Typically get pretty good and tasty meals here but noticed these black dots on the cauliflowers but not on other vegetables. Not sure if it's mold or due to the wok. read more

Chef Li's Cafe - Got their vegetables dish but not sure if this is due to the wok burnt or mold. Otherwise, tasty dish. - Chinese Near Me - San Francisco, California

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Hands down my family and I's FAVORITE Chinese food restaurant. Food is delicious, there hasn't been anything we ordered that wasn't good. It's also very decently priced. My parents both love this place (and it's very hard for them to actually like both the restaurant and the pricing). Everything is cooked so well, I don't have a favorite item. If I had to choose, it'd be the salt and pepper pork, it's not too greasy and the pork pieces aren't super fatty. It's very good to say that a Chinese restaurant has good "wok hay" and they definite have it! Check this place out! read more

Salt and pepper Wings were delicious and crispy. All flats with green onions, garlic, and sliced jalapeños. Yum!!!

Cheap prices, great food. Ordered salt and pepper fish and the salted fish fried rice. Call in ahead to order, don't use the apps - they up charge like $3-5 per dish. Could have saved like $30 if I had just called in ahead (which I will now do in the future). read more

They have good food for the location but my friends and I often complain about the price as it's very expensive. I would recommend their rice dish and duck. The service is always great here as the owners are very friendly. The shop has amazing decor for pictures and lighting to suit it all. read more

To clarify, we came here pre-COVID-19 for brunch around the area and the service was very nice and we ordered way too much food but the quality was okay but it wasn't super expensive. The portions were generous and they let us take our time. I definitely recommend stopping by if you're around the area and supporting local business! read more

Chef Li's Cafe - Beef Chow Fun, Eggplant in Garlic Sauce over Rice Plate, Roast Pork, Fried Dumplings, and 4 Piece Egg Rolls - Chinese Near Me - San Francisco, California

I came in to place a to go order, amazing food! Ordered the beef and brócoli and shrimp chow mein. Super friendly staff, it's a family run business you'll see friends and family great place! read more

Closest thing you can get to China Town food! I love CT but going there is a mess, so the conveniency of this place is great, the staff are really sweet, the food is really good, and I love that they accept credit card! No lie, I started eating here about 6 months ago and my family and I never stopped and we look forward to being back soon. :) read more

Oily and flavorless. The food came out fast and smothered in oil. This place seasons their food with oil and more oil. Let's talk about the service. Moment you come in, you look at the employee and the employee looks at you. You sit there looking at one another. It's empty and quiet. Then when you sit down to look at the menu, they immediately point at everything before you have a chance to read their scribbles. The whole time we looked at the menu, we were thinking about leaving. The employee also sat down at the table next to us and watched us the whole time. Every few minutes, she would come over and point at the first page and tell us to just pick 3 dishes. So whatever. I really tried to be nice since it was a bunch of old ladies but it's really irritating when you're trying to eat and they're yelling at one another and creating an awkward atmosphere. It really became a problem when the employee kept coming over and flipping our menu to the 3 dish special page and telling us to pick. Then she'd ask if we wanted hot pot. ***We were also forced to pay 15% tip.*** I get supporting small business but I'm not willing to when the quality isn't there and neither is the customer service. I'm genuinely confused how this place has 4 stars. They did not inform us beforehand that they'd have us pay a tip. We tried putting 2$ and they said more than 15%. So that was annoying. The place does not have all you can eat either for hot pot. Their meat is supposedly 1/2 a lb but it looked more like 4 oz. I don't know any hot pot place that will charge 25$ for a la carte meat. I tried to like the food but my meat was either very oily or "sweet and sour." I really sat there and ate some of it. My stomach began hurting and my mouth became slick with lard and oils from the food. They really need to learn how to be conservative with the cooking oil and more open to seasoning. Their prices aren't that good and neither is their food. It's worse than Panda Express. I do not recommend. We ended up paying 60$ for 4 dishes and 15% tip, which isn't too bad but we didn't even eat most of it. read more

The chef Li's cafe started doing Hongkong style B.B.Q and attacked me to taste the Roasted Duck, it was the best Roasted duck in town. Ever inch of the meat has deeps savored flavor live it read more

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The owners of Wing Hong, previous location was on 2550 San Bruno Ave, moved to this new address. Although the signs say Chef Li's Cafe, their menu is actually Wing Hing. I used to always buy my roasted meats there, roast duck, soy sauce chicken, roast pork, etc., so I followed them to this location, even though it's further away from everything else on San Bruno Ave. read more

This place was packed when we came in. Luckily there was one table when we got there, then a long line started forming...... We ordered off the menu and marked what we wanted. It took awhile to get everything out on time. I think the workers were very frazzled because there wasn't that many of them. Our order got lost along the way...... Something's to mention, the duck wing is cooked but frozen and needs to be put in the pot. It was super yummy. We got a bunch of the sauces they made on the side. We tried it all but nothing stood out in taste. My bf and I got the complimentary ice tea, which was good. The very big downside was we weren't serviced well, and we also got bad bubble guts while we were eating. Maybe from the frequent putting in raw meat in the pot? We have had korean BBq and never had that problem. Maybe something wasn't sanitary, or meat wasnt good quality. There was also hair on the green onion pancake. We ate the ones without hair, and it was good. Such a shame. Maybe hot pot isn't my thing..... read more

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My first time at a Hot Pot Restaurant and I would say this place seemed decent and exceptional to me!! Do not be fooled by the looks of this restaurant even though it looks a bit janky. I wanna start off with a quick story before going on with this review -- My friends and I had decided eat here for the first time as it is still fairly new, also with it being 'Buffet Style Hot Pot'....which I did not pay attention to. As it was time to give our order, plates and plates of Hot Pot components kept getting served to us....and my friends still wanted more. Therefore, they ordered 5 more plates of meat, which to mention, we had gone through 10 plates. I started freaking out because I thought the total of our Bill was going to be SKY HIGH expensive but then...I realized it was BUFFET STYLE. AHHH THE IDEA OF BUFFET STYLE HOTPOT IS A YESSS LOL. Onto the review -- When you first walk in, you have to wait to be seated. I would say that it doesnt get too packed, however, the moment you are seated and eating, you'll begin to realize (most times) that the tables start to get filled up as time passes by. You will have stoves infront of you that you can control with a 1-5 setting heat (1 being the lowest of heat whereas 5 is boiling heat). The waitors give 1 menu per table, and the idea is to just mark off the quantity of what toppings and components you want, however, each person gives their own order of what Soup Base they want.You also can get FREE COMPLIMENTARY_FREE REFILL HOUSE MILK TEA :).There are about 5 different flavors and the Milk Teas have the perfect amount of sweetness/ are rich and creamy. How can I not ask for another refill? MInd you, take advantage of the fact that this is an ALL YOU CAN EAT BUFFET STYLE HOT POT only for $22.99 per person. That is so cheap considering you can keep ordering A BUNCH of plates to satisfy your hunger or cravings. ***Now for the Cons: The reason why this review did not get a full 5 Star rating considering it seemed that I was leading towards a 5 star review......the service. The staff are definitely polite and friendly, however, their service could be better. Whenever we needed more orders, of course we were patient, however, every time we raise our hand or show some sort of gesture to get their attention.....the staff are just not with it and can be slow. Another downside is, the staff seems to primarily speak and understand Chinese...therefore It honestly was a struggle to ask for certain things or requests aside from them just having to look at our menu to see what we wanted. What threw me off BIG TIME was my friend asked for water, and we expected a new fresh cup just like any other restaurant would if we had already used the cup with another drink. The lady just decided to pour the water into the cup we had already used, which was filled with Milk Tea......we asked for another Cup and she said we could not have one. Quite upsetting actually now that I look back on it. I honestly would still recommend this place. You definitely will get your money's worth. read more

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DO NOT COME HERE PLS DO YOURSELF AND YOUR STOMACH A FAVOR. I came here on Wednesday 2/6 and needless to say it will be my last visit here. I came with my friend and we both ordered several rounds of food but each round that came they never gave us the plates of meat that we checked off. Each round we would order at least 2 plates and each round we would get 0 so we started bugging them about it and eventually they gave us a few plates of meat. One was fine, the other one was completely messy as if they threw it on the plate and it's been sitting out for a while and the others were meh it just didn't taste right. The promptness of the food coming out was nonexistent and we had to ask more than a few times for everything. It got to a point where it was annoying because they only helped out others before they would help us out when we would ask for help first. Other than that unpleasant dining experience I vomited and had diarrhea the whole next day. I got food poisoning because I didn't eat anything else before or after this meal. I literally haven't had a real since then because my stomach is still recovering from this place. Thank you to Chef Li's for making such an unforgettable impression!! Do yourself a favor and don't come. Not worth it at all. read more

This place blows my mind... not in a good way. On the bright side, my friends and I came here for AYCE hot pot for $24 per person. Pretty good deal, especially for dinner. However, it wasn't quite worth the trek down here from San Francisco and getting constantly incorrect dishes. I feel like the wait staff would just bring random things and expect we would eat everything. There's a decent amount of seating crammed into this relatively small restaurant. It was busy when we went. There's a sheet that you mark with the dishes you want, but we kept getting things we didn't order. Even though it was "free" it was a waste of food because we didn't want to eat all those things. The broth was good, and certain items were tasty. The green onion pancakes were greasy and amazing. Some of the side dishes we ordered were too gross to eat. Not appealing to anyone in our large group. Customer service was lacking, though I didn't expect much in that department. They were on autopilot or something. Anyways, there are so many other options for hot pot and other cuisines, ones that are closer to where we live. Chef Li's Cafe isn't very clean... I'm surprised Yelp hasn't flagged them for some health concern. My friend came here before and recommended it. For what it is, it's not bad, but I would never recommend it to anyone else. read more

whoever designed this menu must be genius. you read all those items and price. They not seem right. you will find there's a small line at the bottom saying each meal + $1. And they also claimed that if price is not accurate, they won't make announcements. Good show. read more

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

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Friendly staff, seems family owned. Good service. Food is great and plentiful for 3-4 people. read more

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

Not bad at all. Got my food catered in a timely manner with such professionalism! I got soy sauce packets & they individually wrapped napkins around them. Sadly they did not have individual hot sauces but then again my other pal did the actually pickup from their van. Very friendly & good. The house chow mein & spicy eggplant were heavenly & my meat eater pals loved the sweet & sour pork as well as the tomatoes beef noodles. Very reasonably priced & accommodating. Give this lace a go for your next event! read more

Togo only. They have very yummy cold dish appetizers and they are fast to order. Very nice and sweet worker and service is great. My fav was their pig intestine, pig ear, lotus root and Mongolian lamb. Kids love their noodles no veggie or eggs. Decent price and they give a lot. Not too salty too read more

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Quick service. Friendly people. I also noticed every time the public bus and other transportation makes their stop passenger that gets off here stops here to get to go's. Their food is really good!! read more

Haven't been here long time! I would recommend it! Parking sucks that about it. Support your local business!!!! read more

Chef Li's Cafe - Braised Tofu with Vegetables and salt and pepper pork chop - Chinese Near Me - San Francisco, California

Food wise- more like a 3.5, but so cheap and good value so I bumped them up. Plus the patrons are mostly Chinese, so it must be at least sort of decent?! All you can eat for only $23! However, of all the meats we tried, only the waygu was decent - the other rib eye was a bit too chewy. Def get the wontons- pretty good! Good amount of veges available. We chose the wintermelon pork broth (yummy) and the secret spicy broth (pretty good but over time gets super spicy!)- I liked to mix the broth. Overall- ok for the price, would return! read more

Having had take-out from here 3x during the past month, this place has great Chinese food with great flavor and solid dishes. Have not run into any bad dishes! Try this place! read more

Visited Mon, Feb 19 2017 @ 3PM (President's Day) We ordered... Main Meals: AYCE hot pot (half szechuan, half spicy miso) ...and spent: ~$25 per person Service: We came during a slow hour so the service was great! They even told us we didn't have to worry about the 90 minute time maximum which they usually impose on AYCE because there were only a few other tables that they were looking after Vibe: Casual, open areas, bright lighting, bamboo plants and asian vibes Good for: Odd hour hot pot cravings, sauce experimenters Overall verdict: Would come back again when they're not so busy to try more sauces and hot pot soups; soups were not as strong in flavor as some other hot pot places I've been to, but the sauce bar makes up for it. We ordered different cuts of the beef and pork and were pleased with the quality. read more

Chef Li's Cafe - Spicy miso and Szechuan with lots of dipping sauces - Chinese Near Me - San Francisco, California

I came here for my birthday on a Sunday night. We had a party of 11 (two of them were kids) and they were able to accommodate us with no problems. The restaurant is much larger on the inside than the photos so don't let that discourage you from bringing the entire family for hot pot. They'll make your entire party fit if needed. All you can eat hot pot is only available in the evenings starting at 5:30pm. If you get here right on the dot there will be no wait at all. Otherwise make sure you have reservations because the restaurant can get pretty busy as the night goes on. You order off a menu with a dry erase marker (so you can reuse this if you need to order more food). Their grand opening special includes milk tea! Be sure to take advantage of that with unlimited refills to boot. We ordered a ton of food and managed to finish it all without penalties. They warn that you will be charged for wasting food since it can't be re-served to other customers. Definitely load up on the American Wagyu beef and the lamb as it's super good. Their appetizers are also winners. Be sure to get the duck wings, Chinese fried donut, and the green onion pancake. During the day they have an a la carte menu and BBQ food to go if that's your thing. Otherwise come by in the evening for AYCE hot pot. That's what most people were doing. Priced at $23.99/person is like a steal and they're in my neck of the woods. Credit cards are accepted here. read more

I'm always wary of hot pot restaurants namely because it's way cheaper to just do hot pot at home (assuming you have the asian portable stove with a pot with a center divider set up going). Chef Li's Cafe's pricing is about as much as I expect any other hot pot restaurant to go for but the quality and diversity of ingredients probably makes it stand out a bit more. For starters, the soup broths were pretty standard, you get one spicy one non-spicy (that my friends and I ultimately never eat out of so we always lament not getting full on spicy broths). Since this is ayce hot pot, you can go ham on the ingredients. Fish tofu, lamb, beef, napa cabbage, fish balls of every possible assortment, more tofu, enoki mushroom, and every noodle possible. The sauces are all self serve too and they also got a nice variety of sauces though the standard for me is satay, garlic, cilantro, some vinegar and an egg mixed in (it's a self-made concoction, not an available sauce). For what you pay for, I'd say this is a decent hot pot spot that doesn't get crazy crowded. Usually. read more

TL;DR - as a self-proclaimed hot pot fanatic, this is a fabulous option in the city! And don't worry, it is all you can eat, but there's also a la carte for everything else on their menu. ( I live in the Dogpatch in San Francisco. It is way too far from Richmond District or the Sunset for typical Hot Pot... What's my next best option? Portola~ Yes, drag that AAAAA out when you say Portola... It's a quick 10 minute Uber/Lyft ride, and maybe 15-minute drive when you account for parking. Parking here is not a breeze - they're tight spots and sometimes, you are restricted by neighborhood signs that say 1 hour. Or worst... you have to pay the meter. Chef Li's Cafe is a fun little spot. It's VERY unassuming - but it is quite clean. When you walk into the restaurant, it is atypical because there's that little Asian BBQ stand where you see the hanging, marinated duck or other 'Chinese fast foods'. But you walk a bit inward, you'll see it's a typical restaurant. Minus the cell service (or is it because I have T-Mobile that I never get service?). You will be greeted in Cantonese if you look Chinese (I do not speak any Chinese, but I am quite flattered that they think I do). You can order food from their menu, which is extensive as any Chinese restaurant is. But my favorite has always been their ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT Hot Pot menu~ For $25.99/per person, you can order from a list of items. You can get split pot for two soups/broths, you can request a table with two hot pot stoves so you don't have to share, you can almost do it all. My preference is for their secret spicy broth and a more neutral, which I think I chose pork broth last time. When you mark things off the menu, they bring you the meat anything that is a special order like fried tofu 'skins'. All others, like vegetables, are in the back beneath what looks like Ice Cream fridges. You also make your own sauce! Just to repeat myself here, you have to grab your vegetables from the back - most of the time they don't bring it to your tables. That confused me after the 4th time coming here. All in all, I keep coming back here because it's fantastic. I am guilty of knowing a good thing when I see it, so I'll keep coming back here. read more

This place is does some serious Hot Pot. Wne you arrive you are greeted by friendly staff and shown a table. The menu is explained and you choose your broth and items you want to cook. Go make your sauce from the sauce ingredient buffet and get ready to eat. For $23 dollars you get to choose from BBQ meats, dumplings, pancakes and a ton of seafood, meat, balls, offal, veggies, and noodles for your broth. Sometimes you get things you didn't order so make sure you ask if you get something you don't recognize. Overall a fun and tasty experience. read more

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$23.00 per person, free milk tea (Thai, taro, jasmine or bubble), wide variety of meats, seafood, dim sum & other appetizers. Service is excellent--the ladies work super fast. Best of all, they don't enforce a time limit & don't even charge for not finishing your food. Overall amazing experience. read more

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4.5 STARS Lyft driver: "So, where are you from?" Me: "San Francisco, you?" Lyft driver: "OMG - ME TOO!!! We're like unicorns!" Me: "Right?!" Lyft driver: "What area did you grow up at?" Me: "Portola." Lyft driver "Ohhh, West Portal or Twin Peaks?" Me: "Neither." Lyft driver: "Uhhh, you said you're from SF right?" Portola is a little unknown neighborhood in SF that flies under the radar. So much so that Yelp labeled it as the Excelsior...which is about 15 blocks away (they've since updated it). It should come as no surprise that Portola is not a destination place when it comes to food. Most restaurants on San Bruno Avenue are sadly, a bunch of dirty, greasy Chinese and Vietnamese dives with a health scores as low as the IQ level of the burnt cheeto in office. When I read that there was a new hot pot place on San Bruno Avenue, I dragged my sister to come try it with me. By day, Chef Li's Cafe, is your standard Chinese restaurant with roasted ducks (looked bomb), soy sauce chicken, bbq pork, etc hanging at the window. You can also order the typical Chinese rice plates, noodle dishes, and clay pot items. By night, it's AYCE hot pot for $22.99 which includes apps (chicken wings, curry balls, five-spice beef shank), "dim sum" (pot stickers, green onion pancake, housemade dumplings), dessert (mantou), and milk tea: http://bit.ly/2tds5uK. Kids under 3 are free. Kids 10 and under are free. Seniors are $19.99. Reservations accepted. They allowed for hot pot during lunch with reservations so we went during lunch time (same price as dinner). For hot pot, you can choose individual pots or do half/half. They have 17 broths and all contain some msg. I told our server about my msg sensitivity and she kindly suggested the pork bone soup which has the least msg. We did a half/half pot with #1 Special Spicy Soup (mala) and #2 Pork Bone Soup: http://bit.ly/2sT731z and http://bit.ly/2tcOb0b. (+) Huge variety of hot pot items (check off on a list): meats, offal, seafood, seafood & meat balls, dumplings, several tofu varieties, veggies and mushrooms, noodles, rice cakes, etc. (+) Meats were super fresh and pretty good quality for the price. Fav: New Zealand Lamb and American Wagyu (limit 1 plate pp). (+) Loved the beef tongue...they pre-cook it so it's super soft. (+) Housemade shrimp wonton was packed with fresh, crunchy shrimp. (+) Light msg usage for the Pork Bone Soup. No cotton ball mouth afterwards. (+) The mala broth had good numbing flavor but I could taste the msg. If I didn't have my stupid msg sensitives, I would have enjoyed this one. My sister liked it. (+) Sauce bar with a good variety of sauces include beef drippings and raw egg: http://bit.ly/2tdZlCk. If you're sensitive to msg like myself stick with the peanut butter, chili oil, sriracha, cilantro, jalapeno. (+) Fried mantou (made to order) with condensed milk was the perfect ending to this meatfest: http://bit.ly/2tdQxMA. (-) We ordered some items that never came; e.g. duck tongue. (-) Housemade shrimp paste had a weird, mushy texture. (-) Fish ball with fish roe had no fish roe filling. (-) The beef balls had a strange elastic texture. (-) Milk tea was pre-made in a pitcher and tasted from the powder variety. (-) No booze. The fine print: 90 minute limit (+$10 for each 30 minutes thereafter), $20 pp charge for uneaten food, 1 credit card per a table. The servers were really nice and attentive which is a rarity for a Chinese restaurant. They even offered to make us some special sauces from the sauce bar. The call their male customers "handsome" in Cantonese which I thought was cute. I didn't want to be Captain Obvious and do a 180 to see if they were really cute. Though, I totally would have after couple of shots. Chef Li's Cafe is bright and pretty spacious (I think this used to be a copy shop?). There's about 10-12 two and four tops, and 2 six tops. Restrooms are clean. Parking can be tough in the area but the 8 and 54 line bus stops are right there. Chef Li's Café is such a welcome addition to Portola (no more trekking to Richmond or Sunset for your hot pot craving) and you really can't beat the price. 4.5 stars rounded up. read more

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The lunch option was great! Its not crowded at all(granted i went during thanksgiving weekend). The staff was very fast with the order and i was so surprised that the line up for all the food was so clean. I have never saw hot pot that you self serve that was very organized. The portions are great also! Its like sample size platter so you can always quickly order another one. For the price, quality and service, i highly recommend! read more

Now this is the best spot for Hot Pot on San Bruno avenue and maybe Portola district of San Francisco overall. You get even more what you pay for here, it's not expensive and no where else can match the quality of what you're getting. The beef platter comes with a load of good quality fatty beef and tendon as well as another cut. The Jasmine drink is delightful and refreshing. It's good, it's the best and that's all I have to say about that. read more

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

$22.99 for AYCE hot pot? I'm all for it! From the outside, the restaurant doesn't look like much and I would have never guessed that it was a hot pot restaurant but the inside is well lit and spacious. Nothing fancy about it but I always like places that have their burners inside the table and not on top. Some of the tables only had one burner for a shared pot and others had small burners for individual pots. I was surprised to see that there were 17 different broths to choose from! We opted for the pork bone and the special spicy soup. The pork bone broth had a funny smell and taste to it so it wasn't quite to my liking. I ended up cooking most of my food in that one anyway because the special spicy soup was wayyy too spicy and I felt like my lips were on fire throughout my meal - and this is coming from a spice lover. Just beware if you order it! There's a wide variety of meat, vegetables, fish/meat balls, and noodles. The meats came out first and my favorite was the Kurobuta pork. The wagyu was alright but the Australian lamb was too chewy. We had already finished our first round of meat before the rest of our items came out. The meat portions were smaller than I would've liked and I guess they only let you order three at a time because they put them on a 3-tier rack. During the second round we ordered four meats and we were only given three. The second time we ordered the kurobuta pork all the pieces were super fat to the point we thought we ordered pork belly. Service was a bit too slow which made it harder for us to order more meat and they forgot a couple of items that we asked for. The food quality was overall okay, but since I didn't like the broths, it made the rest of the food a bit "eh". There is a sauce bar in the back corner that has a lot of different sauces that you can mix together. I really enjoyed their house-made soy sauce! They also offer free milk tea (taro, Thai, regular, or jasmine) along with your meal and although that sounded like a great idea at first, I think it's a ploy to get you full faster off drinking their sweet milk tea, lol! (It's unlimited refills too) (I might be wrong) But I must admit it did compliment my meal well. For $22.99, it's definitely a great deal for hot pot but there is lots of room of improvement! read more

I came with a group of friends on a Friday night to try out the new AYCE hot pot in town. Literally 2 walking blocks from my house. I can see crowds of people here once they see the $22.99 AYCE option! I have been to a good amount of AYCE hot pot places before--there are good and bad ones. This one is actually GREAT for the price. Meat quality is definitely freshly sliced to order. We had plenty orders of beef (rib eye & wagyu), lamb, and pork! They also have appetizers--really enjoyed the green onion pancake and the fried buns with condensed milk OMG! I also loved the cold tripe plate, reminds of the szechuan cold app dishes- must order! Broths that I liked was the spicy miso--has a good kick. Good for those who can do spicy but not too spicy. Tom Yum was delicious as well. If you don't like spicy the pork bone broths they offered were pretty flavorful! There is also a sauce bar-I recommend using beef juice and beef sauce with spicy sauce and drizzle of the peanut sauce that's light brown along with garlic, scallions, green onions, and cilantro BOMB. They take 4 hours to make their own sauces at the bar so definitely check it out! i will be back soon! read more

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No frills AYCE hotpot joint. Though they need to work on sourcing better quality of ingredients. PRICE: AUCE hotpot with unlimited milk tea drinks is priced at $22.99, which is reasonable and average. PORTION: really small and inconsistent, which is okay since it's AYCE. An order or frozen tofu is 2 pieces, fish balls and quail eggs are 2-4 pieces. Meat rages from 4-6 pieces, vegetables on the other hand comes in a big basket. Quality: for the quality of food alone I'd give one star. Meat looks old or has been sitting out for a while. The fish balls with roe tasted synthetics and rotten. The milk teas are from powder mixes; it has no tea or milk. SERVICE: I spoke Chinese to the servers but I struggled to understand their english first. They are nice and service is fast because everything is pre-made. Overall, I might give them another shot because we are a quick drive away, but if I've had this at home(China), I wouldn't never go back. read more

Chef Li's Cafe - Small portions, order accordingly! - Chinese Near Me - San Francisco, California

Finally a reasonable price for hot pot in SF! Hot pot is one of my favorite meals but it's so expensive for AYCE all around the city! I was on the hunt to find a cheaper alternative AYCE hot pot and luckily I stumbled upon this place! $22.99 per person for AYCE! What an amazing price! Food: the food was good! The meat was fresh, veggies were clean, and the unlimited milk tea was AMAZING! Definitely try the Jasmine milk tea! The broth options were okay, I got the pork bone broth and my boyfriend got the miso soup. Both are worth trying! Service: it was okay. The ladies were nice but they rarely checked up on us and we had to hunt them down to order again. Some of our orders never came in and we constantly kept requesting them but it never came. When it was time to pay, we waited 10 minutes and no one was helping us! but that's okay it was a little busy. ps they accept card! Overall, I definitely would come back again! It's a little further from where I live but I would make the trip to come out again! read more

Chef Li's Cafe - Jasmine milk tea, miso soup on the left and pork bone broth on the right! - Chinese Near Me - San Francisco, California

Just went there for dinner with friends, and we ordered "all we can eat hot pot". The meat is extremely bad cause some of it are already turn black. Also, the tofu tastes sour, you can imagine that how long is these food been there. read more

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

Slow service. You would think that after about a month of opening that they would realize they need more help. They barely had 4 tables that night and it was still so slow read more

Not what I was expecting but oh my lord! The food here is so good , I recommend the house chow mein and the chicken one. the noodles we so tasty and fresh! We will be coming back! read more

Terrible service. The waitress kept forgetting our food orders MULTIPLE times. Within the span of 30 minutes, my friend and I only got 1 plate of meat. We had to remind them several times before another plate came out, and still, they were still missing many of the items we had ordered. Throughout the whole night, we had to constantly flag down someone and the restaurant was not even that busy. We even noticed some of the workers eating behind the counters instead of helping us. When the beef plates finally came out, it was frozen and not fresh. The first plate of wagyu beef tasted fine but the plates after had a weird taste. The texture was also very chewy and made it hard to swallow so we decided not to eat the rest of it. Even for the $25 value for AYCE, the quality of the food and service was not worth it. A few hours after dinner, I was feeling very nauseous and my stomach was feeling uncomfortable, but I didn't think much of it and was able to sleep it off. The next morning, my friend who ate with me that night told me she had thrown up multiple times and now has food poisoning. Now I know my nausea after dinner was no coincidence! I highly recommend going some place else for hotpot and just paying a few dollars more for better quality food and service (not to mention to avoid getting food poisoning). read more