Fresh and tasty seafood, expensive bill, and bad service. Expect to spend at least 45$ per person read more

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A responsible yelper dines at a restaurant at least twice before firmly steering friend toward or away! I was born and raised in China Canton, ppl in Canton love to use steam cooking technique which believe it can keep the original taste of the ingredients. We love the subtle taste without dousing everything in heavy sauces. Fresh elements deserve its name, most of our seafood dishes were fresh and delicious. The steps for steam hotpot are pretty straight forward. Step 1: choose porridge or soup base for the steam pot; Step 2: the staff manages the time setting for each dish; Step 3: dipping the well down food into the "make your own style" condiment sauces- spicy sweet soy sauce, pepper, green onion, cilantro, and minced garlic. Step 4: drink a bowl of porridge or soup to end up a wonderful dinner. Ordered: Spareribs with fresh yam congee base, 游水小花虾: Very popular item, gonna get it early before it sold out. Chicken with cordyceps flower, ribeye steak, beef tongue, daikon, watercress. Mirugai with two style(sashimi & steam pot) super delicious! But I prefer the steam pot style more! read more

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Won't recommend or go to this place anymore! I admitted that the seafood is fresh but it's really pricey plus bad service. We have two people, After ordering porridge, noodles, vegetables shrimp and some clams, the server still tried to recommend us to order fish, and I was told that the smallest one is around 2lbs for $50/lb so I was persuaded to try. Then guess what, few mins later she told me she pick the smallest fish for me and which is 2.7lb, after that I heard the similar conversation happening on the other table, 2lb fish becomes 2.5lb plus. Apparently at the end we haven't had enough stomach to finish food and take almost 3/4 fish to go. Spent almost $300!!!! They tried to push customer order expensive fresh fish/crab and order more than people can eat. read more

Very nice little restaurant offers a new type of dining experience. Fresh Elements is located in the same mall with 99 Ranch market and Dim Sum King in Daily City. They are owned by Dim Sum King, but completely different foods! In their menu, most of the items is cooking fresh by steamer in front of you. The steamer is in middle of the dining table like those hot pot restaurants does. You can see how fresh of the foods (mostly seafoods) before the waitress put it in the steamer. Our waitress is Nicole, she is a wonderful, lovely young lady who provided us a best enjoyable services. Her foods recommendations is excellent. The bottom of the steamer is the the soups or porridge of your choice. If you're looking for the fresh and delicious dinner. This is the place for you. They're open from 5pm to 1am, 7 days a week. The only problem is they're very busy in dinner time on the weekends. You'll have to come early or after 8:30pm if you don't want to wait for a long time. read more

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This place has a pretty good idea. Steam hot pot with good variety of sea food to try out. The porridge in the end of the meal with good. BUUUUT..... the food is unbelievable expensive. And the portion is very little. Service was bearable at best. The worst of the worst is that we ordered a cucumber appetizer but it never show up (to be fair even we forgot about the cucumbers). When we ask to take the cucumber off the bill, before we even finished the sentence, the waitress already said "oh yea the cucumber didn't come, let me take it off the bill for you". Not saying they did it on purpose, BUUUUT.... Also one more thing. Waitress mentioned that there is a yelp promotion where if you give them a 5 star (before we ate anything) they will give us a free dessert. My girlfriend did that cause she wanted to try out some bun... they gave us the wrong dessert... OVERALL It's a good idea, the place look great, the food is pretty good but If the food are cheaper and the place is less shady I would come again. **i think people should try this place out. I would have save about 300$ and eat there once and never go back." P.S. when we were cooking the beef that we ordered, the "steam" keep popping out the "pot" and burning us. P.P.S we ended up eating somewhere else after. P.P.P.S it's hard to trust any 5 star review on yelp because they will bribe you with dessert. So if you read any review that's too good to be true here... it's probably a fake. read more

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What a fun experience! I came with my family and everyone enjoyed the food/experience. This place differs from hotpot/KBBQ places because it's not DIY. Our servers provided great service and essentially did all the cooking for us. This is the sort of place where you should tip your waiter very well because they're also your chef! We had the wagyu beef, prawns, clams, napa cabbage, scallops, monster clams, and a few other items. It was exciting to watch everything steam - including the napa cabbage! I was skeptical about the wagyu beef and napa cabbage because I've never had those steamed before, but both came out extremely tasty. They also bring a little sauce station for you to make your own dipping sauce. The only criticisms I have for this place are regarding cross contamination and the scallops: Cross contamination: When the server was making our monster clams, she used the "raw food tong" to grab garlic and green onions from the sauce station. The issue here is that the tongs that just touched our raw meat/seafood is now going into the raw garlic and raw green onions that we (and other tables) use for the dipping sauce. Scallops: Prior to ordering this, we specifically asked if the scallops came in shell. The scallops definitely came in A shell...not necessarily it's natural shell. We know this because the scallop wasn't attached to the shell. It looks like they might just use frozen scallops and reuse the same shell over and over again. read more

Meet some friends in Daly City to try the steam pot restaurant. Reservations were easy and made over the phone 4 days in advance. You will need reservations because there were lots of people waiting to a table in the small restaurant. We have had the steam pot so we knew what to expect in regards to the time it would take to cook each individual items on the steam pot. The food was good although a bit pricey. Service was rushed and spotty. You will need some explanation on the menu items as some are cooked at your table top and some not. The restaurant is cramped and ventilation is non existent. You will have steam blowing in your face a some time in the meal. The best part of the steam pot is the porridge at the end of the steam process. Its always very flavorful with all of the steam dripping from the steamed items. read more

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The food is ok but everything else is terribly horrible. 1. They lack of servers. They have 12 tables but only two servers helping to steam the food. You need to wait for really long time to get the servers to come to ur table. (It's hard for you to do it yourself bc they won't tell u how long it takes to get the food ready) 2. They charge tips based on the total(including tax). 3. We wanted to order a 3 lb cod fish, no one will tell you the market price until you checked out. Most of the items are market price per pound. Similar things happen to other people as well. Also, they won't let u approve before they killed the fish, and they gave 4.35 lb fish instead of the 3 lb without any approval!!!!!!!!! We argued with the manager but she said they have already killed the fish and it's non-refundable. You will pay more than you expected!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 4. We have four people and we spend $300+ for the dinner!!!!!!!!!!!!! See my receipt. 5. If u want to have some special experience in SF, go for it! Anyway, DONT GO！ read more

Fresh Elements - Receipts - Seafood Near Me - Daly City, California

Don't ever come here when that short haired female monster is working. Wow! Never in my life have I ever received so much attitude from a single person. There was only two tables at the time we arrived around 7pm so that's the first red flag. Menu barely had English, second red flag. Restaurant has no kitchen?! Third red flag. The rude female rudely asked us twice if we were ready to order so my dad said "Let's just order two appetizers first." She responded, "Just to let you guys know, we don't have a kitchen here. The kitchen is at Dim Sum King so it'll take a long time to arrive. We're only responsible for washing and cleaning the food." Ok... As a American born Chinese, I don't know how to read Chinese so I didn't know the price was so high. I saw $12 for a plate of 4 abalones so I was planning to order it. My mom looked at me wide eyed and said, "That's $12 PER abalone.." What?! Imagine if a group of non-Chinese were to walk in here to dine. They'll be shocked when their bill comes. After extensively looking at the simple menu and growing increasingly uncomfortable with the prices, I suggested to go next door to eat at Dim Sum King. Please note I usually stick to my choice and not move when I sat down. I've worked at restaurants before so I know the feeling isn't good when a table walks out. However, with that crappy attitude and expensive prices, I decided to leave. My dad waves down the female and told her to just send our appetizer dishes to our table at Dim Sum King since the kitchen is there anyway and we're going to head over there. She told us we have to pay the bill first before leaving and THEN she can send the dishes to our table. My dad refused because it's by the same owner, the kitchen is located to where we're actually going anyway, and it's easy to just void a ticket in the computer. Why make it so difficult. In the end, she RUDELY start taking our menus back and was glaring at us. Wow. Even my mom, who usually doesn't speak up, said "Wow, what kind of attitude is that?" to her. I know the same owner owns most places at Skyline Plaza but wow, this place. Nope. Sorry. Never going here even if it's free for me. read more

They keep encourage you to order food which we cannot finish at all. And finally we spent $458 for only 2 people. Too bad read more

Fresh Elements - Seafood Near Me - Daly City, California

Good First time here. Fresh food . Good enevoriment Interesting。good custormer service...also this review is fake. Just doing it for some buns. Update! It's a 1 star now. read more

Fresh Elements - Good - Seafood Near Me - Daly City, California

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Super expensive and not worth the money at all. I'm so pissed. The quality sucks! The fish was not fresh. read more

First time having stream seafood dinner here. We ordered a variety of seafood including geoduck clam, sweet shrimps, lobsters, long clams, chicken, beef tongue and congee. Service is good and Food are fresh & yummy! Very good place and definitely come back! I wish they will have more stores in bay area. Tips. Call ahead for reservation. read more

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Live seafood. One of the staff is very nice and helpful, not the others. Seats are very crowded.

The food is good but everything else is terrible. There are a few things you need to be aware of. 1. They charge 18% tips based on the total(including tax), and no one will tell you they charge that until you check the receipt yourself. I argued with the manager and she said based on California regulations, tips are charged based on the total. At least I never heard about this kind of regulation. I told her the service is good, I'd love to tip the waiter but I should be well informed how they charge the tips ahead of time instead of finding it out and doing the math myself. 2. You will pay more than you expected. Most of the items are market price per pound so we asked for the price when we make the order. We ordered cod and the waiter tells us each one weighs about 3-4 pounds but actually we got a 5+ pounds cod. Similar things happen to other stuff as well. If you order 3-4 items, usually you will pay $50+ more than you expected. read more

Used to be good but now really not worth it. Some of the items are still fresh but the sea clams and wagyu turned out tasteless and tough. The waitresses can be quite annoying trying to push you to order pricey items that you don't want. Tonight one even managed to splash soup on us and another one mixed the "cooked" and "raw" tongs while serving us. Really over priced for the quality, or lack thereof. read more

This is a restaurant that has a pretty cool concept, and the first I've seen in the Bay Area that has steamers to cook your food. Their steamers are self timed, which means your food won't get over cooked! The service was great - they were prompt to cook our food, to checking in on us and our waiters were able to give us great guidance on what to order. Overall I had an awesome experience, for two we ordered: +Geoduck +Longneck Clams +Sea Clams +Yellow Chicken +Chinese cabbage +Vermicelli If it wasn't for the DIY sauces, the food would be kind of bland, but I would totally come back just for the fresh seafood! The must orders are the sea clams and the geoduck. I'd definitely come back, but not too often because it can get pretty expensive. read more

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Food is good. They try to upsell so it feels like a dealer rather than a restaurant. It's a bit uncomfortable and also discounts the whole experience. They also enforce 18% tip without any notice ahead of time. read more

Pricing is not clear: AVOID!!! They voluntary don't write prices on the menu and the waiter doesn't say when prices are per pounds. We got charged ~$200 over what we thought we would pay for a dinner for two! WHAT TO DO IF YOU GOT SCAMMED? If like me you got scammed, please inform you bank and ask them to proceed with a chargeback. If they have too many chargebacks, banks will stop dealing with them. We need to protect each other, so please call your bank and exercise your right. read more

Very delicious and the service is very good. We ordered shrimp, lobster, clam, cod, and beef. I highly recommend lobster and cod!!! It's entirely fresh. Come here and enjoy your life! read more

Fresh Elements - Seafood Near Me - Daly City, California

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The service was sbad. Never come again. Food is average and the service is 0! High recommend guys to get another restaurant and enjoy your meal. read more

Here's how it goes (because the workers are going to speak very minimal English, if any at all and you really can't penalize them for that). 1. Pick your ending item (I suggest the short rib congee) 2. Pick an assortment of goodies to steam 3. Mix up your dipping sauce 4. Have the servers put the food on your hot plate, set the timer, and come back to tell you it's done. I liked this place because it's a unique concept. I like the idea of everything steaming and adding flavor to the congee at the end. When we placed our order, the server did mention that we didn't order enough. It was plenty. She is probably just used to seeing people eat a lot more. We order the razor clams (I think they have it written on the menu as "long clams"), which are my favorite for the texture. The lobster, chicken, shrimp, and oysters. I would definitely recommend cooking everything very thoroughly, especially the oysters. I would come again for an occasion. The mark up is high. It is what it is though. read more

Fresh Elements - white shrimp, lobster, razor clams, 2 oysters and 1/4 chicken on the steamer - Seafood Near Me - Daly City, California

This place is way over price, also the service just ok. The most important is they mislead you to order the food which didn't put any price tag there. Overall three of us spent over 500 bucks including over almost $70 for tips is not worth it. No more for us!!! read more

The worst dining experience ever! All the things with exact price marked are gone and we have to order those with market price. But the waitress acts like a jerk treating people with no respect at all. We paid $104.7 PER PERSON! I usually tip 15 percents. But this time I tipped ZERO. I am done with the waitress's terrible attitude and will NEVER come back. read more

I come here almost every month. Seafood here is absolutely fresh and delicious. The best part is the porridge. It is boiled right beneath all the seafood and is usually enjoyed at the end. It doesn't need any other condiment (no need for salt or pepper) and just tastes fantastic! read more

Fresh Elements - Seafood Near Me - Daly City, California

Coming in, I knew this place would be overpriced (especially compared to Shenzhen, where I used to go eat this whenever on a business trip). What really annoyed me though was that the waitress kept trying to push us to order more, especially the $5 (!!) vermicelli, which we really didn't need. For 3 people, we ordered: -White porridge base (would suggest ordering a different base next time, this was especially lacking in flavor compared to those I've had in China) -Long clams, these were quite good, would recommend -Fresh shrimp, also very fresh (beware, they do have a cheaper shrimp at a set price, but that one is frozen) -Mountain yam: this is tasty and refreshing steamed -Vermicelli: no need really.... basically, we were pushed to order this, and the beef below. I think the vermicelli soaked up all the 'seafood flavors', and thus the porrige got none :( -Beef slices: I've never eaten steamed before before today, but it tastes pretty much like hotpot meat. It's good, but I don't think I'd order this again. We only ordered it because the waitress kept pushing us to order more. We even wanted to return it about 5minutes after ordering it, but of course it was "already being sliced". Given we weren't super hungry, this was more than enough food, and we didn't even end up finishing the vermicelli or the porridge. Might bring friends back here for the experience, but otherwise, not sure that I'd come back again. read more

I ate here twice. I don't eat at shit places twice. I will probably eat here a few more times. 5/5 recommend the fish and clam. ---- I came here for dinner with my GF before we left for a holiday. Let me tell you, we got stuck in traffic on the way in with a zipcar that was dirty as shit and out of wiper fluid. Thanks to the grace of god we made it here without dying because I couldn't see oncoming traffic. We got seated right away (we called ahead to reserve a seat, they accept reservations, they are usually very busy). We got a hearty meal, clam, fish, and then the other clam with the long tongue. Highly recommend the clam and fish. Before we left they let us take some cups out of the restaurant so we could pour some water and clean the windows on our zipcar. Thanks to that we were able to see our the window. I can tell you, any restaurant willing to let you leave with their plates or cups out to clean your car so you don't die is a restaurant worth going to. As long as I don't die on my way back, I'll be back in a few weeks. 5/5 didn't die, would eat again. read more

Seafood here is very fresh! Fish, shrimp, clam are highly recommended. Service is also great. Waitress are very attending and provide good tips with the food. Will definitely come back. read more

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Came to celebrate Father's Day and my mom's birthday after reading the reviews. Everything is fine, service was okay. But.... why is there a blank spot for ppl to write( Tip) if they already charge us 18% of service charge. Although nothing has wrong but I don't think I will come back again according to the bad reviews and my own experience. Bill came to $388 for 6 people. read more

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helps a lot if you speak chinese. The seafood is fresh and full of flavor which then drips from the steamer into the soup or porridge below for a treat at the end of the meal. Definitely not cheap but worth it as a dinner option on a cold city night. Gets crowded so having reservations or coming in early are best. Parking is hit or miss. read more

I had a wonderful experience here before pandemic. However, my most recent dining was not so good. When we were order food, the server told us that she cannot take the order because she is unfamiliar with the menu so we patiently wait for the store manager to come over and she rush us to make the order when we had wait for her a VERY LONG TIME. I understand it is not her fault that store remove the "set menu" but the rush was greatly not appreciated. After we placed our order and the food come, we had inform the server and the manager multiple time that our hotpot machine is not working, however, they just come over here and shake the machine and keep checking their water vaping machine. Throughout the whole dining, they check maybe around 10 times. We asked if they can cook for us at other table or switch to other table and we got completely ignore. Finally, after the store manager kick the machine multiple time she finally fix it. Yay! Some way some how it stop working again. We inform the store manager if she can come kick the machine again ( or anything she did) but we got ignore. It begin burning the plastic pot and our food begin taste like plastic. We spend A LOT of money to purchase a expensive seafood. The burning taste turn it into a waste. I think overall it can be a good restaurant, and I'll give it another chance when the COVID got more settle. Or whenever they can return their quality. read more

How did this place get 4.5 stars?!?!? First off, the servers are rude and barely speak English (I'm not kidding). I seriously asked one of our server on instructions on how to prepare our meal and he replied back "I don't speak English" and walked away. Second, this place is expensive for mediocre food. I haven't been this upset ever to leave a 1 star review but I just want people to be aware of what this place has in store for them. Please don't let the 4.5 stars fool you like how it fooled me. There's much better food around the area. read more

Fresh Elements - What kind of porridge is this?!! - Seafood Near Me - Daly City, California

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First time here. We had 13 people for dinner so walked over to dim sum king to have our fresh elements dinner. All the seafood is fresh and we dipped Everything in our soy sauce mixture. Everything was healthy and steamed and fresh. The egg yoke buns were delicious. The clams were really fresh including the fish. The shrimp was a little on the small size. They ran out of $2.80 oysters and offered scallops at $10 each. Yikes. That's a high market price. All in all we ate slowly because some items took 8 minutes to cook. It was nice having conversation with everyone while we waited. The meal lasted more than several hours. And with 13 people the meal came To about $36 Per person. I felt it was just the right amount. Some of the guys may still be hungry. The rice porridge at the end was an added bonus. It had all The flavors of our fresh seafood and meats. I don't even think there was any fluids or water added to make the rice porridge. read more

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Novelty at its best. Expensive for an experience but worth it if you've never been. The old ways of hot potting are being replaced with steamed hot pot. It's supposed to retain the freshness and quality of the meats and seafood more than the traditional overpowering broth. Also, all the essence of the steamed items are supposed to sink down to the bottom of the pot to make a delicious broth. The seafood (shrimp) was the clear winner and I'd suggest forking over the extra 20 dollars to get the biggest shrimps. The homemade shrimp balls were also good with the winter melons. I'd pass on the fish, razor clams, and beef (they ran outta wagyu the day we went.) Overall, if it were half the price, I'd consider coming back but given it was over $60 dollars per person for a very small amount of food, I can't say that we will. The service was ok and they came to cook the food for you but I feel like they sometimes forget you. Also they kept asking every party if they had reservations so it seems like this place can get crowded oh busy nights. Also, the whole entire restaurant was filled with Asian people who were not talking in English which lets you know that it's authentic ;) read more

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I just found a cockroach in my food. This is not okay. I came in to celebrate my brothers birthday and what a great experience. I would Highly recommend this place if bug protein is your preferred intake read more

Fresh Elements - Seafood Near Me - Daly City, California

Very very good Very very healthy Very very delicious Very very friendly Will come again definitely Very very suggest read more

I don't usually write review for a restaurant, if it is bad I just do not return for second time. First crab is fresh, But this is disgusting practice, the waitress was pushing us to buy expensive dish without telling the price. Other restaurants will inform us the price and ask us whether we want to continue ordering. Here, no one tellling you the price. And after we received the bill, we got $565 check, which saying Alaska king crab 6.35 lbs (I swear the crab at most 2lbs) I buy crabs all the time, so I have general idea how many lbs is the crab? Are you fucking kidding me? Just because we didn't ask the price(because we were so excited to see friends and kept talking). So you guys treat us like idiots? How come you expect people to come back again? The most disgusting service ever ? Anytime we want to order something price listed on the menu , the waitress told us it is not available, and push us to buy a so called king crab. read more

First things first, make reservations because it gets quite crowded especially on a Saturday. However, if you have bigger groups, I believe that they may allow you to go over to Dim Sum King (same owner of this restaurant) and be seated there. FOOD: Everything was basically steamed, so you can't really go wrong except it being overcooked. We ordered a variety but my favorite were definitely the long clams, oyster, and regular clams. They were so fresh that we ordered seconds! As for the steamed crab, it was decent too but a little pricey for it just being steamed. Beware of their meat though, I wouldn't recommend them - didn't quite taste fresh. After we were done, we were served the porridge consisting of the "juices" leaked down from the pot above from all the food we had steamed earlier. The porridge was nicely cooked, not too thick or watery. A large porridge serves about 10 small bowls! SERVICE: The servers were quite quick! They help you set timers and cook everything. As soon as the timer goes off, they come within seconds! Total: $260 for five people including tips, not too shabby! read more

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Servers don't all speak a ton of english, which is a little tough to order/ ask questions, but the food is great! So fresh and fun. Big portions and such a cool experience. Loved the clams. Didn't feel like we needed the soup at the end. read more

I usually don't leave negative reviews but my first experience is just too horrible. The two of us ordered $50 worth of food and got extremely bad treatment as we were considered of not spending enough money: (1) first we got upsold king crabs which they charge $45 per lb for, and even the smallest ones would be at least three pounds. Being first timers we didn't want to spend $150 on a dish. (2) we wanted to order shrimps but were told they didn't have the sweet shrimps ($12) the menu anymore. Instead they tried to sell me some live shrimps that sell for $45 per lb. After seeing the wtf look on my face the waitress suggested that I can order the frozen shrimp that sell for $15 per plate (3) after making sure we are only spend $50 for two people (again, I don't consider this a small amount for two people) the waitresses ignored us for the whole time with minimal service (4) they spent most of their time entertaining 3 young guys who ended up buying a king crab for $150 To be honest, I never had such a horrible experience at a restaurant EVER. If you are the owner of the restaurant and you are reading this, please consider firing that waitress, as I'm sure most American customers will be very turned off by such experiences, and you will just end up losing customers this way. I am pretty much the most easy going person (and I'm Chinese) you can see on the street, but I felt extremely disrespected and got treated very poorly just because I didn't spend $150. Yes I can afford to pay for an expensive meal but I don't want to be treated like shit if I decide against giving my hard earned cash to you. Basic courtesy please, if I have to tip you. read more