Monkey King Pub & Grub

Family and I have tried to come in here for ever and the first time we came everyone had to be 21 and over because it was after 10 PM so I was a little disappointed then we came again and it don’t open until 5pm and it was only 3pm so we decided to have sone Ethiopian food near by, but today we finally got to try the food here at Monkey King and it was amazing. Service is great, food delicious, portions are huge, prices are better than reasonable. I can’t wait to come back with my family

Didn’t get the time to leave the review that day but I am finally able to sit down and speak about my experience I had this place. Now one thing every person is probably big on is how long they wait to be seated. Well we were a part of 4 and we called in to reserve this earlier in the day so we was kind of bummed out we had to wait basically for a hour and 15 minutes after arriving on time as told by the place. Now my friend who was the birthday girl is pregnant and we all know how they are when it comes to food and cravings so I was shocked at their lack of being organized.
As people are leaving the people are ALL OVER the place like seriously nobody is assigned to clean the tables? So that wh you can sit more people faster and make more money. They have WAY MORE then enough staff to have it more organized! Now the reason I only knocked off two stars is because the wait is what killed the anticipation!
But I can gladly say after we were seated we were helped! We got our drinks! Food was EXCELLENT! I’m not big on garlic fries but man where theirs good has that garlicky taste but has a sweet tang to it ! I ordered the garlic shrimp it was SOO GOOD! Started off bad but when the food came it was wonderful !
They need to become more organized and it would’ve been a 5 star review I will return on a weekday ! Maybe it’ll be better !

Service was very slow. Food Cold, arrived with a party of 9. Food came out very slow. Maybe folks like this place for the price of the food. I just couldn’t get into eating one item at a time

In my opinion thus is by far one of the best little food spots to chill at. love the Garlic noodles and fried ribs.

Love this place errrrtime I go ! Bartender (BCC student) cool as fuck and make strong drinks ! 5pm it’d definitely the place to be

LOVE LOVE LOVE this spot!
Their Salt & Pepper Chicken, & Garlic Noodles always wants us coming back for more!
Called ahead to reserve a large table for 15 for my sister birthday on Tuesday.
When we arrived, the tables were still getting set up since we are a super large party.
We ended up getting two large tables, & our servers were David & Steve!
They were super attentive & made sure we were all good to go with all the orders.
Naturally, being a large group — we did have a lot of demands & requests (sorry guys!) but they definitely made it a better experience just being able to tend to all of them =)
Big ups to these guys, thanks for your hospitality and awesome service!

I ordered a watermelon vodka drink sooooo good came out on time I loved it after seeing my date eat all her food I waited a good 30mins for my plate of crab fried rice to come out which tasted like bacon fried rice I’m never coming back I seen about 4 Togo orders come out befor mine. My date ordered beef noodles she loved it

IVIN IVIN IVIN IVIN IVIN. Best manager at any restaurant hands down. Not only was he attentive to his customers, he was also interactive!
FOOD:
The whole menu was made by Ivin, prop to him cause everything’s hella good on the menu. I honestly am not a huge fan of garlic and what not, but this place seriously changed my life. Their garlic noodles are the best I’ve ever had! Everything from their chicken wings to fries, to Mongolian beef is all delicious… If you are with a group of friends, I would highly suggest getting the Ninja Turtle! If you’re with a small group, and want an individual drink, ladies– get the lychee martini. It’s really really good. They never skimp out on how much alcohol is in the drink so careful!
SERVICE:
The people working there look like they have so much fun!!! I love that about a restaurant. I think the servers are what makes up a restaurant and this place definitely makes me feel at home. The staff are super attentive, and accommodating to your likings!
PARKING:
Can get challenging once it hits night time so do dedicate about 5 – 10 minutes to look for parking! There’s only street meter parking!

First and foremost the food is amazing! Came in a large group and we ordered a number of things but my personal favorite was the garlic shrimp noodles!
I’m giving low stars because the way the run their kitchen is a mess out food was conning out like every ¹⁵⁄₂₀ minutes. And since we ordered a lot of things it’s like we were eating everything separately. At one point we had to cancel some orders because we were already full and had been tired of waiting
The line to get inside is ridiculously long like idk if it’s worth it long because if you happen to have a large group they squeeze you into a seating instead of putting tables together making dinner uncomfortable because there is no space. Then you see couples sitting at booth like tables it just seems like it’s not ran efficiently. They need a larger space

My girl friend and I came to this place for a date night on a day that meant a lot to us. We heard from friends that it was great place for food.
When we arrive we wrote our names down, we also looked out for bar seats.
We saw two open. Took them.
Service was slacking that day for sure. I personally had to reach out and ask to order.
We only ordered two items.
A party came after us on our left and on our right. They ordered after us.
Both those parties got their item before us and we only received one of our items
We waited for almost an hour just to find out that the Kim chi fried rice was not coming. My girl and I got extremely frustrated, we told the bartender what’s up, he was kind enough to take that item off.
Even if the food was delicious, waiting over 45 min just to find it your item isn’t coming anymore was just unnacceptable. I don’t recommend anyone going unless you like to feel neglected.
As of right now, we are still hungry, and on our way looking for other foods.

We managed to find a really good parking spot next to the restaurant. If you can’t seem to find any spots check out the Movie Theater parking lot!
I came here on a Wednesday night for dinner and we had a party size of 5 people. The wait time was an hour long but I think it’s due to the fact it is more of a sports bar than a restaurant. My friends and I ordered a carafe of the mixed alcohol drink, spicy pepper wings & fries, and shrimp garlic noodles. The alcoholic carafe had the perfect balance of sweetness and alcohol, it was enough to fill up 4 drinks in total for all of us. The wings (10 wings) and fries were crispy and delicious, but not as spicy or garlicky as I would have thought. The shrimp garlic noodles took sooooooo long to come out, my friends were almost done with their wings/​fries and I asked the waiter multiple times about it. It’s understandable that it was taking a while because of the huge crowd but can a girl get a heads up or some kind of notice? At first the noodles were really good but after eating it for a while I became really really thirsty. I had to drink two glasses of water while eating it, I was not sure why I was so thirsty because the noodles didn’t taste salty to me. I couldn’t finish the noodles so I went home and drank what felt like gallon of water. I think it’s a fun place to hang out late at night but it’s not my top choice for food.

Great place to go to if you’ve got a big crowd, as we did for my brother’s birthday. The wait can be a bit long so if you RSVP that will cut down on the time. Their food is smackin’! The Garlic Noodles were on point (almost but not quite as good as my wife’s) and the ribs were great. I don’t remember everything we got but all of the food that we ordered was brought out fast, was warm and definitely flavorful.
There is also a full-​service bar that’s on the left side of the restaurant. I didn’t have the Jungle Juice, but my wife and family did and they mentioned that it was really strong. Depends on how you perceive that, but if you like strong stuff, then come here!
We will come back here next time!

I had heard a lot about this place, but never got around to actually giving them a try until my sister decided this was where she wanted to go for her birthday dinner a couple of weeks ago. Allegedly, it’s always happy hour here because every hour spent here is happy (or something else sappy and ridiculous like that).
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get us a reservation (pro tip: DEFINITELY try and make one if you can — this place is ridiculously popular), so we ended up waiting nearly an hour and a half before our group of 5 was seated.
We ordered their garlic noodles, the disco fries, salt and pepper chicken wings with fries, baked mussels and the Mongolian beef chow fun. The garlic noodles and the disco fries are apparently must-​have dishes here. I thoroughly enjoyed everything that I had! Everything was very pretty flavorful (though spicy — I wish they had warned me that nearly every dish we ordered had jalapenos or peppers or SOMETHING SPICY IN IT). I can’t remember if we ordered anything else besides that. I just remember there being too much food for the five of us to eat it all. The food is honestly a little richer than I would like to eat every day, but I know friends who swear by this place. I can see where the glowing recommendation comes from.
For all five of us, plus 6 drinks, the total came out to about $ 80! Not bad at all! I would definitely come back, but honestly only if I have a reservation in hand — I don’t think it’s worth an hour and a half wait, even if the food is super cheap and filling.

First timer dining in at Monkey King Pub, and I must say, the wait is ridiculous. We came here around 7:30 pm and there were 5 or 6 parties ahead of us. Luckily, the guy working there was nice and helped us out since he knew we have been waiting for a while. When we were finally seated, we ordered the Disco Fries, Shrimp Garlic Noodles, Sweet and Sour Fish Fillet, and Salt and Pepper Calamari. On to the review of the foods.
The Discos Fries were a little disappointing. I was thinking they would come with more sauce, but it was mainly dry and topped with stir fried onions and bell peppers. A creamy sauce would have made it so much better. We ended up finishing half of it and didn’t take the rest to go since fries would not be the same the next day.
The Shrimp Garlic Noodles were good, but not as good as the first time I’ve had it last year in July. They didn’t add enough garlic in my opinion, and it wasn’t as flavorful as before. Could have been a change in the recipe, or maybe they were just too busy?
The Sweet and Sour Fish Fillet was very good in my opinion. When they brought it to our table, the fish was so crispy and freshly fried. The chunks of fillet are generously sized, and the sauce wasn’t too sour. Wish we ordered a side bowl of rice along with this.
The Salt and Pepper Calamari was amazing as well. We saw everyone ordering this while we were waiting, so we decided to get an order as well. They calamari had a nice and crispy shell of bread crumbs, and the sauce was sweet. There was a good amount of garlic on these, and they served this will jalapenos which gave a little kick if you ate it with the jalapeño.
Overall, I liked their selection of foods, however I would rather take the food to-​go and bring it back home to eat.

There seems to be a constant crowd outside of this establishment Thurs-​Saturday nights! I have always wanted to come by for late night munchies and end-​of-​the-​night sort of drinks, since they are open quite late. Instead, we came in for a quick drink after watching a movie at the Alameda theatre.
The place is quite spacious and big. They have long family style tables for large parties, a good sized bar, and various 4-​seat tables spread throughout the dining room. When we stopped in for a drink, it was right before the dinner rush so it was slightly empty but filled up quickly as we sat there longer and longer. The staff was very attentive… almost too attentive LOL. I think about 3 different servers either checked in on us to make sure we had ordered, or kept asking us if we wanted anything else throughout the duration of the meal. It’s not a bad thing, but it it does make it seem like you have 3 different servers waiting on you…
We ordered the chicken wings which came in some sort of tangy spicy sauce. It was pretty damn good! Very good breading on the chicken and the sauce wasn’t too overwhelming. I noticed they had a lot of various Laos, Chinese, even Vietnamese type items on the menu but unfortunetly we weren’t incredibly hungry.
I’d still like to come back for late night munchies! I can only imagine how good the food must taste after a night out if it tasted pretty good on a slow night!

I came… I saw… and gave 2 stars.
I’ve been hearing about this place for over a year now and alot of my co workers really like this spot. I would have given 2 ½ stars, but you know how that goes. I wasn’t so impressed by this place. This place is pretty small for the number of patrons being seated which is obvious by the spotty service. Although I came in with a group of 10, I ordered an appetizer first from the bartender, then 10 minutes later we were seated and I had to order it a second time from the waiter…20 minutes after that I had to ask for my appetizer again. I also asked for 2 orders of garlic noodles to go, and the waiter never input the order so I had to order it separate and a second time.
I ordered the General Tsou chicken bites (had to order them 3 times before they actually came), the salt and pepper shrimp, and 2 orders of garlic noodles to go (ordered twice before they came). The chicken tastes like every other General Tsou chicken I’ve had, and oddly enough I tasted no pepper and very minimal salt or seasoning on the shrimp. I asked how the shrimp was made and was told that the shrimp is seasoned with salt and pepper then fried in a light flour… I love shrimp so I was a bit disappointed that the shrimp were flavor less and I could still taste the flour. No, I did not send the shrimp back and rarely do.
As I mentioned before its a small place with alot of patrons being seated… I’m guessing that’s why service was scarce and I felt ignored throughout the night. The waiters/​servers were not rude at all, it just feels like the staff was a little overwhelmed.
The garlic noodles are delicious, but this is a place that I just cant see myself coming back to.
Finally made it to the Monkey King… that’s all.

This place is great if you have that salt, spice, deep-​fried goodness crave!
Flavors all on point… they call it ‘fusion’ which to me means chinese food presented in fancy dishes with garnish. This is somewhat true on certain dishes like the calamari… more shrimp chip filler than calamari which i was grazing on… but apparently, staff here see it as garnish as they kept wanting to take the ‘empty’ dish (sans 12pcs of calamari) away.
Inexpensive dishes so you can get a variety of flavors, textures from their extensive menu.
Place is loud due to the crowds, bad acoustic and booming music giving it a club atmosphere… which can be quite annoying when you want to converse with friends and eat… Arrived at 6:10 on a Friday… about a min 20 minute wait…
Would i return? Possibly… but Alameda/​Oakland seems to runneth over with the asian fusion (MUA, Dragon Rouge, Dragon Gate, ZEN, Lin Jia Asian) concept that i’ll try and compare.

Came here with a friend to watch Monday Night Football.
We were seated immediately a little before 7pm at the bar (which we requested). Virtually no wait. I did try to grab the sign-​in sheet, but couldn’t find a pen. We ended up waving someone down and they seated us.
I got the chicken wings ($ 10), which were awesome. They come super hot, so they cook them right before you order. I was so hungry, I kept trying to eat a wing, but it kept burning my tongue. Life’s hard.
My friend got a thai princess, which tasted quite alcoholic. Not a band thing. First time I had rum, and it was pleasant. The garlic fries were $ 6 and very tasty. I think the garlic-​ness really permeates through all the fries. I would also recommend the fish and chips. The chips are pretty much garlic fries, but the sauce that comes with the fish is sweet and creamy.
Oh yeah, and shout out to the bartender lady that worked behind the counter. She was very accommodating with our orders and checked on us quite frequently. Great service.
I very much enjoyed my experience here and hopefully will be back soon to try more items on the menu.

NOW HEAR ME OUT… They have really solid Chinese Asian fusion food here!!! Don’t be discouraged from trying them out. They’re not like your authentic hole-​in-​the-​walls or Dynasty Restaurant but they shouldn’t be chastised for being similar to Panda Express or PF Chang’s because they’re not!
If you don’t already love the «Journey of the West» Monkey King, you’re gonna fall in love with their well-​cooked Americanized Chinese food. My Viet sister from another mother brought me here and I was initially skeptical as well. If I go to a Chinese restaurant and I don’t see old Asian men and women loitering around, I turn around and leave… but my girl friend guaranteed that I’d love it and BOY, WAS SHE RIGHT!!!
5 Stars for excellent Americanized Chinese cuisine! We got these tasty bits:
~Fried Calamari (⁵⁄₅)
One of my favorite dishes ever. I am very picky about my calamari! The light breading complimented the chewy squid well. It was lightly deep fried and was not overwhelmingly drowning in batter or oil. The seasoning was also on point– not bland or overly breaded. Highly recommended!
~Shrimp Garlic Noodles (⁵⁄₅)
One of the best shrimp garlic noodles I’ve tasted. The shrimp portions were huge and the noodle quantity was also very generous. The noodle texture was also supple and chewy. The garlic seasoning was present but not overwhelmingly strong or underwhelming. It was comparable to An the Go in my opinion. Also a must try dish!
~Sweet Sour Fish Fillet (⁴⁄₅)
Their fish fillet was also enjoyable. It was not my favorite dish but it was tasty nonetheless. The sweet sour sauce was too sugary for me that it seemed artificial. But the fish itself was soft, tender, and juicy– succulent!
~Kimchi Fried Rice topped with Fried Egg (3.5÷5)
I have had better kimchi fried rice. The dish here seemed very Americanized. There was not a strong kimchi presence in the dish and it tasted more like a regular fried rice. The egg was somewhat on the small side, but the portions are hearty and the meats were aplenty.
Overall, the ambient was crazy! I came for an early Friday dinner and it was a full house. It was unbearably noisy but the great company, food, and service made my experience much better. I would definitely return here for a tasty meal again :) Cheers!

What am I gonna do with this place?
It is a love-​hate relationship that I share. Because the food is cheap (although they just raised their prices) and good. But the service is slow and it is always so freaking busy.
What is a hit?
Deep-​fried salt and pepper tofu.
Salt and pepper wings and fries.
Kimchi fried rice.
Garlic noodles with shrimp.
Wonton soup.
They have a happy hour menu, which is from 5 til closing. It has a variety of snacks that are huge in portions and easy on your wallet.
Parking is kind of hard to find. Especially on Thursdays-​Saturdays. So plan ahead. If you have a big party, try to make a reservation. But if it is just you and maybe two other people, try to sit at the bar. Better and faster service.