Zen Peninsula is a Cantonese Chinese restaurant in Millbrae. Millbrae is ground zero for some of the best Chinese food in the SF Bay area. It has been around since 2004 and specializes in wide selection of Dim Sum for lunch and special dishes for dinner.
They have an overwhelming set of different extensive printed menus that you order from. Order from items with pictures.  These seem to be the best bets.

It was not very busy for a Friday night dinner, a big change from their busy lunch dim sum times. The reviews on Yelp mainly cover dim sum lunch or big banquets. Performance of banquets with lots of tables and big dishes do not equate to normal dinner performance.
You can easily pick out Chinese Cantonese restaurants, as most have tanks of fresh fish, crustaceans.
This place is one of the few to serve fresh eel from the tank. $19/lb and approximately 20lbs each equates to a meal much more expensive than French Laundry!

Menu pics

Compact Menu

For Abalone and Shark’s Fin connoisseurs only

Another high end Chinese Cuisine prix fix meal

Even more expensive..

Gourmet Hot Pot city

This is where they shine

Website menu

Picks:

Geoduck Clam before Slicing

Geoduck Clam Sashimi ($25/lb) is sold by the pound, with each live clam weighing in the 2lb neighborhood. Yes they look gross, but are tasty. It was a little fishy, but very crunchy and fresh. It is served with wasabi, lemon, and soy sauce on the side.

Geoduck Clam Soup ($8) takes the remnants of the clam and makes soup out of it. Really good broth that was flavorful. Includes tofu, greens, and cooked Geoduck.

Crispy Squab ($12) was kinda small but cooked perfectly to a brownish crisp. Good flavor.

Zen Roast Pork ($8) with peanut sauce was their take on classic Roast pork. On the sweet side but a very good combination.

7 Spice Sea Bass ($16) was deep fried to perfection. Tender and juicy, it was very good.

Free Red Bean and pastry Desserts

OK:
None

Pans:
None

Service was a little better than average for a place like this. The breath of items was excellent, more extensive and more inventive than nearby places Hong Kong Flower Lounge.
Food quality was very good, but with the busy and top rated The Kitchen nearby, we can see why it was not that busy. The Kitchen has a lots of great dishes too. Many is a different style.
We would definitely come back here if we wanted Chinese food and were nearby.

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R and G Lounge is a popular Hong Kong style Cantonese Chinese restaurant in San Francisco. Since 1985 they have been serving top notch Chinese food in Chinatown.
Decor, Vibe - They have remodeled over the years to modern, clean decor. Lots of families, tourists, some business folks, and locals were eating at this busy restaurant.

Menu Pictures

Website menu

If you are challenged with what to order, stick to the items with pictures. They are all specialties.

Picks:

Clams with Black Bean Sauce ($15) is a classic dish with lots of clams hot off the wok. Fresh clams and good sauce.

Deep Fried Fish ($20) was a whole fish fried to crispiness and topped with a light sauce. Fresh and very good.

Roast Squab ($16) roasted to golden brown crispy skin, served with seasoning salt on the side. Perfect execution of this poultry dish.

OK:

Princess Chicken ($15) specially marinated with ginger and onion sauce. It was pretty average, decent quantities but nothing special to it.

Pea shoots ($13) were in good quantity but were pretty standard issue.

Pans:
None

R and G Lounge’s service was slightly above average for a Chinese restaurant. Servers were hustling by but needed some prompting. Free red bean dessert soup to those who ask.
This restaurant and Pearl on Washington St remain the two best bets for Chinese food in Chinatown. They have both been around for many years.

Compared to other top notch places like Koi Palace in Daly City, R and G offers competitive cuisine with Koi Palace perhaps edging them out slightly due to much higher volumes.

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This review updated with Menus and more exotic dishes we recently ate.

The Kitchen is part of a restaurant group that owns several Chinese Cantonese restaurants in the San Francisco Bay area, Alhambra, and Sacramento area. Sister restaurant Asian Pearl is only a couple miles north of here. We’ve been to most of them and find them pretty good. This review concentrates on dinner only.  Another review covers dim sum lunch.

Decor-Vibe - The Kitchen is a typical busy and noisy Chinese restaurant with lots of families and friends eating together. Like many Chinese restaurants, the bathroom is not very clean.

Menu pics

Special Menu

Dinner Menu

Asian Pearl Chef won awards

Special Value Set Dinners

Banquet Menu

For those a little overwhelmed by Chinese menus, go for the items with pictures, they are all specialties.

Picks:

Sharks Fin with crab meat in pumpkin soup ($28) - A non politically correct soup but very tasty with high quality sharks fin and the pumpkin gold cream that makes it very smooth.  Lots of real crab.

Sauteed  Foie Gras with Wild mushrooms ($30) was a decadent dish.  As a lover of Foie Gras, the actual Foie Gras was pretty dense and compact, but the Foie Gras flavor melted all over the delicious mushrooms.  Lots of quantity too.

Sauteed Coral Giant Clam with XO sauce ($16.80) had exotic orange colored clams with mushrooms and snap peas.  Not gamey, perfectly cooked.

Roast Pork Belly ($12) was super freshly cooked roast pork.  The top skin was super crunchy beyond anything I have tried.

Ginger Onion Braised fish heads Clay pot ($13) is an exotic dish that was done perfectly.  Lots of ginger onions though. Tender, deep fried fish heads.

Good Soup of the day

Roast Squab ($13.80 whole) - Authentic version of a classic Cantonese dish.  Juicy and cooked just right. Crispy skin.

Steamed Chicken ($10, Half) - came with some nice ginger, scallion dipping sauce.  Tender and flavored as expected.

Honey Pepper Beef Short Ribs ($13)- Not big on quantity, more red and green bell peppers than meat, but good flavor.

Geoduck Clam and Snap peas (Market price) - Tender and plentiful Geoduck clam stir fried along with crispy peas.  Very good dish.  Geoduck looks ugly in their tank but taste wonderful.

Free Dessert Soup

OK:

Peking Duck ($28 whole) was a little mushy on the skin and not crispy. Flavor was fine and meat was plentiful.

Baked Stuff Eggplant ($13) was very good.  It had a lot of bonito fish shavings on top of tender and fresh eggplant.

Chinese Broccoli ($13)- Typical vegetable dish, nothing special.  Gotta eat your veggies though.

Pans:

Service was about average for a place like this. You have to hunt down the workers for most requests. The quality of the food is very high here especially factoring in the cost.  Some of their specialty dishes are pretty good.  This is a good place for quality Cantonese Chinese Dinner. Others in their top notch category include Koi Palace in Daly City, and R&G Lounge in San Francisco

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