The New Orient Restaurant

I had the chicken w mixed vegetables. The rice was overcooked, the vegetables were almost mush and the chicken was rubbery dark meat chunks with lots of connective tissue. About half the chicken I had to spit out because I encountered crunchy bits. Now I’m eating a protein bar and pretending that didn’t happen.

We had a catered dinner for 100 guests for our special anniversary party. Chef Szeto exceeded our expectations in delivering a wonderful selection of delicious dishes. Our guests raved about the quality of the meal that was also eye appealing. The quantity was empressive and price very reasonable. We highly recommend The New Orient for your next event!

We had a catered dinner for 20 people, lots of wonderful dishes such as carmelized sea bass, mango prawns, beef stew, and others. We had a lot of leftovers and it was worth the cost to have it catered.

Had spicy chicken and fried rice for to go. Chicken was smelly and big pieces. Rice too was not good. Their food is cheap and obviously cheap quality.
Not recommended.

Pretty bland option for a quick lunch of steam-​table Chinese food.
It’s pretty cheap, and the food isn’t terrible, but that’s not a very convincing argument to eat somewhere! Especially for a hole-​in-​the-​wall next to one of Mountain View’s famous taquerias (actually, even Subway next door might be more appealing)… If you are set on Chinese food, I’d spend a few more bucks and get better food and nicer ambiance at the Green Elephant a few blocks away.

Apparently this is take out only. The guy who came out to take out order acted like I had three heads when I said I wanted to eat my food there. He said he didn’t have silverware. I asked if he had chopsticks and whether we could eat at one of the eight or so tables there. He said no, so my husband and I left. Too bad. We’re really enjoying Bamboo Garden down the street by Walgreens.

This place is HORRIBLE! As a kid, my mom used to buy me wonton soup from The New Orient is Sunnyvale. She used to also order Filipino dishes there, like miki bihon. I LOVED their wonton soup and miki bihon. When I found out they relocated to Mountain View, I jumped at the chance and ordered food (beef broccoli, New Orient fried rice, chicken chow mein, sweet and sour pork, kung pao chicken, mongolian beef, wonton soup, and miki bihon). There was absolutely no flavor, NONE! When I got home, my family sat around the dining table ready to devour the food. I took one bite and looked up at my family and they had the same disgusting look on their face. What a waste of money!!! The food is cheap, but I spent hard earned money on this junk. The only thing that was edible was the miki bihon, but I had to put soy sauce and lemon on it to make it taste better. So disappointed!

This review is mainly for the Fu Kin Lo Mei off the Filipino Dishes section of their menu.
Lo Mei soup was my mother’s favorite when she was in college in the Philippines and when she found an establishment in Sunnyvale that sold the dish, she got me hooked on it as well. Unfortunately, that establishment — New Orient Express — closed and we no longer had anywhere to go for our Lo Mei fix. Driving to work the other week, I passed this New Orient on my route and called when I got home to ask if they were associated with the Sunnyvale location that closed. While the person who answered the phone denied any connection, she did respond affirmatively when I asked about Lo Mei soup, even specifying Filipino style. While my mom had her doubts, I went on my own to try it out and found it was indeed the soup we had missed for so many years. And it was delicious
I’m giving the four stars mainly for the soup, because I’ve been searching for it for so long. But there were some negatives that would turn me off if I wasn’t so happy to have found my dish. For instance, when I walked in — already having called before to place my order — I did have to wait for a few minutes for anyone to even show up from the back, though a loud Hello was called. And only one other person was in the place and already eating, so it couldn’t have been because they were extremely busy making food to come out. Additionally, if you want to pay by credit card and your total is under $ 10, you will be charged a $ 0.35 fee. The parking lot is very small as well, and as the store is in a small strip mall, it can be a problem. When I was leaving a car was going the wrong way in a one-​lane zone, making me move so he could get where he wanted to go, which was a little annoying but ultimately only a small inconvenience. So all in all, it’s really just a cheap whole in the wall Chinese joint who sells the exact dish I want, and makes it just as I remember it.
And in regards to not being associated with the Sunnyvale establishment, I still have my doubts, because it is set up the exact same way, down to the location of the menus on the wall. But even if the person on the phone was wrong, I’m just happy to have my soup back.

Pros: Cheap, large portions
Con: Tastes cheap
What do I mean it tastes cheap? Bland. The food is not horrible, you’re not going to vomit from both ends eating it. It’s edible. That’s about it. After eating I thought, «I should have hit the Subway next door.»

For the past five years, I’ve had many dinner and special events catered from the New Orient. Their catering menu is excellent and authentic.
We’re a very traditional Chinese family, and we have all loved their quality ingredients, spot-​on flavor, and innovative dishes that New Orient creates.
I highly recommend this place to anyone looking to cater their next event. Presentation is impeccable, and their service is extraordinary.

Stella who takes your order is great. I love the Wor Won Ton Soup here, the best there is. The rest is also very good including Chow Fun and fried rice. Great neighborhood take out.
Dan

I’ve been looking for a cheap americanized chinese fast food place with decent flavor near my office and this was one of the places I tried for takeout lunch one day.
IMO, the food was a bit bland and as others have commented, the chicken wasn’t very high quality and a bit gristly. It was edible but don’t plan on returning.
–g

I love Miki Bihon! This place is so good. It’s definitely comfort asian food because I can barely finish a plate. They give you sooo much food and it’s always tasty.
The staff is so nice too. They are always friendly, make whatever you order, and definitely treat you like a VIP customer every time.

Nice, clean place in the neighborhood. Friendly owner. I stopped in for an early take-​out dinner. My mistake was ordering something that was not listed on the menu on the wall — chicken and brocolli — well done. The food came fast and hot. I was hopeful. However, the chicken was served with large pieces of thigh meat, full of gristle and hard to chew. Bland with little or no seasoning. Sorry — I couldn’t eat it. I had to order in a pizza

I don’t understand why this place has bad reviews…
This place is within walking distance from my home and even if it were miles away, I would drive to it. The lady who takes your food order is super nice and recommends great dishes! It’s reasonably priced and the food comes out quick, no real need to call in an order for pick up unless you’re really in a rush. Can’t wait to try more on the menu.

Came here because the taqueria next door was too busy. This place is really small, fits 10 people Max …
I ordered chowmein veggie and family tofu over rice. Simply delicious and lady at counter is kind of funny. I will be getting my togo food regularly from now on.

I ordered General Cho’s chicken. With tax, it came out to be over $ 8 and it comes with no rice or noodles. While the flavor and sauce was decent, the chicken was fatty and most pieces were uneatable. I threw out 80% of the food which really was difficult to do (I hate wasting even the smallest amount of food!).
I would be inclined to give another dish a try but with the fairly high price, I won’t be going back again.

I consider myself as a person that dines out much more often than I should, I enjoy most of my meals out visiting many different restaurants in the bay area with my family and friends. You can say dinning out is my second hobby.
I used to patronize what I consider a 4 star plus Chinese restaurant named Yuen Yung, 639 Santa Cruz Avenue in Menlo Park and have always gone away with a smile on my face and a very satisfied stomach.
The head Chief Frank Seto serves up exceptional meals that are hard to match most 5 star Chinese restaurants. He is more of an artist with food than a simple cook. Chef Seto also worked with a highly rated Chinese restaurant in Campbell named Fung Lum, which was also another one of my favorite restaurant to visit until they closed down. Yes, it’s hard these days to find a great Chinese restaurants without traveling to the North Bay like the Milbrae area.
I was pleasantly surprised that Chef Seto have open an small unassuming small Chinese food take out restaurant in Mountain View named the New Orient! His menu posted on the wall was cater to people on the go with a tight budget in mind, and not catered to the higher end connoisseur of fine dinning Chinese food that he used to serve up at Yuen Yung. A completely different strategy cater to almost to a fast food atmosphere. It is more like a fast food take out than a sit down restaurant. If someone was to compare New Orient to Yuen Yung for ambiance, it would be like comparing Alexander’s Steak House in Cupertino to a McDonalds. The difference is you can’t order a Cobe steak at McDonalds, but you can pre-​order fresh fish or crab at New Orient if you so desire.
But here is the twist that is very unique where you can have your cake and eat it too at new Orient restaurant, So you want the extremely high quality fresh entrees that was once only available from Yuen Yung? Now you can still order the specialty high quality entrees for your private parties or corporate events at a reasonable price. What will be missing would be the ambiance of a 4 stars Chinese restaurant but the food will taste so delicious that you would forget that you need ambiance to satisfy your palate.
Chef Seto will cook to order for your special event and we just celebrated one of my best friends mother birthday At this location Chef Ceto was able to accommodate us with a party of 14 which was a pleasant surprise since the whole restaurant can only fit probably 14 – 16 people on a good day with small tables. So you can say we bought out the restaurant for the ²⁄₁₂ hours we were there.
Chef Seto served up some very delicious dishes such as Pan Fried Stuffed Scallops, one of my favorite dish of the night. Dice Dry Scallops with Lettuce, Baked Sea Bass was to die for, Lemon Squab, Steam Rock Cod, Ginger & Green Onion Crab with noodles that are only the few dishes that I’m still thinking about.
So I can honestly say that if you enjoy gourmet Chinese food and don’t mind serving it at your home or business, The New Orient Restaurant is the place to go.
I asked Chef Seto why he does not offer these fantastic dishes on his normal everyday menu and his answer is not everyone can afford to order these dishes and they cost him to much time and money to make a dish that only some lucky people can afford.
So I would say treat yourself once in a while at the New Orient by calling way a head of time to order your special gourmet dishes and be ready for a taste of heaven when you pick the dishes up. It is well worth the effort and wait to have Chef Seto customize some very unique Chinese gourmet dishes just for you.
I see some one star review here and feel the rating maybe a little harsh, one cannot expect to have a $ 25 dollar dish for $ 5 and complaint about it. These maybe the same people that complaint the McDonalds hamburger did not taste as good as a burger from Alexanders.
I would love to repeat my visit except Chef Seto is very very busy and I have to wait till the next special occasion to enjoy his wonderful dishes. We are lucky to have such talented Chef as Frank Seto of The New Orient still available to us. He will customize a menu for your party serving up artistic dishes that are both pleasing to the eyes and palate.

Our charity is a regular customer of New Orient’s. We order from the restaurant and serve the food to the shelter in VA hospital in Menlo Park.
The people at the shelter all like their food very much. It is tasty and full of warmth because the restaurant owner offer the food at a highly discounted price to serve a worthy cause.
I give five stars to New Orient !!!

This is my 100^th Unilocal!
OMG the food is so yummy! Have them cater your parties — Frank and Stella make the best lobster noodle dish!