4 ½ star! This is a great family Chinese restaurant! I’ve been coming here for a few years and will continue to support a local family business. Their service is exceptional, they are very prompt, pleasant, humble and they always remember me. The food is very good too. I love the spicy dishes, I now make a point to order something different every time I come. Today for the first time we ordered the spicy asparagus and basil prawns. Oh my. it was delish! We had the lunch special, which is decently priced at $ 11p/p, includes steamed rice, your choice of soup, pot stickers and your choice of any dish. The 5 of us ordered; prawns, Mongolian beef, Kung Pao Chicken, chow mein, hot and sour soup, sweet & sour pork, potstickers and egg rolls. We ordered an extra side of fried rice, too. Everything was excellent! Total bill came to approx $ 75 including drinks, of course and tip. Not bad for all that food. Which was devoured. Thanks, Chef Chow. We’ll be back again!
Sahar A.
Rating des Ortes: 5 Moraga, CA
This is the best Chinese Food Restaurant I’ve ever been to in my life. I love the Hot and Sour soup… It tastes amazing!
Lorraine P.
Rating des Ortes: 5 San Francisco Bay Area, CA
Just left this restaurant. Four of us went to the movies at the Rheem Theater and thought we’d grab a quick bite. So glad we went there! Excellent service, fresh and generous portions. Highly recommend! We had the general Tao’s chicken, egg fu yung, a wide noodle dish that was out of this world and I had the steamed fish with vegetables. Flavorful, beautifully presented. I can’t say enough good things about our meal and the service! Great prices! Give them a try!
Lisia T.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Castro Valley, CA
Been here about 5 times & it was good! Fine Chinese food & well priced. Staff is nice & accommodating. Good portions, orange chicken & sweet and sour pork is crispy with sauce which makes it BOMB! Gave them a 4 because last visit fly was in my water!
Boris P.
Rating des Ortes: 5 Roseville, CA
Awesome food and great service. Really friendly staff. The steamed dumplings are to die for. The moo shu is great as well. Everyone in town eats here so if you’re from out of town, this is the place to go.
Dan K.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Moraga, CA
Don’t know if you guys have tried egg foo young, but I tried it here for the first time and fell in love. I got the combination egg foo young, I wish I had saved the picture(it’s been a month or so since I went). Next time I’ll probably just stick with the pork or chicken version, but it was a great experience. The noodles in the chow mien were thick too, thin chow mien noodles is an issue I have with a lot of Chinese places. Orange chicken was stellar as well. Great pricing too, three entrée plates for just over $ 25! I will definitely be coming back, if for nothing else besides that amazing egg foo young.
Belia P.
Rating des Ortes: 4 El Sobrante, CA
Love love love this Chinese restaurant. Is it hands down the best in Moraga. There’s lots of space in the restaurant — great for groups. I usually order their lunch specials which are hefty portions. We usually order: — salt & pepper prawns — sweet & sour pork — war won ton soup — Hong Kong style chow mein
Kelly M.
Rating des Ortes: 5 San Francisco, CA
My family and I have been coming here for decades. In fact, my aunt and uncle had their rehearsal dinner here over 25 years ago. This place is amazing and the staff is awesome. First off, I’m surprised to see no reviews regarding their hot and sour soup because it is literally the BEST hot and sour soup I’ve ever had. I’ve lived in New York and now I’m sf and nothing compares. I actually have tried probably 100s of hot and sour soups and they’re never the same. Their other dishes are phenomenally delicious too. Other«go to» dishes include: manchurian beef(deep-fried, sweet), Mongolian beef(spicy), spicy asparagus prawns, lemon chicken.
Kelly L.
Rating des Ortes: 5 Dallas, TX
My family has been coming here for as long as they’ve lived in the East Bay(over 30 years!). You start out with hot tea at the table. For apps we love the potstickers & My mom said it’s best hot & sour soup she’s ever had. For main courses, The mu shu pork was great & they even roll it up for everyone at the table. Get the walnut prawn. Just trust me! Chow mein and Hunan chicken were very good also. The service is just the best. They are very attentive but not overly hovering. Kenney always puts a smile on your face. Always finish with fresh orange slices and fortune cookie. With Chinese food like this, I’ll keep coming back!
L L.
Rating des Ortes: 3 New York, NY
We did not find the food that great as indicated by other Unilocalers — perhaps we did not eat-in. Some of their dishes were good but some just missed the mark. I may change my mind as I would probably return there — and eat-in — to give it another try.
Cynthia B.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Moraga, CA
A girlfriend and I have been celebrating birthdays here for years. They have duck, our personal favorite, on the menu for lunch. Food is fresh and finely spiced. The restaurant is usually fairly empty at lunch and packed by dinner. Service is very good and prices are comparable to other restaurants in the vicinity. Totally recommend this restaurant.
Cynthia L.
Rating des Ortes: 5 San Francisco, CA
My boyfriend first introduced me to this place when we first started dating. He’s been coming here since he was a kid, and so this is our go-to Chinese restaurant when I’m visiting. I sometimes crave their Hot ‘n Sour Soup! SOOOO goood, I love that they don’t skimp out on the shrimp! We usually get the spicy garlic chicken wings, and a mixed vegetable plate. We sometimes get the pot stickers — everything’s always so yummy! The service here is awesome! I usually see the same waiters/waitresses every time I come here, and they’re always conversational and welcoming. Overall, their Hot and Sour Soup is one of my favorites. The food is delicious — it never makes me quench for thirsts afterwards, so definitely no MSG. They always leave us with the right Chinese Restaurant send off — orange slices and a fortune cookie!
Irene L.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Orinda, CA
Great restaurant! My fiancé and I recently moved to Orinda and have just started exploring the area food-wise. We stumbled upon Chef Chao Restaurant on a Unilocal search for nearby restaurants. What a find! The restaurant is very nondescript, but seems to be a pretty popular place among locals. We ordered the following: egg drop soup, mushu vegetable, and vegetable chow mein. Great service — the waiters and waitresses served the soup and even rolled up our mushu vegetable for us! Also, complimentary fortune cookies and orange slices to round out the meal! Will definitely be back. Will also have to try take-out also — apparently, 10% off your order when you get take-out!
T M.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Moraga, CA
Really nice family restaurant in Moraga. We have so many good Asian places here in Moraga, and this is a great example. I love the formal waiter staff. They remind me of a staff out of an old movie. A touch of elegance in Moraga is nice.
Jaleel H.
Rating des Ortes: 1 Oakland, CA
I’m not sure why the reviews for this place is so high but seriously? This place was empty so when we arrived it was only us in the place the entire time. The receptionist or «host» was cold and never said hello or anything. The food was mediocre at best. Well actually they just smother everything in generic tasting Chinese sauces . I’m a big Chinese cuisine food addict so I know my Chinese dishes well. The duck was hard and burnt tasting, our crab dumpling were made with MOZZARELLACHEESE(I’ve yet to have any Chinese dish made with mozzarella). The only thing that tasted ok was our water and Chardonnay . Once we were served, the lights turned off and they were asking us if we wanted boxes. RUDE.(Seriously they turned off the lights on us after 30 minutes of sitting down and eating our lackluster meal) This place is the worst ever ! I don’t know how they stay in business but they might as well be an illegal money laundering food operation because a restaurant they are not! Oh last but not least: we had 1 appetizer and 3 main dishes with 2 glasses of wine, our bill came out to: $ 80.00 freakin dollars lol for Chinese food that’s almost unheard of especially from a place as bad as this one. NEVERAGAIN! Mind you if the food was good I wouldn’t even bring up the price but this place is a joke.
David R.
Rating des Ortes: 2 Moraga, CA
We have lived in Moraga over 30 years and dined at Chef Chao very frequently many years ago but had not been there too often in recent past. We were having friends over and decided to do take out from Chef Chao. We loved Chef Chao in the early years. The food was flavorful and the service from Henry and his wife was impeccable. They are truly wonderful people. However, we were very disappointed in our last takeout visit. The food was bland and nothing memorable about it at all other than we remembered how good it was before. The counter service was less than warm and receptive. I don’t believe the front desk made eye contact with me once during the transaction. This was on a Tuesday evening at 6:30 — restaurant traffic was light. I asked if Henry was working and was told he was in the kitchen We will try again. We know they have the capability of doing wonderful food, but this was just not the night for it.
Suzie Y.
Rating des Ortes: 5 Lafayette, CA
I never expected to find such great Chinese food in Lamorinda! Chef Chao exceeded all of my expectations! I eat at Chef Chao about once a week! They have the best potstickers I have ever had! Love the mushu pork and kung pao chicken, too! Nice, friendly service, to go along with really yummy food!
Frances M.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Lafayette, CA
Very satisfying birthday experience at Chef Chao with good food and company. Try to go there at least once.
Pollywog e.
Rating des Ortes: 2 Moraga, CA
So, last Saturday night my husband and I decided to try Chef Chao and then hit a movie across the street. We’d been to Asia Palace a few times and loved it, but this was so close to the theater, we thought we’d give it a try. We walked in and got the cold shoulder from the host. We were in jeans and t-shirts and we felt a little under dressed, maybe that’s why? I don’t know but we definitely didn’t feel like we belonged there. Whatever, we were hungry. On to the food. I got the chow fun noodles, my husband tried the lamb curry — admittedly, not a good idea to order out of ethnicity unless you really know the place, but it was ranked so highly we thought nothing of it at the time. What I noticed first was a serious lack of vegetables in my veggie chow fun. Bummer. The noodles were so clumpy and glutinous and tasteless. I mean, throw some damn garlic in there or something. But ya know what? I was so hungry, and it wasn’t atrocious or anything. So I ate it. My husband was a different story. He had like 2 bites and then had to stop. He seriously was going to get sick from his lamb(he didn’t think it was actually lamb). The manager was nice enough to take it off our bill, but only after hemming and hawing and checking that he didn’t actually eat much. We HATE to send stuff back, and in the 6 years we’ve been together, neither of us has asked to take something off the bill(or sent something back, we just don’t do it) but this really was making my husband sick. Basically, we had to go home afterwards while he was belching and about to throw up. There went movie night! Thanks Chef Chao.
Josh B.
Rating des Ortes: 1 Pleasant Hill, CA
Ok seriously… given the number of positive reviews, tonight I experienced 1 of 2 things: either some prior reviewers here can’t tell what good chinese food(or any food) tastes like; or Chef Chao decided to roll out a total turd on Christmas Eve. Let’s examine the meal: Steamed buns? over-dry with the little wax paper thing thoroughly melded into the dough such that removing it required killing the buns. Hot and sour soup — totally bland, thin broth. Had no flavor. Bad. House special spicy scallops(off the house specialty menu) — could have jumped off a 10 story building safely into the amount of batter on those things, and what is worse, the scallops themselves were hockey pucks. Apparently Chef Chao failed to realize that frying that much dough would totally overcook the scallop. Awful. Sent it back. Replacement sweet and sour prawns — Panda Express food tastes same or better, for 1⁄3 the price. Orange chicken — see sweet and sour prawns. Overall, this was equal to or worse than mall chinese. PF Changs looks like a 2 michelin star place compared to this trainwreck. Oh yeah. the waitress was a bitch to top it off. And they don’t even put out chopsticks. There was one waiter who seemed to care. WTF people? 4 and 5*?