O’mei Restaurant

Easily the best Szechuan Chinese food Ive ever had. Hands down.
The Dumplings in Chili Oil are truly awesome and inspired me to learn how to make dumplings myself. I also heartily recommend the Gang Pung Chicken. The chef knows what he is doing and actually cares about the food he is making! Every year he goes to china to get recipes and spices. I am happily motivated to drive over hwy 17 on a monthly basis just to dine here!

I’ll start with the good. The exterior of O’mei has always seemed to portray more a shady nightclub, but was pleasantly surprised to find the interior having a nice ambience about it. The restaurant is split into three semi-​separate dining areas, perfect for larger parties. The lighting is on the darker side, but there’s a decent amount of overhead light directed towards each tabletop.
We were greeted after being seated by a platter of O’mei Little Dishes, a variety of about nine flavor fusion appetizers costing $ 4 each. We decided to pass and ordered two Red Oil Dumplings, also going for $ 4 for a set of three, and they rival that of my favorite dumpling spot in Santa Cruz, Shun Feng (aside from the strong garlic aftertaste).
Our pleasant experience went for a turn once we started on the entrees. We opted to go with the smaller entrees listed in the back of the menu, O’mei Express, that come with a side of rice. No complaints about the Basil-​Tomato Fish, but the Lemon Sauce Shrimp, this is where O’mei becomes more of that shady nightclub than the classy restaurant they’re going for.
The shrimp itself was fried perfectly, the sauce was a little potent and the Napa Salad, that the shrimp is supposedly served on, was sad. The sauce seems better suited as a glaze, rather than the amount that drenches your morsels leaving them sitting in a thick puddle of lemon goop. As you go in for a bite, be sure to hold your breath or your lungs will regret an overdose on lemon essence. Regrettably, the Napa Salad I mentioned early is merely three strips of shredded cabbage, hardly visible, or palatable, in the lemon goop. At least the included side of Jasmine Rice eased the tangy residue.
Now, someone once told me that the condition of a bathroom tells a lot about a restaurant. You can take this advice with a grain of salt, but O’mei clearly neglects their toilet seats. The darn thing is missing a bumper and all the screws are coming loose, I mean come on, a brand new economical seat is only $ 10!
On a serious note, their menu is in dire need of an update. After getting our bill I noticed an overcharged on my Lemon Sauce Shrimp. I brought up the issue to our waitress, but she tried to brush it off, lecturing me on how shrimp is usually more expensive at the store! She literally went on to explain how other «Chinese» restaurants don’t use «real shrimp» and that O’mei is the only one that uses real shrimp! WTF?! I explained that I only wanted her to change my bill to reflect the price that’s listed on the menu, and her response was to call me over to her register and show how there’s a separate button for shrimp.
Look, O’mei, if you want to charge an extra fee for shrimp, show it on the menu. The advertised price on a menu at a restaurant shouldn’t be like an advertised price on a car at a dealership. The solution is to refund me your hidden fees and add a handwritten note to your menus. I’m not going to go full-​blown FTC on this, but will definitely dispute the charge with my creditors. Unacceptable.

Much improved service over the past few years. The better service has turned them into my favorite place in Santa Cruz

Great food love this place. Their bacon fried rice is the bomb! If you are in the area I highly recommend coming here for a great meal. They don’t deliver but they do take out.
My wife and son both love this place it’s a great blend of Chinese food with a French style.

THIS PLACE IS THE BEST EVER !!! PERFECT FOR TAKE-​OUT
the flavors were delicious, so sweet, fresh, quality food.
i ordered take out for the first time to try this place and I was not disappointed. Enough to feed two hungry people and still have left overs for later. Mmm, i ordered orange chicken, combination chow mein, their hourse cured bacon fried rice, and two orders of the red oil dumplings. It was delicious. I will never go to another chinese restaurant. Next time, I will dine-​in. Total was $ 46.50

I love this place! Charming simple décor and so much better than expected when you see it from the strip mall exterior.
The food is amazingly yummy. I love the smokey chicken and dates. The small appetizer plates are fun and delicious. Try the cashews they are addictive.
Service is mixed. Mostly great unless you get the one surly college kid waiter (and there always seems to be one on staff).
The food never disappoints. A Santa Cruz favorite for over 30 years!

I would give 3.5 stars if I could
First of all this used to be my favorite restaurant ever (15 years ago). It was a truly unique and special experience to visit O’Mei (usually on special occasions). At some point it changed hands and took a dip in its excellence.
There’s no greeting as you walk through the door and it was an awkward wait until the lady behind the bar decided to notice us. She waited until another couple walked in, and then approached us.
I had come here in the last 5 years to order my all time favorite dish– crispy Taiwanese style sea bass, I was disappointed to find out that this dish was changed my the new owners. The fish was in strips with heavy batter (bland, not crispy), though the sauce was still delicious. A helpful waiter suggested to try the smoked fish next time, I believe it’s a special.
I did a lot of research on the dishes before coming in this time, it’s not a cheap restaurant and I didn’t want to waste money on a dish I didn’t enjoy.
We ordered:
Appetizers: shaved spicy carrots and bean curd (I believe) $ 8 total
Red oil dumplings $ 4
Gan Pung Chicken $ 15.95
Wok grilled Beef (with squash) $ 15.95
I really love how the appetizers are brought out on a tray and you can dig right in. I found both appetizers spicier than I remembered, but very good.
Red oil dumplings= simply amazing! A must have.
The chicken was awesome, though watch out for the red peppers, very hot.
The beef was good, a little chewy and not necessarily a stand out dish, but yummy.
The service I would give 2 to 3 stars, though our waiter toward the end was very knowledgable and friendly. The first waiter was probably new (they are currently hiring) and didn’t know the menu well. It took a while to get water refills.
I would highly recommend this restaurant though make sure to research what’s good and don’t have high expectations for service, the food is what counts here.

We love O’mei. The food is really authentic and the service is always good. The Chinese chicken salad and red oil dumplings are a must. We also love the tray with small bites to choose from in the very beginning.
My only complaint is that the wine glasses are a little small.

This low rating was because I found out that not only do they not offer gift certificates as an option anymore — as I wanted to get it as a birthday gift for a friend — The gal at the counter acted like I was asking if they take coupons or food stamps… I am offering you money not asking for money … If that’s the quality of service now being offered, I am glad I didn’t accidentally send my friend there for her birthday day & spent the $ 100 else where. Hmmm — kinda sad :(I use to really like this place…

My favorite Chinese restaurant in Santa Cruz. I’m giving only 4 stars because the chef can be a little heavy handed with the salt. No complaints otherwise.

Delicious highly spiced chinese food. Not your subtle tasting chinese food, which personally I prefer at times. This food is in your face and delicious. The Prices are high but worth it. Try your best to ignore the front manager Jai’mei, she is a very rude and unhelpful person. The rest of the staff more than makes up for her short comings. I encourage you to get a pot of tea.

One of the Biggest Clip Joints in Santa Cruz. The food is fair at best, service is slow & mediocre but the thing that is most appalling is how O’mi has the gall to take advantage of its customers & over charge them for the slop they call food. This dump even went as far as to slap an extra «kitchen fee» on your check, for what? Boiling water or maybe chopping your food? What’s next a «Chop Stick Charge»? They even go as far as charging you for steamed rice, Steamed Rice??? When I said something about it they said, «Oh we use a very special, high grade rice»…
Believe me as a person who was born and raised in Santa Cruz and I once was a loyal O’mei customer, way back when they started on the UCSC campus.
But then that all changed when O’mei started crap like their patented:
«Steal Your Money Policy».
Trust me, O’mei is the place where people who don’t know any better go or hipsters from UCSC (who think they know but don’t know any better) go and other snobs who’ve bought into O’mei’s snobby B.S.
Avoid O’mei! Save your money and patronize the other decent businesses that Work Hard to earn your money…
And they don’t charge for Rice either!
By The Way… I had to give O’mei a «star» to post this review, therefore I take back that star and reward them a 5 Turd rating instead… Thank You

We ate here on a Friday night after a long drive from Palo Alto in heavy traffic. My GF had to be persuaded to venture out again after we checked into our hotel but she was charmed by O’mei, which is a gem of a Chinese restaurant tucked into a nondescript strip mall on Mission street.
After some consideration my GF ordered Jasmine tea for us which turned out to be wonderful. We then turned our attention to the menu which includes a wide range of dishes. I ordered shrimp with eggplant and my GF ordered pork and chives and we got some pineapple fried rice to share. We were both quite pleased and wound up with much less than the usual amount of leftovers because the food was so delicious we kept on eating until we were totally stuffed. Highly recommended.

Still my favorite restaurant in Santa Cruz. B-​day dinner tonight. Everything was 100%. I love you O’mei.

Pretty good. The veggies were fresh but the sauce was a little thick. We got the Sha Cha Fish and a green pepper, black bean, & chicken dish. The server was very nice and informative. You get orange slices instead of fortune cookies for desert, which were a nice, fresh ending to the meal. Well, we did also order the almond cookies. :) They were good too.

The one star is for atmosphere! Very nice. Clean snd well appointed dining room.
Service was mediocre. They tried.
Food: for $ 38. It was s bust. You cannot order just a cup of soup. A small is 4 to 6 cups worth for $ 6.95. Then came 3 spring rolls for $ 5.95(we only needed 2). They were very greasy and unflavorful. We ordered the Kung Pao Chicken — for $ 14.95. It came on a small salad plate, very small portion. Then we had to order the rice, it didn’t come with the entrée. A small cup of white rice was $ 1.75. We didn’t care for the chicken, a weird flavor sauce over very small chunks if chicken and maybe one green onion.
When we told her we didn’t like the soup she said she would have the chef taste it… as if we were all wrong.
Sorry for the bad report but this place was just not good.

This used to be my most favorite restaurant in all of Santa Cruz! Tried it out last night after taking a break for 5 years… Now I remember why… They must have changed hands. DARN!!!
The appetizers were still amazing… But the entrees were very disappointing…
The service was very good, but what is most important is how the food tastes… The smoked chicken fried rice was good, the broccoli beef tasted like the beef had turned, the lemon chicken was too salty and was mostly fried breading with hard to find chicken… But my biggest disappointment was the chicken coconut curry… They used to serve it in its own little pot. Simmering away… Not only did it look completely different, there was so much salt in it, it was not edible!
So disappointing. Not the same place!

Passed by today. It is my first review simply because I met the worst Chinese food in CA I’ve ever had. Good decoration for 1 star.

Disclosure: I am not an expert on Sichuan cuisine, but this has got to be the best in California, if not the west coast. I started eating here almost 15 years ago as a college student. I always had a strong dislike for Chinese food – it was always too greasy, too sweet, too spicy, the meat too fatty… etc. But this place… this was something special.
I had read about the red oil dumplings from the local paper and they lived up to the hype. The small plates they offer you at the beginning are all amazing. I know, I’ve had them all multiple times. The Sa Cha fish is really tasty, and the prawn with basil and tomatoes is a go-​to favorite. The black date and sweet potato chicken haunts me.
For the record, I’ve never had an issue with service here. There seems to be a high turnover for wait staff (college town, go figure). But even when service is slow, it’s never been a hassle.
The ambience is also one of my favorite things about this restaurant. It’s in a strip mall, the outside looks terrible, but then you step inside and it’s so sleek, minimal, and tasteful. Nothing at all like Santa Cruz.
I’ve lived in San Francisco for 10 years now and I have yet to find a Chinese restaurant that I like as much as O’mei (and here I’m including Koi Palace in Daily City). If anyone has any leads…

Update 3÷20÷15
New fave place in town? Shun Feng. Ditch this place and just order Szechuan dishes from Shun Feng and ask to up the chili factor. So much better than O’mei’s.
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Are you from outside Santa Cruz?
Grew up in a big city with plenty of diverse ethnic options?
LOVE authentic Chinese food?
THEN STAY AWAY FROM HERE.
If you’ve just moved to town like me and can’t go anywhere conveniently/​quickly for great Chinese, THEN this is admittedly your best bet. Really. It’s either this or going over the hill to San Jose, which is 30 miles away.
Is your culinary palate now restricted geographically to this town? Great, I shall precede. Honestly, the Szechuan style food is actually pretty «good for Santa Cruz» (a common local adage). Nothing compared to LA, but I appreciate that there’s a glowing bite of chili to the spicy dishes served here. I myself recommend the red oil dumplings and the chili fried rice (which includes egg, shrimp, chicken, and pork) for those chili lovers. Real Szechuan Chinese would laugh their asses off at the level of heat. But hey, you get what you can get.
Next time I’m coming back for the spicy pork dishes. If I’m not driving over the hill that is.