Zen Peninsula Restaurant Review Dinner, Millbrae

Reviewer: Foodnut.com Zen Peninsula 1180 El Camino Real Millbrae, CA 94030 650-616-9388 Zen Peninsula Website

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.

Zen Peninsula 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

Website Zen Peninsula menu – The items with pictures are the best bets. They have an extensive Chinese menu.

Full Image Menu Set

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

Zen Peninsula’s 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.
Zen Peninsula Food quality was very good, but with the busy and top rated The Kitchen nearby, we can see why it was not that busy. Nearby, The Kitchen and Asian Pearl Peninsula have a lots of great dishes too. Many are more elaborate styles. We would definitely come back here if we wanted Chinese food and were nearby.