King of King Restaurant

theres a big sign for Phở Ao Sen «coming soon» on the building now.
King of King is no more, even though their sign is still up.
i took king of king for granted. i guess i shouldve seen this coming when i noticed that their second floor was never filled up. I went here several times for dim sum and dinner hours. i preferred to come here for dim sum instead of dinner.
my party was always able to get a table with no waiting period.
there were plenty of dim sum ladies going around. if they noticed you werent ordering much, they would ask what youd like to order and theyd bring it to you.
the best thing i would order from here was their turnip cake. they pan fry it right then and there, and they made it the way i liked it — hot and crispy.
there was a small parking lot and street parking available.

King of King… quite a misnomer… comical in fact. How can a king have a king? Well, just as it should be, it sounds Asian and I’ll have no complaints about grammar use on this matter. Why? The food is remarkable and flat out cheap. I’ve never really been to a real Dim Sum and this was quite the experience.
The queen of queen waitresses, or whatever they’re called cart around various dishes of appetizer portions and nod their heads in such a fashion to indicate if you would like to partake in said dishes. I’m a bit of an adventurous soul so whenever a pot’s contents was revealed I did nod my head in unison with the queens in order to get a taste the delectable dish.
For no more than $ 3 a pop I have tasted deep fried shrimp balls, boiled pigs blood, stuffed peppers, roasted duck, and various mystery meat/​dish that I care not to investigate. Every bite has me uttering the words… Me so hungry, me luv you long time… boom boom dim sum yum yum! Well… you get the idea, recommended!

It seems that ownership has changed and with that, so has the quality. On my last visit, we found that a lot of the dumplings we ordered before have gone down in quality and it seems that they are taking short cuts every which way. The staff is down from before, so only a few are serving an entire dining room, and when we ordered things like Loh Bok Gau, turnips were nonexistent, or the char siu fun, where the char siu was cut into large and non-​uniform sized pieces (more like chunks of meat) which ruined the consistency of the fun.
We asked for jasmine tea and they gave us some cheap black tea. We also ordered a plate of garlic stir fried greens which set us back $ 10. Seriously, at that price, I would have thought we’d get some prawns with those greens. I’m saddened to say that I probably won’t go back after being a returning customer for over 3 years.

Came here with my family for dimsum. I like that it wasn’t too crazy busy there. We had a party of 15. The food was pretty good, and they have take out.
I like that they have their own private parking lot so it’s not such a beezy to find parking. And you don’t have to feed a meter

I just realized that this hole-​in-​the-​wall restaurant that I had been referring to for years as «King of Kings» is actually named King of King Restaurant. Which does not actually make sense in English, but is probably fine to say in Chinese.
No, this isn’t your upscale dim sum joint like Asian Pearl in Fremont. It’s not a banquet hall sized place like East Ocean in Alameda, or the similarly named restaurant in Emeryville. Hell, it’s not even in the heart of Oakland’s Chinatown like Peony or Legendary Palace.
This small dim sum restaurant sits on the furthest most edge of what is known as Chinatown, and is probably more accurately in the San Antonio District of Oakland right where the businesses start getting a little more buc-​buc-​di-​di-​mow, and a little less ching-​chong, and right before the neighborhood goes into full blown taqueria mode.
No Cantonese fluency is required, because even if you look Chinese and they start talking at you, the servers make sure to flip the covers of the dishes to show you the various feet, intestinal, and other wrapped delicacies that they are carting around.
King of Kings is great when you want to be seated immediately, get served a steaming pot of jasmine tea within seconds of sitting down, and start grubbing within a minute or two of sitting. And hey, no menus required! All you’ve got to do is point and nod your head yes!
We came here for an early lunch during the week and the service was good. True, the place is not the cleanest looking of restaurants, but the food was excellent.
I only wish that I could order the food by name, instead of pointing, nodding wildly and grunting like an idiot.

Not sure why my parents wrote this place off. Had to «convince» them to come here for dim sum. Haven’t been here for years but I remember the food being good and it is still good!
Food:
Probably the best dim sum Oakland has to offer. The food is fresh. They have their basic items down right! There is definitely a Vietnamese touch to some of their specialty items. I ordered a rice roll wrapped in what tasted like a Vietnamese egg roll. Delicious!
Service:
They need more staff here. Half the dim sum ladies look sad/​angry. The boss lady though was prompt and they filled our tea with lightning speed.
Environment:
This place «was» brand new. It looks/​feels pretty dirty now.
Price:
Decent prices even for the area
Food: 4
Service: 3
Environment: 2
Price: 4

Grabbed to-​go here lately because I’ve notice some improvements. Been here three times already this month.
*crispy beef noodles/​half fried chicken w/​rice. $ 17
speedy service
good customer service
food is delicious
couple blocks away from home
and lasty… cheap!
dinner time always seems to be empty, only people around was the people waiting for their to-​go meals.
$ 20 min for debit/​credit card as said on the sign, but the cashier let me slide. thumbs up!

Been here a number of times for deem sum. Decent food and service. A newer building. Pretty easy street parking. Tiny parking lot I have never been able to use because it’s always full.
Never been here for dinner. Questionable neighborhood at night. I recall they had a shooting or armed robbery here one evening awhile ago.

Ended up trying the dim sum last week. Pretty good actually and without the lines in Chinatown. Would definitely come back. They’ve got some tasty roast duck and the overall dim sum is good. One bad thing was their egg tarts (dan tats), not too good. Grandma seems to think they cheat, using powdered mix custard. Not the real deal with real eggs. Kids gave them the thumbs down, but everything else was a-​ok.
Service was good this time too. The cranky guy that helped us last time was actually cheery. I think it was because he knew Grandma ;)

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!
The above is a snippet of a song that I used to sing in church, when I still went to church many years ago. Whenever I think of King of King restaurant, I think of the King of Kings, aka Jesus. This song was typically sung at Christmas, the birthday of Jesus.
Enough of that religious stuff, and let’s get on to the FOOD.
Based on the review of fellow Unilocaler Tsada K, we stopped in her one recent morning to gorge ourselves on some tasty dim sum. We were able to park in their lot and were seated quickly — I think we got the last empty table in the place. Food starting coming immediately, and before I knew it our table was covered with various dishes.
For starters, we had some mushrooms stuffed with crab, followed quickly by rice noodle with shrimp, shu mai, sticky rice, chicken potstickers, har gow and crab claws. The shu mai and crab claws were absolutely sensational and the other stuff was pretty damn good too, with the exception of the potstickers, which were a little dry. After a couple of different buns, we were sated and couldn’t eat another bite — not even those heavenly looking sesame balls.
I’m planning on going back again and again, and am particularly looking forward to trying the con-​gee. It was just too hot last weekend to down a bowl of rice gruel. Oh, and we never got any of the shrimp balls either, mostly because we were too freaking greedy to wait for them to come around.
Service is very speedy and very friendly. The owners both came over to us and asked how we liked everything and if we had any questions, and the servers explained as best as they could what were some of the more mysterious items in their cart. Umm… congealed blood? No thanks!
All in all, a major find. Thanks King of King and thank you too, Jesus! Oh, and that greedy shrimp baller Tsada K too!

Don’t drive a nice car to this Restaurant. The parking lot is small and dangerous. I saw a crazy lady in a red Mercedes try to squeeze her car into a small space in between two other very large cars. She gave herself about 1 inch to get out of her car. Maybe she’s still stuck in her car, who knows. I never did go back to see if she got out.
Service was terrible even for a Chinese restaurant. The food was truly 2 star quality. Its a strong 2 stars because the prices were really cheap. I guess you get what you pay for.

*copious self-​flagellation*
Oh, hello there.
Well, it’s almost one in the morning and I have just polished off a very large bag of leftover dim sum from King of King, as a little late night snacky-​poo (read: semi-​compulsive episode).
I can now do one of the following:
a) put on The Carpenters and cry on the shoulder of my Richard Simmons real doll
b) put on Wilson Phillips and stick a toothbrush down my throat
c) write a review
d) have a cookie
Regardless of whichever option I choose, I just want say this:
SHRIMP BALLS.
SHRIMP BALLS.
SHRIMP BALLS.
Big old juicy shrimp balls in my mouth, as the full moon shines above.
*sigh*
*has cookie*

I absolutely L-​O-​V-​E King of Kings for their Dim Sum and their Walnut Prawns. Coming here on a Saturday or Sunday morning for Dim Sum is hard because parking is hard to find but it’s all worth it. I had my engagement dinner here a few weekends ago and we had great service and really great massive amounts of food. Most of the waiters do not speak English well enough for conversations but you can always find someone around who does.
You may feel like the location of King of Kings is somewhat sketchy but the food is so good you’ll forget all about it (until you leave).

I love me some dim sum! I’ve been lucky enough to eat here twice in the last month. This is the real deal. Yes, there are cooked animals in the window but they know how to do it up right.
The only downside it that the majority of their dim sum is pork and shrimp. This no problem for me but both visits I was with people that don’t eat pork. A few veggie dumplings and foil-​wrapped chicken would make this place out of this world. We opted for some sauted greens off the menu that were wonderful.

I’d like to thank the valet fellas at the Courtyard by Marriott in San Francisco for this recommendation! They also run a mean valet there even though they’re always busy.
After having your usual burgers, salads, soups, burgers, etc for the last couple of days… I needed my Asian fix going home to L.A. after a quick SF Giants game turn-​around trip. I asked the Chinese valet guy for some good dim sum or Chinese food (not in SF Chinatown cuz I would have to back track while going back to L.A.). So I asked him if there was anything across the Bay. He said to check out King of King dim sum which I googled for the address on my phone and GPS’ed.
The crowd was pack but we got seated right away. Dim sum was good, service wasn’t bad and parking was ok… just watch out for the Asian driven minivans!!!
I’d go back if I was in the area. This place is family ran. the management looked like a family who owned a restaurant! Good job!

I think the cat is out of the bag when you are talking dim sum at East Ocean restaurant in Alameda. On Sunday mornings it is a long line outside. Plan B — King of King which is off the beaten path on East 12^th in East Oakland. They have a small parking lot but their is ample parking spaces on the street. The atmosphere is very loud upstairs and downstairs so focus on your eating and have your conversations afterwards.
Ordered the following:
Pork sui mi
Hargow-​shrimp dumplings
Fried Shrimps rolls
Stuffed mushrooms
Turnip cake
Gailon — chinese greens
Roast duck– ½ order
White rice
Nothing really stood out on the dishes. I don’t think it was outstanding but it satisfied the hunger. Their was only two of us so it was a fair amount of food. I was looking for the steam pork buns but they never came by the table. What happened to the carts?
It was strange because afterward I saw someone I knew at the small grocery store next door and she said that she was at King of King. How did she hear about it… Unilocal

They get 4 stars just for having such an awesome name. They are not simply the King, they are they King of King, maybe King of Kings ala Xerxes in 300 would have been better but I can deal.
Anyways, standard dimsum, nothing super special or fantastic but everything was good. And what really gives them the edge is that it’s cheap. I was hella full and it cost us 10 bucks a person. And there was leftovers. Yea I know that some King ish. Perhaps even the King of King Ish.

Pros: Away from Chinatown hussle bussle. Parking lot. Quick refills on tea. Quick serve on food. Cleaner and more spacious than more dim sum places. Impressed that they have a website.
Cons: Food has become really mediocre. Perhaps it’s because of slower business. Much of our food was reheated or refried. This place, while cheap compared to other eats, is pricier than other dim sum places.
Food: Chicken feet was pretty good. Shanghai dumplings had none of that good sauce inside and the red vinegar just made it worse. Lotus wrapped rice looked pretty good. Noodle wrapped shrimp was really sticky, no smooth at all. Siu Mai and Haw Gow were a-​ok. The eggplant and mushroom saucy plates were cold. The tea had been sitting out there waiting for us before we came in. Like most dim sum places, food is yucky during weekdays and yummy during weekends. I’ve had much much much better during weekends here before. I’ll forgive them for today.

Looking for an alternative dim sum place outside of Oakland’s Chinatown, Unilocal brought me here. I was still a bit concerned with how the wait and parking would be for our party of 7 on a Saturday around 12:30 pm.
Heeding the advice of other Unilocalers, we decided not to park in the lot and looked for parking elsewhere. Street parking was readily available, so that was encouraging. As we approached the restaurant, I noticed there was no wait outside and learned there was no wait inside either. It was only a 5 – 10 minute wait for a larger table to clear before we could be seated. During this wait, I noticed a menu with picture and prices of the dim sum, super helpful for those not in the know.
When we finally were seated, the dim sum carts came in abundance. Of course, we told them we were waiting for the rest of our party and they retreated. When our final group did sit down, the women were quick to return. They offered the typical stuff to us right away, and we got about two to three orders of these items:
* Steamed Pork Dumpling ($ 2.80)
* Shrimps Dumpling ($ 3.30)
* Steamed Beef Ball ($ 1.90)
* Steamed Pork Rib with Sauce ($ 1.90)
* Steamed Chicken Claw ($ 1.90)
* Beef Tripe with Ginger and Scallions ($ 2.80)
* Steamed Rice Flour Roll with Shrimps ($ 3.30)
* Pan Fried Turnip Cake ($ 1.90)
* BBQ Pork Buns ($ 1.90)
The sad part was that I never really noticed the dim sum carts again. Sure, they were rolling by but they weren’t shouting out their wares. As a result, we didn’t get to try anything else, which was a real bummer. And since the rest of our party didn’t see the picture menus, they didn’t know what else was available.
We were able to grab a couple orders of Egg Custard Tarts ($ 2.80), but it was their last two and we wanted three plates. It was a pretty good tart with a creamy custard filling and nice pastry shell, not too thick or thin.
Refilling of tea was on point, however, the staff could learn to spin the lazy susan around to get the teapot instead of reaching across the diner’s face to get it.
It was a great deal though — about $ 70 total for 7 of us, but we could have definitely, and wanted to, eat more.
They also offer roast pig and a take out section by the front if you want something quick and to go.

My One Stop Shop for Everything.
***Best in Oakland and the Bay! ***
Ive been supporting King of King since their old smaller location on 7^th Street across the street from the park. Alot of folks dont know about this but I do.
Like 40 said, I“m a veteran but I stay current.“
Now that they moved to this new location, I love them even more.
(Its not Brand new, they been here for a few years now.)
This is the BEST Chinese (HKS)/ Dim Sum without heading to Oakland, Chinatown.
I go here for my Dim Sum on Saturday Mornings, Special Occasions, and Holidays with the family and friends. This is the first spot I bring folks that are visiting from out of town.
I go here for my Dinners for sit in and To-​go orders.
I go here for my Ducks, Roast Pork, Steamed Chicken, Etc.
They have it all.
Their service is Very Prompt and Caring. The whole staff is friendly. Theres a Mexican lady here that speaks pure fluent Chinese, very nice lady.
Service is EXTREMELY FAST. When I phone order my Chow Fun or Crispy Chow Mein, They tell me 7 minutes but really its just 5 minutes when I get there its Done. Im always impressed everytime. Especially for Dim Sum. Right when you sit down, the food is coming at you full force. Table is filled up INSTANTLY when I come with the folks.
From the Chive Dumplings, Gai Longs, to the Ha Gow Shu Mai to the Chicken Feet, Im Ready to Eat!
The building is two stories with an elavator. The venue is pretty damn big. Alot of weddings are thrown here also.
You got your Thien Loi Hoa SuperMarket to the left and Lucky Seafood (for fresh oysters/​seafood) across the street from that. Everything is right next door.
Thats why I love it so much.
They have a nice size parking lot, along with street parking.
Basically, you might of seen me here before or you will see me here sooner or later.
Cause I get around like Tupac said.
********5 Stars for King of King**********
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