Chef Zhao Bistro - San Mateo

The food and service at this restaurant were overall good. We ordered Numbing chicken wings, MaPo Tofu, and beef chow fun because we had kids with us who couldn't eat anything too spicy. The kids loved the Numbing wings and even went for a second order. The food was brought to our table quickly. One downside is that many smaller restaurants seem to only have a phone menu nowadays. I prefer a physical menu as it is easier to read and browse. Despite this, the prices were reasonable considering the high prices everywhere else. In terms of kid-friendliness, there are options for non-spicy dishes. Parking is available around the block.

Food is fine and fairly cheap comparing to other similar Chinese restaurants. However some of the dishes are really salty. We got the tofu with stir fried beef and only managed to finish half way.Food: 4/5

We had high hopes for chef Zhao but some of the food items were not up to standard.Interior is very clean and service is fast.Parking might be hard to find during busy dining hours.Food that we got:Stir fried pork kidney this is really well done, well flavoured and kidney is tender with no weird tasteSichuan style spicy wonton the wonton skin is so chewy and it didn’t feel fresh. The filling was also kind of flavourless and we had to really dip the sauce to get any savoury tastePea shoot pretty good, garlic stir fried and tastes similar to other placesGlutinous rice cake definitely would not recommend this. Instead of using glutinous rice flour which is where most places do, they just squished together a lot of glutinous rice and fried it. The texture and the syrup both are not greatFish filet and tofu in preserved pickle I don’t understand why they added tofu in it besides to cut cost. I’ve never seen tofu added to this dish before. Makes it feel like they’re being cheapThere are better Chinese places around here, we are a bit disappointed at the experience here.

Tofu is sour. Braised dark is full of necks. Food is awful and not even eatable.

Authentic Sichuan food for spicy food lovers! Highly recommend the spicy lotus root, lamb dish, and spicy wontons. Everything is very seasoned and super flavorful so you should get a bowl of rice to compliment the dishes. Numbing sensation (spicy) from the peppers are what makes the Sichuan experience amazing. Definitely a must-try.Food: 5/5