Champagne Soup

Champagne Soup changes its cuisine faster than Arianna Huffington her political views, but it’s current direction seems to work. They have settled on fairly basic Dim Sum and Cantonese Food, and it’s just fine. While not Koi Palace or KItchen by any stretch of imagination, the waiting lines outside do not stretch too far, either. Basically, these days you even need patience to get a garden variety Dim Sum at ABC, and here you have something of comparable (or slightly better) quality with much less effort. This is why I am willing to give them 4 stars (although 3.5 would have been more appropriate). Also, some dishes do go beyond Dim Sum 101 — for example, Turnip Cake with special sauce is definitely above usual LoPo Gao. To sum up — nothing spectacular, but a working combination of quality, waiting time and price

The quirkily named Champagne Restaurant serves great dim sum and Cantonese dishes. I came here with three friends for lunch on a Saturday. We ordered a small feast, and this restaurant delivered a number of impressive items.
My favorite dish here is the Deep-​Fried Pumpkin with Salted Egg Yolk — which is basically like pumpkin fries. The pumpkin is so juicy and soft. The breading has small pieces of egg yolk that complement the pumpkin extremely well.
The Fried Salt and Pepper Diced Tofu is magical and paradoxical in nature. Even though it’s fried, the small tofu bites are so lightly fried, they almost seem baked. Fried goods are usually kept moist by covering them in a layer of breading. The tofu in this dish had a minimal coat of breading, yet the inside was somehow incredibly moist and creamy. I was impressed just eating the tofu, but then I ate the tofu with the pepper, garlic, and scallion seasoning, and was absolutely floored by the bonanza of flavors and textures.
The Shanghai Soup Dumplings are great, and packed with hot broth. The Steamed BBQ Pork Buns feature soft, fluffy bread enclosing juicy chunks of pork. The fried Crispy Taro Puffs come with a heaping amount of melt-​in-​your-​mouth taro, blowing away my expectations for the dish.
It’s a shame Champagne Restaurant doesn’t serve champagne, because by the end of our meal, we were ready to celebrate the successful, delicious meal.

Very disappointed and irritated by this restaurant’s approach to customer service. Don’t bother going to this place.
For the first 10 mins we got there 2 different waitresses and the manager came over and try to upsell the geoduck soup to us. When we started to order from the menu with pretty pictures of different soups, they only have two kinds, all others are «sold out». (It was a Saturday night, prime time for them.) There are about 10 — 14 kinds published, how could they have only 2? And guess what, they kept on pushing us to order the geoduck soup. That’s cheating to me. When you name your restaurant with the word soup, you only have 2 kinds of soup? Ridiculous.

came here for dim sum since the line at the hong kong flower lounge was too long. i know it’s a chain restaurant and this one is specializing in soup so i won’t give it 1 stars but the dim sum is not good at all. if you must have dim sum, it’s edible and you’ll be full. as for the restaurant, it is cleaner than other chinese restaurants but i hated that the tables were crammed in so tight you could hardly walk through (and neither could your server). should have stayed in line at the flower lounge.

My uncle and I came here after going to Champagne Seafood Restaurant in San Mateo, only to fond it was closed for remodeling and that their dim sum was here temperarly. The service is very friendly in a casual atmosphere and with reasonable prices. We had flaky bbq pork puffs with tender bbq pork inside, crispy spring rolls with a wonderful vegetable filling; perfect with the well balanced sweet and sour sauce, deep fried meat dumplings with a perfect filling which could have been a little more, fried fish with spicy salt which is tender and sliced strips with a light spicy salt, and sugar egg puffs which were among the best but they could have had with light puffy exteriors coated with sugar; a bit more filling would have been nice. They kept our water refilled and said if there was anything they could do, let us know. I am taking off a star for the skimping of fillings and greasiness of some things. But, I would still return. I wish they would either go back to Champagne Restaurant and focus on bbq, noodles, soups, porridge, and other dishes like they used to or become another Champagne Seafood Restaurant whose Cantonese cuisine cannot be beat (see my review.) So, for some good dim sum until sometime in April at reasonable prices with friendly service in a casual atmosphere, Champagne cannot be beat. Keep up the good work guys.

Was in the area and I came with a group of people and since a few of them knew Cantonese, I just let them take care of all the ordering. Unfortunately, that means I don’t really know the names of what we ordered, but I can describe them…
We ordered a set that came with sauteed lamb with garilc and green onions, fish in a broth with cucumbers and mushrooms, alligator meat, garlic lobster, and some sort of stewed or braised duck. We each ordered a personal soup. I don’t know the name of my soup, but it had chicken and papaya in it. Supposedly good for my skin and chest, haha. The soup was okay. It is bland, but I already know Chinese soups typically are like that. I just expected the restaurant to flavor them a bit more than just the standard slow cooking because they supposedly specialize in it. I’ve had slow cooked soups with some great flavor at other Chinese restaurants, so I was a bit disappointed here.
Food generally was okay. I really enjoyed the sauteed lamb and the lobster wasn’t bad either. Lamb didn’t have the strong lamb taste I usually dislike. I just wished there was more meat because I felt like they skimped on the meat. The fish dish was clean tasting and soothing on a cold night but maybe a little bland. This was my first time trying alligator meat and turns out I’m not really a fan of it.
Overall, decent food, but I was hoping for more flavor in the soups. Service was okay. I hear the menu’s overpriced, but I can’t say because I was treated to dinner.

Okay food but lack of service and over priced menu! I should have Unilocaled before I walked in here!

Came here for lunch on a Sunday around 1 pm, place was about 40% full. We had 4 adults, and were seated at a booth. The booth was kind of tight, and my dad asked if it would be ok if we sat at one of the round tables that could seat 4 – 6. The hostess/​waitress said no, even though there were several empty round tables that remained empty the whole time we were there. The waitresses were not rude, but they just seemed so lacksidasical and somewhat lazy.
We ordered:
* dried scallop yee mein– flavor was ok, but the noodles were really hard as if they hadn’t been cooked through
* two kinds of double-​boiled soups — my parents liked it, said it had good strong flavor and pieces of fish stomach/​clams
* diced vegetable chow fun — vegetarian dish, had good «wok» flavor and the noodles were seasoned well
*salty egg yolk fried rice — very tasty, had bits of XO sauce, slightly spicy
*won ton noodle soup — very bland, almost like the frozen kind you can get from Costco
Prices were slightly higher than other Chinese places in Millbrae, and the portion sizes were on the small side. Didn’t try the dim sum. Might give it one more try in the future, but overall, not impressed.

I really didn’t want to come here considering there are plenty of good restaurants nearby. My dad dragged me in here. There were only 5 tables occupied. Portions are SMALL! What’s worse is the food sucks. The only thing that was bearable was the beef tripe. Service was ok. Seriously, save your money and stomach for the other fine restaurants nearby.

We’ve been coming to the Champagne Restaurant at this location every month for the past year. They just changed their name to Champagne Soup and also changed their menu and charging more. Before, it was around $ 10 — $ 12 per dish. Now, they want $ 14 — $ 18 per dish. We decided to give it a try since we were already there. The service was okay since we know the manager and one of the waitress there. But the food as not the same, very small portion. They now advertise about their soups, but I tried one and it didn’t have any taste, it was like water. I’m Asian, and have eaten in many Chinese place. Price is not really an issue if they offer good food. Not to mention I was a pretty much a routine diner at this location before. Well, they just lost a customer.

We ordered 4 dishes and some rice for three. Portions were not too bad, but the price for dishes was not justifiable. Every dish was a minimum of $ 12. Meaning a plate of meat was the same price as vegetables… and the portions for the two were even the same.
Flavor for our tofu and eggplant dishes were very bland. We also ordered a plate of vegetables and half way through our dinner they told us they don’t have that dish right now. So we changed to a different kind of vegetable and the dish never came. When we asked them where it was at the end of our dinner, they told us to wait for it. We had to ask a second time and this was at least 10 – 15 mins after we were done eating already!
Apathetic servers who purposely ignore you if you try to get their attention and bland over priced dishes. I don’t normally give 1 star reviews but this place needs to get its act together.

portions are REALLY small, prices are REALLY high, service is REALLY suck

I was reading the four other one-​star reviews as I sat down at one of the booths in Champagne Soup. A bit harsh for a restaurant under the Champagne chain. Mainly about the service and food being overpriced. First of all, I do expect Chinese restaurant groups to charge more than your average local Chinese restaurant and you’re paying for cleanness and above average food. Just as the name has said, the main focus of this place is soup. Chinese cuisine has a variety of soups especially for good health. They do serve regular dishes too, so it’s not a soup and salad place with no salad (since there isn’t really a salad dish in Chinese cuisine).
So I came here with my family, the three of us finished about $ 70 worth of food. Family style with a small pot of bitter melon soup with spareribs and dried shrimpies (shrimpies because they’re tiny like my fingernail), a spicy chicken claypot, a plate of salt and pepper chicken kidneys, two individual soups, and rice. It is on the pricier end for Chinese food. Then again, the claypot was as big as your medium sized hot pot pan, with almost a whole chicken in there and a plate of cabbage to cook in the spicy soup base. Technically, you can be full off of that dish itself. The dishes aren’t too bland, mainly just right. Except the kidney dish, which I didn’t try, but heard from my family that it has no taste. The soup is very homely, you can only taste the ingredients and not much salt is added. Mine was cooked with chicken, hence a lighter taste than cooking with spareribs. It’s alright if your palette prefers simplicity and homestyle cooking. For $ 5, it’s not too bad for the amount of ingredients you get in your little bowl. If you go to Chinese dessert places, their steamed dessert soup costs about the same thing. This isn’t your average MSG-​blasted daikon carrot soup that you get for free at other family style restaurants.
Food is not bad, and could bring the place up to a higher rating. Like the other Unilocalers had said, service is ridiculous here. Other than the manager, I find the two waitresses slow in motion and comprehension. We asked them for extra bowls for the bitter melon soup, it took them one minute to comprehend, two tries to get us the bowls. We asked them for spoons when we asked for the bowls, they brought out the entrée spoon and the soup spoons. Common sense right here, we need the bowls for the soup, of course we would need the soup spoons. We asked them for extra napkins, waitress would pause for a minute to comprehend, then slowly grab the napkins from her apron. One thing that they’re diligent about is removing the plates off our table. The booths are pretty roomy where the dish is not blocking us. For three whole times we said we’re not done with it, why would the waitress bother to come back within 2 minutes to check if she could take the dish out? We asked for a cup of hot water to lighten the spices of the claypot chicken, the waitress paused, then asked «do you need any more tea?», then paused again, then remove the teapot lid to check, then pause, then took the teapot again. Now I get why I see some harsh ratings especially on service!

Agree with the other 1-​star reviews. The waitresses seem like they could care less about their customers — no eye contact, no greeting, and only respond when forcefully interrupted.

Champagne Soup () in Millbrae is absolutely terrible. I have never left a restaurant feeling hungry. They charged more than six dollars for a serving of soup (which is only good for one person) that has no taste. All I can taste is the ground pepper. As a matter of fact, it’s not what I had ordered. When I questioned the waitress about the soup, she said that it’s supposed to taste like that. They don’t have the courtesy to take it back to the kitchen when the customer is unhappy with the food. I’m definitely not going back there. By the way, I just learned it’s the same owner that opened the Champagne Seafood Restaurant in San Mateo. No wonder. I had Dim Sum there years ago when it first opened and I never went back. Don’t patronize this restaurant. Take your money and spend it at places that treat you as customers.

We decided to try this new restaurant which is part of the Champagne Restaurant franchise. I’m Asian so I understand that usually your Chinese food is served with a side of attitude. This place doesn’t even want to seat you. The three of us arrived and asked for a table, the answer was, «You want to sit now, than go sit at the bar ‚» than she proceed to walk away. Huh? So we chased her down & asked about getting a table since there was 2 large tables available, we didn’t mind if we have to share the large table with other people. She replied we have to wait, we cannot sit at those table. We had to ask to be put down for a table, any table, and we were told to write it out on a piece of paper. Than later, another waitress, said what name, and she gestured to the book that she was holding. Huh? Ever time we asked for an explanation of what was going on, we get something different. Coupled this with dirty looks and gruff attitude from different waitress/​waiter, we decided to leave without trying this restaurant.