Yu Zhou Cafe

My Chinese friend took me here for dinner and this is the best authentic Chinese food I have ever had. It not is not Americanized at all. Also very reasonably priced!

Great place for good cheap Chinese food. I had the pork chop and hot + sour soup. Perfect for what i was looking for. I’ll go back

Well best food so far. I tried their spicy beef with okra and now I am trying spicy chicken with black bean souce. And believe me it’s really good. I highly recommend this place. Try it once at least. The lady works there is so funny and she is very friendly give me soup soda and lot more free on my every visit.

Love this place. The first time I went hated it but I tried it again and now I’m in love! They have the best shui zhu yu. Their beef cubes with pepper is so good. Their pig intestine with duck blood is delicious too. I always get these three every time I go.

Overall I thought the place was nice environment to dine in. The food was great but not fantastic, would recommend the chef to put more protein the dishes rather than filling it up with spices. Also needs server to walk around and or pay attention if customers need anything. In comparison with Bob’s Shanghai I think I would still prefer there instead.

Location is not easily visible since restaurant is located behind the Gaithersburg Square strip mall BUT food is consistently good!!! We have been going here for years (formerly Fu Shing Café). The new owners (²⁰¹¹⁄₂₀₁₂) kept same menu & back of the house kitchen staff. The new owner at the cash register is much more friendlier than the former. He & his wife actually make a point to walk around restaurant & greet customers. The place is always packed, lots of Chinese families eating here. That’s a great sign that the restaurant is worth it. Our standard family fare: appetizers: fried dumplings (chicken), dan-​dan noodles. Main dishes that we order consistently & have been happy with: Fei teng fish (spicy red broth, with large pieces of fish fillets & lots of goodness!!), Beef noodle soup (broad noodles, pieces of beef, some gelatinous pieces, delish broth & cilantro), chicken with bean curds, General Tso’s chicken, Eggplant w/​chicken, Chicken w/​blackbean sauce. The best assets are the Latino Wait-​staff. They are very courteous & attentive; our family always makes it a point to leave them a large tip for their great service.

Do not get the Seafood soup. There is no seafood in it. No I am not exaggerating, totally disappointed.

I’ve been here for lunch numerous times since this place was formerly known as Fu Shing. Other than the name change, the experience has remained pretty much the same for me. There is a long counter with various pre-​made Chinese dishes that you can order cafeteria-​style. It’s not the classiest way to eat, but the food is inexpensive and tastes pretty good. I try different things here, but I generally always get the beef noodle soup — it’s a good portion size and has a lot of meat. It’s also spicy, which I would change if I had the option, but given that the broth is pre-​made, there’s not much that can be done.
I know there is a regular menu but I’ve never ordered off of it. However, I can safely say that lunch at the counter is a great deal.

Pretty interesting place to try out the Sichuan style food. Quite crowded during the lunch hour. I’m kind of giving this place 3.5 but bump it up to 4 for the nice services.
It is a bit confusing during the lunch hour. Looks like all tables are taken. And there was not host at the entry. I was not sure should I just go ahead to find a table or wait for the busy wait stuff to get me eventually. My mom spotted one and I told a passing by waiter to get the table cleaned up. Then we were not sure if we order from the menu or just go to the counter in the back to get the food ourselves.
Soon we join the lines to get some pre-​made dishes. Quite a lot to choose and all have very attrative authentic names which I have not got the chance to try in a long time. Well so I got fish, rice noode, beef noodle soup and sweet potato sesame patties. We loved the sweet potato sesame patties. That is about it. The rest were OK but not at the bar with the place in Chicago area.
We also ordered lamb stew from the menu. It was super delicious just too salty for me. I recommend this one if youn want to eat it with the white rice.
Overall a good place to eat and not expensive.

This is a wonderful hidden gem in Montgomery County.
Yu Zhou has very good food and polite staff. My father in-​law loves this place and thinks its the best around. That clinched it for me has during his Air Force days he was stationed in Asia in numerous countries and has an affinity for both traditional and American Chinese food.
The prices are reasonable but staff can be kinda slow to respond when the meal is over.

This place is very authentic with a dim sum a la carte bar to choose from. The soups are very good as well. If you are looking for a good Chinese place check this one out. It is hidden behind the Gaithersburg shopping center. A gem!

Tried the small fish with peanuts; fish so small, more like 1 inch cripts and lots of peanuts. Interesting to try but won’t order it again.
Should have ordered their house noodle soup which I know is great but tried seafood noodle soup: boring x 2, not very much seafood. Bland broth. Nothing to write home about.
Restaurant filliwith Chinese folks so it must be better than what I had.
Oh well.

This is my family’s go to Chinese restaurant. We’ve been coming here for years, even before Yu Zhou, when it was Fu Shing. My favorite dish has to be Bean Curd Schzeuan style. It’s so flavorful and has the right amount of kick to it.
I’ve noticed that a few of the wait staff have been there since my family started coming to the restaurant in 2009, so I would like to think that means that they treat their employees well.
One more note — they have a separate Chinese menu. Actually, they kind of separate the whole restaurant into two sections, one for non-​Chinese people and the other for Chinese people. Doesn’t bother me, I actually think its pretty funny. Not sure what their menu is like but it looks good from the dishes I’ve seen from trying to peek over the great wall.

I tried this restaurant 2 years ago and was not impressed. When I went with my colleagues recently, I found that they have a new chef’s special menu. You won’t see many of these dishes on that menu at other Sichuan spicy food places. I was very surprised and happy.
My favorite is a roast duck dish with spring onion, sweet sauce, and bun.
The food is priced reasonably. There is always leftover to take back home.

My family often comes here… My parents are pretty picky when it comes to chinese restaurants– they have high standards for authenticity and this place has my mom’s stamp of approval so that definitely says something! We usually order their Sichuan dishes which I believe are their specialty. Prices are very reasonable and portions are big. Waiters are very nice.

Fei teng fish still delicious just enough spice. The dough for the XLB (steam buns) is a bit too thick and many of the dumplings were already broken so the juices leaked out. That was disappointing. However since we went really for the spicy fish we were aatisfy. Still don’t like the fact that they charge for extra steam rice.
The servers are all very polite and nice. They work as as a team.

My family and I always come here for special occasions. And most of the time we usually order the same thing, spicy beef and okra, fried shrimp balls and shredded pork with yellow chives and crispy tofu. The proportions are huge too! And that says a lot for a Chinese restaurant. We usually order 3 dishes for 4 people which is the perfect amount. Any more and we’ll need to doggy bag the food.
It’s always packed with Chinese people. When you get into the restaurant you will be seated and handed menus. Then once you’ve decided what you want you go up to the counter and order. At the counter they also have a variety of hot foods that you can also order cafeteria style which are pretty yummy too. Especially the fried dough!
I definitely recommend if you want authentic Cantonese foods. Just be aware of how to order because it’s a little different.

I have eaten here quite a few times because a friend lives right next door.
This place is known for home-​style cooking and spicy food. You order your food at the counter which is brought out to you. However, the tables are traditional with booths and round banquet tables with lazy susans. Also, they bring a teapot to your table as well as glasses of water.
We have ordered the veggie spring rolls which were crispy; the smoked duck which was dry and I had to ask for hoisin sauce; schezuan green beans (sometimes spicy and sometimes not); beef chow foon which came with green onions; beef noodle soup which was large and spicy; and tofu and veggie hot plate.
My friend also ordered a dish with minced tofu and lots of chili peppers. I never tried it because the fume were enough to curl my eyelashes! She loved it!
This was a great go-​to spot but now that she is vegan we have found a place up the pike which can make any chinese dish a vegan dish.

I wondered into this place completely by chance because they were located at such odd place behind the strip mall near the loading dock. I suppose it fitted the description of a shady back alley Chinese place. Access by car seems rather complicated, as you have to drive thru the back of the strip mall. The place remind me of an old style Chinese restaurant, their setup was rather odd, since you got the regular dining area, but they also have a Panda Express type of setup near the kitchen.
Given my Asian look, they automatically gave me the Chinese only menu rather than the English one. The server did not speak Chinese, and they gave me a piece of paper and pencil to write down what I want to order. I suppose that was a Chinese written test to see if you can read and write Chinese, so that you may order from the secret Chinese menu.
Despite being alone, I ordered the Water Boiled Fish and Spicy Pepper Chicken even though I cannot finish them. The water boiled fish was decent, the broth was the lighter watery style rather than the thick saucy one, and the fish leaves a warm feeling in your belly. The chicken was done well, the meat was moist enough despite being fried, and it was not very spicy.
If you are looking for authentic Chinese food in this area, Yu Zhou is probably your best bet. I am guessing price is a norm for DC area at high 10s and low 20s per dish. The service was decent, maybe it was because the servers were not Asian…

For weekend brunch, Yu Zhou offers customers the opportunity to order from a cafeteria style area, as well as from their menu. While their food portions were reasonable for the price, their food is often bland.
We had ordered the beef noodle soup, rice roll, ribs with rice, cucumber with clear rice noodle, and Chinese fried doughnut. All of them (with the exception of the cucumber) have either a bland sweet, spicy or salty flavor. The most disappointing one was the rice roll, which had very little ingredients on the inside, so we decided to take them home and add the appropriate seasoning.
I’d probably wait for a year or two before returning here, hoping their chefs would update their dishes, to be at least on par with other similar restaurants in the area.