Chef Yang’s BBQ

Excellent food. Had the lamb, chicken, beef skewers. Didn’t care for the shrimp skewers… still waiting on the Chicken, eggplant and string beans… FYI service is sooooooooo slow:(

I’ve been there twice. First time was amazing although we had to wait an hr to get a table for 4, but understandable for a Sat night at peak dinner time. 2^nd time was still great, but of course, not as great as the 1^st. The seasoning is seriously unique. I’ve never tasted it before, ever. I am 37 & have eaten in 41 countries.
Last night (Thursday), we were there close to 10pm and no line! Mushrooms, chicken hearts, vegetables (it’s just called vegetables), & grilled oysters are AMAZING. Delicious. My mouth is watering again just from thinking about it.
As for the steamed rice, corn, tofu & green onion roll, we will definitely pass on those next time. Lamb was ok. Also, the pork skin is not crispy, just FYI.
We’ll definitely come back if we’re in the Cupertino area.

Here is our experience so far…
5 Stars for the food.
2 stars for the ambience, but who cares, when the food is that good. We dont mind the «wait to be seated on weekends» either.
2 stars for the seating as this place is extremely small.
3 stars for the service.
Its just one spice rub on all the dishes, but what makes it uniques is the main ingredient (beef, pork, lamb, veggies) brings out the flavour in the food.
A lot more to be tried.

Very very authentic!!! When I stepped into this little place I thought I was in Changchun, a city in the northeast of China where I spent 4 years. The food is absolutely authentic and very cheap. They even have Malatang!!! I have no issue with their service, because it’s just the same as how these kind of bbq restaurant reserve people back in China. I felt very familiar and comfortable and it reminded me of some of my memories. But I understand people who are not familiar with such kind of food culture will possibly complain about the service and the ambience.

I walked by a few times with groups of people waiting to be seated in this small restaurant. I like to eat skewer street foods and wanted to try it out on a weeknight. The price is good and we got to try an array of items. The oyster was a bit overrated, so I will skip that next time. Everything else were nicely grilled and seasoned. My mother-​in-​law did not like the seasoning they put on the foods, but my husband and I thought they were good. We ordered fried rice, noodles and soup too-​filler items to keep my preschooler happy. Will come again but will only come on weeknights.

THE BEST CHINESE BBQ IN BAY AREA. PERIOD. I won’t even complain the stuffed environment and bad service, because that’s exactly what you expect from roadside BBQ in China.

Pros:
Food tastes good, greasy though
Cons:
service is the worst. I understand this is a small business, needs to be profitable, but how they treat customers are the worst.
1. the tables are packed, only 1 inch between some tables, I had to adjust myself many times when people come or leave the tables beside our table.
2. I arrived first and had a table for 4, and three friends were parking their cars. After less than 5 minutes, the waiter told me that people are waiting for tables, I need to be out and line up again if I don’t order now or my friends don’t arrive in 5 minutes.
3. no food or drink from outside. This is regular rule for quite a few restaurants and I respect that. however when I saw a couple got their milk tea brought away by a waiter, i started to realize that this restaurant applies this rule strictly.

Our favorite skewer place and we’ve tried them all. The overall rating is pretty disastrous here on Unilocal but we do love it! Yes it’s Oily yes everything has the same seasoning, but that is what makes it authentic. And that’s coming from a Chinese girl that eats skewers twice a day growing up on the way home from school (such good times…) The service was horrific in the past but really has improved. Still has plenty of room for improvement certainly but improvement should be recognized. The ladies smile a lot more now. :)
We even have a little note saved in the phone that can tally up our orders quickly.
Favorites: mantou (bun?), beef, squid, veggie roll in tofu skin (childhood fav), croaker.
They open late so definitely also our go to for late night. Long lines and worse service on the weekends. Go during the weekday for a more relaxed experience.

mala noodle soup! (The spicy veggie soup) also enjoyed the cold vegetable dish.
BBQ skewers were excellent too. Most of them were full of cumin and spice. After awhile, the taste is repetitive. The buns are yummy as well.
Service was bad to me.

If you’re okay with skewered meats that are all of the same flavoring/​seasoning, this place deserves a try. The lamb is my favorite here. For non-​meat dishes, what really stood out for me was the mantou — same seasoning of spices as the other skewers, but the mantou itself had a sweetness to it that really made it delicious. The grilled parts gave the bun a nice crunchy outer shell.
I would probably only come here once in a while as a small treat, as the food is kind of oily, and the taste will probably get a little boring after a while. It’s hard to get a seat, so come here early!

Pro: cheap eats, good food and good beer. The cold noodle and tendon are my favorite
Con: Get packed quick, you can’t hang out since people will be looking at you through the window

Every time I’m in the area, I gotta stop by here.
Best mala noodle soup! (The spicy veggie soup) also enjoyed the cold vegetable dish. Not sure how it was so refreshing yet flavorful!
BBQ skewers were excellent too. Meat were juicy. Most of them were full of cumin and spice. So after awhile, it might seem repetitive but I myself really enjoyed the flavor so I didn’t mind. I could have lots n lots of them.

everything tastes like one seasoning, but luckily I like the seasoning.
and I like fat. so they get four stars.

Plus one star just for being a unique eating place. You order individual skewers of various meat and meat by products or seafood or veggie. All the ones I had were pretty good — lamb, squid, intestine, green beans, and chicken. Had to ask for rice at $ 1.00 extra. They serve you as they’re ready one skewer at a time. My chicken came out 15 mins after I finished the last one so had to wait.
This place obviously caters to the local Cupertino clientele if you know what I mean. And there’s many that seem to like this place so sometimes there’s a bit of a wait. They don’t allow you to add to your order cause they want to turn the tables quickly. Know what to expect and just enjoy.

I used to think the food here is okay, but it is too inconsistent to give this place a chance, and in the end, I feel like I just ate a lot of heavily seasoned garbage meat mixed with oil and grease. It’s annoying how the people who work at the restaurant want to keep the doors opened when there are people smoking outside.
Also, for such low quality meat, $ 1.50 — $ 2 a skewer isn’t really worth it. Anything that is not on a skewer = do not try it. Who knows where it’s been.
It’s worth noting that service is really lousy. It takes forever to get their attention to order stuff, forever for the food to come, and every time you receive your skewers, it just gets dumped onto the same dirty plate that you first received. Doesn’t matter if you have chewed up bones on that plate, your food gets dumped onto that same plate anyways. Oh well, the food is all trash anyways, so why does it matter where it lands.
Spare yourself and just go to Sumiya. It’ll be Japanese yakitori, but at least it’s better than eating garbage meat.

I’ve been eye-​ing this place for a long time but Cupertino Village is not necessarily my hood that I had not got a chance to eat here!
I don’t get what’s with the low rating as apparently, this restaurant is actually quite busy and in fact, probably the busiest in the whole entire shopping center during our visit on a Wednesday evening! The restaurant constantly had a line of customers and it was always full! Thankfully we arrived just right before the dinner crowd and managed to snag the last table in the house! 5 minutes after we were seated… more and more customers started flocking in writing down their names on the wait list! The patrons were not only chinese but even korean, vietnamese, middle eastern and even europeans! (yeah, so random!!!).I’m wondering if people just gave low rating so that this place is not discovered!!! hahah
Service was not attentive which is definitely expected (by me) as it’s just the way it rolls in most chinese joints! especially in such a small restaurant!
We were seated for a good 5 – 10 minutes before one of the waitresses took our food order… I over ordered ahahahhaha well. I wanted to try everything!!!
I ordered, 3 beef, 4 lambs, 3 chicken, 2 shrimp, 2 squid, 1 fish tofu, 2 tempura, 2 tofu rolls with green onions, 2 eggplants, 1 string beands, 2 chives, 2 A-​vegetables, 3 mushrooms, 1 chicken gizzard, 2 pork skin, 2 mantou (chinese buns), 1 hot dog, 1 yellow croaker (fish), 2 corns, 1 tendon… We couldn’t finish and took home about ¹⁄₃ of what we ordered! ahahahahahah!
Anyway… we loved everything and even my «steak+potato» fiancé enjoyed the meal! He said, he liked the seasonings on the meat :). The only things that I won’t order again are:
— yellow croaker. the fish is too small and boney, should order the pollock (bigger fish) next time. although it’s more expensive
— Tofu roll with green onions. too dry!!! tasted like burned crepes!
— chicken gizzard … I love gizzards but their are a bit too chewy
— corns… well. I’m on the fence on this… it was alright but I personally prefer the usual sweet corn vs chinese «not sweet, stickier» corn!
— chives… it was also very chewy and since the chives were whole (not cut), one could easily choke on this!
— shrimp … hard to eat because of the skin, not worth the effort on this!
We spent around $ 64 including tax, yikes!!! but again… I over ordered… hoenstly, we could get away with just half of what we ordered! but well… it was a good adventure :)

The place is DIRTY!!! Their operation needs to suspend and don’t be surprise if you got sick.
We went there on a weekday evening. After we sit down, we saw two persons on the next dining table were making tofu skewers. They didn’t wear gloves and their hands are dirty. After couple min the guy stood up and started ordering for us, and then went back to the table and continued to preparing the food. He definitely didn’t wash hands.
After several min, another group of customers walked, so the guy left to serve them. Another restaurant staff sit down and continue to prepare the food. I specifically looked at his hands. His nails ARE SO DIRTY and BLACK.
And They finally had to put away their skewers until another group walked in.
I understand street food could be unclean, but at least you don’t need to show your unsanitary food preparation process to all the customers. If they are not shamed of such food preparation process, you could imagine how dirty their kitchen could be.

I need to update my review because my impression of this place changed. My first impression about this place wasn’t a good one; however, after coming here regularly I started to love this place.
I understand service needs improvement. many people are complaining about the wait, people need to understand that bbq every single stick is very labor intensive and it does takes time.
People who dine here needs to have an expectation that it’s going to take time, don’t come here if you’re dying of hunger,
The server are very nice people, they are working their ass off, considering they don’t control the cooking, it doesn’t help when people continue asking them multiple time when is the food is ready. If your not accustom to this style restaurant, there is this special place you can go that gets the food out quickly to you — McDonald’s.
For fans of this place they will keep coming and wait in line for the best Chinese bbq in Cupertino; I’m one of the fans and I like my skewers non-​spicy.

Ever since I tried Chinese skewers at TLT BBQ, I’ve been hooked. A friend recently took me to try Chef Yang’s because she claimed the service here was better and they had more variety and she was right, about the variety part anyway.
Overall, the service here is less curt than other Chinese BBQ joints, the servers are fast and efficient, even if they’re not particularly warm or friendly. But hey let’s be honest service is never why we come to Asian restaurants, now is it?
Food: Overall, the skewers are really delicious, savory and amazing. They are flavored with cumin and spices; not spicy per se but definitely will send some tingles on your tongue, in a good way.
1. Lamb skewer — juicy and succulent, great portions
2. Mushroom — always a little too vinegary for my taste
3. Mantou — Crispy and yummy, a little bit on the sweet side
4. A Vegetable — really yummy, although not consistent– some days its really good, and somedays it is just drenched with oil
4. Yangzhou fried rice — pretty good, generous portions and delicious to eat with the skewers if you find the skewers too oily.
5. MUST GET: MA LA TANG — This is the reason why I’ve been back to Chef Yang 123 871 987 times. I love their Ma La Tang, it’s amazing, the soup is (oily), but flavorful, and the noodles — a mix of vermicelli and tofu (?) are so so so good. I could finish a bowl of this by myself if you let me. The vegetables and tofu also soak up the soup and are so yummy to eat. Probably not for the faint of heart and non-​spice eaters, but for everyone else, this is a total must have for me. YUM.
Thinking about the ma la tang is already making me hungry.
Overall, Chef Yang is another great addition to the Bay Area Chinese skewer scene. To be totally honest though, if you only like skewers, I still think TLT BBQ does the flavors and cooking better. But, if you don’t mind a mix of food (AKA MA LA TANG), then Chef Yang is an amazing place to eat and share good food with friends/

This place’s bad reviews are due to the service. However, I would prefer this over FT Bbq in Milpitas. They have more varieties and NO FLIES! My boyfriend really enjoys their pig feet skewers which are a little to fatty for me. We both loved the intestine skewers and their meat skewers are BOMB. Their skewers are definitely more on the spicy side, and if you’re not familiar with spicy food, the food can make your stomache upset.
Beers are pretty good here. They don’t let you bring outside drinks so eat before you buy them bobas.