Brother Seafood Restaurant

Maybe it was the weather or the fact that we were eating in the dead of night, but this place wasn’t that great. Not Surprised they closed.

We first came here when my dad was in town and wanted to eat some seafood quickly after a day in the city. The second time was when my wife wanted to have fish at 10PM after a concert in Davis symphony hall.
Parking is always hard, but not super bad. the place is not the prettiest but fairly OK for that block. The fish or lobster is not cheap (per lbs) but it’s always fresh (they kill it after you order). I’d say it’s fairly authentic cantonese food since almost every customer speaks that strange tongue. The ox tail is very good and steamed fish is quite worth the money.
The veggie dishes are just OK and to be honest the bills always come out more than expected :-(

Came here around noon on a monday and it wasn’t busy and we were seated promptly. The system here is a little different than typical dim sum where they come around with a cart, but it was nice because we weren’t fussed much.
The Food: We ordered 6 different dumplings, I’ll keep it short on each of them! They were all fairly cheap and good!
–Shrimp dumpling: The shrimp was perfectly tender and the flavors were delish!
–Panfried potstickers: These were one of my favorites, they were the most flavorful and I have never enjoyed potstickers more!
–Shrimp parsley dumplings: First off there is no parsley in these, it is actually cilantro but they are super yummy!
–Shu mai (pork): These were a bit lackluster, for a better word they were basic
–Fried shrimp dumpling: It was fresh and crispy and defiantly a tie between these and the potstickers.
-(I forgot the name of the last one, but it looks like a potsticker but it is steamed like the other dumplings): We didn’t like these AT ALL, it was a bit weird…
–tender greens: I love the greens especially these! The sauce was nice and they were perfectly cooked.
–stuffed bell peppers: I’m not sure what these were stuffed with but I sure enjoyed them! The bell pepper wasn’t too over powering and all the flavors worked perfectly together.
–Stuffed egg plant: I love eggplant, so I liked this a lot… a little thing I didn’t like was the beans in the stuffing. But it was overall yummy.
The Service:
The ladies that helped us were all attentive and patient when explaining how everything worked when ordering, everything is made fresh so it took a bit but it was worth it!

One of my favorite dim sum restaurants happens to not serve then a la carte in the traditional way. I’ve been coming here ever since I graduated high school and this place has never failed me in terms of food.
While you may have wait for the dim sum to be prepped before you order, everything comes out fresh and delicious. The prices are also very accommodating to poor college students such as myself that treating the family isn’t too bad on your budget once in a while. All the dim sum items have pictures that correspond perfectly to the correct item which is rare in Chinese restaurants.
The Haw Gow is one of my favorites here because they do not skimp on shrimp like most places like to do and isn’t completely coated in a thick skin. It’s nice thin film that lends the large lump of shrimp inside some texture. The Shu Mai is my mom’s favorite and for good reason. They use nice pork fat to really puts it over the top. Nice and moist on the inside and consistent throughout all of the 4 pieces you ordered.
I could go on about the food, but you’ll have to stop by yourself to experience it. One complaint I do have with this place is the service. The manager is nice and polite most of the time, but beneath the exterior is someone that can lose his temper very easily as you might expect if you’ve read the other reviews. If it wasn’t for his temper at times and the waiters forgetfulness at times, you’d be looking at a gleaming 5 stars, but it pains me to give it the correct 4 stars for lack of service and welcomeness.

3.5, rounding up to 4. Came here for dinner with a friend on Saturday around 8 p.m. Restaurant was packed and there was a wait, but we were seated within ten minutes or so.
We ordered the lobster yi mien (noodles), the sizzling frog clay pot, and Chinese okra.
The lobster noodles were the first dish to come out, and of course, the lobster was lightly fried. It was a decent portion size considering it cost $ 13. The lobster meat was plenty and fresh, and the noodles were standard.
The sizzling clay pot was good! I hadn’t had frog in a while (for those of you who don’t know, it tastes kind of like chicken). There wasn’t that much frog, but I couldn’t expect too much at $ 9. There was also some pork belly and green peppers in the pot, and when it came to our table, it was definitely sizzling. I’d order this again.
Chinese okra came stir fried with black ear mushrooms and our choice of meat, so we picked chicken. The portion was really big here, and because all of their vegetables are listed as seasonal for some reason, I’m actually not sure how much it cost. The only gripe I have about this dish was that the Chinese okra was cut too thick and in too big of pieces to enjoy. It tasted slightly undercooked in the middle of the large pieces. Otherwise, flavor was spot on.
I also ordered a dessert soup of the day for $ 2.50 — green bean soup. It was served warm, and it satisfied my sweet tooth after a generous and savory meal.
Service: Not too bad — the employees are loud, but their English is decent and they’re pretty responsive.
Bottom line: Portion sizes are good given the price. Food is average to slightly above average. Stick to seafood, the clay pots, and fresh vegetables.

Came back here with a group of friends for a late lunch and ordered a bunch of dishes. Everything was just ok.

Accessibility (Parking /​Wait Time)
⁰⁄₁ Star: parking is hard to find. no wait
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Service (Waiter /​Cleanness /​Ambiance)
¹⁄₁ Star: normal service. Willing to make stuff off the menu.
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Taste (0=Not Edible /​1=Edible /​2=Good (average) /​3=Must Try!)
²⁄₃ Stars: food was good.
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Overall Experience
³⁄₅ Stars
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Last Words
Yup, it’s Chinese food.

I like ordering to go stuff here late at night. A midnight run to grab Chninese food when the craving is there. The food isnt too greasy. The seafood and noodle dishes are probably what I order her the most. The dim sum here is ok. The kunch and dinner menu is much better.
This is a really good place to eat with groups of 4 to 10.
It can get busy and you gotta chase down a waiter or 2.

Came here because Tsing Tao was closed and my friend and i desperately craved Chinese good. I ate here long long ago (at least 10 years ago) and liked it so we just came here.
We ordered a bunch of food: fried shrimp, wonton soup, chicken wings, shrimp fried rice, and sczhuan beef.
Honestly, none of the items had much flavor. The soup broth was like water. I guess tats better than water and salt but one would expect a bit of flavor. The wontons were ok .The fried shrimps were bland and so was the shrimp fried rice. The chicken wings were pretty good. The sczhuan beef had no flavor and and it was cold and pink in some parts… didn’t eat the rest and was grateful for not getting sick.
The waitress was nice and all so I feel bad giving a bad review but I’m just being honest.

Came here on two separate occasions, both with a big group of family members. When it comes to Chinese seafood restaurants, we tend to always get off-​the-​menu items such as live crabs, steamed fish, and other dishes with ingredients you know are fresh, so if you’re into these foods, I’d definitely recommend getting these. The only draw back with the food is it’s lacking in flavor a bit, but the freshness is definitely there. I think if they up the flavors just a tad bit, I’d give them a higher rating.
PS. Chinese restaurants are especially tough to rate because they all have very similar dishes and there’s so many of them, you really have to nit pick each one to really see who’s better…

ABSOLUTELY the worst restaurant experience I have EVER had!
1) We never got served water; 2) Found hair on one of our ordered dishes; 3) Told waitress about said hair and she said, «Oh…» and walked away – offered no resolution not even an apology and didn’t take the dish away.
My uncle (who by the way stopped eating after he saw the hair) is an otherwise generous tipper but since the quality of the food and service was lacking, he thought they didn’t deserve any tips. The manager came to our table with an apparent exasperation for our «no tip» check and had the audacity to say, «Please don’t ever come back!» for the whole restaurant to hear. It was so appalling that I told him he was rude and that «Yes, we DEFINITELY will not be coming back.» It was embarrassing for us but even worse to have everyone else stop eating and watch. This would have gone differently if the waiter did something about the issue the second we brought it up.
If you are looking to be served food that calls for the Health Services and are delighted by rude managers, then This. Is. The. Place. To. Be.

Went here a few months ago for a birthday celebration. We were a pretty big party of about 20 people or so. We did the family prix fixe menu.
Sorry to say, but this place was horrible. I’m willing to forgo the ambiance and service (especially at a ‘cheaper’ Chinese restaurant) with hopes that the food is good. Unfortunately that was clearly not the case that evening. All I can remember is that the food was incredibly bland, the seafood was NOT fresh (clearly was old), and specifically the lobster dish tasted rubbery (clear sign that the lobster was low quality or not fresh). Not to mention, I left the restaurant with a slight stomach ache, go figure.
The food is cheap, I’ll definitely give it that, but why even spend cheaply on food that is barely edible when you can spend marginally more for something that’s 10x the quality. I would take a quick pass on this place. The term ‘cheap dirty Chinese food’ is definitely the perfect term for this place, but not in a good way.

I don’t live here but now I almost wish I did. They are located on a busy street with many late eats! Craving some authentic Asian food, this looked like it would hit the spot!
And hit the spot it did! My friend and I each ordered a noodles dish. At $ 7 each, we thought a dish each would be perfect. When his plate came out, it was humongous. I said, well hopefully mine is smaller and we can just share. But alas, it was just as big!
He got noodles with black bean sauce with beef and I got the country town noodles which surprisingly had a taste of curry. Either way, both of them were delicious and we had leftovers. Great food and an even greater price!
The service was a little lacking however but that is pretty common in authentic Chinese restaurants.

dinner in outer san francisco… brother seafood for cheap chinese eats… first mention $twenty-​one per person total for fulfilling family style dining… seated and beers requested… hail mary order… make it rain… crunchy golden fried garlic spareribs sinfully good… la-​cut sweet beef short ribs glazed and soy sauce marinated… mountain of prawns sweet and delicious… warning, some work in head removal and peeling… pea sprouts fresh and cooked green… lightly seasoned good… plenty ordered and quite full… rolling out of brother seafood, maxed out in chinese for roughly $twenty…

I’ve eaten here for dim sum and for dinner. The food is quite good – I like that it’s not too greasy or salty. The dim sum steamed dumplings are the only miss for me, so one star off my review. The dough is too chewy/hard…I ended up just eating the fillings.
For dim sum, you fill out a checklist of dishes you want to eat, then hand it to a waiter/​waitress. I like that they provide a photo card (see my photos) so you see what the dishes look like.
This place opens at 10am and closes at 12:45am (yes midnight).

Yeah, not a Korean BBQ restaurant on Geary, and not a soul food joint… but in some ways it can be.
If you come here for dim sum or the competitively priced lobster lo mein, you’re probably a 200% ABC (American Born Chinese, and home grown). Or you’re one of those target demographic expats that cannot get enough and love cheap thrill$.
If you are here for dinner, but you order stoner drunken munchy post clubber food like salt pepper chicken wings, pot stickers, salt pepper crab, Peking spareribs, salt pepper shrimp… you may still be ABC, or casual food loving expat, but you are just scratching the surface. There’s more, grasshopper!
To truly understand this restaurant:
— bring a group of friends and occupy a table during dinner. No, not hippy wall street style. It doesn’t even have to be close friends, you can even grab people you don’t even know very well. So long as a) they pay their share if you are not treating and b) they will eat whatever the restaurant dishes out and c) they clean up after themselves. Strength comes in numbers, allowing you to sample many dishes, and dive into parts unknown to discover a treasure trove of goodness. Also, sharing is caring! Best of all, 6 to 7 people enjoying a ton of variety will only cost you $ 20 to $ 25 a person depending on what you order. If that’s not a bargain, I don’t know what is!
— Get help if you cannot read the white board specials (or bring someone who can… I can but I need geoduck in payment). Talk to the manager and get some recommendations (but also know what you like). Do some information gathering.
To navigate better than the Captain of the Titanic in here, and should you be tasked with ordering (assuming you bring in a bunch of dim summers with you who look to you for food guidance), the first thing you do is brush aside the regular menu. Again, stick with white board and also look at the menu titled «chef’s recommendations», where you will see a myriad of stir fry plates, some claypots, and deep fried stuff that can be quite delightful if you hit it right. And if you are on good terms with the manager, he will not steer you wrong.
So let’s see:
Fish 2 ways — if you are a fish geek, you’ll know that supermarkets only stock the yawners… tilapia, carp, black bass at best. Black bass is good, but boring. Affordable, farmed, has decent fat content, but mushy, boney, and not much fish flavor. Well then, pay more, and upgrade to either a large Cabazon (Sek Gau Gung, aka Stone Nine Grandpa, or Stone Dog Grandpa are the characters), or a live wild perch (Sung Yue). Pick from soup, stir fry (body), or claypot (body).
A true Captain will pay heed to the manager if they suggest a slightly larger fish (that should not be steamed), since you want more flesh for stir fry or steaming. Sure it will cost you a pound or so more, but the flavors are more intense. You want your dim summer friends happy too right?
Do try:
Wild 4 pound perch — first time here and we got this stir fried with vegetables, and the head/​tail and other parts used in a fiery amazing claypot with tofu, mushrooms, pork, and other fine goodies. Truly a way to whet your appetite
Empress clams (gwai fei pong) — Pacific surf clams? No brainer, get this cut in half, steamed over bean thread vermicelli noodles with minced garlic. Pour in as needed, jalapeño enhanced soy sauce. Good chit this is. Standard expat grub.
Geoduck — Only $ 23 a pound here. This is actually a very good price!
seasonal red fish called «red dragon» (hung long) or goes by many names in English (idiotfish, channel rockfish, red rock fish, red cod fish etc). Big fugly ass head, with a red kryptonite body and a touch of pinkness. Get the body steamed, and ask for the head to be soy sauce supreme/​king fried. The flesh in the head is freaking glorious. When chopped up, it looks like salt pepper crab a bit. Very hard to get fish. Steamed body is good, but the head… mamma mia!!! Tellin’ ya, Brother has seafood in the title for a reason.
Fried pork chitterlings (intestines) — doesn’t look like much but this is fantastic, a must order. Your friends will love you for ordering it (hopefully)
Garlic pork ribs (suen heung gwut) — to plagiarize a line… BOMB DIGGIDY BOMB DOT WHACK WHACK GIGGADOODLE YEP YEP ASS SMOKIN CRACKIN aweshum. Forget those salt pepper spareribs. Get this. Your friends will love you too for getting this. The honey beef short ribs (kalbi) is supposed to be equally as sexy too.
Spicy frog — only if you are OG Toishanese and love da chicken of da sea more than Kermit. Not my bag, but it is said they do all preps of frog quite well.
Large pea sprout with fresh crab and sauce on top — don’t miss this one, it’s done very well.
Toishan fried rice — this is not specified on the menu, but ask for it by Toi Shan Chow Fan. Killer wok hay. Do not skip the grease or salt on this one. Chinese sausage (lap cheung), egg, taro, scallion, soy sauce.
Giving this Brutha a 4.25 for good execution and value!

I remember this place as Go Go Café. It was advertised as open late w/​crab specials.
Fast forward to 2013 — still open late. Don’t know about crab specials, but what I do know is that you’ve got to know to order the right things.
If you want the Panda Express orange chicken General Tsao (who the fcuk is that anyway?) mushoo boo boo in your pants crap, don’t eat here.
You’ve got to know what to get here. Ask for the freshest fish, and go from there. They do it so well.
We had perch that was prepped for us 2 ways: 1^st was braised in a clay pot w/​tofu, shitake mushrooms, tofu skins etc and it was amazing. I wanted to just pour my bowl of rice into the clay pot, stir it up and gobble it all up for myself. The rest of the perch was fileted up and cooked up with some stir fried veggies very nicely. Sauce was just a beautiful clear glaze atop of those veggies.
Also had some garlic pork chops that blew me away. Normally I don’t like to eat deep fried foods (although jalapeño kettle chips are my kryptonite) but I put a lot of trust into my dining companions when I go out for these Unilocal meals. The pork chops were sweet and sooooo tender. First bite was a beautiful crunch and a caramelized garlic taste fills your mouth. Then you get the sweetness of the meat and it just melts in your mouth. Honestly, I killed that plate of garlic pork chops. Such a glutton.
The fried rice was done Toi Saan style — ahhhh the rice of my peoples. Includes diced taro (not just any taro, it’s imported over!), lap mei (think of a Chinese cured meat sausage), green onion, and egg. The amount of «wok heat» they put into that fried rice was so good. If I had more room in my stomach I would probably have seriously thrown my fried rice into the braised perch clay pot.
Waiting anxiously (and hungrily) to come back and eat more!

Brother isn’t a Korean eatery. they have dim sum (s. 2. M2.5, L3) which you can order off a checklist. waitstaff speaks cantonese.
eats: won ton soup (5)
–almonst 10 golf ball size wontons, very sweet tasting, no shrimp tasted
–broth bland with cabbage leaves
–won ton meat had lots of msg within.
–good value, not a msg fan.
notes:
–assume dim sum will be msg heavy
–mostly chinese diners here.
–service ok.

My friends and I were trying to find a Chinese restaurant to eat at on Irving on Autumn Moon Festival.
Since San Tung was crazy busy, we just decided to keep walking down Irving. This restaurant stood out to us. It seemed really busy and the menu looked decent.
When we walked in, no one greeted it. They seemed occupied and busy with the other customers. Eventually, someone noticed us and sat us down. We didn’t know what to order because there’s so many different choices and options, we wanted so much. We decided to get a wo-​choy (an entire meal) for $ 28 which came with 4 dishes plus soup of the day.
We had to flag the waitress and waiters down for several items: water, ordering items, asking for pepper, refilling our water, boxes and check.
I didn’t expect them to check on us or anything since it is a Chinese restaurant. They were efficient in clearing our empty plates. If they saw it walking by, they’ll just grab it and walk by.
Now in terms of the food — the food is decent. The fish that came with the meal was good, it was fresh! The peking style spareribs were good. The prawns were good as well. Our food wasn’t extremely a lot either. There’s a decent amount to the plate but the plate is too big for the food, so they could have given us more vegetables and fish, beef, etc. There’s room to give us more food, it’s not a big serving size so that’s a downfall. Overall, the food was good. It’s reasonably priced, lots of choices on the menu.
One thing I didn’t like about what they did to our food is that for the green beans with beef, they didn’t have green beans left so they replaced with bok choy WITHOUT telling us. I love bok choy, so I was fine with it but they could have at least told us there’s no green beans, is bok choy okay with you?
Other than that, I would return to this place although the service is lacking.
Note:
$ 20 minimum with credit card purchase

Open until 1am!
I visited this Chinese restaurant (replaced Go Go Café) that recently opened. The space is very clean with good bright lights inside. Same owner as New Hing Lung on Noriega, I recognized one of the waiters from the other restaurant. The manager was very welcoming and friendly. It’s cold that night so I wanted something tasty and warm, was glad to see the menu listed a dozen versions of rice porridge (congee) for $ 4, and a dozen noodles soups under $ 6. So far the food taste has been decent, plates look good and the ingredients were fresh — for example, the snow peas on one dish were bright green and super tender.
This menu (HK style cuisine) is shorter than what u get at NHL, also haven’t seen any banquet menus yet. You’ll find many familiar Chinese menu items like westlake soup (on the menu as minced beef and egg flower soup), kung pao dishes («kung bow» on the menu), mongolian beef, etc. The menu is clear and well written, without any funny «Engrish» translations found elsewhere. I should mention that «haslet» means internal organs.
The dining room is divided by a partial wall — the left side with large tables and a LCD TV on the wall was packed with customers that night, while the quieter right side with smaller tables only had a pair of dinners. It’s becoming popular with locals because most items are priced $ 4-​$ 8, with only a few in the $ 10 range. Only the «Chef Recommendations» white board on the wall (written in Chinese) lists many expensive items (+$ 20) — mostly live seafood from the tanks in the back, priced by the pound.
I’m sure that someone will probably wanna write a joke for the Fook Kin fried rice on their reviews. Yes, the f/​k cooking is good, although nothing really stands out.
I give it 3.5 stars, plus extra points for being open late.
Hours: daily 10am-​1am