duck, rice, noodles). I didn't find anything to be impressed with the service about so nothing much to say there. Our last fun experience of the night. A friend of mine vomited after having a few slices of the peaking duck. This place is a health hazard!
(1)Lawrence M.
The death spiral starts pretty quick when you don't maintain your standards. This was a sad lunch at what once was an innovative and terrific dim sum place. It began with four patrons standing outside in the pouring rain at 11 o'clock (Parade Day for the Giants) - the staff kept walking by the closed doors and let us stand out there. There were only 2 grumpy waiters for the whole floor -- why bother hiring more when by noon there were only 4 tables occupied? But bad food is why these death spirals happen. Witness below the fried tofu wrapped shrimp -- the skin is bloated, and another part of the same dish was undone as flour powder lingers on the surface. The stir-fried XO sauce turnip cake was pathetic -- falling apart, and note the eggs hapzardly tossed in. There was a concerning pink hue to the beef balls, and the Portuguese style egg tarts grew huge by 30%, its custard pale yellow (should be browned like a creme brûlée) and the skin hardly crispy or flaky. Took 20 minutes to get a shou mai added -- when the volume is this low, the kitchen likely doesn't bother making anything until ordered. The innovative dishes like the beef ribs with taro are gone. The standards are barely edible. Luckily, The Kitchen and Flower Lounge are nearby, and while each have slipped some, they remain solid. There is a ton of Cantonese places on the Peninsula -- if you slip, you die, deservedly.
(1)Karen M.
Likes: good Chinese food, peking duck, large appetizer dish (yay jellyfish), chicken, chewy peanut pancakey-like dessert was good, giant portions, the restaurant is big enough for wedding reception dinners (chinese banquets), nice service Dislikes: for some reason one of the lobster dishes that came out had a pungent ocean/fishmarket smell to it. and one of the desserts they brought out (pumpkin bread) was expired
(3)Tiffany S.
This place is just borderline OK - I went here for dinner on a Sunday night. 2 stars for the service, 2 for the food. Service: They were fast, almost ninja-like (+1 star). Granted it wasn't super busy or anything. I liked how there were several floor managers instead of just 1, and they were all helping out (not just standing around)(+1 star). What I didn't like (and it's really disrespectful and bad business practice) was that they decided to fill out my credit card slip for me. Seriously? Do they honestly think I would hand over my credit card to pay if I didn't agree to the additional 16% listed on the bill (or whatever percent tip that was automatically applied)? That was a big turn off, as if I'd run off with the extra $5. However, with that being said, they DO end up capping themselves at 16% tip (what if someone wanted to give them 20% or more?).. Food: The best plate was the honey walnut prawns (+1 star). Fresh, hot, crispy, and not drenched in mayo. The walnuts were glazed and crunchy (+1 star). The bad: The soup was watery (even my grandma said it tasted like water), and 8 out of 9 dishes were incredibly salty and loaded with MSG. Yes, I know all Chinese restaurants use MSG, but this was a ridiculous amount. My dad loves MSG, and even he thought it was too much. I really wanted to ask them if they've ever tasted the food they brought out. Verdict: Will not be coming back. For the price and service, I'd rather go to Asian Pearl or HK Lounge II in the city.
(2)Maya N.
What a great find! I've been to the other very popular dim sum restaurant in Millbrae many times (Hong Kong Flower Lounge), and it was a wonderful surprise to me to find another great place for dim sum. Parking can be a bit challenging as the lot gets full (it's very popular). We went for Saturday brunch and were seated with 15 mins (shorter wait than Hong Kong). As soon as we were seated, we were swarmed by the serving ladies with yummy dim sum. Within a couple of minutes we were eating delicious food. Overall it was a great experience and I would return again!
(5)Jimmy C.
Make RSVP @630 but was not seated till 7pm. Service is bad, staff were rude. Didn't get any service till 730pm. Have 10 ppl at table. Gave out only 9 plates, 7 tea cups, 8 pair of chopsticks, these niggas can't count. First dish-cold combo, shit taste burnt. How the fuck something serve cold taste burnt?! Second dish-Peking duck, was brought to the wrong table. Third dish-clam with veggy in broth. Fourth dish-chicken. Fifth dish-veggy dish. Sixth dish-Fukien fried rice. Seventh dish-the dish we all were waiting for.....soup. Came out after everything else, mind as well drinking as dessert. Fuck that gratuity of 18%, I think 5% is too much already.
(1)Minh M.
My first 1-star review The hostess gives priority seating to her regulars! It's crazy that our party of 14 for dim sum had to wait an extra hour because three big groups--who had walked in much later--were seated before us after they greeted the hostess.
(1)Nei N.
I came here for lunch with some old coworkers, and most things were pretty mediocre. Ha Gow - Skin was too thick and overcooked. The shrimp stuffing was underseasoned, but did have some slivers of young bamboo and hints of sesame oil. The underlying flavors showed potential, but it was too bland. Siu Mai - This was one of the better things we had. The flavor balance of the savory pork, sweet shrimp, and earthy shiitake was good. The texture of the ground pork was a little on the gritty side, but that's not a huge complaint. Pan Fried Daikon Cake - There's a good amount of Chinese cured meat bits and dried shrimp, but the cakes were a bit too starchy and needed more daikon flavor. Satay Steamed Tripe - They were a little overcooked as their texture was a bit on the soft side. I prefer tripe with a firmer bite, but they're still pretty tasty. They weren't spicy but had a five spice warmness. Green onions, ginger, and garlic added bright and fresh accents, while the finish was highlighted by toasty sesame oil. Mini Beef Brisket in Clear Broth - The slices of beef brisket and daikon were cooked well and tender, but they were bland. Although I could taste the five spice flavor, it needed to be more bold. Suckling Pig - Skin was lean and crispy, and meat was ok. It was slightly on the dry side but seasoned well. There was also a mild gaminess that I thought was weird. It was decent, but it's better at Koi Palace. Zen Peninsula isn't the worst choice, and some items were good. It does hold a special place in my heart, because this is the restaurant that introduced me to Egg Yolk Fried Pumpkin (Gum Sah Lam Gua). I'm sure those are still good here, but the dim sum in general isn't anything noteworthy.
(3)Athena C.
Two words: FOOD POISONING. Luckily, the 3 of us were hit with symptoms at different times. That would've been a mess with one bathroom...
(1)Raquel Y.
~ Dinner Review ~ Nice fancy chinese restaurant, elegant where weddings are held here. Food is okay though and expensive. Walnut shrimp for $18?! Crab fish maw soup was good!! - 5/5 Scallop XO sauce was not that great, scallop was overcooked - 2/5 Fish black bean sauce was ok - 3/5 String beans were good though, probably the closest similar to strings at New China in union city - 4/5 They don't speak english and they added gratuity for only 5 of us!! Isn't it supposed to be 6 or 8+ people? With that said, we might not come back here. Maybe just for dim sum, since that's what everyone says is good here.
(3)J M.
Food has gone downhill over the years and some of the dim sum that were favorites are gone like the rice noodle with fried doughnut and radish. I would say this place is not worth the prices they try to charge. But the kicker is the horrible service. I'm used to rough around the edges service at a lot of Asian places but this place takes the cake. Disorganized seating, people getting seated ahead of you even though one out of eight people are here, etc.
(1)Lisa C.
It's because I starting to love the food here, but seriously, this review isn't about the food. It's about the managers. SERIOUSLY. GET AN ATTITUDE CHECK. Mostly the male "managers" (in suits and pin stripe pants) are the most fucking douchebag jerks I've ever experienced in a restaurant. I went to lunch MANY times (hence the number of updated reviews I've written). But there's something about today just really made it a bad experience. 1. KENT (yes. I am going to name names now) threw a chair next to me at my 2-seated table, and it hit me. He also in the past told my table we didn't "TIP" enough (hello 20% is plenty for lunch). AND he one time was standing at OUR table, and talking LOUDLY across us to the larger table to the right. 2. Tall one with the square black glasses (late 30s early 40s) gives you stare of "rush" when you're looking at the check But KENT really pushes my buttons every time I go in. SERIOUSLY?!
(2)Bowdoin S.
I had dim sum here on a Saturday morning. There are not enough parking spaces in the dedicated lot, although there was decent availability in terms of nearby street parking. Service was a bit slow. We had requested a high chair for our two year old when we first arrived. It took them a while to serve the tea as well. Food was ok but not great. The Chinese donut wrapped in rice crepe was pretty dry and bland. The har gou and siu mai were solid, but not spectacular. Xiao long bao was too doughy and was not very tasty. The price was decent for the amount of food. Overall, we shelled out $60 for three adults and two toddlers. Hong Kong flower lounge nearby is much better value - we were planning on going there but there was a one hour wait. Overall, there are better nearby options to choose from.
(2)Terri N.
My sibling took me to dinner last night for my birthday. Surprisingly, someone at the table next to ours also was celebrating her birthday. When they finished dinner, the manager brought them special desserts (6+ pieces of sweets and two bowls of dessert milk drink) and even placed a lighted candle on the desserts. My sister told the manager that it was my birthday too. She nodded and we waited but she did not do anything for us. We felt discriminated against. Foodwise, I would give them 3 stars. Service-wise, one star is generous.
(1)Frances C.
Just plain awful food, the dim sums were not fresh, it tasted like it was reheated from yesterday's left over. The texture of shrimp rice roll was rough and overcooked; the turnip cake was cold. Never again.......................
(2)Ken K.
Yo, iz the Dim Sum Dood O --- yep it's safe to come here again for the 'sum again! / | \ / \ For those who follow Dim Sum Dood, will probably remember a visit 4 months ago, when there was a huge disturbance in the Force...or rather, in the "Zen", where the food tasted like it was made by amateurs with less than ideal quality ingredients. The other joke was that perhaps food sucked so bad that the chefs quit, and the dim sum aunties and grannies had to do double shift of cooking the dim sum and pushing the carts out to upsell the (damaged) goods. Either that or the previous owner lost the restaurant's ownership over a game of mah jong or pai gow poker. Who the F knows. So tha Dood took one for the team, and decided to give it a shot again upon hearing rumor of the kitchen staff and menu shakeup. And yes, it is safe to return. Most of you out there will be sufficiently satisfied. But there's still some work to be done here to take it to the next level. This is a near 3.5 experience for now. Ha gow - the golden standard...but it was just passable and almost on par with M.Y. China. The only difference is that the shrimp filling was a tad bit bland. This was the stark opposite of the April visit when the shrimp filling was overly marinated (too much sesame oil and pepper). What's consistent here is a bit too much egg white binding material. The oversteaming lead to a pretty dry shrimp filling, to the point where it was more like a shrimp meatball, rather than a crispy crunch of a shrimp. A few pieces of gow had skins already punctured, like a tiny punch hole...not the best of aesthetics, unless you like the "torn jeans" look. Cheung fun - almost there. A tad bit thinner and they would be there. Would be better if the skins were also smoother, but this is hard to control. There is definitely room for improvement here Pork dumpling in soup - shark finless version. Decent chicken broth, but the dumpling was a tad lackluster. At least Koi Palace had the right idea of using fish maw, dried scallops, fragrant shitake, to create the dried seafood umami medley, where shark fin was not allowed. Skipworthy rendition but not that bad. Steamed turnip pudding (jing lo bak go) - when I was a wee child I was a siu mai monster (like Cookie Monster loved cookies), then I was a ha gow monster when I was a teen. But now I'm a bit of a turnip cake monster (lo bak monster). It is my excuse to use the house chili sauce with it. But if the steamed version is available, it's the best taste tester...does the kitchen maximize the flavors naturally through steaming? Well this version had the right approach, just over steamed to the point where it was dry and perhaps too much starch powder (and thickened too much). At least they used the less fibrous parts of the turnip. Lots of Chinese sausage bits and dried scallop...but even a little sweet soy sauce didn't save this. Superior version can be found up at the street at Asian Pearl. There is room for improvement here. Tofu custard / tofu fa - not as sloppy as Koi Palace's but not at the right silky texture. Better than the April visit Black sesame rolls - holy smokes....a dim sum dessert item from my childhood, making a reappearance decades later! Why has this become extinct? It's so fun to eat...it's like a jello roll. Darkened to the point where it looks like analog film for cameras. Kids these days probably don't know what cassette tapes and VHS are...but anyways, this was a worthwhile effort....just not heavy enough in the sesame flavor. Have to applaud them for trying. Just like prior shakeup of the menu, the dim sum checksheet has 120 items, but only half of those would qualify for yum cha items....the other 60 are small plate appetizers and Cantonese side dish type eats, but perfectly fine to enjoy for a brunch with tea (some might fare better as dinner "izakaya" type plates with an ice cold Tsing Tao). Hard to say if these are just revival old school gimmicks or not, or just a fusion of items.... e.g. the flowing lava yolk bun, but instead it is done like a fried mochi exterior with sesame seeds....or something called Yuen Long century egg puff pastry, or their pineapple bun with cha siu inside (emulating the success of Tim Ho Wan Hong Kong's signature). Biggest downer was that the Jasmine tea lacked any fragrance. They should be ashamed of serving this flavorless tea....man why not just serve Mr & Mrs Miscellaneous jasmine tea ice cream float and give me some steamers of dim sum on the side? $heeeeeeeit. Definitely safe to return otherwise. Hope they keep it up. Just don't make me order a plate of cha siu to save my meal...
(3)Rebecca L.
I go there about once a month. It is a decent restaurant for dim sum and I like their not so regular dishes, something other than shrimp dumpling and siu mai. And, make sure you try their desserts. They are yummy!
(4)Kevin L.
Spacious and the dim sum ladies definitely do the swarming patterns that Hong Kong folks know to be authentic. As soon as you sit down, you're mobbed by Chinese women who will insist that you really have to try their dumplings, crepe rolls, fried tidbits, etc. Most speak Cantonese, some speak Mandarin, but all of them have scrappy English skills, so just point, gesture, and you're on your way to a delicious time. I'm sad that they got rid of one of my favorite dishes here and I haven't seen it replicated elsewhere at all. It was a rice crepe roll filled with fried Chinese dough, and stuffed with pea sprouts, pickled turnip, and finished off with some light soy sauce. It was a hefty dish that mixed texture and flavors, and always seemed to sell out quickly. Their dumplings are very solid here, and the shrimp is generous. Try their desserts too, but snag them early since the popular items do tend to run out well before they close up by 3 pm on weekends.
(4)Bebe W.
Zen Peninsula has solid dim sum, a parking lot, and big screen tvs (for those watching the world cup). You can have lunch here without missing any of the action. Our party was 14 and the table was a tight squeeze but we managed. The wait staff walks around with trays of dim sum, and you can also order dim sum from a menu. We had dried scallop fried rice, barbeque and baked pork buns, sticky rice, shrimp dumplings, vegetable dumplings, custard buns, green onion pancake etc. The jellyfish in the pork and jellyfish dish tasted too soft, and we've had green onion pancakes better elsewhere. Uncle wanted chicken feet but they ran out! Can you believe that? Who runs out of chicken feet dim sum?! It must be pretty popular. This place is great for large banquets and parties because they are large enough to accomodate and the decor is also more presentable than other chinese restaurants.
(3)Jacinda C.
Great for dim sum. One of those dim sum places you place your order first and they bring it to you freshly cooked. I love this concept but yet hate it. I love it since you order all the items you want rather looking form it to come out. I hate it because you can easily over order! Parking lot isn't too big so most chances you would park on the street during the busy hours.
(4)TN C.
I like eating here. Clean, nice, professional, between average and good food. The Dim Sum here has good portions and is tasty. They have marvelous facility for banquets and since the food is good that means your paying 3 arms and 2 legs to book it,.....j/k I dont know. Anyhow, this is another come early or wait long places. TIP, try not to get a table along the edges / perimeter / along the wall. It seems the carts of food jump towards the middle first and by the time they get to you they tell you they have to reload and come back.
(4)Enrique C.
My friend suggested me to go this restaurant after I told him that I like to go eat Dim Sum to the "Hong Kong Flower Lounge". I gave it a try and it was really good. It has the atmosphere of most of the chinese restaurants around Millbrae... fresh fish, lobster, crabs, etc. The food is really tasty and good. The service is good, knowing that the Chinese culture in the restaurants are usually not polite and refine. The Dim Sum is pretty good and their soups a la carte are great (supoosedly is for two people but I finish it alone).
(4)tiny w.
HHmmmmm.......how very disappointing. Here are the facts: I am not being paid to give a negative review. Their dim sum menu has a revision date of 6/30/2013. They no longer have the "Fried Mango Shrimp Roll" Think "NEW OWNER".......or "NEW CHEF".......... We went there on 7/6/2013 and found pretty much all of the dim sum basics "different tasting". Har Gow: had no bamboo shoots but in place of it had water chestnuts. Not the same. Shu Mai: No mushrooms, but it had the strands of BLACK FUNGUS. Looked like 1/4 inch long black worms mixed into the pork. Steamed Beef Tripe from the cart: just did not taste the same as before. Turnip Cake: Very salty Steamed Pork Spare Ribs with Black Bean Sauce: Had a completely different strong seasoning. It was as if the cook needed to mask some other flavor so he added strong spices to accomplish this. Like an excess of satay sauce. Pork was over soaked in baking soda too. Way too mushy, no texture at all. Anyone who has a different or same experience I welcome to hear from. If you never liked the dim sum before 6/30/2013 perhaps you will like it now. If you are looking at ZEN to find something different after 6/30/2013 then give it a try, 'cuz you will find it. I cannot see myself recommending this place for dim sum anymore. I hope it improves, more importantly where did that cook go????????
(1)Leona Z.
I had my traditional Chinese wedding banquet here on 12/13/14 and to be honest, I didn't expect much since I already had a western style ceremony and reception in October. Maybe it was this low level of expectations that influenced my experience, but I was really impressed by Zen Peninsula's high level of service and food! Kent was the server for the head table where me, my husband, and our respective parents sat, and HE IS THE MAN. He was very attentive and efficient in refilling our drinks and serving our food. He also assumed the role of coordinator, telling us when we had to start table toasts and directing us to the next table, and when we had to cut the cake. This was extremely helpful as I didn't hire a coordinator and I kept checking the time to make sure things were running on schedule (see my review below on why you should hire a coordinator). When it came time to cut the cake, we realized the bottle of sparkling cider we brought for toasting was MIA...my mom had given it to the kids table. I was just fine with toasting with Coke, but Kent was able to provide us with another bottle from the restaurant and saved the day! My parents chose the "Perfect Love" banquet menu and all the courses were well worth the money. I am not kidding when I say every guest got their own HALF LOBSTER (and claw). It was like Oprah giving away cars, but with lobsters ("You get a lobster, you get a lobster, everyone gets a lobster!"). Securing the date and working with Jason, the banquet captain, was simple enough, though it definitely helps if you or a family member speaks Chinese (Cantonese in my case). They recently upgraded their banquet chairs to beautiful Chiavari chairs, which can be expensive to rent and worked out for me bc my mom originally wanted these hideous seat covers with bows, and their carpet looked pretty new too. Though I was hesitant to have a Chinese banquet on top of my western style wedding, I was very pleased with how everything turned out and owe it all to Zen Penisula.
(5)Eugene L.
Ah today was a good day. The Lee side of the Family Posse was having a Red Egg and Ginger Party . This side of the family goes all out . I jumped into my Weekend Whip and rolled to Zen Peninsula . The FamBam had rented the Whole Restaurant out and Ordered the Special Menu. I rolled into the Parking lot , To Bad Boys Bad boys what your going to do.. I stashed my Whip in the lower lot and rolled in on foot . My Cousins wife was working the front table with the Seating Charts . The Lee side of my family is so big and diverse it looked like a Tong meeting. I didn't help I was decked out in a Black Nike Track Suit LOL. We had the run of the place . The Restaurant was set up Banquet style. I rolled to my assigned table and settled in. Each table had a 2 liter bottle of Coke and 7Up. Also a pot of Tea. So I chilled out until my table mates appeared. We were presented and served 1-Suckling Pig and Combination Cold Cut Platter. 2-Honey Walnut Prawns 3-Fish Maw and Sea Cucumber Soup. 4-Pan Seared Scallops 5-Stir Fried Steak Cubes 6-Peking Duck. 7-Stir Fried Whole Lobsters 8-Steamed Whole Bass 9- Combination Fried Rice 10 - Longevity Noodles 11- Mini Dessert Tray. OMG what a Feast , Service was off the Hook . We received a new plate to eat off of after every entree. Definitely a First Class Meal. I bid Goodbye to the Fam Bam and rolled out in the Whip.
(4)Sean J.
Living in the area and being native Cantonese, we have dim sum at least once a week, and we are judge their quality based on how the best Hong Kong dim sum should taste like. Through the years, we've been to pretty much all good dim sum places from San Francisco to Daly City to the Peninsula both old and new, including Koi Palace, The Kitchen, Hong Kong Flower Lounge, Tai Wu, etc. We have concluded Zen Peninsula overall has the best dim sum. Not only that they have among the largest selection of interesting dim sum to choose from, but also that the quality is always good and they have very good services. Being on the east side of El Camino, they are less noticeable and we in fact did not realize that they exist until a friend told us that it's their most favorite dim sum place. That also means they are less crowded and have very good service, unlike Koi Palace which is like a zoo and you get pushed around, with fine dim sum but not as good as Zen's.
(5)Douglas K.
Another typical corrupted Chinese dim sum restaurant ... We came in at noon and end up waiting for 1.5 hour for a table. The number system were used for waiting but it was completely useless. They never really called out any number. You need to be the VIP or best friend of those managers and you will get the tables right away. You can see those VIPs walked in from backdoor and served by waiters immediately ... Very sneaky. Anyway ... Food was ok but you probably will be so pissed and lost your appetite
(1)Chris F.
From first to worst. Some of my favorite dim sum items are now gone - seafood curry pie, mango shrimp rolls. Booo. The items are now smaller and just mediocre. I'm sad about the management / chef change. Won't be back.
(1)Jenny W.
Pricing: Expensive.Kind of pricey at $12-14 a plate for Chinese food. Quality: Good. Hit and miss with some, but overall was good. Turnaround: Excellent. Food actually came almost all at once. Service: Good-Excellent. Funny manager and servers when helping us take a picture. I am use to paying on average less than $10 an entree at a Chinese restaurant so when everything costed a few dollars more, I felt odd. However, each plate were large enough that we could order 7 entrees and a soup for 9 people. On the food side, some of the dishes were pretty good, especially this chicken wings dish which was full of flavor, but this scallop and egg white dish was super bland. However, at the end of dinner, we were given these mochi and cookies for dessert that were very delicious. The food also arrived very quickly with no lull in between to the point where we almost kept running out of space on our lazy Susan. This worked out for us since we were very hungry and were ravenous with everything that came forward. Near the end of dinner and after our gift exchange, we asked a waiter to help us take a picture to commemorate our gift exchange event. We had asked one waiter, but a second waiter who happened to peer over felt that the first waiter did a crappy job so he made fun of him and took over. They also had a funny manager who would come over to check up on us and exchange funny Cantonese puns with us.
(4)Elissa C.
I came here for Mother's Day dinner. The place was super packed, but that was expected. They had a "special" menu, which seemed to have a lot of dishes I had never seen before and wasn't that interested in. Where were the pea shoots with garlic??? I picked out two dishes- Korean short ribs and Peking duck. I let my mom pick out the rest. The ribs were quite tasty- enough fat on the meat so it wasn't super dry. The duck was good too, I love making those little sandwiches with the duck skin and hoisin sauce with green onions. We also had a dish of fried pumpkin with fried chicken. We got the customary red bean dessert soup, but I never eat the stuff. We go another dessert... it was baked... was custardy with tapioca. The first time I had it at the restaurant was for Chinese New Year, and it was soooo good. This time, it wasn't as good. I think they threw in some red bean, which I don't like. Overall, a good meal, but I hope the next time we go back, they have their regular menu again!
(3)John S.
5.5 out of 10, service was excellent but food was mediocre at best. I feel the restaurant has seen its better days since it smells lived in and chairs /tables were well worn. Very few patrons were in the restaurant this evening. I ordered stir fried oysters with scallions & ginger and the portion was good with good flavor. My friend had the Kung pao shrimp and it was very American without any spark. Sweet and sour, and won ton soups were good.
(3)Jana C.
Happy Snake Year, Yelp!!! Yesterday was dubbed dutiful Chinese daughter day, and thus it was: my folks' design a day of eating and shopping up and down the Peninsula. dimsum until 1430. we arrived about 1310 to a 1/3 full house, salivating... We ordered a pot of the most kickin' tea in China...Longjing cha, or lung zang tsah (Dragonwell.. and it was brewed excellently.. we all drank cupfuls of that gorgeous clear nectar-like wonder) NOTABLES!!! -green tea rice glutinous crepey-roll with ground peanut filling. great balance -filled durian puff rolls.. shaped like a spring roll, it has the lightest of fried batter and a wonderful sweet fruit filling. smooth and pleasure palace on the tongue -steamed cha siu bao. Staple. didn't disappoint. None of the cheap pork fat to plump it up noted in the filling. yum -wonderful, super large, perfectly steamed shrimp-impregnated porky meatballs. different kinds -stewed ngau zeen (rugae in a great braising liquid, with daikon radish). not for the fainthearted. oodles of flavor. they simmered this stock pot well! -loh mai gai (chinese rice tamale, if you will).... so, so bursting with the flavor of the tea leaf in which it is steamed. Love 'em. -wonderfully, thin, translucent skinned chive pork dumplings, shaped like pot stickers. so, so good --ma lai goh: sponge cake made with rock sugar.... so fluffy and light.. not too sweet. more ambery brown than yellow at this location - flakiest egg custard tarts. the center of these petite beauties is just barely cooked, leaving the most silky taste on tongue. thousand layers on the tart itself. I could have seriously ordered a plate and devoured it by myself - little meat pies with the most buttery crust, and sweet/savory filling. a specialty Chinese brunch ran me ~$50. Prices, for me anyway, on the higher side for d.s....but the caliber...oh, that higher caliber! Great food. Better than the first time here.
(5)Daryl N.
Excellent dim sum and seafood. Great rice rolls - make sure you ask for the off menu enoki mushroom beef rice roll. The choice of fresh beef instead of the frozen kind typically paired with enoki mushroom was inspired. Manila clams with black bean sauce was very fresh as well. You can taste the freshness and the sauce did not overwhelm, which is refreshing in light of your typical Chinese restaurant's liking for heavy sauces. All in all this place reminds me of good Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong.
(5)Jane L.
We had a reservation for 9 people and early, it didn't seem like a reservation was needed. However, as the night wore on, the place started to get packed. Their parking lot is pretty small, but good thing there was a lot of street parking. We ordered about 8 or 9 dishes and only some stood out. Someone got the cashew shrimp, which was just mediocre, but then again, I am not really a fan of cashew shrimp. We also got a plate of rice noodles and for some strange reason, there was some chow mien mixed in. What? The noddles were definitely in need of some salt. A friend also got a eggs and scallop dish. It was strange looking. It was all egg whites that looked almost fully cooked with a runny egg yolk in the middle and the scallops were shredded. It came with a small dish of soy sauce, since the dish didn't have much taste either. I think the best dish was the chicken wings. The wings were really full of flavor and the meat was tender. Unsure if I would come again as the food is pretty mediocre except for the wings.
(3)Nicole S.
Ever wonder what it's like to have a grown man, who was probably the manager, throw a tantrum at your table? Come here and you'll find out. I've been to Zen Peninsula a couple times, but Wednesday marked the first time I've came here for dim sum. My friend decided we should try dim sum here since we tend to stick with a couple regular spots. DIM SUM: We arrived at 1pm and were seated immediately. The food was okay, nothing really stood out. They do have certain items that aren't typically found in most dim sum spots such as durian pastry puffs and foie gras sui mai. One of my usual must haves is sharkfin dumpling soup. I was quite disappointed in the sharkfin dumpling because there was barely any sharkfin. I have been here for dinner as well as a wedding banquet. The food quality is better than most Chinese restaurants, but that also comes with a higher price tag. SERVICE: Horrible! The food here is 2-3 stars, but the service totally ruined our lunch and I ultimately decided that Zen Peninsula is a 1 star place. My friend wanted peking duck and buns and ordered HALF a duck. When the dish came, it seemed like a lot and my friend asked if it was half a duck. The server responded "yes...duck", basically responding like that because she didn't understand English. As we picked out our pieces of meat and ate the buns, I said that had to be a whole duck, there were two drumsticks! My friend asked who we assumed was a manager and he said it was a whole duck and proceeded to argue with us that we ordered a whole duck. Finally, he threw a fit, got an empty plate, took most of our duck, and walked away with the plate. He took away most of the skin! I'm assuming he threw the duck away but who knows, hee could have let us keep it and adjust the price. I believe his name is Jason since that was the name who had adjusted the duck order on our receipt. PARKING: A private lot with limited parking or street parking is available. At 1pm on a Wednesday, the lot was filled but street parking was easy to find.
(1)Connie L.
I have fond memories of this place because it was my grandma's favorite restaurant. Now when me and my family come here we like to reminisce. I don't know if they got a new owner or new cook but the quality of the food seems to have gone down. A lot of the buns have gotten smaller and the baked taro bun we got today had a tiny smear of taro paste inside. The chicken feet, according to my sister, was missing out on flavor. I'm giving my review now because we received incorrect information from a supervisor. I love the sesame mochi dessert but most places will roll it in crushed peanuts. I'm allergic to peanuts, so we asked if we could get one that wasn't rolled. When we came here frequently a few years back they did as we requested without any problems. But the supervisor we asked this time assured us that it was rolled in sweetened green bean flour/powder. When it finally came to our table we saw that it was covered in crushed peanuts.
(2)John W.
Came after the lunch crowd. Staff was friendly; didn't rush us in ordering. Option of five teas. Had combo seafood pan fried noodles, steam bbq pork buns, & haw gaws ( shrimp dumplings). All were fresh & favorful. Will come back again.
(4)Gwen L.
You know the restaurant isn't up to par when there's a 45 minute wait at Koi Palace and multiple free tables at Zen Peninsula. We were perplexed as to why this place was empty enough that there were plenty of parking spots in the lot. That has never happened to us before. We were seated immediately in an AC vacuum, which quickly sucks the heat from the food. We ordered most items off the dim sum menu and got a couple that were circulated by the waitressed. Much of the food that was circulated came out lukewarm. The items brought out from the kitchen tasted ok but nothing to rave about. The biggest disappointments were the salted fish with chicken fried rice and combination chow main. Both were excruciatingly bland; I almost resorted to the big no-no of adding soy sauce. The final tab for all the food was a whopping $85 for only three people. *smh* I would have been happier with dim sum from a take out place. Onto my quest to try as many dim sum restaurants as possible in the Bay Area.
(2)Darryl Y.
Zen Peninsula opened about a dozen years ago, about the same time I was finishing up at the school across the street. It's surprising that I hadn't been to Zen Peninsula until just now, because it was a great experience. My grandma recently had her 90th birthday party here. We went here to try out some dishes beforehand. The manager showed us a giant lobster, and then proceeded to let us name it before they cooked it. The lobster was so large, they cooked it in two different ways. It's hard to describe, but all I know is that it was THE. BEST. LOBSTER. EVER. Overall, my family was very impressed by the service. We were blessed with having the main area with lots of space instead of the two side areas that feel a little bit too crammed. The restaurant made sure all of our needs were accommodated, including let us bring our own cake and wine, and they even showed us some Chinese birthday traditions that our party got a kick out of.
(5)Wendy L.
I came here for dim sum and it was packed. I waited about 20 minutes for a table for two around 1:30pm. The dim sum was okay and it was nothing spectacular. My Shrimp Dumpling definitely had a wardrobe malfunction as noted in the pictures by other Yelpers. I would come back for their special for porridge though. I saw a lot of tables order the fish porridge cooked two ways and the lobster porridge. I thought that was pretty cool and makes the restaurant different from other typical Chinese restaurants.
(3)Scott L.
Small parking lot was full but there was plenty of free two-hour street parking on El Camino. Spacious restaurant with a lot of big tables that are not crammed together. We went on Saturday, November 30th and waited a few minutes to be seated for a party of seven. Little old ladies pushing their steamer carts up and down the aisles without bumping into the diners. Very orderly.... This restaurant has all of your typical dim sum and more. We were impressed with the flavors of the Siu Mai, Beef Rolls, Chicken Feet, Har Guow, etc...we especially liked the Chicken Feet as the feet were nice and plump and cooked to the point that it easily separated into little pieces in your mouth. I hate it when feet are under cooked. The feet were also very flavorful. As to the more unusual dishes, Zen had Steamed Yam Dumplings, Steamed Minced Mushroom-Funghi Dumplings (sesame oil taste to it) which we ordered twice, stinky Durian Dessert Rolls (still don't like this), Fried Milk, and Steamed Bitter Melon Rolls. Zen appears to have a lot more variety than some of their big competitors. We were disappointed with the Po Tarts as they were not as flaky, hot, and creamy as that of Hung's up the road. Overall, we were satisfied with the variety, freshness/temperature, and taste of the food. Will return to this place!
(4)