C-Fu Gourmet

Undercooked pork!!!
My wife took me here as she is Asian and lives all things Asian except lucky for me she like me not Asian!
She loves hot pot places and taking me to all things Asian…
We came here for lunch about a year ago and I had never been here.
I have no idea what the food is when they walk around and say you want some… This being said I do not like pork, I do not want to eat it as it is dirty to me…
I got some sort of what I thought was a meatball which turned out to be pork balls complete with blood dripping on my plate.
I was done…
I lost my appetite and never went back.
Nobody asked if the food was good or why my food was nearly untouched…
No thanks!

I remember going to C-​Fu Gourmet for Dim Sum 10 years ago and now that we’ve moved back to Arizona I was so excited to go back until my mother-​in-​law said they no longer do Dim Sum. So I trusted her and went to China King for Dim Sum until they closed down. I was so sad until our friends said Mekong palace does Dim Sum so we went there few times. I wasn’t impressed but beggars can’t be choosers. This Easter Sunday I was craving for Dim Sum so we got up early and went to Mekong at 10:00am. This place was so packed and the line was so long we had waiting time of 1 to 2 hours. I said no way and we left Mekong. My mood was terrible. My husband said let’s just try C-​Fu Gourmet for lunch instead. He was hoping my mood would improve with some yummy greasy Chinese food…
And it did!!! When these amazing Dim Sum aroma welcomed me to their restaurant. We set right front of the kitchen door and it was WONDERFUL. We got fresh pickings of all the Dim Sums. I was sad when dessert cart came over without my favorite Egg tarts but my disappointment didn’t last long. Wonderful serving lady said don’t worry I got you. When Egg tarts came out she stopped at our table first with these hot and yummy tarts. I was so full by then but my wonderful husband said let’s share one and take the others to go. I am so happy to find C-​Fu Gourmet does Dim Sum and they do Dim Sum every day according to the cashier. Best Easter Sunday Ever:)

Dim sum in Phoenix? YUP and it was delish!
My top 3 were:
1) eggplant with shrimp
2) rice wrapped in the leaf
3) spicy wonton
I really liked how they actually cook the eggplant, taro cake, and chive dumpling right in front of you. So when you bite it, it’s piping hot! Apparently they used to do this back in the day back home but I don’t remember.
I thought the other typical dumplings like the hau gau and shu mai were just okay. The Chinese broccoli was also a little over cooked but overall the good definitely out weighted the bad. I will definitely come back and try more.
Don’t forget to rub the buddha’s belly!

This is an interesting restaurant. It is huge like a banquet hall and there is a stage with the disco ball. I have been here for dim sum and it is really good. Lots of choices and you don’t have to wait long for a cart with a new item to come by your table.
Last night though, I went there just for dinner. One thing I noticed is that the menu is in Chinese and English and there is no explanation provided about any entrée. So, if you don’t know what something is or you wonder what ingredients are in a dish, you have to ask your server. Given that their menu is quite long, I think asking your server what each dish is, is a little crazy. It is definitely an «authentic» Chinese restaurant, where most of the conversation amongst patrons is in Chinese. There are also things on the menu that Americanized Chinese restaurants simply don’t have – like salted cod fried rice.
For me, it’s not the best Chinese food I’ve had. See my review on Desert Jade for the best Chinese food. But I would go back here again especially for dim sum.

This place used to be good years ago for dim sum yet when visited recently, I would not go back. When dumplings are the main thing to try, make sure your ingredients are fresh and flavorful. Pungent, rubbery shrimp wrapped in a steam dumpling does not go over well for my nostrils nor my stomach. The servers in the back pushing the carts are rather aggressive and they swarm to your table like hungry pigeons not stopping a moment to acknowledge that you already order 4 plates. When declining the dish, they seem upset and then vanish when you want to reorder. The cashier, maybe the new management/​owners is very unpleasant. Not a great way to invite people back and I certainly would not go back for both the food and service.

The Dim Sum was hopping! It’s a huge seating area and almost full. Everything we had was really good. We had sticky rice, ginger pork dumplings, a dish that had shrimp on a slice of bell pepper in a bean sauce, steamed bbq pork buns and fresh baby bok choy. All of it was so good.
Also the service was prompt and accommodating.
I’m sad to see some recent reviews. This is still the best Dim Sum around!

This was our favorite restaurant especially for dim sum. However with the change of owners, we will no longer visit this restaurant.
The service was simply horrible. The restaurant was near empty with many servers mulling around doing everything but attending to customers. After taking our order, our server disappeared for the rest of our dining experience. Another couple a few tables away had the same issue trying to locate their server.
The food left much to be desired. The seaweed vegetable soup was OK, although my companion found it to be bland. The duck was dry and they forgot to serve any sauce with it. The spicy garlic eggplant was acceptable, although not as spicy as one would expect. The biggest disappointment was the vegetarian vegetable noodles (Hong Kong style). The dish had way too much sauce, resulting in the noodles getting soggy.

Chinese New Years at C-​fu Gormet is a tradition for my family. Its something we look forward to every year. We have been seeing it for about nine years strait now. But after this year, I feel we will not be going back. We came in and got a table pretty quick. However, I had to go to the bathroom. Yuk. Two stalls were out of order and I had to scavenge for toilet paper around the unkept restroom. Bad start to the evening.
So we are waiting for the lion dancers. And soon they came. But they were just sitting there. What were they waiting for? No biggie. We ordered and the food was on its way. But we waited. And waited. And waited. I was hoping for something to happen. Food? Lion dancing? What would come first? A cart full of ice water! Yay.
So then the lion dancers started to stir. Some kids were playing with their equipment. Cute. The dancers were very nice to them and let them explore the lions and take pics and bang on the drums. Then finally they would start. Two lions go to the front. No food yet, but this should be cool.
Then the rudest thing I ever saw happened. The guy who was pushing the water cart runs over to the drummer lady, demands her drumsticks (I distinctly heard her say «no») then takes them from her and starts drumming. The people in the lions peeked out wondering what the heck was going on. This was NOT part of the show apparently. Then I see the lion guys doing a ton of hand gestures to the drummer. And this poor girl is just shrugging her shoulders and pointing to the rude older bully man drumming as loud as he can. Wow. Finally he stopped and gave the sticks back to the drummer and marches off. WTF? At least the kids were polite enough to ask to play with the equipment. He just barged in and demanded.
So the drummer starts and the lions start moving. Then our food arrives! It was hot and fresh and crispy (sesame chicken) with good flavor. The other dishes then arrived for the rest of the family soon after. They were just as well prepared. No complaints from all the others. It took a little longer that it should but I guess it was worth it. We really enjoyed the lion dancing. Once they finally got to start.
The prices also seemed a bit more than usual. But we paid and left a small tip anyways.
Bottom line. Rude servers. Dirty bathroom. Awesome lion dancing and ok food. Reading previous reviews I see that they are under new management. I hope they take stock in these reviews to better themselves and live up to the previous reputation of C-​Fu Gormet.

New management, same old habits. Service is extremely slow. Came in just before 7pm got seated right away, but waited at least 15 min before anyone even came back to us. My uncle had to get up and put in our order, sitting here now a total of 45 min while I write this review and still have yet to receive our soup. A table came in 20 min after us has already had their soup. There doesn’t seem to be enough workers to cover the entire restaurant. Few kids are constantly running around the place as well as up and down the stage. Rule one of restaurant etiquette, control your kids!
The food was pretty good though, not sure if it was cause we were super hungry by the time the food came. Today being Chinese New Years they had a special treat with some lion dancers. Other than that because of the slow service this place is a no go for me.

For 10 – 15 years C-​Fu used served the best dim sum in the valley. What happened? I went about four times a year and it compared favorable to the best in other cities. About two years ago, all that changed. The pork dumplings were served under cooked and everything was mediocre.
I’ve tried all the other places in Phoenix and none are as good as the old C-​Fu. Sadly, C-​Fu is still terrible. I go by myself once in a while hoping for better news, my family won’t go with me — no good news to report.
The other places are better. But we concluded that Phoenix does not have its dim sum act together. Seattle, San Francisco, New York, even Minneapolis has good dim sum (Chicago not so much).
As dim sum aficionados, I would love someone to pick up the gauntlet and do something special.

Worst possible experience. There was a table that left just before we sat down and it was empty, hint number one. It took about 20 minutes for us to get 5 cups of water, hint number two. After we ordered we received our first dish in 1.5hrs, hint number three.
This place may be under new management, but they need to get their heads out of their rear. Leaving a table unattended for that long period of time is only acceptable if 1. The place is on fire and emergency crews are outside 2. The place is packed and there was a line out the door (nope not even close to full capacity) or 3. The chef had a heart attack and keeled over the stove and has started the fire. To put the cherry on top the «cook» came out and survived the floor a couple of times.
Just a few choice words for the the management: please, please improve your service! Until then I DO NOT believe I will EVER be coming back again.

I heard there was new management recently, so my family came for dinner. The sizzling rice soup was on point. We also got the roast duck which came out nice, flavorful, and crisp (no sauce though. For best saucy duck, try diamonds in Phoenix). Finished our meal with a streaming seafood tofu pot. Seafood was fresh and the tofu was pump with piping hot sauce. Ohmyyyy. Drooling a bit just thinking about it.
Definitely worth a try if you haven’t been to CFu for dinner.

I used to love coming here for dim sum. I fear this will be my last visit for a while.
The place was near empty this morning. For a Saturday, this was a bit of a surprise. The prices have gone up while the selection had gone down. I only saw one full cart the whole time. One poor server pushed around a cart of the same eight items the whole time I was there — including a sad dish of cold clams.
The gai lan was still delicious but the steamed char sui buns were nowhere to be seen. Since this was my friends’ favorite dish, she was left disappointed. The baked buns are now larger but contain less pork. For what you pay for three sugar cane shrimp balls, you’d think they would be served hot, or warm, or anything but cold. I asked for the haupia (coconut pudding), I wondered why they were now cutting it in wedges. What I was served was a sour milk spongy dessert.
The new owner hovered, and prodded his employees along, which was a bit distracting. The chair covers look nice but that’s definitely not the improvement you hope to find.

Pleasant service. Very delicious spicy eggplant. Large dining room. This seemed a little impersonal. The best eggplant I’ve had in a long time. My new fav. Thanks for reading. The Bike Chaplain

DIM SUM REVIEW:
So my dinner here previously wasn’t too bad, but the weekday dim sum I had here was horrendous. I was pretty embarrassed – brought some co-​workers here for their first dim sum experience ever and I ended up apologizing for how bad the food was. They ended up ordering regular lunch entrees after trying their first couple dim sum items (I could have died of embarassment).
Siumai were cold and hard as rocks, ha gao very dry and chewy-​skinned, charsiubao filling was odd-​tasting, etc… we came at about 1230 so it wasn’t off-​peak lunch hours or anything. The selection of dim sum was dismal overall as well.
So for regular entrees, this place is ok. But if you’re looking for dim sum, check out China King or Phoenix Palace just a few blocks away.

I am so disappointed and beyond unsatisfied with both the food but especially the customer service! It was our first time for dinner and the workers look and act miserable here! They don’t smile, they take a really long time to take your order and almost complete ignore you… They only somewhat half smile when they hand you the overpriced bill!
The food is nothing’s special and better at smaller restaurants that give better service —
Save your money and Time and go across the street to Phoenix Palace… At least they are faster at taking orders, cooking food, and giving you the bill

I love Dim Sum and this place is super cheap. I hear the regular food is amazing. Sadly I haven’t tried that. I will always come back here cause the food is cheap and good. I will miss this place. Service is not always the best. Sometimes you want the food cart to come around and it never comes to you…
But what can you expect from an authentic chinese place huh. lol

My wife & I came here for dim sum because our favorite place in Mesa was so overcrowded, & we were hungry. All dim sum items we selected at C-​Fu Gourmet were so bland I had to use a lot of soy sauce just to have some flavor. «Gourmet» should not be part of their name.
I don’t plan to go back to this restaurant any time soon.

This place has an air of faded grandeur, like it used to be nice. Now the slip covers over the back of the chairs can’t cover up the little shabby details. I didn’t expect much, and that’s what I got.
We ordered 5 appetizers: egg rolls, crab rangoons, fried shrimp, crispy quail, and chicken lettuce wraps. Food came out in stages, the first 3 arriving quickly, served with pots of sweet and sour, spicy mustard, and pepper flakes in oil. The pots were dirty. The egg rolls were overcooked but were otherwise pretty standard. The shrimp was cook right. The rangoons were also fine, as far as plain and uninspired rangoons go. The quail came out next, completely dry. But crispy, anyway. The chicken for the lettuce wraps had almost no flavor; you had to pour on plum sauce for it to taste like anything. The lettuce cups were full of water; I shook one off for a minute or 2 and it was still dripping on me.
Service is fast and friendly; prices are decent. Basically a totally average Chinese place.

DimSum wouldn’t be my reference here, but I’d like to give a 5 star for a new delish plate that I tried last Friday here with my fellows: Baked cat fish rolled with rice paper and mixed chili-​tamarind-​pepper sauce. The thing is, you have to call ahead to reserve this food because it can take some preparing times within 30−45mins. We ordered lobsters first, but then there were all baby minion lobsters so we might as well tried other specialties. I think we hit a jackpot when a party of 5 who ordered this came pretty late, so of course we had a pleasure to shorten the wait time for this one.
We arrived at 7pm, got seated right away in the middle of the pathway. We ordered crab meat and asparagus soup for appetizer, Singapore Mai for the add on, the baked fish, along with some boosters for a fun and warm night with friends.
The waitresses who served us were amazingly charming and friendly. They already knew what we wanted ahead of time without even have to clarify.
The soup is tasty as always, we had the selections of soy sauce, chili oil and pepper on the side in case we wanted some extra flavors. We didn’t touch the Singapore Mai because we saved room for the main plate. And here we come, a giant big baked fish with numerous garnishes… My mouth is watery just to think about this delish plate. I forgot to mention the bill was pretty decent too.
Good food, good company, and greatest service ever. We will come back.