Chrysanthemum

Stopped in while on vacation near based on the Unilocal reviews and was very pleased. Resturant was not hinging fancy but very clean, reasonable priced with very good portions. It’s not that often we are able to dine out for a party of 4 under $ 60 and take home a ton of left overs.
We ordered the Won Ton soup (serves 2 – 3), garlic chicken, black bean chicken, chicken chow mien and pork fried rice. Each dish was excellent with nice flavor and not overly sauced or salty like you find in some locations.

Fresh Chinese food, homemade, 3^rd generation family owned, I have been coming here for 20+ years and I have always had a pleasant experience. The dining room is large enough to to accommodate large parties of 20 – 30 if needed but mostly I just come with my 4 year old so it’s great for that too. Chinese food is a wonderful way to get your kid to like vegetables.
This most recent visit we started with hot & sour soup, followed by Chicken lettuce cups and mu shu pork. We of course loved it all and had fun eating it as well.
The lady owner is happy to make suggestions if needed. I find that when visiting restaurants it is often in my best interest to branch out of my normal eating and expand my palate and taste vocabulary. It’s also a lot more fun and enjoyable to try new things.

I am so glad I didn’t take the bad reviews seriously… boy are some people picky and judgemental about the tiniest things like the landscape and the fact that it was nearly empty at 9pm instead of commenting on the actual food and service which were both excellent. I had the best egg foo yung and hot and sour soup ever! I will definitely be back. It was also very quiet with relaxing music and a nice ambience. If their food was lousy they would not have been successful for over 20 years.

Fresh Chinese food served in an elegant atmosphere (including white linen tablecloths) with friendly service. The asparagus prawn special was excellent.

Recently moved to the area from Southern California. I’ve been searching for good Chinese food in the area since I got here– there were far more misses than hits. This my absolute favorite. They honestly have one of the best egg rolls I’ve ever had. Everything I’ve had has been great. I’ve never dined in, always picked up take out, but the restaurant itself is pretty nice, but easy to miss from the street.

I haven’t been here in years but just moved into the neighborhood and gave it another shot. Wow, was I surprised. We got there at 6 and it was relatively empty. Décor was a bit bland but when I go for Chinese, I go for the food. And that’s where this place excelled. Food was fresh and piping hot. Hot and sour soup was tasty but could have used a bit more spice. The Julienne chicken was fantastic — now my favorite dish. The salt and pepper calamari was fresh, crispy, and honestly the best I’ve had in years.
I’ve now found my local Chinese restaurant which will definitely become a regular go-​to.

I have been going to Chrysanthemum for years and have always had fairly positive experiences. This time I ordered delivery and it arrived very cold and overcooked. The moo-​shu is always fine, but the salt and pepper shrimp (they no longer offer the salt and pepper fish) was not good at all. The walnut prawns might have been okay if they weren’t cold and soggy, and the crispy chicken wasn’t crispy at all. I thought it had been sauteed and didn’t even realize that it had a batter outside until someone pointed it out to me. Egg rolls were also soggy. Overall just a bad experience. I would never get delivery from them again.

Meh! Going down hill. My first order was good, everything that followed kind of disappointing. Chicken has been Tiny little fried pieces of fried stuff– hardy much chicken. Bland fried rice, and not so crispy fried wok noodles. And out of egg rolls? Wtf? Your a Chinese restaurant! That’s the one thing you can’t run out of.

I truly hate giving bad reviews, but I love Chinese food and simply could not give this place more than two stars. Indeed, I was contemplating giving it a single star.
I ended up at Chrysanthemum around 9:00 p.m. on a Friday night after driving to San Rafael and finding that House of Lee (Chinese restaurant in San Rafael) closed. Desperate to fulfill my Chinese food craving, I searched Unilocal for a nearby Chinese restaurant. While this place was not as close as I thought, I took comfort in the fact that this place received decent ratings. I arrived at the restaurant and the place was empty. Perhaps it was near closing time — but this should have been my first clue that the food would not be as enjoyable as I wanted.
I ordered the salt and pepper calamari, salt and pepper pork, mixed meats pan fried noodle, stir fried vegetables and rice. The salt and pepper calamari was a little on the greasy side and had more breading than anticipated, but not bad. The salt and pepper pork was definitely salty, but had too much breading and grease. Also, the meat was quite dry. The pan fried noodles were a complete disappointment. The sauce was way too salty and not what I expected; dark soy or oyster based sauce and not the white sauce. This is one of my favorite dishes and I simply could not eat much of it. Frankly, I was so disappointed by this point that I never tried the stir fried vegetables.
Unlike my other leftover Chinese food, which is usually gone after a day or two, these containers stayed in my refrigerator untouched for the better part of week. I finally dumped all of the food and felt bad for basically wasting $ 60.00. Sorry Chrysanthemum, but I will not be back.

This is my favorite Chinese restaurant. I moved out of Marin almost 10 years ago, but will still go eat there when I am in the area. I’ve been going there since childhood and the food is always excellent. I just can’t say enough positive things about this restaurant.

Chysanthum has consistently provided the best Chinese food in Marin County. I’ve been going there for more than a dozen years and I’ve always found the food expertly prepared and very carefully served. The generals chicken, the braised eggplant, and the fish dishes are especially good, as well as the hot and sour soup.
This restaurant has a touch of class and it is beyond me why it hasn’t become the most popular Chinese restaurant in the county.
Spencer

This place rules. Family owned. Very personal service. Great food. Great prices. Highly recommended!

Every dish we ordered tasted exactly the same — bland and salty. How can this place have been in business this long and still serve iron plate prawns the consistency of pencil erasers. (Though not quite as flavorful.) Or chow fun that resembled microwaved gummy worms?
We asked for snow peas in our vegie dish and were told — no way. «We just throw in whatever is around,» said the angry older woman who was running the place. But every ingredient tasted like it came from the bottom of a 5-​gallon can.
But don’t think this mediocrity come cheap. We paid real-​restaurant prices for real-​kennel food.

Chrysanthemum is the best Chinese food in Marin county hands down. We have been going there for over twenty years. The lunch specials are great, and dinner is served family style. They also do takeout of course, for the nights you don’t feel like cooking. We love the Egg Foo Young, Moo Shu Pork, Walnut prawns and fried rice. We used to think you could only get good Chinese food in SF, but after going to Chrysanthemum, we know that you have no need to cross the bridge in search for good Chinese food.

First time here though it’s right around the corner. The food overall was good. The egg rolls were the right temperature and crispy. The veggie chow mein was loaded with veggies, not overcooked. The only small complaint was the honey-​walnut shrimp was too sweet. I had to add some hot mustard to it to make it edible.
Service was not overly good or bad. Prices were reasonable (for Marin). Also, they can make all their soups vegetarian or vegan, a rarity for Chinese.
We’ll probably be back…

Come here only if you want to be disappointed.
I’ve eaten here in the past and I didn’t remember being better then sub-​par. Today I went back to give it a second chance, as all of the good Chinese restaurants in Marin are closed on Sunday. Bad call. I ordered the egg rolls, general’s chicken, and steamed rice. Anywhere else in Marin, this would’ve come to 9 to 12 dollars. $ 19 at chrysanthemum. On top of the ridiculous price, they gave me the wrong dish.
The food at hotwok down the street is at least twice as good, and that’s a fast food joint.

My favorite Chinese food in the Bay Area.
Every single dish I’ve tried on the menu has been amazing.
The pot-​stickers are the best in the world!
Chinese restaurants are often large and crowded, which I tend to shy away from.
This little gem, on the other hand, is small, cozy and run by a hospitable family.

My girlfriend and I took the day off to go Marin County for the day. We stumble upon this amazing restaurant. We love chinese food and WOW this is definitely the BEST chinese restaurant we’ve ever been too.
We ordered: these dishes are ALL MUST order!
salt and pepper prawns– this is crazy good. the prawns were big and the flavor delicious
chicken lettuce wrap– perfectly done! the filling was a generous portion, the lettuce was super fresh and the homemade hoi sen sauce is perfectly matched
House fried rice– i love fried rice, there is something about their rice! Each grain is plump and slightly chewy. Every bite was heavenly. I couldnt stop!
String beans in white wine sauce– Where do they get their string beans? Ive never had string beans so FRESH… seems like it was just picked from the garden or something. The freshness and crunch was like spring in your mouth. The wine sauce is to die for.
Egg foo young– This was my girl’s favorite dish. It was done perfectly. I can not describe how good this was. I lathered the brown sauce over my rice… the bean sprout added a nice soft crunch.
I live in san jose but let me tell you. My girl and I will make a day to drive up there at least once every three weeks to get our chinese fix. I can never eat chinese food at another place… I cant, I can not look or eat chinese food the same way… This is BEST EVER!

CHA CHING-​! $$$$$ This place is expensive!
Soup, BBQ fried rice and Egg Foo Young– $ 32.00! (that was to go!)
1^st and last time here. –Had take out —
Wonton Soup — only 3 veggies — boiled apart dumplings and bland broth
Fried rice– 3 or 4 peas — 7 pieces of carrot (right from a frozen food bag) no pork ot much anything else –Rice had big clumps of white rice that were not cooked
Egg Foo young was un– edible — had a very soapy taste and seemed to have a freezer bite type of taste.
Not sure where all these great reviews come from — perhaps they pay Unilocal (like so many others do to take the bad reviews off– yes this does happen!
Considering there is that little cheap/​good take out (I think the name is Hot WOk) in Redhill shopping center — I will never set foot in this palce agin.
Chrysanthemum has wilted and died on the vine in my eyes!

We found this place by looking around for good soup in Marin. I am not even a big Chinese food fan in general but I was hung over and needed something hydrating and nourishing…
Its past downtown San Rafael a ways. Once you get there it is just a random building next to Café Gratitude and has a nice interior, very clean.
The woman who helped us was very hospitable. We read that this is family owned and run which you can tell its warm and the woman was really helpful.
We had tea and started with a chicken and vegetable soup as I was skeptical on how the food was so we didn’t order much to start. The soup was fantastic. Apparently they go the farmers market every day to pick out the food and its is so fresh and perfect! The soup took a while but it came out and was so worth it! The chicken was great, the broth and the veggies.
So then we ordered the chicken lettuce cups which were fantastic. Again really fresh, nothing tasted like it came out of a package. Everything was really clean and light unlike a lot off Chinese places.
Last we kept seeing the fried rice dishes come out so we couldn’t resist. We had the BBQ pork fried rice — OMG. Who needs dessert? The pork was amazing, the egg, everything. I was full so we stopped eating and took the rest to go. I am resisting the urge to go eat the rest, not an easy task.
It was really reasonable and I can’t wait to go back. Seriously if you haven’t tried it, I would go check it out!