One of my favorite local spots to bring friends and family from out of town to experience. This…read moreplace does not disappoint. My favorites are the Shandong chicken and their signature hand-pulled noodles, so delicious! They are a popular spot so depending on when you go, can be a bit of a wait to get seated. It's not that big and can be a little tight inside. However, there's a reason why they stay busy, because their food is worth the wait! This place is a must when in Oakland and looking for some really tasty Chinese food.

Shandong Restaurant features authentic Northern Chinese dumplings and handmade noodles in a rowdy…read moreenvironment with absolutely horrendous service. And yet, the crowds keep on lining up to dine here. One of their highlight dishes was the Sesame Paste Noodles, made of super chewy noodles mixed with spinach and a deliciously creamy, slightly sweet sesame paste. Another must-try dish was the Special Shan Dong Dumplings, a thick-skinned dumpling filled with minced pork and vegetables. We also tried the House Special Pancake Stuffed with Leeks, a set of three pan-fried pies with a filling of chives, vermicelli, egg, and woodear mushrooms; the Dry Braised Green Beans, stir-fried with black beans and preserved vegetables; the Sautéed On-Choy; and Sliced Fish with zucchini, woodear mushrooms, peas, and carrots in a mild sauce. Overall, the dishes here came in generous portions at decent prices and made for a delicious, balanced meal. The vibe might be loud and the service rude, but the food was worth a visit!

I grew up eating this as a kid and still love it to this day. Gum Kuo has my favorite salted pork…read moreand preserved egg jook in the whole wide world! Whenever I'm feeling sick or just feeling something comforting, I'm always craving their jook with a you tiao from here. Their jook is so thick and flavorful. It's really unmatched by other places which are more watery. They have a huge menu including roast meats that you can see them chopping but I always go back to my jook order. Service here is no-frills and the restaurant probably hasn't been renovated since it opened (outside of new tables and chairs). Typical Chinatown restaurant service and it can get quite loud.

After a near-decade hiatus, my family and I made our return to Gum Kuo in Oakland Chinatown on…read more01/03/2026. It was quiet when we walked in at 6pm. We were immediately greeted by one of the servers, and she seated us at a table near the back. Hot tea and menus were brought to us soon after. I didn't notice any changes to the interior since our last visit. We decided to order two sets of their 3-dish dinner special ($38.95 per set). Free house soup came with the meal. Here's the breakdown on all the dishes: Curry Beef Stew - The meat was tender but on the fatty side. Tasted like it's been sitting around all day. Ginger and Onion Beef - Good flavor. The meat was tender and flavorful. Fish Fillet with Tofu - Light and surprisingly delightful. The fish fillet was tasty and so was the soft tofu. Salt and Pepper Spareribs - Taste was on point. Meatiness was decent. Szechuan Chicken - The sauce tasted a lot like the sauce in Cantonese style beef steak (a concoction of ketchup, HP sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and a few other things). Interesting, and definitely not Szechuan (or Sichuan). Scrambled Eggs with Shrimp and Yellow Chives - Pretty tasty. They only used egg yolks for the dish. Portions were moderate. Service was alright. The staff were friendly, and they refilled our tea without us asking. The total, with tax and tip, was about $107 (rice was $2.50 a bowl). Overall, A slightly above average Cantonese food experience. 3.5 stars rounding up to 4 just because they are in Chinatown.

Amazing food and service! Come check this place out if you are in Oakland. Everything was really…read morefresh and the prices were great! Will definitely be coming back for more! The potstickers, pork ear, and noodle dishes are amazing with fresh, authentic, vibrant flavors in each bite!

*Great ambiance, feels like a great mix of walking into a corner food stop in China or visiting an…read moreold friends house ** Service is attentive with great recs and an adorable robot **** So easily accessible and price range is so good compared to the portion size ***** One of my favorite Chinese joints in Oakland now 谢谢

This place has been around for a while!!! and they remodeled it…read more Came here yesterday after a bad experience at another place to have our lunch/now dinner. We were greeted and seated right away with the choice of any opened table. The server offered a booster for the baby and we told him it wasn't necessary. We order jajangmyeon, gan jajangmyeon, tangsuyuk, yangjangpi, and jjampong. Still as delicious as I remember. While we were eating my niece (the baby) was giggling and we saw that the server was playing with her. He was attentive and provided us everything we needed...thank you for showing us what really customer service is!!!!

Ambiance - 4/5 I've…read morebeen coming here for many years, and it looks like they've done some remodeling since some of my earlier visits. The place feels a little different now, and I also don't see the older lady and gentleman who I used to see here anymore. I love the new wall decorations. The interior looks like an older style resturant with the menu being on the top right when you walk into the resturant. There is also a pile of random stuff in the left corner when you walk in. Customer Service - 4/5 The service was good and everything came out smoothly. Nothing particularly stood out to me about the service this time, but I had a pleasant experience overall. Small note I didn't feel very welcomed when I walked into the restaurant. Food - 5/5 Dish Ordered: Jjamppong (Spicy Seafood Noodle Soup) - 5/5 What impressed me about the jjamppong was that every ingredient was treated right. Eating the squid by itself would've been delicious. Eating the shrimp by itself would've been delicious. But now you fuse everything together with the noodles and soup? Now that's one solid dish. The heat level was just right for me. I love spicy food, but I don't want the spice to overpower everything else. My tongue was still able to taste the seafood flavors coming through the soup, and that's important to me. The spice complemented the seafood instead of covering it up. Every ingredient felt like it contributed something to the final dish. I never had this dish in Korea. but if I had this guess. This would be it. Tangsuyuk (Sweet & Sour Fried Pork) - 5/5 They take this dish to another level. The pork was tender and fluffy with a slight crisp on the outside. That combination alone would've made it good, but the sauce is what really brought everything together. And when I say sauce, they don't just give you a little bit on the side. They give you a whole bowl of it. You can actually submerge your pork into the sauce and get an even coating of all that goodness. I've had many different sweet and sour pork sauces over the years, and this one hits differently. Honestly, this sauce could be its own dish. It's not a side piece. That's how much I enjoyed it. Pickled Radish - They also give you pickled radish, which I always love whenever I'm eating Korean food. That crunch adds another texture to the meal, but more importantly, it gives your palate a nice refresh between bites. Especially when you're eating something spicy like jjamppong and something rich like tangsuyuk, that refreshing bite of pickled radish fits perfectly. Additional Comment: I've been coming here many times over the years, and the quality has always been solid. Restaurants change. People change. Interiors get remodeled. I don't see the older lady and gentleman I remember seeing here anymore, but I'm glad the food has remained something I can come back to and enjoy. There's something special about having a restaurant you've eaten at for years and still being able to sit down, order your food, and think, "Yup, they still got it." Would I come back? Hells Yeah. I've already been coming back for years. The jjamppong delivers the seafood flavor and heat I'm looking for, and that tangsuyuk with the sauce is something I would be happy to come back just for these two dishes. I also love their black bean noodle (ZaZangMein)

I'm really on the fence about this review. I love ordering…read moreand getting my food roaring hot right on time, every time. THE FOOD!!! What were we eating before Lin Jai? (Oh yea... we were eating Shen Hua on College - EDWARD COME BACK TO US!!!). If it waddles, quacks and tastes like a duck... Lin Jai seems very Chinese to me (howdy y'all) but they call themselves "Asian Cafe". Who am I to argue, but most dishes I love there seem pretty Chinese to me??!? I don't know where the lights-out super cuminy beef is from (Uyghur, or Mongolian?) and the Singapore/curry noodles (curry perfection) might be from Taiwan. The fish dishes seem to float down from some fishy astral plane... THEY HAVE MU SHU!!! They're fully staffed by people that seem to love their work... Ok, I'm starting to GUSH... Dang it, just get carry out and shut up about it already

My foodie mom from Hong Kong approves, so that means this place is for sure 5 stars! Grateful to…read morehave great Chinese food in our neighborhood.

Ming's seems like an establishment for dim sum in Oakland, and I am glad I finally got to try it…read moreout. The building itself is so unassuming, you'd never expect a great dim sum place to be here! Came on a Saturday mid-afternoon, and fortunately, did not wait too long for a table. My partner and I definitely ordered TOO much for just us two, but we wanted to try an assortment of things! The standouts were their rice noodle roll w/ crispy shrimp, siumai, and hargow. Their siumai and hargow were so plump and juicy! Usually they're tiny at dim sum spots. Everything else was good as well! We even took some home to our families. My parents really enjoyed their chicken feet too! Service was amazing and fast. They are so kind! I get why Ming's is people's fave.

Terrible place to go if you are a vegetarian. Non starter. The only options are plain noodles,…read moreplain rice, or plain veggies. I had to make do because I was with a group. I asked them to show me what was vegetarian and took special care to note that I cannot eat shellfish. They circled things in CHINESE, not in English, so I ended up ordering something that had shrimp in it!!! And then I told the guy and he would not refund it because he "told us in advance" even though he circled in Chinese and still allowed me to order it after I just told him I couldn't eat that. So annoying. How do you have that level of incompetence at a restaurant?

This has been my fav go to for nutritional soup whenever I'm in Oakland. Love their wide variety of…read moreherbal soups and how they make it easy for patrons to choose by grouping the soups by : body detox, beauty care, healthy liver, nourish lungs/kidney etc. We had the Chicken with Morel mushroom & herbs soup (羊肚菌石斛炖雞) along with the traditional silkie chicken with dried scallop & herb soup. For main dishes couldn't resist their delicious wonton noodle soup as well as Their steamed rice with dried shrimp/fish minced pork served on lotus leaf wrap which added nice touch of lotus leaf fragrance to the steamed rice. And ended with another nutritious dessert - steamed chick pea & peach gum with dried rose. 玫瑰花冰糖炖雪蓮子桃. Love how it's not too sweet with nice rose taste to it.

We ordered the pork belly in the lotus leaf and a beef rice noodle roll plate. The lotus leaf was…read moredelicious, but wish there were more veggies in it. All of the other lotus leaf dishes that passed by our tabled looked great also -- seems like you cant go wrong with any of them! Its a casual spot in the middle of Chinatown, and its very reasonably priced! A great weekend lunch.

I love the egg drop and seaweed soup, and the long baos. The sautéed green beans are some of the…read morebest in the neighborhood. Lots of well maintained seating and an attentive and efficient staff. Well balanced background music. They have both physical and QR code menus.

We were the first to arrive, so they were kind enough to let us in to sit til they opened…read more We ordered lots of food you'll see in the photos, pretty good choices but they were out of beef, you would think they would be prepared for weekends because I heard other tables trying to also order beef noodle soup. Their prices are steep, much higher than other Bay Area restaurants serving that same style of food. Service was good, got too see the ladies wrapping all types of dumplings. Would return to eat again

I stayed over the weekend in Oakland for outside lands. My brother recommended a noodle place…read morenearby his home since soup is on the menu. We arrived just at about dinner time and the waitress took our orders just 10 mins after seating. The dishes were served fast, tasted very savory and spicy. I am happily surprised how the stur fried green beans were so crispy and loaded with umami. I had a beef bowl noodle soup and the serving is enough for 2-3 people. I would visit again if i visit Oakland in the future.

Ambiance - 5/5 First…read morething I noticed when I came in. This place is clean. It's a little tight inside, but the design is very nice and everything feels clean and well put together. There are also fans and AC everywhere, so if it gets hot, I can already tell this place is going to stay nice and cool. One detail I really liked was the two TVs. One was playing music while the other showed cultural views of Chongqing, which is what the restaurant is based around. I thought that was a nice touch because it brings a little bit of Chongqing culture into the dining experience. Overall, I think this place looks nice. Customer Service - 5/5 The service was good. Everything came out without any problems and I didn't have any issues during my meal. I felt welcomed as I walked in. Food - 4/5 Dish Ordered: Chongqing Noodles - 3/5 The noodles were delicious. What stood out to me was the bounce and texture of the noodles. They had just the right consistency and were very enjoyable to eat. The soup was solid as well. Flavorful and paired nicely with the noodles. Seasoned nicely The meat, however, was probably the weakest part of the dish. It wasn't very tender and had a slightly rough and gamey texture. It almost tasted like cold meat that was added into the hot soup rather than being cooked together with it. If the meat had been more tender and flavorful, this dish would've been da BOMB! Salt & Pepper Fried Chicken Wings - 5/5 I was actually craving salt and pepper fried chicken wings, so I was happy to see them on the menu. They definitely satisfied my craving. The outside was nice and crispy while the chicken inside stayed tender. It was cooked just right. I also liked that they added a little cultural kick to it with the cumin. It gave the wings a slightly different flavor compared to the typical salt and pepper wings I'm used to. But very delicious Additional Comment: Overall, I enjoyed my first experience here. The restaurant is clean, the interior is nicely designed, and I appreciate the little cultural details that connect the restaurant back to Chongqing. Would I come back? Yes. I would come back for those crispy salt and pepper wings. YUM. Thinking about it makes me hungry.

Update: 6/21: Food is still great here. Service is very accomodating. The only issue I had was that…read morethe mai tai that was their specialty was very weak and watery. When we told them about what it tastes like, they charged us for additional alcohol to be placed into it. They never told is they were going to do that not that we would be charged. The drinks were already $15 prior. The last time, the female owner made out drinks and they were on point. No need to add anything else or be charged extra. The bartender on this day, did not do a great mix at all.

Pretty big resto in Claremont, more for big parties. Flavorful Chinese dishes w a good sized menu…read more The bar has $10 cocktails for happy hour!