Blue Sky Cafe is a casual Hong Kong style Chinese eatery in the middle of an industrial park in Belmont. Weird location but solid food and a popular destination. If you appreciate this type of food, run here as there is nothing like it on the Peninsula. Everyone knows now, because the place is really busy on the weekend. Takeout on a Saturday night had a 2 hour delay, so order early.
Koi Palace is a popular Cantonese Chinese restaurant in Daly City, California. (Just south of San Francisco) The Peninsula is ground zero for some of the best Chinese food in the SF Bay area. It has been around since 1997 and specializes in wide selection of Dim Sum for lunch and special dishes for dinner.
This restaurant also has locations in Dublin and at Thunder Valley Casino. We came for dinner and have previously reviewed Koi Palace dim sum lunch. Our return trips included the latest in 2024. Yelp reviews emphasize lunch and do not factor in where this place falls in the Chinese restaurant pecking order.
Why did we dine here? – Cooking Papa is a popular Hong Kong style casual Chinese restaurant with locations in Foster City and Santa Clara. We have dined at the Foster City location several times. There is a line much of the time, a testing to the popularity of this restaurant. People typically wait at least 30 minutes during peak times. Our last visit was in the winter of 2018.
The Kitchen is part of a restaurant group that owns highly regarded Chinese Cantonese restaurants in California including Asian Pearl Peninsula. We’ve been to most of them and find them pretty good. This review concentrates on dinner. The food here is pretty authentic Chinese Cantonese food, so some may not like this type of more hardcore cuisine. Do not come here for General’s Chicken or Broccoli Beef. Another review covers The Kitchen dim sum lunch. Our last visit for dinner was in 2015, a meal where we found that their quality has improved. We’d consider this #2 behind Koi Palace. The Kitchen has recently remodeled the dining room, making it much more open, spacious, and modern.
Hakkasan is a Trendy, Modern Chinese restaurant by famed London restauranteur Alan Yau. (Cha Cha Moon, Yauatcha) He also co-founded Wagamama. It was opened in 2001 and was sold in 2008 to the Abu Dhabi investment arm. Hakkasan also has locations in Istanbul and Miami Beach. This location is about two blocks from the British Museum, making it a great choice for Lunch. Mr Yau’s goal was to create a Chinese Nobu with almost paradoxical Modern Authenticity. Sounds almost like Asian Fusion. 13% service charge. Hakkasan received one Michelin star in 2009.
Lei Garden is a Cantonese Chinese restaurant based in Hong Kong, with serveral locations in China and Singapore. We loved their Hong Kong IFC location and had to visit them when in Beijing. They opened in 2006 and are located next to the Regent Hotel, on the 3rd floor right above a Ferrari dealer. They serve dim sum on the weekends and have waiters that understand English. We found the menu lacking some dishes present at their Hong Kong location like squab. There were some dishes missing from the menu that our server alerted us to.
Asian Pearl in Richmond, California’s Pacific East Mall (Right off I-80) is part of a group of Chinese restaurants in Northern California. We’ve been to this location many time and have found it to offer very good Cantonese Chinese cuisine. We went for dinner. Here is our review of the Asian Pearl Peninsula, Millbrae location.