I am beyond disgusted to find a rusted screw in my takeout order. Would give a zero star if I could, can't imagine if someone doesn't see it and accidentally eats it. read more

Looking For Chai - Stir fired bean sprouts - Taiwanese Near Me - Bellevue, Washington

One of my favorite places in the Seattle area!! During my visit to Seattle, we came here twice! Once to eat and a second time for bubble tea. This place has by far the best bubble tea I've ever had (get the Milk Tea Trio, $4.95, which has tapioca, grass jelly and pudding - you can thank me later)!! I like bubble tea because of the tapioca and in my opinion, the bigger and chewier the tapioca is, the better! This place fit the bill to a T. This bubble tea has literally wrecked all other bubble teas for me. The food itself was good, very comforting for an asian girl like myself and especially satisfying after a cold and wet morning hike. Definitely more of a "homey", no frills type of place in terms of food, but sometimes that's exactly what you need! Will definitely visit again if I'm in the area! read more

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Excellent taste of food for price. Service is fast and friendly. Will definitely be back

Very delicious Taiwanese food. Their popcorn chicken was very crunchy and yummy. The braised pork rice was also very good and the portions were good. read more

Best Taiwanese food in town. Consistent. Quick. Reasonably priced. The tri fecta are all met! And not overly salty or oily - it's as if, the restaurant also cares about the consumers' health. Love this place for all those reasons. Keep up the good work. read more

Good food. Good service. I will go back to try other items. Crispy chicken and pork fried rice was very good. The chicken was spicy and they don't carry soda. read more

Soooo good - it's definitely a larger menu than Facing East, less crowded (for now) and a bit cleaner tasting in my opinion. I took my littles and they had kid utensils as well so it definitely caters to family. We got the Tomato Seafood Hot Pot (yummy and comes with dipping sauce) and Popcorn Chicken (not as heavily spiced as Facing East but still good). I also tried out the Cookie Milk Tea (so cute!) and was pretty tasty as well. Solid place (TW REPRESENT) and I can't wait to go back. It's so dangerous since it's on my way home! read more

I was pretty unimpressed with the food and atmosphere here. The popcorn chicken was OK, but the rest of the dishes were a pretty big disappointment. As other people have echoed, the portions are large but there isn't a lot of flavor going on. Service was also slow and it was generally just a crowded and unpleasant place to eat. We got one dish, then waited another 20 minutes and had to flag our waitress down to ask about it (it seems pretty obvious they just forgot). We also asked for a simple hot tea and we got a sickeningly sweet hot tea instead. We flagged down someone to see if we could get an unsweetened version and they were really surprised that someone gave us a sweet tea in the first place. Just seemed like a really poorly run establishment, like a tea house that decided to add food to its menu but doesn't really know how to execute flavors or service. read more

Found a good Taiwanese spot! Food was great and they have a decent tea menu. I'm coming back for more. read more

Looking For Chai - Taiwanese Near Me - Bellevue, Washington

This is definitely my favorite place for Taiwanese food. Great service with authentic dishes. The popcorn chicken is definitely a highlight here. It's well seasoned, crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside! It's magical! xD read more

I came here after many recommendations from friends. We came in at 1pm and put our name down for a party of 4. We waited about 35 minutes to get seated. This place cannot accommodate too many people so there are higher wait times. For the ambiance, it's a pretty modern place, with menus on a wooden binder. We ordered the beef say hot pot and Taiwanese beef noodle soup, and of course, the chocolate cookie milk tea at 50% sweetness. The beef hot pot is cheaper Boiling Point, but it is smaller in size. The flavor was pretty good, and I think the amount of glass noodles in the pot is quite a lot. And it comes with a side of BBQ satay sauce. I wasn't too filled with this order though. The Taiwanese beef noodle soup came out immediately. Broth flavor was flavorful, and the beef tenderness was the best I've ever tasted!!! The dish only came with 2 bok choy and 4 pieces of meat...And little noodles too. Very tiny portion in my opinion. I'm SUPER excited for all the bubble tea flavors though! I was sad I couldn't try more! The staple chocolate cookie milk tea was very tasty, and comes with a thin layer of crema. Even with 50% sweetness, the drink was pretty sweet! I'll definitely come back to try more! read more

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Good food, nice people, would like to try again. Healthy food that is not oily but also full of flavor

My boyfriend and I visited on a Saturday and had a great overall experience. We are both restaurant workers for over two years and from Taiwan, and we've been to the Edmonds location quite a few times already. The following is a breakdown of my opinion on several aspects that I thought would be helpful. Service Friendly staff, generally Mandarin-speaking, efficient and experienced. We did not encounter any trouble that required extra attention but they all seemed contempt considering how new the place was. Food Three entrees and two drinks (forgot to take a photo of the oyster pancake), none of them disappointed. Thought that all of them tasted slightly different than the ones of Edmonds location, and the beef noodle was a much smaller portion if we recall correctly. Apparently water is only served upon request, and drinks were in to-go cups rather than the cute mugs in their first location--all of these understandable since their grand opening was quite recent anyway. Pace We did not have to wait for a table or parking since we arrived pretty early at around 11:30ish. The place filled up soon after we've ordered but the tabled rotated pretty quickly. The food took a good 15-20 minutes, which was fine since two items were fried. Price, clientele, and other factors Similar pricing to the Edmonds location, and a lot more families than students. Atmosphere was great--I personally liked the interior and vibe so much better than the Edmonds one, for it does remind me of those small but charismatic restaurants in Taiwan. I didn't expect much when I first arrived, but their cute menus made a great first impression as soon as I sat down. We left satisfied and will definitely return. Areas with room for improvement A greater emphasis on service and attention to details would definitely enhance the entire experience. I would expect higher efficiency and better rhythm between staff after 1-2 months, and hopefully several tweaks on their dishes to make everything more memorable. A worth-it trip regardless! read more

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Love this place for a quick dinner! I agree that it is a hidden gem since it is pretty removed from the rest of downtown Bellevue. While I am not Taiwanese, I am definitely not well versed in if this restaurant is traditional or even "good" Taiwanese food so take this review with a grain of salt. The last time I was here I ordered the Braised Pork over Rice, Tainan noodle soup, and the Hokkiado milk tea. All of the food was amazing for the price! The small order of the braised pork over rice was around $5 which was filling in itself. The noodles were closer to $8 and again also filling. Slightly bland but adding the chili sauce fixed that right away. I will say that the soup does not contain enough meat and way more noodles but I liked that they placed an egg in it. The milk tea was great! Not too sweet like a lot of Hokkiado milk tea's in the area. It was also reasonable priced like everything else. I will definitely be back for dinner and tea. read more

This place gives Facing East a run for its money ;) Since it opened, Facing East has really dominated the Taiwanese food scene on the east side so I was beyond excited to try out Looking for Chai when I came back home to Bellevue for a weekend. There is plenty of parking out front and you write your name and party # on a clipboard out front. We came at around 12:20 on Saturday and actually didn't have to wait at all for our group of 3. We ordered their Hakka stir fry, Taiwanese A-Lettuce, bitter melon and beef stir fry, and an oyster mushroom stir fry. The portions are good (roughly the size of Facing East portions but less expensive) and the food is really delicious. All the stir fry was nicely seasoned and not too greasy. The bitter melon and beef were so delicious and well-balanced. The Taiwanese A-lettuce was a good vegetable dish, nothing too special there. The oyster mushroom was carefully sliced oyster mushrooms in a clay pot stew--very delicious. Overall, I really enjoyed every single dish here and thought it was very reasonably priced! As we left, there was starting to be a wait for lunch, which makes sense for how good this place was :) read more

This place has changed from being a dine in restaurant to a cafe. I think they kept all their popular items and the drinks are now sourced from Yi-Fang. That being said, their restaurant is impeccably clean: basically the gold standard for COVID. All food comes sealed even for diners and each table has Kleenex wipes. The popcorn chicken is to DIE for. Their beef noodle soup according to my Chinese boyfriend is bland but tasted pretty good to me. My cashier was super nice! Tables are self-bussed however. read more

Yummy Taiwanese food!! You'll definitely find a line here on the weekends. We tried the crispy chicken, popcorn chicken, steak noodles, sautéed pea vines and pork belly. For four people this was more than enough food. We were stuffed. I enjoyed the pork belly the most! Thinly sliced in a spicy sweet sauce. They shut down the bubble tea earlier so make sure you order them before you leave! read more

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Great place. I just moved to Bellevue from the 626 area in SoCal and this place was solid. I got the pork belly over rice and my girlfriend got the Taiwanese Sausage. The Passion Fruit tea had seeds or something in it, which was a bit weird. Overall, it's a place I will be coming back to. read more

Came here for a quick lunch today. Server was prompt and attentive. Parking can be a pain with limited parking spots, but nonetheless was able to find one after a few rounds. I ordered the following: Side dishes: Pickled cucumber: 4/5 good balance of sweetness/tartness Pig ear salad: 5/5 well marinated with all spice and perfect thickness every bite. Entrees: Stir Fried Noodle Taiwanese Style: 3.5/5 great wok taste. It's your typical home stir fry (4-5 dried shrimps, slices of shiitake mushrooms and some pork belly slices with scallions and bean sprouts). Noodles were a bit on the greasy side. Taiwanese Beef Special Noodle Soup: 3/5 beef brisket was very tender. Broth was mediocre. But Nonetheless a sizable portion. read more

Looking For Chai - Pig Ear Salad and Pickled Cucumber - Taiwanese Near Me - Bellevue, Washington

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It is an overall 3 star restaurant for its food quality and service. Unfortunately there are not many Taiwan food around in north Seattle.

We love the one located in Bellevue, WA. near the 124th the most! Their restaurant seating arrangement is good, clean and bright! The menu filled with wonderful choices. The service is also excellent. We love the taste, the look, the temperature of their dishes, and for sure recommend them to anyone who likes Taiwanese food! read more

Hi, I am Chai! Just kidding~~ I didn't find Chai, but I found good food. Good Taiwanese style (personal) hotpot. The flavor was not overbearing. Wish they put more filling though. Fried oyster mushroom with salted egg sauce was decent. That's the only way my partner would eat vegetables, fried and slathered with sauce. Also ordered milk tea, they put a lot of boba in it yay! They have limited space, you may have to wait during dinner rush (started around 7 last time we were there). Overall pretty good price and portion. read more

Love your bubble tea!!! It's one of the best!!! Please don't switch to Yifang like your Edmonds location did. Yifang's milk tea is soooooo bad!!! We used to go to the Edmonds location all the time but we don't go there anymore since they switched to Yifang and we tried it twice and didn't like the milk tea at all. So please keep making the same milk tea! read more

Decent taiwanese food! Variety of options and good portion size. Went here for a friend's birthday and they were kind enough to hide the cake and candles for us. I tried a vegetarian dish that came with corn and some other side. Flavors were pretty good but sauce was a bit heavy in my opinion. read more

Looking For Chai - Taiwanese Near Me - Bellevue, Washington

Visited this place for quite a few times. The Taiwanese entrees and appetizers was generally good. However, the Szechuan dishes and areas from other areas weren't authentic and didn't taste good either. Just avoid them. One more thing, I think they were good at fried food but bad at stews. They could get really busy and the service stuff was really limited. read more

Been here twice now. Not sure why I didn't check it out earlier since it's right around the corner from me. Very decent taiwanese for a decent price in bellevue. Service was great both times i was here, attentive and friendly. I get the braised egg tofu and the SO gets the popcorn chicken. Both are good! Chili is spicy as well! For boba, i like the black tea latte. They use real milk in this and i get it with half sugar, the flavor is great! Small detail but on the receipt, they calculate the tip and total for you, nice little feature (you check the % box you want, or you can write your own amount) small detail but really nice since I always have to pull out my phone to do the math. Parking is plentiful in adjacent lot. Not a line when I was here but driving pass, i sometimes see a crowd, especially at peak dining hours on weekends so I'd avoid that, or get takeout. Overall, would recommend. Positive experience and will definitely be back! read more

Seems their focus is on boba which actually was the best part of the meal. Noodle soup was good. Fried milkfish was just that, fried fish with no sauce. It was small too. We also ordered pineapple prawns. They mixed frozen pineapple into mayonnaise and slathered battered prawns. Did not make sense and ruined the temperature of the dish. Really wanted to like this place but unfortunately was not impressed. Service was quick and curt. We barely put our forks down and the bill was there. read more

I was looking forward to finally coming back to this place though I am just 3 blocks away. Their sweet and sour spareribs was pretty much the best in town 4 yrs ago. things change, chefs come and go I supposed. food was overly salty. the spareribs were overly fried and dried. the oysters pancake literary destroyed the flavors and texture of how I remembered the original Taiwanese dish. I strongly suggest that they should take it off of the menu so that people won't get disappointed by ordering the dish. Staff was friendly. place was clean. read more

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Best customer service ever! I've never been to a Chinese or Asian restaurant with the best customer service. They have great food too! Always hot when it comes out of the kitchen onto the table. I don't come here much but when I do I have never been disappointed. Please keep hiring good people who provide excellent caring customer service! read more

Every time I drive by Edmonds, I always start to think about their cookie milk tea, and then opt not to go get one because of traffic and it being out of my way... But now, I found out there is an Eastside location and its just down the street from my work. So happy!! Anyways, the milk tea here is so good. There is a frequent drinks card you can ask for if you are a regular. The food is also very good as well: Solid Taiwanese cafe food with the regular suspects on the menu and more.... I got the popcorn chicken which I enjoyed, and would definitely get again. My friend got a pork and rice dish which was simple but tasty. A drink and food came to about $10 each, which is great. I hear that the wait can be busy at times, but I was lucky to come after the rush and before they close for a short 330-5pm break. Make sure to check their hours before you come as they are different per day! Can't wait to grab BT here again soon! read more

Looking For Chai - Cookie milk tea - Taiwanese Near Me - Bellevue, Washington

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Third time here. Great experience the last couple times but not this time. Service is ok, waiting could be long sometimes. Shrimp & crab tofu: not much shrimp and tofu inside, but $13.95 Popcorn chicken: pretty dry read more

3.5 stars rounded up. I've been to this place multiple times but have only tried their teas (or chai). Last visit was the first time I tried their food as well. We ordered the pork buns, a stir fry with dried squid, pork belly and tofu, and a kimchi+lamb hot pot. The pork buns were good; a lil pricey for $7.95 for 2 buns but pretty good. The stir fry was ok, there was hardly any pork belly and no wok char flavor. The taste was ok but it tasted more like something which you can make at home rather than a nice wok flavor which you get in restaurants. Probably wont be ordering again. The lamb hot pot was a good value for money; also come with rice on the side.. The broth was not flavorful but the dipping sauces made up for it. May come back to try more food items, however International DIstrict in Seattle has better restaurants which have better flavor. The Hokkaido milk tea was great, as always! read more

Good Taiwanese restaurant that I often came for dinner after work. Quick service. Nice people. read more

Looking For Chai - B2. Braised Pork over Rice - Taiwanese Near Me - Bellevue, Washington

I thought this was a decent place to get Taiwanese food and the bubble teas were pretty tasty. I think it more 3.5 stars but I rounded up. We came here on a Friday night and was put on a 15-minute wait for 2 people. The prices for the food were not expensive and you get a lot for the price you pay. We ordered the beef noodle soup, popcorn chicken, pork belly buns, and rice with pork. The portions were huge! Our favorites were the beef noodle soup and pork belly buns. I was disappointed with popcorn chicken because it didn't have much batter on it so it wasn't that crunchy and lack the flavor I was looking for. For drinks, we ordered the original milk tea with boba and their special cookie milk tea that looks like the potted plant. They even add a mint on top to play on the look. I like how it also had salted cream too. My bf liked his original milk tea. He had no complaints. The service was great! Our server was really friendly and the food came out quick! They also checked up on us and pack the food to go for us when we were too full. read more

Best Taiwanese restaurant in the greater Seattle area. Their dishes have tons of flavors and are authentic. I have tried a lot of their dishes and they are all very good. Some of my favorite ones include three cups chicken, beef with assortes mushrooms, braise Japanese tofu, hot pots and sweet and sour ribs. Some of their new items are also very delicious, as the meats are always juicy and soaked in flavors. Their choice of making a side with only 2 dollars for rice&2 small dishes are really great value for people coming here alone. This is the only place offering such choice among the restaurants I tried here and I really appreciate it. In addition, they have one of the best bubble teas, especially the one with oreo on top. The service here is always very attentive. It may took a while to get a table but once you order your food, it takes less than ten minutes on average for your food to arrive and usually less than thirty minutes for all the food and drinks to arrive. The timing is perfect. read more

Came here again with a group of friends for dinner. I wasn't too hungry so I just ordered honey sauce chicken wings. It came with about 8-10 wings/drumettes and was quite tasty! Just the right level of sweetness, saltiness, and crispiness. If you like spicy food, you can ask for their chili oil, which is quite strong. One thing I didn't appreciate as much was the different in size between their cold and hot drinks. My friends ordered a cold pudding milk tea, and I ordered a hot one. The cold drink seemed about 25% larger than the hot drink, at the same price. read more

Food is almost on point. Service is fast most of the time unless of course you come at an extra busy time. Service is great, they always take care of you with a smile. We'll keep coming back for sure. read more

Something for everyone, could come here every week! Variety of dishes from soups to noodles to boba. Everything is pretty good though not spectacular. Popcorn chicken is always good. Black Pepper Sizzling pork chop was a hit. Boba texture is good and lots of flavors. Hot pot is not as good as Boiling Point but everyone gets to order what they want. Parking is difficult during the week when other businesses are open. The restaurant is loud so it's not too comfortable. More of a order and eat quickly kind of place. For kids, this place super kid-friendly! Cute plates and bowls, forks and spoons readily available. Casual setting with lots of families. read more

So glad I finally came here! The place was completely full and buzzing with Chinese speakers, which was a great sign. Luckily, we only had to wait about ten minutes before we were seated. Atmosphere is warm, cozy and clean, and the service was friendly and very efficient-- everything came quickly and our water glasses were never empty. I felt the prices were really reasonable for the quality of food. We ordered a few dishes, the king oyster mushroom, Taiwanese bao burgers and the lamb with basil as well as a side of rice and bubble tea. I thought the oyster mushrooms had a fabulous flavor, slightly smoky and spicy, with lots of garlic and some ginger. The lamb was delicious, tender and flavorful, with some surprise heat. The burgers were yummy; lots of toppings and a nice sweet sauce, although the meat was slightly too fatty and the burger could've done with a bit more cilantro to balance it out. The oolong bubble tea was good, although the boba was a touch overdone so slightly mushy. Overall, I'm really excited about coming back and trying more of their menu. So so nice to have a great Taiwanese option without insane crowds (I'm looking at you, Facing East). read more

I wanted and wish this place to be good so I can come back, but everything is lacking flavor. I order the most basic Taiwanese dish (spice pork over rice-滷肉飯) and that lacked flavor. It didn't even come with an egg :( I also ordered another basic dish called popcorn chicken; again, it lacked flavor. Overall, very underwhelming for a Taiwanese restaurant. read more