Su Hong-Menlo Park

i had Su Hong via Door Dash last night and I wasn’t crazy happy with the food. The veggie potstickers were good, for sure. And the veggie fried rice, too, but the kung pao tofu was just mush and not flavorful. It also had about 10 huge red hot peppers in there… not edible (to me) but I guess to show it was spicy (?). I used to go to the Palo Alto store and I prefer their food hands down. Overall, it was fine but I’m not going back. Sigh.

The Su Hong restaurant on El Camino Real has been CLOSED for months. The website
says it is «temporarily closed due to remodeling.»
The Su Hong To Go place at 630 Menlo Ave is still open.

Insane to call this the best chinese food ever.
This is the remaining part of the larger Su Hong restaurant, which closed because people didn’t like it. The takeout area is good for cheap, americanized dishes. The egg rolls are lip-​smaking due to greasy flavor. If you’re looking for the bland american version of egg foo young you might have grown up with, this is the spot!

By far the best Chinese food I have ever had! They do family style here which is fun. I love their chicken fried rice, BBQ pork chow fun, sizzling rice soup, Chinese chicken salad, beef and broccoli and gosh so many others! Parking isn’t always the best but oh well. It is great for casual dining, dates, or family dinner and has a full bar. Love it!

I am an avid follower of the Su Hong experience. Asian food at its best. The taste of their glazed walnuts topping delicacies or their salads has kept me returning time and time again for the past 10+ years. Great food for social and business gatherings. Guaranteed delight for everyone!4

They appear to be reopening as there is a large banner hanging from the store front.
HOWEVER, it ticks me off to no end that Unilocal allows folks to publish reviews praising how great this place is when it was CLOSED!!!
That right, this place has been closed tighter than a nuns knees at Planned Parenthood rally for over a year.
And yet somehow a couple of reviews managed to get published during the closure, but yet my pointing out the place was closed got my review pulled.
Integrity?
You be the judge.
Even their frigging website said they were closed.

Solid, legit Shanghainese food! Especially if you know what to order. My girlfriends and I wanted a place to get tangyuan/​glutinous rice balls for Chinese new year and this came up on our Unilocal search. Granted we didn’t set our expectations very high, but we were pleasantly surprised by the authenticity of the food and cheap prices.
Total bill: $ 26 total pp for the 5 dishes below (more than enough for 3 of us — plenty of leftovers!), including tax & tip.
There was no wait at 6:30pm on a Friday night and didn’t seem to be through the entire dinner rush. Service was prompt, a little brusque at times (but that’s your typical authentic Chinese place), and the whole meal went smoothly with food coming out fast.
* Dou miao (pea shoots) — 3.5 stars
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We ordered this off-​menu to have some greens at the table. You have a small or large plate option. Simple dish, can’t go wrong!
* Shanghai fried rice — 3 stars
pic:
I love the crispy burnt part at the edge of the bowl and there was a good amount of this! Otherwise this rice did not have too many ingredients and was like regular fried rice hopped up on tons of salt. The rice grains themselves were a little hard and old too.
* Wuxi ribs in pot — 4 stars
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My friend recognized this as a dish from her hometown and was really excited so we ordered it. A nice surprise! Very flavorful, the ribs were cut in short pieces (she said it’s usually the long type of ribs) but they were still tender and tasty.
* Lion’s head in clay pot — 4 stars
pic:
Another good classic Chinese dish. I told my mom about this afterwards and she got really excited because she’s never seen this dish on an American menu. The giant meatball and soup was a great explosion of flavors, otherwise the soup was filled w/​napa cabbage (the photo does not do the dish justice).
* Sweet ball dessert sup — 3.5 stars
pic:
The dish we came for! Tasty, just enough of the alcohol grain flavor. You get this giant bowl. we were so stuffed but couldn’t help ourselves but finish everything.

Convenience is the only good thing about this place. Food is gross.

While I was living out of state, I met some friends whom I hit it off with right away; we were all from California, them from the Bay Area, myself from Los Angeles. We often talked about food and the places we liked back home and Su-​Hong always came up when would try a new chinese place that was inevitably bad, full of goopy, sugary sauces, no spice etc.
A couple years later, I ended up spending some time in the area for work and came to Su Hong a few times.
The food here is pretty good. It is pretty regular chinese dishes that you see on every menu, but I think they put care into what they are serving. The meat is crispy when it should be, not undercooked and mushy. The sauces are not full of corn starch to make them goopy. They understand what extra spicy means, and they seem to try to accommodate your requests.
The only thing I would have changed about my last experience at Su-​Hong would be my dinner companions… too bad I can’t give them a Unilocal rating. :-)

Chinese Food? Yes, I’d love some!
Overall — 4 Stars
Food — 3 Stars
Price — 3 Stars
Other — 5 Stars
My family has been coming to Su Hong for a number of years, and the main reason they go here is because my parents are allergic to MSG. They don’t use any MSG in any of their dishes so they feel comfortable coming here.
I find most of the food pretty good, even-​though it’s lacking that crucial MSG. :) They also don’t like garlic and this place does a good job of accommodating them.
We usually order the three mushroom chicken, the fish in black bean sauce, the war wonton soup, mu-​shu pork, and the dried string beans. All of these items are good!
If you’ve got some dietary restrictions this place does a great job of accommodating, if you don’t and can eat everything, skip this pay less and enjoy your meal!

You have not had GREAT FOOD until you’ve been here! My family has been coming here since before I was born, I’ll eat at this place till the day I die!
Boo to all those negative comments, you canf knock a restaurant that’s been open
More than 27 years. Your bougie selves are not wanted at THE BEST IN THE BAY!
P. s. I live in Fremont and take the bridge to eat at this awesome place. ALL THE TIME!

Honey walnut prawns were delicious, but I should have helped myself to them while they were still hot! Sweet and sour pork was tasty, although nothing in particular really stood out about this dish when compared to other sweet and sour porks I’ve had before. Walnut chicken was good — bits of chicken were tiny and I often confused them with the water chestnuts or the walnuts themselves. Great reviews about the Chicken Chow Mein from my little cousins, aunt and uncle, and grandparents. I would have preferred the pot stickers to be a bit crispier, but they were huge!
Service was fantastic. These guys did a great job accommodating our party of 3 small children and 5 adults and were pretty attentive when it came to refilling drinks and removing dirty dishes.

This place used to be tucked behind El Camino in Palo Alto and usually was quite dead. Now it has moved front and center down the street, business has taken off.
Food is still amazing.
1. Xia Long Bow — I’ve eaten some amazing xia long bow from the shops in LA to New York. So it’s hard for me to be impressed. These are average. Not bad for Nor Cal
2. Shanghai Thick Noodles — Great
3. Beef Ligament Soup — Good
4. Sliced Leek/​Onion Bing — Good
Other items, but they were all good.
Note — as with all Chinese restaurants, they have good Chinese food, and not so good Chinese food that white people like. I walked in and a bunch of non Asians were eating away and the stuff they ordered probably wasn’t good. Make sure you order the good stuff.

I dont know if its because Im asian and I am from LA but this restaurant is way overhyped. This restaurant would not survive in LA but maybe in the bay area since their are not enough chinese restaurants.
OK. for the review… All their food is OVERPRICED. They give TINY portions and the it is absolutely unreasonable. I know how much asian food costs, this is highway robbery. Sorry. The food is great but the price and portion is really a turnoff. I will never go there again. Sorry Su Hong.

The Build-​Up Was Un-​merited.
Sooooo, I’m seeing this guy who is from the Peninsula. Things are going good and it is time to meet the parents. Since I’m half-​Asian, they think «Asian Food» — Yes, I love good Asian food. Especially Sichuan, Thai and Japanese.
His Mom, «Oh we have to go to Su Hong» It’s the best Chinese Restaurant on the Peninsula. Perhaps in All of the Bay Area.” OK, Well I have had GREAT Asian food all over the Bay Area, so I was ready to try the «Best».
Su Hong is NOT the best, in fact, I’d say it is not very good. Maybe if you are a midwest transplant who has NEVER eaten real Chinese food before, it would be considered safe. P.F. Changs is better than this place and I HATE P.F. Changs.
I can’t even go into details I was so under-​whelmed. My BF knew I thought this food sucked. I ate like a bird and hopefully impressed the Mother that I was conscerned about my figure. When I got back home to my flat, I made a black bean shrimp stir-​fry and dan-​dan noodles to wash the taste out.
Whoever is awarding this place «Best Chineses Food» must be on the payroll or have no taste-​buds. This is a good place from non-​Asian food lovers to stay safely within their comfort zone. I will never return.
Oh, the service was un-​characteristically attentive for a Chinese Restaurant. My water was cheerfully re-​filled. For that I grant Su Hong two stars.

Expensive and poor quality. The sizzling seafood platter was tasteless, with a few small poor quality shrimp, 2 tiny scallops, a few pieces of tired shrimp and stale vegetables. When informed that this dish was not good, we were given the run around and charged for it anyway!
O
Too bad– used to be an OK local place– now a tired, over the hill second rate experience.

Hubsters and I searched Unilocal and I was having a huge hankering for knife cut noodles. At 8:15, we walked in the backdoor and the server sat us down. I looked around and given that I had prerused the menu and saw very authentic Shanghainese dishes, I was a little concerned at the lack of chopsticks at the place settings. I asked them if they had knife cut noodles when they brought me the menu and they smiled and told us that we were at the wrong Su Hong. Then they proceeded to give me directions and sent us off to their competitor.
Totally classy and totally sweet of them considering we had sat down and they had already brought tea and water to us.
When I have a hankering for more Americanized Chinese food, we’re definitely hitting this place up just for how pleasantly they treated us and how much class they showed.

This is what I call «Chinese food catered to White folks.» The dishes here are your typical dishes that you would see in any ordinary Chinese restaurant… Kung Pao Chicken, Lemon Chicken, Mongolian Beef, Wonton Soup, Sweet and Sour Pork…
For some reason, my co-​workers and I always seem to come out here for dinner when they want Chinese food. I guess there’s two reasons behind it…#1 it’s close to our work and #2 it’s American Chinese food that they are familiar with. We’ve been making it a habit to come here before or around Chinese New Year.
I guess this place is popular if they opened a Su Hong To-​Go, Su Hong Eatery in Palo Alto, and the Su Hong in Menlo Park. I’ve been to the Su Hong Eatery in Palo Alto. It’s a bit smaller but the food is the same. I have yet to go to the take out joint.
My co-​workers can be picky eaters, so we normally get the Mongolian Beef, BBQ Pork Wonton Soup, Braised Tofu and Veggies, Beef Chow Fun, and Potstickers.
The food is pretty tasty. I just wish they have more dishes that are a little bit more traditional for an Asian palette.

My BF LOVES this place. He used to come here all the time so while we were in the neighborhood we stopped in for dinner. We didn’t even bother looking at the menu because he knew exactly what he wanted. 1. Chinese chicken salad: sooo good. I have to say I enjoyed it very much and the two of ate polished off the whole plate. 2. Won ton soup: meh, I had better but he loves it. He said he especially loves the BBQ pork they put in it. I said, «everyone puts BBQ pork in it». 3. Generals Chicken: I’m not a fan of the sauce but I did like how the pieces where small. I guess some might frown upon that but I’m a fan of KFC’s popcorn chicken and that’s what it reminded of. There’s something about little fried nuggets of batter with chicken sometimes in it that calls out to the inner fat girl in me.

I have to agree with everyone here, any magic Su Hong had is down the drain. The food was always an average 3.5 stars in the past, but now I am really struggling with a 1 or 2. I think the 2 is honestly quite generous.
The experience started with the waiter taking the menus, pointing at the table, tossing them on and hurrying away. We had asked for a larger table and it took me 5 minutes to even find him to tell him it’s not what we wanted. I found it to be extremely rude.
The food itself was bland, greasy, luke warm and highly uninteresting.
The only part of the experience that is causing me to kick it up to the 2 star level is the fried bananas. They are delicious! So, my vote is, if you must go, just get some fried bananas to go.