Chef Zhao Bistro

Just great! Order all spicy dishes or eat somewhere else. This is a great restaurant to eat Sichuan style food!

Chef Zhao Bistro has a modern décor leaning to the dark side. staff is uniformed in black attire. menu is full of lucious pics of entrees., szechwan style.
eats: tan tan noodle (5.99) labeled hot as are most of dishes in menu.
–HOT! is was. not with use of chilii piceces, but hot chili oil
–specks of beef and mustard green? adds another textural feel to meal
–lowly mein is hella Hot! imagine the entrees will be just as hot.
4 stars for not holding back on the hot.
take outs:
–staff professional, attentive, courteous.
–parking may be difficult at times in this area.

Great service and amazing food!
I ordered the lotus pot, ziran lamb and the veggie meat pot. Each had a different taste, very authentic Chinese spice.
Would come again just for the food.
They even gave us dessert at the very end, rice wine with glutinous balls and eggs.
Overall very impressed — food was so delicious that I forgot to take photos: P

First of all, this is not authentic Sichuan food. It just serves dishes with hot peppers. But that’s not my point here — my complaint is about the quality of the food. They serve smelly chicken. And several of my friends had the same experience. That was not long before they were shut down by the public health dept. It should be shut down for ever for good!

Great food, authentic. Huge portions! My daughter loves string bean from here the most.

If you like the food about Sichuan，do not miss there ，this is the best food I taste in here！

After seeing ad’s for Chef Zhao Bistro and giving it enough time to work out the new opening blues, we headed out to try the Szechuan menu. The menu is has your normal Szechuan items along with some out of the ordinary dishes like the Fish, tofu and pickled mustard green soup which was excellent. Reservations were easy and they were accommodating by giving us the big table. They did charge us a reasonable $ 10 corkage fee for the bottle of McCallan. We ordered the following:
Fish tofu Soup excellent
Braised pork belly very good small portions
La Tze Chicken very good
Smoked Pork Belly w/​cauliflower excellent
Winter Melon and Okra was OK nothing special
Spicy Lotus Root very good.
Spicy stir fry pork and peppers excellent.
Marinated chicken appetizer lot’s of skin grissle tasted good poor quality on cuts of chicken.
Spicy Cold Noodles not good, noodles were gummy and sauces was just spicy.
Parking is what ever you find on the street. Service was excellent, But like many Chinese restaurants the timing of the dishes coming out is not good. The kitchen gets the order and they make all the dishes as fast as they can and it did not matter which dish comes first. Fifteen minutes from ordering the entire table was full of the entire dinner order.

I’ve been to Chef Zhao Bistro twice now in the past few weeks.
The food here is truly excellent. The flavors are bold and spicy. Dishes tend to be fairly large. Service is quick and efficient.
I’ve only tried six of their dishes so far, but they’ve all be at least really good.
Tofu and Fish Fillet in Spicy Boiling Oil — Solid dish, but boiling oil has never been my favorite.
Assorted Mushroom Stir Fried with Shredded Pork — Great textures and flavors.
Stir Fried Pea Sprout — Fantastic. The sprouts are vibrantly green and super fresh.
Twice Cooked Pork — One of the best versions of this dish I’ve ever had. Pork belly with lots of leeks and onions.
Garlic Egglant — A little sweeter than my ideal, but I like the addition of bamboo shoots and carrots to this dish.
Hot & Spicy Fish Fillet in Iron Pot — Fried fish with numbing spice, served with an interesting assortment of vegetables (including taro root and mushrooms.) Excellent. Bursting with flavor.
We’re definitely going back for more.

Very bad experience here! The food is NOT fresh!
We ordered the spicy beef combo but it is not fresh, most important, the beef slice is frozen and tastes like you are chewing ice, while actually you could find ice in it. I have no idea how long the beef was stored in the refrigerator but it tastes like over weeks. The other dishes like hot boiled fish fillet and hot boiled beef are not fresh neither.
We complaint this to the manager, he admitted it is their fault but proposed to give us free desert, however, we found he just offered us the complimentary dessert which everyone dinning in will have it.
We already upset with the food, but being cheated almost piss us off. There is tons of Sichuan restaurant near San Mateo, and I know this is the last one I will choose and I strongly recommend you guys NOT choose this one unless you want to risk with unexpected food.

This one is actually WAY BETTER than the one in mountain view, ca. I love almost everything here. Trust me, you can’t go wrong with it. The food is authentic and delicious.
I would recommend the spare rib with cumin 飘香小排骨, braised chicken with potato and green paper 新疆大盘鸡, soy sauce spiced pork stir fry with cauliflower 腊味花菜, Pork stir fried with Celtuce and Black fungus 木耳青笋炒肉片.

My favorite Sichuan restaurant in the Bay Area. This one is much more authentic and tasty than the one in mountain view. I will come back again whenever I am around San Mateo.

This little Szechuan gem is tucked away on El Camino near the corner of 25^th. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but some damn good spicy, unique delicacies can be found here.
I’ve been here a few times for take out and dine in. The staff is pretty quiet but friendly. The service is good and the restaurant is clean although extremely austere with walls simply adorned with paint. It’s okay though. I come here for the food!
Craving soup? I enjoyed the warmth fo the winter melon and pork chop soup. It’s exactly that– very plain but hearty, simple flavors and with generous portions of winter melon. The cold spicy hot jelly noodles are very tasty with the typical Taiwanese spicy flavors. They are also a true testament as to who is a pro at wielding chopsticks. The hot and spicy lotus roots are also scrumptious and full of flavorful spices for veggie lovers. Shredded pork with green chili peppers is another delicious eat which is heaven with rice and even yummy the next day.
They actually have quite an extensive menu here with uncommon dishes with okra and pork kidney! No doubt they’ll be seeing me again!

One word: SPICY!!! I guess that means they’re doing something right considering it’s a Szechuan place. I love spicy, but I can’t handle it. And this time I definitely couldn’t handle it. Screw the drought — bring on the water! We got the combination pot and the spicy cold noodles to share. The combination pot is a mixed pot of vegetables, meat and seafood on top of a flame. The extra heat makes it feel even more spicy! There are a ton of chili peppers so be careful while eating. I think it was pretty good, but I pretty much lost all senses and taste in my mouth after all the spiciness. The spicy cold noodles were actually really good considering how plain they look. They definitely weren’t as spicy as the combination pot. The cold part and the cucumbers helped to cool my mouth down a little bit despite that this dish is suppose to be spicy. It was really good.
Overall, this place is good, but don’t come here if you can’t handle it. Or come here on a really cold day, and the heat from the chili peppers will definitely keep you warm.

Coming from an Asian American perspective (this is an authentic Szechuan resto), the menu is very spicy! But its really really good, especially the ones totally buried under mounds of fire chilies .
i recommend for people trying out for the first time, true Szechuan cuisine, the sliced chicken in special made chili sauce, crispy hot fries, and spicy wontons.
Come here if you love spicy, come here even if you don’t, it might make you a fan!

Wow, this is some serious Szechuan food. No lunch plates, but I had an entrée of cumin lamb, with rice. Full of hot oil and tangy spicy without being ridiculously hot, it was also temperate with the cumin instead of overloaded as you so often get. But what I liked best is that it had been thoroughly and intensely stir-​fried. The lamb was crispy without being dried out, and the bell peppers had been cooked long enough that they were tender. Nobody with a wok does that, except here.

Im a fan of the Mountain View locale, though it seems this one is a tad different. Got the tripe/​intestine/​blood cake/​Sichuan pork loaf with noodles pot, stewed pork with chestnuts, chicken with mushrooms and spicy shredded pork. All pretty good but i still give the edge to MV locale. They really want to close at 9pm and cash you out ao be prepared to settle your check. However the servers up front will still hang with you until youre done. I think San Mateo has some stiff Sichuan competition but it’s never a bad thing to have another good choice

I really wanted to love this place. My aunt had been recently for dinner and raves about the food. We came for lunch. Lots of potential as I love spicy food. This is a great option since Spice Girl in Foster City closed.
But many of the dishes we ordered were either inedible or improperly cooked. We ordered some dumplings in spicy sauce but it was raw. The pork was RAW. We also ordered peas and ham (for a non-​spicy eater). The peas were clearly frozen, not fresh; which is fine except they were still dry inside and they had used too much corn starch resulting in a gooey mess. We also ordered fatty pork with preserved veggies but the pork was DRY! Almost as if they microwaved it instead of steaming.
We talked to the owner who appreciated the feedback but we will not be returning. She explained there are three chefs. (We’re guessing that to mean we got a sub-​optimal guy.) Too many mistakes. I don’t see this restaurant lasting if they don’t fix these basic issues.

Service & cleanliness has dropped. Also, they no longer give out dessert, so order with that knowledge in mind. Food is still good.
The chicken dish was yummy. Sad that this restaurant is reverting to the average chinese restaurant rating for all the things I look for in a restaurant. Will I come again, probably. Will I jump at the chance? Probably not.

The string beans were way overcooked. I usually like any type of string bean but these were mush.
The spicy fish filet was just ok. It didn’t taste fresh to me. Tasted like leftovers.
The spicy cold noodle was ok. The noodle texture wasn’t bad but it was just a tad too peanuty for my taste.
Oh and those metal dishes that hold the hot pot dishes are of course cleaned (maybe), and put on the floor stacked face down in the back where you can see them. To think, my fish filet came in that bowl where the rim was touching the floor.

¼/​15: After trying «South Legend Sichuan Restaurant» yesterday, some new friends wanted to eat Szechuan again! And I’m really happy we came here! – food is definitely better. Service is non-​existent, but you know, the real Chinese places all have crappy service. Because we come here for the food…
1. Hot and Spicy Stirfried Lotus Root $ 12.99: I’m not a fan of lotus root, but I must say their version here is decently tasty. Not so great that it changed my mind about lotus root, but definitely made something I disliked much more edible. Hotness Rating is ³⁄₁₀. Overall ⁶⁄₁₀.
2. Spicy Beef Combo $ 7.99: Now we’re talking! This is the very traditional Szechuan appetizer everyone always gets. Sliced beef and other stuff smothered in red neon oil with tons of tongue-​numbing Szechuan peppercorns. Just the way it should be. Hotness is ⁵⁄₁₀. Overall ⁷⁄₁₀.
3. Fish Fillet with Tofu $ 16.99: OMG, some of the best Chinese fish fillet stews ever!!! The fish is super tender with some kind of gelatinous glaze around them. Soooo buttery!, so fresh! The soup itself is extremely flavorful. Love the silk tofu! This is a must get. Not hot at all despite their warning of «hot.» Hotness is ¹⁄₁₀. Overall ¹⁰⁄₁₀. MUST HAVE.
4. Spicy Cold Noodle $ 7.99: A billion times better than South Legend’s. Prepared traditionally with a rich sauce hinting of peanut. Noodles were perfectly cooked. A little amount of Szechuan red oil. Very good. Hotness is ³⁄₁₀. Overall ⁸⁄₁₀.
5. [cut off word?] Tripe with Blood Pudding $ 14.99: Nice. Tons of stuff stewed together with the Szechuan neon oil, with a heaping helping of Szechuan tongue-​numbing peppercorns. Crap load of red peppers on top along with tiny chopped green peppers. Contains tripe, small intestines, spam, blood clots, bean sprouts, and a bunch of translucent rice noodles on the bottom. Awesome. Hotness is ⁷⁄₁₀. Overall ⁸⁄₁₀.
6. Lamb Stew with Hot and Spicy Sauce in Iron Pot $ 16.99: Served using a fancy iron pot over flames. Stew-​grade lamb along with shitake mushrooms. I would say that this one is a tad salty – definitely saltier than the others. The mushrooms soaked up the sauce, which normally would be great, but in this case made them kinda salty. The lamb itself was okay. Lacking something. Maybe not as tender and moist as I would like. Well, lamb’s my favorite meat at these sort of places, but this one was a little disappointing, especially given all the other awesome dishes. Hotness is ⁶⁄₁₀. Overall ⁵⁄₁₀.
That was a frickin’ great feast! Too bad it’s a bit far from San Jose where I live, but so far it’s the best Szechuan I’ve had up here.
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