Chef Woo’s Chinese Restaurant

Good news, the best Taiwanese breakfast in the bay area has reopened! It’s in Newark now. Same owner, same tasty authentic Taiwanese food!

Oh my gosh, they closed down! Where am I going to get my favorite Taiwanese pork chop rice from now? If anyone finds out where they’d moved to, please post here… ;(

So sad this place closed down. I hope it pops up again as this was the best Taiwanese breakfast place in the bay

Decided to try the salty dou jiang since people said it was good… It was more like porridge of some sort? Or egg drop soup. Regretted it somewhat, should’ve gotten the normal you tiao plus dou jiang. sweet soy milk (drink) was good!
Glutinous rice roll with chinese donut and pork floss (#21) on the picture menu was also not bad. The donut wasn’t very crispy though. Shao bing with beef had very flaky pastry (#11 on picture menu), not bad too.
Was not very wowed by the pork buns, but maybe I’m just not a huge fan of those in general.
Kind of oily overall though.

I’ve been coming here since i was like 12, when they used to be at their old location. I LOVE this place!!! I’m honestly not a fan of Chinese food but their food is SO GOOD
I highly recommend
–hong sao nio ro mien (spicy beef noodles)
–dan bing (egg cake?)
–yo tiao (they call it oil stick in english i think)
–zah do fu (fried tofu)
BOMB
i’m going tomorrow! so excited!

I recently was in San Jose and was looking for a good spot to eat. But I remember this place when I lived here. I used to get the Mala Beef noodle soup before. So I tried it again. Yes it has good flavor, but definitely not as spicy as it used to be. I will have to drive back to San Jose to give it another go and see if it will be any better.
My nephew had a fried pork over rice… that tasted alright. But I think I need to give it a couple of more visits to tell… So I give it a 3 for now

I want to give this place 3.5 stars. I think the fact that A&J’s is going to the shits kind of gives this place an additional 0.5 stars.
+ yiu tiao shao bing (super oily and crispy — makes my skin scream but my belly happy)
+ zhen jien bao (cripsy bottom but super soft and moist bao)
+ xien dou jiang (good flavor and has a little kick to it)
–niu ro mien (meh, no flavor)
Will definitely come back here unelss someone can tell me another place for chinese brunch???

Northern dimsum — youtiao, shaobing, soy milk, xiaolungbao… it’s a standard menu, thus… all about the execution.
My party ordered all of the above, with the addition of beef noodle soup, both spicy and plain. The food was decent, but not exceptional. It’s a 2.5 stars, rounded up, for me.
Décor is homey, and unexceptional. Service is brusque, but not unfriendly.

if you know what to get here, you will NOT be disappointed. yes, quality has gone down over the years and yes, this is nothing near what you can get in Taiwan, but I haven’t had better in the States!
This place is best for fresh golden flat-​bread encrusted with toasted sesame seeds — toasted perfectly crisp and hot on the outside and amazingly fluffy, moist and steamy on the inside. It looks wonderful, it smells wonderful and it tastes wonderful. You can order these with meat or by itself. I prefer it by itself so you can take in the smell of fresh bread and toasted sesame seeds.
A bowl of fresh, slightly sweetened warm soybean milk. Silky, smooth and warm, just thinking of this makes my stomach tingle with anticipation. A bite of the sesame flat-​bread and a spoonful of this create a waltz of flavors and texture in your mouth — chew, swallow and repeat.
If you crave something salty with all this or some meat, grab an order of the tea-​smoked duck. Wonderfully done, this dish is served cold and is a great contrast to the warm bread and soy milk you just scarfed down.

It’s just not my cup of tea…
the dishes were oily, colorless, flavorless
They have 3 dishes for $ 23, and standard menu, but don’t think it is a value for the quality & quantity that you get.

The acclaimed «best Taiwanese food in the Bay» since 1987? *Drool*
I’m a big fan of dim sum and Taiwanese ‘brunch’ so it was only time before I found this place. Took some of the fam here because they’re addicted to it too.
Grub [four stars]:
*We ordered $ 60 worth of food! That’s a lot, since this place falls under the one ‘$’ sign category.
*If the warm soy milk didn’t have a burned taste to it, this place would’ve received 5 stars for its Taiwanese brunch specialty
*The food was legit — it definitely had an authentic Formos-​ian style to it… meaning it was packed with flavor and greasy, the good kind o’ grease though!
Service [2 stars]:
*Well…the food was just rushed out and dropped on our tables
*Waitresses were not good at ensuring we had all our utensils, drinks, etc…
Final call:
I’d go back solely for the food — the service is kinda informal and rude but yes, the Taiwanese food is THAT good!

Chef Woo was recommended to me by some Taiwanese friends, so when I came here last Sunday for lunch, I was filled with anticipation about the yummy food that awaited me! My fiancé and I excitedly ordered a few staples to try — congee, Chinese donut, scallion pancakes, Shanghai dumplings, and snow cabbage and pork noodles.
Our hopes for finding our latest cheap Chinese go-​to restaurant fell apart as quickly as the wrapper on the Shanghai dumplings we got. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a Chinese restaurant specializing in Northern Chinese cuisine where I have been delivered a steamer full of Shanghai dumplings in which every single one is deflated and the wrapper is already torn. No juice in the dumpling to squirt at the person sitting across the table from me! How can that be?!? I don’t quite know what happened. The dumplings were hot, so they couldn’t have been sitting around that long… or maybe they were [gasp!] reheated!
The fish congee was so-​so — not very flavourful until you remember that pickles usually come with Northern style congee. Chef Woo’s sparse collection of pickles was at the bottom of the bowl. The scallion pancakes were soggy and a bit too brown. The noodles were okay… not very flavourful either.
All in all, it was a disappointment, save for the Chinese donut. But one side dish out of 5 isn’t enough to salvage my rating. I came really expecting a lot better than what I got. The meal was inexpensive, but I have had cheaper and better quality at Shanghai Dumpling in Saratoga, where the same amount of food cost $ 24 pre-​tip. Chef Woo was $ 30 pre-​tip.

hmm, drove down to cupertino for a meeting… decided to drop by this place to check out their sat-​sun taiwanese breakfast menu. ordered the usual breakfast stuff like soy milk, taiwanese stick donut (yu tiao), and pork chop rice… We ordered couple more stuff. nothing was really exciting. The food was decent at best. The downer is that the yu tiao and the sao bing were both seconds and re-​fried.
the pork chop was actually a little above average… too bad the breakfast menu was disappointing

I’ve known of Chef Woo since 1997, perhaps — when I first came to visit the United States to visit family. Their (pronounced xian dou jiang — its their savory soy milk) is a comfort food for me, and I love eating their fried cabbage dish and egg pancake. That’s all I need to order really, every time I go there. If you can’t read my Chinese, you might be one to get the «other» or English menu: P Either follow my order, or go with someone that knows how to read Chinese!
Went there with 6 other girls yesterday afternoon for brunch. Some of them being first-​timers there, we unknowingly ordered for an appetite of 10. I’ve found that food at Chef Woo’s has become much more expensive, with the total coming out to being about $ 17 per person for a place that’s supposed to serve simple, comfort food.

I was looking for something else when I discovered this place on Unilocal.my wife is from taiwan and she was intrigued with the prospect of real taiwanese breakfast, even though she wasn’t sure that was.
I’ll have to say the food was cheap. beware that they do NOT accept credit cards. we did not get any IBS from eating here as one Unilocaler had claimed to receive.
I’d never considered a do-​nut taco before… it’s like a taiwanese savory do-​nut wrapped in a taiwanese tortilla… it was … doughy… bland… just as exciting as it sounded…
I wanted to try the shredded beef version, maybe another time???

Well, first of all, I think this place is epic fail if you don’t speak Mandarin or don’t bring someone along with you what doesn’t speak it. My girlfriend and I came here for breakfast not realizing this place is so fob. It took us forever to get some sort of attention from the waiters and order our food. Here is what we ordered.
— Deep Fried Tofu — Not too shabby
–Chinese tortilla w/​stewed beef — this was actually pretty good, had a nice spicy kick to it.
–Warm Soy Milk w/​Chinese long donut — Donut was ok, soy milk had a weird after taste to it.
–Sticky rice w/​shredded pork — good
I’ll give it +1 star for the pricing since it’s very inexpensive for the amount of food you receive, but as the old saying goes, «You get what you pay for,» and what I paid for was a massive diarrhea attack and a tummy ache when I got to my girlfriend’s place. =(

If you are going to go here, make it a point to go here on the weekend for dim sum, it is freaking tasty. I have gone here a couple times and my favorite things to get are: the chinese donut wrapped in rice, the sandwich thing that reminds me of tapa and the cold spicy noodles.
I know this short but hey, I write short reviews sometimes
Overall: It is worth going here for dim sum on the weekends.

This place tastes like frickin Taiwan. I love Taiwan.
Honestly, I’ve only ever been here for breakfast foods. But I’ve been here for breakfasts upwards of a hundred times. I kid you not. We’d gather here for family friend brunches on random days, or, when gas was cheaper, we’d drive the ten or so miles here just for a mid-​Sunday morning meal. My family still drives here sometimes. It’s worth it.
My favorites are the salty rice cakes, sweet soy milk, egg pancakes, fried tofu, porridge, and rice beverage (I have no idea what else to call it).
Those are my suggestions. [I actually typed out the Chinese names for that stuff… but it doesn’t show up in the published review. Sorry, I tried.]
You could just call me up, and I’ll translate and order for you in return for a free Taiwanese breakfast :)
Be warned that the wait for a table can be horrendous. It’s not that the service is slow (you can’t dally if you’re going to keep Asian customers coming back) or that they’re inefficient or that the dining area is too small. The place just gets mobbed by Taiwanese Bay Area residents every weekend. Bottom line: expect a wait at peak brunch hours.
I will tell you that it’s totally worth it though. It’s the best Taiwanese breakfast food I’ve had somewhere other than either Taiwan or my grandfather’s kitchen.

Best Taiwanese Breakfast. Yes better than A&J and its sister joint.
–Sesame Flat bread with Chinese donut: is the BEST i’ve had outside of Taiwan. The Sesame bread was steaming hot, crispy outside and soft and chewy inside. The sesame seeds are perfectly toasted on the top which is the key to great flavor. The DONUT is just amazing. Not overly greasy (well it has to be somewhat greasy cuz it’s deep-​fried), crispy, but not too crispy because of over frying or multiple frying, definitely not soggy and bready like anywhere else. Eat the donut by itself, dip it in the soy milk, wrap it with the sesame bread, then dip it in the soy milk. That’s the way we eat them in Taiwan.
–The soy milk (sweet) is very pure and nice. Not too sweet or watery.
–The salty soy milk is OK. I think A&J is a little better. A little hot sauce helps.
–The chives bun has very good filling.
–The scallion pancake is good but not amazing.
It’s a clean, hole in the wall in a random shopping plaza. The service is fine really, I guess it’s better when you can speak mandarin. The price is just amazingly cheap.

I went there this morning around 11:40am.
the soy milk and «you tiao» are really good.
we also order spicy beef noodle and the fried pork rice. I think the fried pork is a little little bit sweet and there are not so much beef in the noodle.
The soup in the beef noodle is good, but the noodle itself is ok.
After we finished, it’s around 12:30pm, there are already bunch of people waiting in the line, so it’s better to get there before 12 in the weekend, I guess.
BTW, cash only there.