New hot pot in SF. Very good price $22 per person all you can eat. Many choice of hot pot items. No waiting Monday night. Good service. read more

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This restaurant has very good food and the staff service level is very good and friendly. I was surprised to see in this neighborhood the only restaurant that serves great food is Chef Li's Cafe. Their roast duck & roast pork is the best in town. Can't find it anywhere else. Also all the hot dishes are good too. I love this restaurant so much. The best thing is the owner of this restaurant is so friendly with all their customers who are so loyal to their services they receive from them. The very best thing to me is receiving high quality food and getting the very best service which this place has been serving me. I'm very satisfied. Thank you Chef Li's Cafe for what you do for your customers everyday. read more

We had driven up from Los Angeles over the Labor Day weekend to see our daughter. Saturday evening we decided to try this place, since she had been there before, and liked it. I was a little concerned, since it was AYCE. That concern was misplaced! We got the spicy miso and the Chinese herb soup base. Lots of vegetables, wontons, lamb and pork belly for proteins. No beef. The food came out pretty fast. The sauce bar was very extensive, and very good. The original order for the four of us was sufficient. They came back to ask for what we wanted next, and was majorly surprised when we said we were full! Service was very friendly, and prompt. When we left, the two waitpersons standing outside said goodbye! I would definitely go back, if I am in that neck of the woods. read more

Large portions, very delicious. Hole in the wall, family owned restaurant. Their sweet and sour pork is very delicious and addictive lol.

Variety 4 out of 5 Service 3 out of 5 Food 3 out of 5 Value 4 out of 5 I always like to try "Hot and New Restaurants" because depending on how anticipated the opening of the restaurant is, you tend to have a lighter wait if your chef isn't one of the celebrity chef that foodies would follow. With that being said, Frank and I decided to try Chef Li's Cafe in San Bruno because it was 6 PM on a Sunday night and we did not want to wait 2 hours to be seated and then get home late because we both have work tomorrow. In my opinion, San Bruno or Daly City falls to be my go-to areas to look for food when I want to avoid the lines and waitlist. With that being said, we arrived at the location around 6:30 PM and was seated about 5 minutes after (they took some time to clean up a table for us). This place seems to have everything from your roasted meat and poultry to family style dinner and all you can eat hot pot. Frank and I opted in for the all you can eat hot pot because Frank wanted something with a lot of meat, whereas I was craving soup (a nice win for the both of us)! The place have about 8-10 small tables and 3-4 large tables that can seat about 6-10 people. Each table have the hot pot system installed. I would say, with the installation, the tables become rather thick, therefore, for tall people, you might run into the problem where the table becomes too low for you and would touch your knees. I ran into the problem where I could not cross my legs because the table was low (and I'm only 5'2". The place was bright and looks clean. Upon receiving our menu, we were told that we are getting complimentary bubble tea options of our choice (milk tea, or Thai tea). I assume this is a promotional add on for their grand opening. I don't know whether the hosts and waiters saw Frank and I as Asians and just assumed we spoke Chinese or if they did not know English (the waiters) but they kept speaking Chinese to us even after we told them that we do not speak Chinese. The host spoke limited Chinese, which was fine for us to order and get our food and check. The all you can eat hot pot is 22.99 per person (which is about average around the area). There is a big selection of what is included from (lamb, beef, pork, chicken, clams, mussels, shrimp, fish and meatballs) similar to other hot pot location. I would say though that they have a quite a big selection of soup base that you can choose from and appetizer and dim sum is included in the all you can eat (most locations do not include appetizer or even dim sum). For appetizer, I got the chicken wings as I love wings and can't live without them. The wings were called 5-spice wings but really tasted like salt, pepper and other light seasoning and then fried. The wings were good but they did not taste like 5-spice wings in my opinion. For the hotpot, we got spicy miso soup and kimchi soup. The spicy miso tasted like the Chinese spicy soup mixed with Miso and the kimchi tasted like Chinese spicy soup with kimchi. It was still good but definitely not what I expected for each type of soup. As for the meat, we went with the wagyu beef, spicy lamb, spicy beef, beef tripe, beef tongue, quail eggs, spicy fish filet, New Zealand Mussels, Clams, cuttlefish balls and beef balls. We got a few vegetable as well to justify our healthy choices (watercress, boy choy and mushrooms). Everything we ordered was great and it was relatively fresh. The spicy lamb was surprisingly good as I am a bit skeptical at times when lamb is prepared for an all you can eat place as they tend to still have a smell attached to them. The spicy lamb did not have the bad smell attached to them at all and was pretty good. The seafood was pretty good, it wasn't fresh out of the sea but it wasn't frozen to the point where you can tell by tasting it that it has been frozen forever. I would definitely come back to this place for their hot pot and maybe try their barbecue section next time as well. I love the fact that there was practically no wait to get a table for hot pot unlike in the city where you could be waiting for an hour or two at a hot pot place that have about 20+ tables. This place is also great for accommodating larger parties as well and it seemed like there is not a big wait to accommodate large parties. I would say, if this place have grill and hot pot, it would be one of my go to spot for hot pot and grill for the no wait and decent food. I give this place a 3.5 out of 5 because the variety is amazing here, especially if you were to come with a lot of people that have different Chinese food cravings. The service is ok, but I wished they have more English speaking servers. The food was good based but basically what you can get in most hot pot places. The value was definitely there for the hot pot though because you pay $23 a person to get hot pot, appetizer and dim sum, which is more selection that I expected and the price was pretty average. read more

Chef Li's Cafe - Chinese Near Me - San Francisco, California

Came here at 5PM on a Tuesday and there was no wait. The menu is almost exactly like Ipot's and it's 5$ cheaper so I really wanted to like this place, but it was just okay. Our table got the secret spicy soup and pork bone soup; the pork bone soup was really good and it comes with an actual pork bone (!!) but the spicy soup was pretty mediocre and not very spicy. The sauce bar was interesting b/c it had a lot of house made sauces and the meat/veggies seemed pretty fresh. The biggest downfall was the service. There were barely any tables eating at the same time as us, but it took a really long time for them to bring the plates that we ordered. Some of the plates we ordered never even came, even after reminding the waitress a bunch of times. Since the only way to get food at AYCE hot pot places like this is for the staff to bring it to you, it really makes the experience worse if you pay for AYCE for a set time period and end up having to wait ages for food. Probably won't come here again even though it's way closer/cheaper. read more

Exceptional all around. Had hot pot which is all you can eat. Good quality meats. Very friendly service. Milk tea comes with hot pot. Pork bone soup was so good. They make alot of their own sauces which is friggin delicious. Gonna go nap now... 10/10 coming back again read more

Great place to enjoy hot pot dining. The food is fresh and they have many different broths to choose from.The menu is loaded with many choices , appetizers and the milk teas are delicious. The best part about this restaurant is their great service! The price is fair but the quality of the food and service makes this place an exceptional find close to home. I will definitely return with my friends and family! read more

Price is decent and the food is fresh and authentic! I really like this place because they have HK BBQ and hot pot so if you like both, it's the place for you. They also have wide range of soup base options. But I would say the service is a little bit slow when it gets crowded. read more

Chef Li's Cafe - Chinese Near Me - San Francisco, California

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Ehhhhhh. There are better places than this one. There isn't a place like this in the neighborhood so I guess that's why people would come here since its near their home. It's also kind of cheap? $22 a person. However, I don't mind driving 20 minutes to sunset or San Mateo where there are better hot pot places. I appreciate the sauce bar they have so that's good. But the meats, vegetables, and other items are okay. It was kind of gross that they don't strain the water off the plates of food. I guess it just depends but presentation is the least they could do. The soup base was okay, not too special or flavorful. TBH, their display of roasted chickens, ducks, pork, and etc looks better than the hot pot lol. read more

The best AYCE hotpot in San Bruno Ave!! Come with 17 kind of soup base that you can choose to get half-half or personal pot. Tonight we got pork bone broth and mushroom that was so mild and delicious even sip alone.Good quality of meat also the option of seafood. Also have appetizer and dessert that I'm really love fried bun with condensed milk and fried wonton. they also have dipping sauce bar that you can mix dipping sauce on your own :) servers are really nice and cheerful , give them 10/10 will coming back for sure. They also have ready to eat and Chinese food, that I really interested to get some in the other day. read more

This is my first time here. And I think this was my last time dinner here too. They serve us unfresh chicken(re-cooked/over cooked). We can't finish the rice, I was asking a togo box for the rice. The Mandarin waitress told me there will be extra charge if we take the rice for togo. What?! I thought we already pay for the rice! Every food on our table should be able to take home when we can't finish it. She said rice is so expensive, so they need to charge extra money for togo. Is that means you are going to reuse our rice for other customers?! read more

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The pros: uncrowded on weeknights, a short drive away from my apartment, and cheaper than other hot pot places in the city. The con: low-quality meat. I got the bone broth soup, which was quite good, especially on a chilly winter evening. There is a lot of variety for the vegetables and meat that you can order. The vegetables were all very fresh (I ate at least 200 enoki mushrooms), but I was pretty disappointed with the quality of the meat relative to other hot pot places I've been to. Tip #1: It's hard to find parking in this area. We had to circle a few times and park a few blocks away. Tip #2: There's a massive sauce bar where you can compose your own sauce masterpiece. I went with the classic soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, and green onions, but the possibilities are endless! Overall: The location of Chef Li's is convenient and it comes at a better price point than most other places in SF, but because of the low-quality meat, I'd go to other places in SF rather than coming back. read more

First time coming here and we are fairly dissapointed. We were left with the menu for 10-15 min and after trying to flag down a server 3 times, someone finally came over to answer our questions. And we were the only customers theres besides a chinese couple in another table who turned out to also work there. 3 plates of meat came and we were left waiting for the rest of our order (veggie and fish ball) for a long time. Clams was not fresh, tasted grainy. We were not offered water or tea when we sat down. 1 order of watercress was enough to feed a family of 5. Way too much! We did get the free milk tea though after the server explained the menu to use. Tip: order the meats, that's why you're here. Don't get distracted by their variety of fishballs which were just so so. read more

Chef Li's Cafe - Order of meat - Chinese Near Me - San Francisco, California

Total $30 for all you can eat fresh meat and vegetables. Also they had a lot of different kinds of fish shrimp balls. My favorite was the shrimp balls with xo sauce in middle. I would come back. I had the kimchi soup and asked for it to be less spicy read more

I like so far! Service can be a little better but overall, nice clean place and food was great. Love the selections of broth. Will come back! read more

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Overall 7/10 Environment 9/10. Clean and comfortable place Variety. 8/10. A lot more choices Price. 9/10. Decent price for AYCE Broth. 5/10. Editable Food(freshness). 5/10. The beef is frozen, they gave us small amount each time. Sauce bar. 6.5/10 kinda a lot but not fresh Service. 7/10 was okay the ladies try to help I went there with my boyfriend, decided to have hotpot, my boyfriend love this place cuz the environment! It's a perfect restaurant for him. But I am more like a food person, I can understand why ppl give 5star on Yelp, I believe their food is pretty awesome And theres A LOT OF CHOICES!!!!! And the price is very reasonable in San Francisco! But my review is for the hotpot ONLY! We waited like 10 minuets for the food to come, first the broth is very disappointing, second ! We ordered a chicken wing and they gave me TWO pieces??? (Same as the fishball they gave me four)third, their drink is 4star' that's pretty friendly rating! Well, $24 can't expect much, I'm being to greedy . But we had stomach ache after the hot pot. It's definitely a good place to go for hot pot! I don't need to go to IPOT anymore, that's decent! And I had nail polish right across the street! I will recommend this restaurant for my friend for that price! Even for their food! I saw on menu $6for lunch box , pretty cool! read more

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$20 credit card minimum. Its decent cheap Chinese food in San Francisco. That's hard to come by now-a-days. BF and I got takeout when we had a little too much beer nearby and needed to sober up. It was perfect for that purpose. read more

Great service here. We went to this all you can eat hot pot place on a raining night. The meat is good with a big selection of balls and cold dishes. I really enjoyed the dinner there. The only thing to complain is parking.... read more

Chef Li's Cafe - Chinese Near Me - San Francisco, California

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All you can eat and good price. The duck is good. We ordered the spicy and pork bone broth 1/2 and 1/2 however the spicy broth was not at all spicy. The bone broth lacked flavor as well. Of the two would recommend going with the special spicy option. read more

I got some cilantro, chilli pepper, vinegar cold dish to go (chicken feet). It was pretty good. I wouldn't mind coming back.

Pleasantly surprised!!! Food was tasty. The meats were very high quality cuts and slices. Was not frozen at all. The veggies were fresh and crisp. The appetizers were in par and it came with free milk tea. Bonus for being close to the neighborhood.. parking was not too bad. Great find for being a hike in the wall. AYCE for the boys at $22.99 was well worth it. They stopped after 8 plates of meat. I would recommend a stop if you want a change. read more

Always follow my instructions of how i like my food. Less salt or no salt. I recommend this place. Cheap but delicious food

Just ordered delivery. Best Chinese food we have had in the area. Looking forward to dine in soon!

Second time here and love it as much as I did last time! $24 per person for all you can eat including free refill milk tea! The milk tea is usually very sweet -unfortunately can not adjust the sweet level. Aside from that, good price and good foods! read more

Chef Li's Cafe - Chinese Near Me - San Francisco, California

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I've been to Chef Li's a few times already mainly for the hot pot. There are so many soup options, veggie, meat, and appetizer options. Recently came here on a Friday night after craving some hot pot and the set up was different. They now have their own veggie bar where you can place whatever veggie you want on a plate and put it in your pot. Love the sauce bar. Very different from anything I've ever tried before ( at least 10 options to mix and match). I personally love the ginger plus garlic and ponzu). The wagu beef is 100%. All the other meat is fresh and good too. I'm so glad that hot pot comes with some a la carte appetizers. Always start with some chicken wings, green onion pancake, and fried bun with condense milk. Just try everything. On top of all of this - you can get milk tea too. Winning. read more

The food is delicious! We really enjoyed the wonton soup, sweet and sour chicken, and walnut prawns we ordered.

Love them! Sometimes we have a communication issue, but overall the staff were nice to us. We tried all the meat section and they were superb. The good thing was the selected drinks were included! It was a great experience. read more

Wow - I am amazed at how good this place is. I made a larger order for takeout, ended up being catering size of five different dishes - excellent taste, quickly, freshly made and insanely good pricing. The catering trays of food were super huge. My favorite dishes were the beef and tomato noodles, the soft egg tofu dish w shiitake and wood ear mushrooms and the beef chow ho fun. I absolutely have to return because I think this is one of my best finds for reasonably priced Cantonese food in the area. They also have a really tasty Szechuan duck feet dressed in spicy oil on top of chilled cucumbers, insanely delicious. Actually, this might be my favorite. Perfectly cooked and seasoned. The ladies working there were so nice and efficient - I called this huge order in and it was expertly prepared and packaged within 45 minutes. I suggest ordering directly from the restaurant to save on fees. I will return. read more

My go-to hot pot place. All you can eat for less than 30 dollars (including tip)? Are you serious? Everything thing is great. I love that there are some dim sum options, appetizers, and soooo many meat and veggie options. I always come with a large group so I don't feel bad for trying everything. And we do order EVERYTHING. Meat is always on point. All of the veggies are fresh and it makes us feel better after eating so much meat. Love the make your own sauce bar. This place is just great. read more

Awesome service, the hostess is very gracious. Food and drinks are great. Would come again! Note: parking might be tough, was lucky and found a small pay station lot a couple blocks away read more

One of my favorite go to places for hotpot! Especially on cold days where you're lazy to cook and clean up after! This place is clean and plenty of selections to choose from. read more

Slow service. Poor quality meat. It's fairly cheap at $23.99, but you get what you pay for. I would definitely not come back.

Good food! Good price,to go items are so good price,cashiers beautiful and nice! Bathroom clean,hot pot also very good.gotta try,but parking not too easy at busy hours read more

Very very bad service...... foods also not fresh.....sucks...... I hope you guys do not coming for eat !

I was excited about this place, i know it was a must visit. Any day for shabu hot pot is a yass in sf... . So i called ahead and asked if they offer it during lunch and she confirmed it yes! Next was on a mission to here with the awkward lyft driver. . As soon as i step my foot in here i was like I'm hungry.... sat me down at a table. All tables were for 4 and have a individual stove on there. The tables were kind of uncomfortable for the leg space and room, due to the table frame. . They give you a erasable laminated menu with dry erase pen. If only one person you get one broth and a small bowl. If 2 person you get bigger bowl with 2 broth to choose. . They have a big section for veggies, spinach, a choy, tong choy, lettuce, and etc. Perfect for vegans and vegetarian. . Meat section they have lamb, beef, and etc. But i find it a bit thick cut to shabu. I also discovered that the the spicy lamb and spicy beef was a thinner cut, so i ordered that over and over. . They had a variety of miscellaneous items such as dim sum and i just skipped that since it was only me eating. Also can't forget all them pork, beef, fish, meatballs with or without fillings in them. As well tripe and all the nasty bits they offer too. . The hot pot soup i chose was tom yum thai soup. The flavor wasnt all there. Wasnt hot or sour. The owner apologized that they were short handed and she made it. Everything else was good. . I also like the sauce station for you to make your own shabu sauce and because gotta keep it saucy. They offered ginger scallion, soy sauce, peanut butter, mushroom sauce, beef soy sauce, seaseme oil, and etc. I find that most of the sauces were thick in a paste like so you will have to mix it all with soy sauce to thin the sauce out. . Overall i had a great experience. Surprisingly the server was very nice and polite. She kept busy and was on her toes to bring me stuff. They are short staffed and still improving so it was good for 1st time. As well the buffet hot pot was only 22.99 which was reasonable. Also comes with 5 different choices of milk tea on the house with the buffet. But mines never came, but it was ok. Thanks for reading and keep on eating! . Overall read more

$22.99 for AYCE hot pot and some varietals of milk tea. Like Ariel stated the menu (with broths) are very similar to iPot. Also, note that there is only hot pot, and the wagyu you can get is limited. The nice thing about it is that it is affordable, and the portions are consistent. At other hot pot places, I never know the sizing of the portions, so I never know how much to actually order. With Chef Li's, they use the same plates for all the meats, so you know portioning is consistent. They do mostly offer hot pot at dinner, but if you call ahead of time and ask, they will allow you to eat it at lunch. They also take reservations, as long as you call in. However, only a couple of serves speak fluent English, so you're better off here if you can speak Cantonese or Mandarin. Many of the customers here also spoke Cantonese or Mandarin so it was legit. You can split broths as well-- and they have like 12 varietals of broth you can choose from. Meat quality is thawed or fresh, not frozen, which was awesome, and there was a whole ton of meat you could choose from. Our favorites were the wagyu beef, kurobuta pork belly, and the lamb! On our lunch visit, we got half spicy mala broth (which wasn't SUPER spicy-- but I'm sure you could ask them to make it that way if you wanted) and half miso broth. Both were excellent, and yes, they do refill, even without you asking! While they say there is a time limit, it was not strictly enforced during lunch-- though dinner may be different. Service is hit or miss, as they are super busy and like I said, the language barrier may be difficult for people who want someone who is super attentive, but for the most part, it's standard hot pot service. The sauce bar is also super dope and have cool sauces like beef juice (au jus drippings, I guess) as well as housemade spicy sauce (delicious! my favorite seriously) and housemade mushroom sauce. The sauce bar alone is a reason I'd recommend it. The milk tea is also worth it ,though the stock pictures show that they come with boba, and they definitely don't. In any case, it's worth coming here. We also enjoyed their scallion pancakes (super crispy and thin!) as well as their fried mantou with condensed milk. Yummmmmmmy! My BF and I are super happy to have found Chef Li's, as it is our new to-go hot pot place since it's much closer than the majority of the other AYCE hotpot places in the city. read more

I noticed this new 'all-you-can-eat' Hot Pot restaurant listed on Yelp so decided to give it a try with my husband. We were both surprised it included appetizer, dim sum, and milk tea as part of all you can eat menu. We ordered lamb, beef and some vegetables. I really liked their lamb, and their vegetables were very (I mean REALLY REALLY) fresh. They also have a sauce-bar where you can mix & make your own dipping sauces which I liked a lot. Overall, with the amount of money that we paid, the fresh food, and the greatly customer service, it definitely worth it. read more

Food is great, the place is clean and lots of choices for hotpot. The services are excellent. Hand made dumplings are must try.

Been here twice with co-workers - once for hot pot and once for family style dishes. Both were delicious. Friendly helpful staff. I will be coming here again. read more