Good portion, typical hongkong cuisine. Family friendly, parking can be hard to find during lunch or dinner. Would recommend coming later or after rush time. Price average for bay area restaurant. read more

Growing up, I was accustomed to this location being Cafe Salina before it became Porridge and Things. It wasn't a perfect HK style cafe, but I'll still miss it. When a restaurant has porridge in their name, the expectation is that their specialty is going to be the best item on their menu which ended up being the case. Unfortunately I felt like the rest of their options overall fell a bit flat despite their porridge being excellent. The service was decent, but what you'd expect from this type of restaurant. Parking can also be a pain on busy days. The interior is basically completely unchanged with the new ownership as well. When it comes to the food in my multiple visits, the porridge and the sides that come with it were always the biggest standouts. Plus Chinese donuts are a must. Their porridge dishes will run you $20+, but it can definitely feed more than one person. The Abalone & Chicken Sawo Porridge and Bonito, Pork Ribs & Peanuts Sawo Porridge were standouts for me and both the chicken and pork ribs were pretty tender. The downside for me though is that their non porridge dishes have all left me underwhelmed. The green onion pancakes, sesame balls, deep fried shrimp balls, and really any deep fried or pan fried item they make is way too oily and greasy for my liking. Yes that is usually normal for something fried, but it was really excessive here and you'd need a napkin to soak up a lot of the oil. Their garlic chicken took about half an hour or more to be prepared and I was very confused on why they put Ruffles on the side. It made no sense, but the chicken was honestly pretty solid. I usually like oysters, but the oyster pancake was a miss for me too. If you have a craving for porridge I'd definitely recommend it here. It has always been a staple dish in my family especially when I'm feeling sick. For anything else on the menu I personally don't really recommend as much unfortunately. read more

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We split the braised goose and the sawo crab porridge (that also comes with shrimp) and some fried beltfish because my mom is nostalgic for it. The goose was ok, kind of tough and a little grainy. The porridge is pretty solid, though the shrimp were overcooked. The belt fish was also fine, though I think the fish itself is just not all that tasty. The porridge, which makes sense given the name, was the best thing we had and I'd probably try some of their other ones. read more

Their service and food were incredible. All of the dishes I tried were delicious. Their ambiance was amazing too.

Sunday lunch is busy. The tables are placed with some spaces in between. Porridge: Almost every table has a pot of porridge. Their menu has pre designed porridge and also you can order your own mix and match. We tried Ordered peanut bonito and spare ribs porridge, it's for 2ppl portion but after 2 bowls it looked like we barely touched it. It's such a big portion! The porridge has good amount of ingredients. Personally I still like the Cantonese style of porridge where it's dense smooth in texture. But the chiu chow style is just not so much emphasis on the smooth texture of the porridge. Hubby's verdict is that it's good value to order porridge, so all tables have it. Satay sauce rice noodle: we like the taste of it and it came with a few slices (not enough) of beef and some gai lan. There's a big load of tangled thin rice noodle at the bottom, I think the chef just pour the satay sauce on it. It came out the quickest. Oyster pancake: I like it! It's not just a bloop mix of oyster and egg and pancake powder. You can see that they first cooked the oyster mixture, then remove it from the pot, then pan fry the egg, lastly add the oyster pancake back on top to the eggs. The dish came out the last but we love it so much that we finished it despite that we were all full already. Chiu chow braised goose: this is the dish that I am most disappointed at. The good thing first is that for $22 the portion is nice for 2-3 people. However the tastes are not that impressive, the texture is not smooth and worst of all there are feather heads left on the skin. Service: service is polite but a bit too slow. Not sure why as everyone is busy all the time and there are 4-5 waiters/waitresses around. read more

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Came in on a Sunday at 11am and it was pretty empty. I thought more people would come since Sunday's are more like family days. The waitress was a little rude when we asked if we could sit at another table closer to the big open doors because COVID. Considering there was only 1 other table here that was a party of 2, we thought it might be possible to sit anywhere, but I guess not. The rudeness I guess I can understand because I know when you go to a Asian restaurant you go for the food not the service. As for the food, we ordered a couple of porridges, Shrimp balls, boiled chicken, oyster pancake, duck intestines, fried dough sticks, and beef stir fried rice noodle. The porridge was great better than Fat Wong's congee, it had plenty of flavor here. I'm glad the porridge was actually great as it's called porridge and things, if the porridge lacked flavor, they'd be out of luck. The shrimp balls were a fan favorite, the boiled chicken and duck were pretty good, fresh and presented nicely. The fried dough sticks were double fried but at least it wasn't overnight dough sticks. The beef stir fried rice noodle lacked flavor and was nothing special. The oyster pancakes had a strong oyster tastes. I personally didn't like it only because I'm not a huge oyster fan, but for others that are, try at your own risk. Overall: 4/5 for the food, 1/5 for the service and lack of covid precautious. If you're not worried about covid precautious and judging just on food, it was pretty good. If you consider chin masks as an adequate covering for the servers/chefs, definitely stop by. read more

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Pretty solid spot. Their porridge is a tad too runny, but noodles and dumplings are solid. Good location and ample parking close by right on the edge of downtown Millbrae. Service is pretty decent; not perfect, but good enough. The biggest attraction for me is just the options on the menu; I can order noodles, dumplings, porridge, or do a la carte family style dishes for the table, so that's good plus in a restaurant. read more

My stomach is growling in protest just thinking about how delicious this place was! It is a bit on the pricy end for what it is but if you're with friends, it ends up being okay when split. The portions are quite large. We split the signature porridge that had huge crab pieces and shrimp inside (they did not skimp on the seafood) and the duck was delicious! The space itself was very large and able to seat small and large groups! It's a good place to bring people if you have large groups. Give this a try if you can! read more

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Terrible service. Ordered takeout over an hour ago and still have no received it. One person doing take our orders and he just ignores you after he says "orders not ready!" read more

Amazing authentic Cantonese/Teochew dishes! The fried fish and gai pan was mind blowing with delicious flavoring and great portion sizes. I was craving great porridge and ordered their signature crab & prawn porridge. It was yummy, but the seafood flavoring didn't really blend into the porridge which was slightly disappointing. I loved that they offered side dishes to go with the porridge and those were delicious! Wouldn't recommend getting the fried oyster pancake as it was a lot of starch... Our server was a sweet Canto gentleman and recommended the fish dish! Would highly recommend coming with a big family/friend group to try out more dishes! read more

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It was our unlucky day. First off, as there was a street fair going on, parking was very difficult. Second, we came on a very hot day and the restaurant didn't have air conditioning. It also didn't help that we were eating piping hot porridge. Third, the restaurant must have had some problems with their ordering system that day. It took over 35 mins for us to get our porridge. The restaurant wasn't that clean but the food we ordered was really good. Scallops, Oysters and Minced Pork Sawo Porridge: The porridge was very flavorful and the consistency was just right(not too thick nor watery). All the ingredients were very fresh and they were pretty generous. Fried Oyster Pancake: Plenty of oysters inside the pancake. Tasty. Even though our experience was far from smooth, the food was great. I would certainly come back to try more dishes especially the Chiu Chow ones. read more

Porridge & Things - Scallops, Oysters and Minced Pork Sawo Porridge - Chinese Near Me - Millbrae, California

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Came to Porridge & Things because a friend recommended it. I was thoroughly impressed with the Teochew Porridge (潮汕家鄉粥). The menu was extensive with various combinations, there was even an option to create your own, mixed in with different meats and seafood to create your ultimate porridge. Soon after we ordered, they bought us pickled vegetables with green onion - I admitted it didn't look appetizing, but when the porridge arrived and we dumped these ugly semi-dried vegetables in, the taste profile completed changed and it was surprisingly good. I will be back for the crab porridge with a larger group. read more

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Tuesday evening, this place were packed. The kitchen was little bit behind. Some dishes are overpriced. Foods and service were mediocre. read more

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Usually order takeout here but decided to dine in for first time. For Sunday lunchtime noon hour it was very busy and packed, but was able to be seated immediately after entering restaurant. Food: Craft Your Own Porridge: Selected Hong Kong Porridge, add Pork Stomach and Chinese Yam. The porridge was so watery I cannot believe they call this porridge! There was only a few pieces of pork stomach and yam in this large bowl of porridge that barely had any taste. This bowl was overpriced cost almost $14 with such small portion of toppings, I was really dissatisfied with this mediocre quality. Satay Beef Chow Mein: This was surprisingly good and cooked with good wok energy. Beef was tender and proportional to the noodles. Delicious dish. Unfortunately there was no satay flavor to speak of in this dish, I thought I ordered the wrong dish! Service: Took a while for server to come to our table to take my order. After ordering, the servers were not attentive and had to be flagged down after a while. I also heard one server scolding another server, not quite the ambiance I would expect. Parking: Plenty of street parking but this area is busy, private lots are short walking distance away. read more

Porridge & Things - Hong Kong Craft Your Own Porridge - Chinese Near Me - Millbrae, California

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Lovely oyster porridge. Interior: large spacious area where everyone is spaced out 6 feet. Staff: nice staff very attentive. Gave us extra sauces for leftovers. Food: porridge was great. Thick silky porridge and highly customizable with many different toppings. Level three knowledge: If you are expecting Canton Chinese food flavors, then its great. If you are expecting old school chiu chao flavors then its ok. They have some more unique menu items like fresh or dried oyster porridge, oyster pancake, fried taro tossed in sugar. We ordered soy combo platter which was huge, but flavor can be hit or miss depending on customer preference. read more

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Always made a point to come to this place when we are in the area. We like the congee and the flat rice noodles.

Such a rip off with crappy service and less than stellar food. The porridge itself is so overpriced that it's like price gouging, and the beer porridge we ordered had so few pieces of beef that it was just watery rice porridge. The oyster pancake was very greasy and awful with canned oysters that tasted stale. The onion pancakes were very thick and dry, like eating a coaster. What I thought was rude was they kept talking about what people tipped as they bused tables and asked us as they delivered the food if we were going to tip well. Here's the thjng, the service was alow when there was hardly anyone here. I had to continually ask for sauce or napkins because they forgot to bring it with the dish. I'm ONLY giving this place 3 stars because the steamed fish was very good and fresh, albeit overpriced. The ONLY good dish that we had. read more

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Celebrating my 44th Birthday today and craving a good crab. Porridge & Things located in Millbrae, CA was recommended by Yelp as a reputable and local place for tasty Crab! Armed with gloves and a mask, I ordered the; - Salt and Pepper Crab 5/5 - House Special Pan Fried Noodles 5/5 Fast and friendly service and they deliver. read more

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The food is good but the preparation quality is . The chicken in the chicken and abalone porridge had bone and the little pieces of bone fragment in the porridge could have broken a couple of teeth easily, and a big payment for repairing teeth. Just be careful with this kind of orders. I still like the house special fried rice. 食物好味但準備工夫就非常差勁。那碗鮑魚雞粥，鷄是有骨，整碗粥有很多骨碎，隨時咬暴牙，要付非常昂貴的補牙費。小心選擇食物。我仍非常喜歡潮洲炒飯。 read more

Oops, didn't realize I had posted last time... Yelp app a bit laggy. But I did go again today - clearly so good I had to post. This place is So. Good for porridge. I went with a friend for the crab and shrimp sawo porridge which at the time market price is $36, and it was enough porridge to feed 4 ppl! We had plenty of leftovers. They put about 1/2 Dungeness crab and tons of very large prawns in it It was sooo good we wanted to go back again the week after. I've also tried the bonito fish and pork rib porridge - I think I could have done w/o the bonito fish, but the flavor was great and portion size to go was large! Today, I did the make my own porridge pork rib + mountain yam to go. I think my most favorite yet for a casual congee (if not feeling fancy for the crab). This is individual portioned, so a bit smaller. Priced to reflect as well. I've also ordered the goose which I think you can skip - kind of tough, but the chicken is really good! Other items ordered like stir fried cauliflower w Chinese sausage and stir fried kidneys and the chive mochi / rice cake are all standard and tasty. read more

Came by for dinner the other night and sadly it was a huge miss. Porridge and Things took over Cafe Salinas. Street parking is plentiful a couple blocks away. We were seated upon arrival. The first thing I noticed was one of the young cooks blowing his nose while gloved. He quickly ducked and 30 seconds later was back cooking on the grill?!? The purple gloves seemed tight on his hands still?!? Being dinner, opted for some hot water instead of tea. Surprisingly, this showed up at $1.5/person which the waiter quickly agreed to remove when questioned?!? Started off with the soy sauce goose which was a huge miss. Bland and overcooked... The oyster porridge was so-so. The garlic Chinese broccoli came out a good 20-25 minutes after the other dishes came out. Interestingly, this was very oily?!? ...super strange. The salt and pepper prawns were a premium $50/lb. The salt and pepper was the highlight as the prawns were mushy...seems like they were under-fried?!? read more

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Opened just last week, Porridge & Things replaces Cafe Salina in downtown Millbrae. It specializes in Chinese Rice Porridges along with Chiu Chow specialties. It's owned by the same folks who own Noodles and Things in San Mateo and Millbrae. Don't be surprised to see even more offshoots in the future. The Chinese love their rice porridges! It's a homey dish that is often eaten for breakfast​ but can be enjoyed at lunch and dinner too. In fact, I literally grew up on rice porridge, which my grandmother would feed to me in lieu of Gerber's baby food. Apparently, porridge was my staple and I'd spit out Gerber's whenever someone tried to sneak a spoonful of Gerber's into me. I was a rice porridge gal back then, and still am today. I excitedly tried several of their signature items, those described to me as "must-have's": ***PAN FRIED OYSTER PANCAKE*** When I asked what I should get, the waitress was quick to point out that this was one of their specialty​ items. At a glance, I saw a platter of these on every table, and my FOMO kicked in, so, of course, I got this too. Great suggestion, ​as it turned out. Very tasty with a light crisp, though the bottom got a bit soggy quickly, so have it as an appetizer when you devour it without being distracted by other dishes. I'd easily order this again. Just temper your expectations if you've had really amazing ones throughout Asia​ as​ I've had. ***SAUSAGE & DRY SCALLOPS FRIED RICE*** A generous portion of fried rice with a fairly scant amount of shredded dry scallops. This dish had a nice"wok-hay", which is a nice charred essence imparted by a crazy hot flaming wok. If you don't believe me, check out my video with the fiery orange flames kicking up under the wok! ***STEAMED WHOLE FISH BASS "mah bahn"*** I personally selected our fish from their tank of live fishes, crabs and lobsters. I really liked that their focus is on fresh live seafood from their tanks displayed in the front of the restaurant. You can definitely appreciate the sweetness and texture of live seafood compared to its frozen counterparts. That said, our steamed fish was a bit overdone, so that was disappointing. The steamed fish was about 2.5lbs, so it's sometimes​ tricky to get the ​timing down when you have a larger fish. Their focus here is on porridge, so unless you're craving a whole steamed fish, which I always am, I'd stick with the porridges. ***SIGNATURE CRAB AND PRAWN SAWO PORRIDGE*** Sawo is a cooking method whereby the rice porridge is actually cooked and served in one clay pot​. This traditional Cantonese-style rice porridge was flavorful and creamy. It also came with a variation of DIY toppings. I favored the fried fish skins. The crab pieces are crabs from their live tank, but the meat had somewhat of a mealy texture, as did the prawns. I had a live lobster rice porridge just yesterday where the texture of the lobster held up impeccably. I would've preferred to have paid for the crab by the pound and had all the pieces from an entire crab​ than just a few selected pieces. For the adventurers, there are Pork Intestine, Mixed​ Pork Innards, and Frog Porridges to choose from, just to name a few. ***SWEET RICE DUMPLINGS*** This popular Chinese New Year dessert was really good! These are made-to-order, but the wait is worthwhile. The rice flour was warm, chewy and really good! Often when you get these at a restaurant, they appear on your table lickity split because they're pre-made. These super fresh ones are incomparably better. Personally, I've never been a huge fan of these, but this was the best rendition I've had, possibly making me a convert, but only if they're made here. The updated space is definitely an improvement from Cafe Salina. Gone are the dated Denny's-like booths and replaced with a more spacious, clean and open feel. The service is also 10x better too! I had excellent service here which was comparable if not even better than what you'd expect at an ​all-American restaurant. This is saying a lot! Very pleased with the servers here. Note that the menu is not completely reflective of what is actually available. I initially​ ordered the Braised Red Bream fish, which was pictured on​ the menu, but I was told the Red Bream is no longer available. I also inquired about the Chive Dumplings, which are pictured as steamed dumplings in a bamboo steamer. However, I was told that the dumplings are actually​ pan-fried and not steamed. A menu should accurately reflect what is actually being served, otherwise,​ it can become very confusing. This isn't your "typical" Chinese restaurant​ serving something like over 80 different items on the menu. You won't find sweet and sour pork or kung pao chicken here. Instead, it's really nice to see a place that focuses primarily on Chinese Rice Porridges made the traditional way. I'd easily be back to try some different variations of this homey comfort food. read more

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Good food rude takeout women. I will find somewhere else to get congee. The woman that takes To go orders was very condescending when tried to ask questions about congee. I just discovered congee and I love it! read more

Omg. I couldn't believe what happened to me. I ordered one of their fried rice to go since it was the only restaurant opened that late. I couldn't recall the name of the dish but it was their special fried rice with calamari ,dry shrimp , and shrimp shells. As soon as I opened the box , my partner and I smelled the heavily fishy smell. He refused to eat . He said it smelled so bad. But I was very hungry and I spent $20 on it so I ate it anyway even it smelled fishy. I never had this flavor of fired rice so I thought maybe it's something different. I do not have allergy to seafood . But once I had the same symptom when I ate a not so fresh crab. I literally just wanted to eat a hot meal that night. Unfortunately , the other day , my face had full of acne breakouts all over my forehead along to left side of face . I felt so much toxic. It defiantly was from that fishy smelly fried rice with all fishy ingredients. It's horrible !!! I had a vacation the next day. I basically just suffered from it all trip . It's been 10 days already and it's still not recovered . I'm going g to see my doctor for this as I cannot stand my face full of abnormal breakouts . My partner said it is definitely from that disgusting food . I want to warn everyone that this place does not have a quality control of their food material. They will use rotten good to cook, especially seafood. How could you cook and sell something like this ?! I'm so regraded and worried when I will recover. STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE! *IT IS EXACTLY THIS RESTAURANT WITH MY RECEIPT. OWNER CONTACTED ME TO REMOVE THIS. It is unbelievable. Whatever cuttlefish ingredient in my fried rice was very fishy and went bad! Be aware . read more

Food were so good. Very friendly staff, the lady explain everything for us and so patience while we ordered cuz I couldn't make up my mind what I want (too many choices). Finally the take the lobster sti-fried base on the lady recommened. Fresh lobster from the tank read more

Porridge & Things - Braised Combos - Chinese Near Me - Millbrae, California

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Chinese comfort food at it's best. I love porridge, and I saw that Cafe Salina was gone, and in its place was Porridge & Things. We rounded enough coworkers to try it for a Monday lunch. We had 10 people, and there weren't any tables large enough to accommodate our party, but we just added 2 more place settings to a round table for 8, and it was a good fit. The porridge is truly the star at this place. Both the signature crab & prawn and the chaga clam porridges were delicious. My favorite was the crab and prawn. It had a nice sweetness from the seafood. We also ordered the braised goose, oyster pancake, fried whole fish, and fried rice. Amazingly, I loved the pork fried rice. You could taste that it was made with good "wok hay". The braised goose was very meaty, and salty, a perfect companion to the porridge. The oyster pancake had a chewy almost glutinous texture, similar to the oyster pancake you get from the Taiwanese night markets. The only thing I wasn't a fan of was the fried fish. It had a slightly fishy taste if you eat it by itself, but was still good overall. I wouldn't really complain, and I would still eat it if someone ordered it, but add the chili sauce, and it's really good. Since it was close to Chinese New Year, they also gave our entire party red envelopes with coupons for discounts, and free items when we come back before 2/28/2020. I will definitely come back to try more of the porridges. read more

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They actually serve formal dining as well. Dishes are interesting. We order 蠔豉粥 and 濕炒沙嗲牛河. It's actually not bad. But the 蠔豉is more like baby oyster. It turned out they thought we ordered 蠔仔. So it was oyster congee. It's not bad but more expensive than noodle and things. The 沙嗲牛肉濕炒河 wasn't bad but the beef was overly "baking soda-ed" so it's tender but have that weird taste. read more

Authentic Teochew Food! People might say the porridge here is too watery but that's the difference between Teochew and Cantonese porridge. If you come here expecting Cantonese food, you're in the wrong place. Teochew food is less oily and lighter seasoned. Pros 1. Food taste is based on freshness of ingredients and not sauce. Relatively less seasoning in Teochew foods. 2. Well priced for quality of foods. $25/person if you order normally, $45/person if you get crab, lobster etc. 3. Authentic Teochew food, goose uses garlic vinegar and porridge is more of a soup. 4, Clean environment. 5. Seafood is fresh. If you want certain fish or geoduck etc, you have to book ahead of times Cons 1. Goose is a bit dry and not that fatty. 2. Crab/Shrimp can be too hard to peel if you aren't use to it and they don't provide the hot wet towels to clean your hands. 3. Parking is hard to find. Service 1. I think the waiters here are attentive but they aren't warm and can come off as sharp which is normal in traditional Teochew and Cantonese places. Food came in a timely manner and waiters made sure my table got extra napkins as people's hands got dirty from pealing crab etc. read more

We come here mainly for take outs. And after trying many items on the menu, I'll have to say stick with the porridge (HK style, the thicker one) and skip the rest. Our fav are the abalone and chicken porridge, frog, fish, mushroom porridge and salted pork bone choy sum porridge. The portion is very generous, one order comes in two big tubs, which can feed 2-3 ppl. read more

One of the best hooks I've had in a long time. Creamy but not too thick, absolutely seasoned well. Got the big jook for 2 person, abalone and chicken, but can actually share with at least 4 including other foods. Excellent service from all the staff, excellent for a casual Chinese restaurant known usually for ignored customer service. Beef chow fun, used skinnier type of fat noodles, cooked perfectly, elasticity and chew nice. Braised goose, never had before only roast goose in HK which is the pinnacle of roast duck style, fatty and tasty. Braised goose loses some of the fat but it was very tender and flavorful as well. Didn't like the octopus in their house fried rice, but it was comforting anyway. Will be back to try more jook and for fancy seafood for dinner. read more

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Had the Hong Kong style porridge with mussels and scallops. Really fresh and delicious porridge. It is a bit pricey coming out at $26 a pot, but the portions are huge. It's probably enough for 3-4 people to share. I kind of wish it was smaller so that we could have a chance to try other items. read more

Porridge & Things - Chinese Near Me - Millbrae, California

5 star for the food. I was born in Guangzhou, I have the canto tongue so this place is how I like my Cantonese food. 4 star for the porridge nothing like wha I get in China but among the better ones in the peninsula. 4 star for the menu in general, the food is heavy on the msg though 3 star for the chow fun, it does taste good but it is so thin, not satisfying imo, they need to use the wider ones. 3 star on the service m, there was this guy that was really rude but then there are these female servers who are very polite and friendly so I'll give it a wash 1 star in the seating, those bench seatong on the upper level have redicukous patch work with tape, when you sit on it, it is extremely uncomfortable. I gave 4 stares because I like the food there. Honestly pretty pricey for the occasional bad service and low tier dining comfort. If you had to rate everything then yea it is a 3 star. Pro tip: most 3 star Chinese restaurants on Yelp in the Bay Area are the ones we mainland Chinese people visit, because they know how to cook food we like to eat. read more

I ordered the stir fried chicken with shallots in Clay Pot. I was expecting chicken breast instead, the chef cut chicken wings and small drumsticks in half. Bones were exposed and hard to eat without fear of choking. The chicken was fried to almost burned. They should really warn their patrons about this dish. And, because it was burned, the dish was not tasty. The other dishes were decent, but the portion size is small. I liked the chives dumpling and porridge. Duck was too salty for my taste, but my family enjoyed it. read more

Glad to finally able to try Porridge & Things again after a long hiatus. This is about the only place around the Peninsula area that has good Chiu Chow / Chao Zhou dishes from my parents' home town, something that I used to love to eat when I was in Hong Hong as a child. We were also very happy to see that they have expanded their menu considerably with many new dishes beyond porridge, and all those that we ordered were very delicious. We'll definitely go there more often from now on. read more

Porridge & Things - Expanded 4/2021 menu 1 of 2 - Chinese Near Me - Millbrae, California

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The Stir-Fried Shrimp with Vermicelli in Clay Pot is flavorless. The Chinese Donuts are extremely greasy. In most other Cantonese restaurants the Chives Dumplings have very thin almost clear covers with lots of shrimps inside. While the Chives Dumplings here are just fried sticky rice pancakes with chopped chives. And the service is still the worst. I asked for a mini pack of garlic vinegar to go with my 200 dollars order, while the waiter just poured the left garlic vinegar from our meal here into the mini box and gave it to me. So CHEAP. read more

Food is so so. Kind of dirty. Items are not fresh. Porridge is okay. I won't go back.

The food is so good here. We just enjoyed a truly delicious birthday dinner here for nine. We ordered scallop and oyster porridge, braised duck, free range chicken, spicy pig ears, mantou with condensed milk, beef with mushroom stir fry, the signature stir fry (so good), sautéed water spinach, walnut prawns, chow mein, fish in clay pot, sautéed clams, sesame balls and peanut covered glutinous sesame rice balls. We have teen boys so we can eat a lot! Everything was so yummy. Service was okay because they were very busy. We didn't mind because the food was just so damn good. We will definitely return. It was so good I didn't even think to take photos until we hit dessert. read more

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On a cold night after finally being able to get a haircut at my barber in Millbrae that's located right next to The Kitchen, I was craving some warm porridge. My father's side of the family is Teochew and this place is one of the few places in the Bay that serves Teochew style food. Their Noodles & Things restaurant focuses on Teochew style Hu Tieu and this place focuses on porridge. The Signature Crab and Shrimp Sawo Porridge ($28) was fantastic. It comes in 2 to go plastic tubs and is generous on the seafood. The seafood stock really packs a punch in this porridge to give you a wonderful salinity and richness in the dish. Seafood is high quality, fresh crab and super plump and mildy sweet shrimp. I would definitely get this dish again. The other dish we got was also delicious - a taro dessert (翻沙芋頭) that's lightly fried taro + green onion coated with crackling sugar glaze ($15). I love this stuff so I might be biased, but it's worth getting, though not too often as it's a bit on the unhealthy side since it needs to be fried in lard. Unfortunately, the good foods sometimes are just not good for your body but YOLO and everything in moderation. This dish is on the pricey side for sure so keep that in mind as well. Taro in the supermarket only costs a few bucks so you're really paying for the secret behind the recipe. I wouldn't mind coming back! read more

Came here the second time for dinner with a friend. We ordered the one-person porridge for each of us and a jellyfish salad. The salad is amazing (highly recommend, so refreshing). The one-person porridge is still pretty big, enough for two meals for me and my friend. The staff is not super attentive though, probably because there're a lot of customers even past dinner time. Would be interested to try its signature seafood porridge next time! read more

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I had this food before, but not in Northern California, and this is actually better than the Chinese restaurants i've visited before. I was surprised at the freshness and authentic taste (granted I wasn't born or raised in Asia but still!). Their "Things" are on par with their "Porridge". It's an amusing name for a very good restaurant. We came rather late and did not have any problem getting in. It seems our waitress understands both Cantonese and Mandarin. I had their abalone and chicken porridge, pea sprouts, stir-fried clams with basil, assorted braised platter, and lobster noodles. Yum yum! We'll be back! read more