Hon Lin Restaurant

I ordered #42 Prawns with mixed veggies and chow mein ($ 9.76). The food was very good especially the hot and sour soup. However, I lost my appetite when I saw my waiter pick his nose and wipe his fingers on a napkin. Very unsanitary and gross! I won’t be going back.

I work down the street and always order for pick-​up to eat on my lunch. Very affordable food and good portions. They’re service is very fast, and food is delicious! Love this place

This place is awesome for lunch. They have a HUGE lunch (11:30−3pm)special selection for under 8 $. The food was fresh and delicious, and came out really fast, and the service was great. I will definitely stop bye here again for lunch.

I used to come here with my grandmother when I was younger. Needless to say I won’t EVER come here again. My wife and I had a craving for some Chinese food. We decided to do take out and come home and watch a movie. We got home and opened the plastic bag and an immediate smell of fish came from it. We didn’t order anything with fish. Hmm maybe it was a fluke. I opened my Mongolian beef and took one bite and I could taste fish. My wife took a bite out of her chicken something or other and the same. I guess they don’t clean their cookware or something. Absolutely horrible.

Arrive with my family of 3 and told to have a seat.
No one for over 30 minutes showed up to serve us.
We left and won’t be back.
Horrible service.

I had a very bad experience here last week. I took my 3 grandchildren for New Years dinner to this restaurant and ordered 3 lobsters and few other things.
The lobsters were $ 27 dollars and were so small that they had barely any meat. Maybe an ounce if that. They did not come with anything. It was a costly dinner and we all left still hungry when we left. The food taste wasn’t that great either and the waitresses are very rude.
I am sure there are better places to eat or luch might be different but if you ordered any live seafood, get up and check what you are getting before you order. That was my mistake!!!

I usually don’t write reviews on restaurants because I feel it’s a waste of time, but I have to get this off my chest. The service at this restaurant is an absolute joke! When I first entered the restaurant the guy who looked like the owner/​waiter barely acknowledged me, my girlfriend and her mother. Once we sat down, we noticed that a fork still had a grain of rice on it, so I asked for a new one, and the guy serving us just picked up the fork, then he just dropped a new fork on the table in a rude manner, as if my request was the most annoying thing ever. There was also a lady serving us, who wasn’t much better than he was. She put down plates for us before the food came out, but when she laid the plates down, we noticed that the plates where still dirty! Plus when we asked her any questions she acted concerned with a smile on her face, but she was actually rude. At some points, her and the man serving us right out ignored us. The only reason that I’m giving this place 2 stars is because the food was actually descent, but I will never order from them again, just because of the blatant disrespect that was displayed by the crew there.

I came here with my toddler for take out after visiting Baby World. I ordered the General So’s chicken lunch special. It was less than $ 8 including tax. I think the food is above average in taste but the portion is not all that impressive. It’s okay for me but may leave someone with a very healthy appetite wanting more.
I would give the service 5 stars! What do I know? I only came for take out. That’s true but when we walked in the lady at the register greeted us with a big smile which is not what you always get in Chinese restaurants. She promptly took my order and told me she’ll put the order into the kitchen before collecting my money. I can only assume that’s to reduce my wait time which I appreciated. While waiting for my food the waiter took notice of my toddler and presented him with a fortune cookie which made my little guy giggle. It may not cost the restaurant much but it meant a lot to both my toddler and I. The food came out in less than 10 minutes. Very efficient kitchen!

Came here for a birthday lunch and i thought the food was tasty and service for our large group on point. No real complaints here.
* Walnut prawns — delicious, not overly covered in mayo
* fried rice — wasn’t bad, looked a little anemic and not much flavor. Add soy sauce here!
* Beef with bell pepper and onion in a fried noodle basket
* Combination chow mein with shrimp, chicken — nice flavor with crispy noodles
* Fried flounder — fresh fish. in general, hard to eat with lots of bones but still good
* Peking ducks with steam buns — always a favorite for me. Nicely prepared and just yummy
* Black mushroom with bok choy — tossed in oyster sauce
This is the family meeting spot as its midpoint for relatives driving from San Jose, SF, the east bay and popular with our family for over 18+ years. Good eats.

Lunch is a bang for your buck, for sure.
$ 6.25 for an entire kettle of green tea (even for a table of 1), hot and sour soup, a massive serving of white rice with an egg roll and whatever you order — I got the Sweet and Sour Chicken.
The quality isn’t really anything to write home about, but it’s acceptable American Chinese at a good price. And that cookies fortune at the end of the meal is always worth it :)
Recommend? Yeah, if you’re in the area, but I wouldn’t go out of your way for it.

Absolutely pathetic. Waiters especially a mid aged Chinese gentleman thinks he’s doing the customers a favor by serving them. This dude first needs to attend some English language classes and should never be employed in such working environment. I am NEVER EVER going back to this dirty place.

Their food is fresh and tasty — seasoned just right and cooked just right. And the waiters always greet you politely and smile.
I ordered their roasted duck, which is a fantastic dish of Chinese cuisine. The way they cooked the duck made the texture of it soft and brought out the slight sweetness of the duck meat. Of course there are other dishes there I like, and the price is pretty good for the quality of food and service you get.

Absolutely not ever again.
I was treated very badly from the beginning by both the waiter staff and the manager male. In the beginning we sat down and the staff was not attending to us so we flagged them down and they looked very annoyed that we were calling them. I though this was very odd since there was only one or two other couples in the restaurant and the rest was dark and empty. I though they would be happy to have our business to celebrate my coworker’s anniversary.
Unfortunately things got worse. In addition to being mistreated in the beginning the wait staff was not attending to our water and I had a difficult time trying to let them know that we would like more water as the food was very salty and not good for my pressure.
Toward the end of my meal I found a medium size cockroach in my chow mien. When I told the manager, a tall skinny Chinese guy, he flipped out completely and started yelling at me as if it was my fault. He did not refund my money and instead said we can order something else.
This was about a month ago and I am never coming back to this place as it is concerning me about the levels of sanitary adherence and the bad service.
You can check status of San Mateo County Health Violations listed here and search by name of restaurant upon which you will find there are several violations for cleanliness and vermin:

Good quality and clean Chinese food in the South SF /​SFO area. I’ve been here twice (ordered on EAT24 both times for easy pickup) for the chicken and black bean lunch combo (well worth the $ 8) for the huge, tasty portion and for wonton noodle soup (tasty).
Everything is solid. Just order online w/​EAT24 and pick it up in 15 mins.

Last time I got a take out, I found a hair deep friend into my food. I tried but this just encourages me to cook for myself-​and that says a lot!

I don’t know, but this place used to be so good and my favorite Chinese restaurant too. Not really anymore. They have a ton of dishes on their menu and the prices are pretty good, a little more than average. The servers did attend to us while we were eating, but they sure didn’t attend to us right away when we came in. There used to be a lady who worked here that was very kind and knew us well, but I didn’t see her there. Anyway, the food was alright. The food could’ve been made a little different in a way I wanted them to be but that was fine; they still tasted fine. I have to say though, the tea is awesome. Made my dinner!

I can’t remember how long we’ve been coming to this restaurant i would say YEARSSSSS (maybe even before there’s Unilocal… lol) anyway, we loved this place and the waiters were great… HOWEVER, that was then… my review is for the NEW management… the quality is not the same anymore, the service is okay, the old waiters we knew are gone… maybe even the cooks. The food tastes so different from what we remember… This used to be our «go to» place for birthdays, get together, or whatever… but now, we’re all disappointed!
Now were hunt for a new Chinese restaurant. ;-D

This place is very roomy and has a nice back and front door.
Excellent view to people watch. The Hong lin special is the best.
Tons of meats, great, veggies, along with rice all together for a really great price. The general chicken here is really good too. I also like the spareribs. I will be here many more times again the service was great.

what happened to the service here…
Have not eaten here in awhile and so I’m not sure if there was a change in management. We were a party of 6 with two children. First thing I will say something about is the poor service. It’s not like our order was complicated but for drinks we all had water. It was not brought out to us immediately. We had to flag down our server to ask for it. He brings out a pitcher from the fridge (I dunno) with no ice and sets it on our table. We had to pour our own drinks from the pitcher. During the course of the meal we almost had an empty pitcher and we had to ask for another refill… we had to flag him down again and ask. He made a face as if we inconvenienced him. The restaurant was not full when we got there and even when we left after our dinner. We had a hard time understanding our server… and, to be honest, we were not sure if he understood our order.
Food was okay. We asked about some of the dishes that we were used to ordering in the past… many were no longer available (sizzling rice soup? catfish?). The Honey Walnut prawns was delicious, though. All the servings are small. It would be like a kids meal if it were a fast food place. All that aside, the service stuck out like a sore thumb. Not sure if we’ll be back.

Hon Lin seems to be the go to place for family events, from birthdays to memorials. Unfortunately it seems like I’ve been here for more memorials than happy occasions. It’s good for last minute banquets. Their set menu prices are pretty reasonable. I always like ordering their thick shanghai style noodles and their fried flounder, along with their General Cho’s chicken and honey walnut prawns.
I just wish service was better. I like when the usual staff is there because they are helpful and nice to their regulars. But the last time I went here, there was one waiter who I haven’t seen there before that acted like a simple request was a earth shattering event. We asked for water and he held up his hand and said, «Wait.» Uh, ok. We know you are busy and don’t expect you to drop everything right then and there, but could you maybe remember we are the paying customers and have a little bit of courtesy?
Take out is the way to go.