Sun’s Chinese Cuisine Restaurant Review, San Mateo

Sun’s Chinese Cuisine is a Taiwanese Chinese restaurant in downtown San Mateo that opened in late 2009. It is located a stones throw from the movie cineplex. The owner used to work at nearby restaurant Everyday Beijing. We’ve passed by many times, tried it early on for lunch, and decided it was time to give it a second chance.

Decor, Vibe – Narrow small restaurant with lots of Chinese art, Asian wood work, Asian music, flat screen TVs, and a bigger upstairs dining area. Diners included pre-movie parties, families, and other locals with a balance of ethnicities. It was fairly busy during dinner.

Menu (Click to zoom into any picture)

Sun’s Chinese Cuisine Menu has a wide range of items from Northern Szechwan to Southern China items. Noodles to dumplings to the usual western dishes. They have a new 3 for $19.99 menu.

Full Menu Picture Set

Picks:

Chinese Donut (Yau Tiu) ($1.80) is normally served for weekend lunch but they had some extra left over. Freshly fried, crunchy, slightly greasy, but excellent.

Chive Pies ($6.95) had 2 good sized lightly pan fried pies filled with egg, veggies, etc. Solid version.

Pork & Cabbage Dumplings ($6.50) was a plate full of steaming hot and juicy dumplings. Surprisingly very good. Nice thin wrapper (eggless) and lots of meat inside.

Beef Noodle Soup ($7.95) is a Taiwainese classic dish. Lots of thin al dente egg noodles, flavorful broth, spinach, and tender braised beef. It was not spicy and the noodles had a good tension to them. Even had some dan san herbs and pickled veggies.

OK:

Green Onion Pancake ($4.95) looked a big pale and very thick. It was a home style boiled dough version. Not really crunchy or very heavily flavored.

Three Cup Chicken ($9.95) had tons of chicken, ginger, basil in a clay pot. Nice sauce but there was so much chicken, most didn’t touch the sauce. OK but we prefer 5 Joy’s version.

Pans:
None

Sun’s Chinese Cuisine had a friendly waitress and hard working owner. They are clearly trying hard to be successful here. The food is decent, prices fair, making this a good bet for a quick Chinese bite before a movie. Stick to the Taiwanese items for best quality. Our original visit during lunch with the bamboo basket underwhelmed us. 5 Joy in Foster City ranks ahead of this place.

$25 Dining Certificate for $5

Sun's Chinese Cuisine Overall Rating: (Good 2)

Come Back?

Food Rating:	(Good)
Service Rating:	(Good)
Atmosphere Rating:	(Good)
Value Rating:	(Good)

Guide: 0 = poor, 1 = Below/Average, 2 = Good, 2.5 = Very Good, 3 = Excellent , 4 = Extraordinary

Alcohol:	Beer, Wine
Attire:	Casual
Hours:	Mon - Th 11am-9pm, Fri 11am-10pm, Sat 10am -10pm, Sun 10am - 9pm
Parking:	Street
Reservations:	Yes
Prices:	$7.95 - $12.95