Chef Liu's - Chinese, Mountain View

236 Castro St, Mountain View CA 94041
(650) 938-2968
Parking: street parking, pay parking lot nearby
Hours: Mon – Fri 11am to 2:30pm, 4:30pm to 9:30pm, Sat - Sun 11am to 9:30pm

Last Visited: December 29, 2007

Food: 2 to 3 stars
Atmosphere: 2 to 3 stars
Service: 2 to 3 stars
Price: $ to $$

Phil brought us to Chef Liu. I’ll preface this review by stating that he’s been here a number of times and thought they might be having an off day. With that in mind, I would consider trying them again to see if their ratings would go up. However, based on today’s visit alone, the one thing worth going back for is what they call Steamed Pork.

Enter Chef Liu and it’s a bright restaurant with a lot of lighting coming from the front windows. The décor is fairly basic, but what’s a bit startling is that the woman who runs the place does a lot of yelling into the kitchen. It might be cultural, but perhaps it’s just the culture of Chef Liu’s. When I was looking at the menu, I was surprised at how the ordering took place. As each item was ordered at the table, the woman would yell back to the kitchen rather than waiting for the full order to be completed. For example, let’s say you wanted to order five items. Between each one, as you paused to find your next selection, she would yell back to the kitchen. If you’re looking for ambiance, you’ll probably want to skip Chef Liu’s, but it’s admittedly interesting to watch.

If you don’t read Chinese, the English descriptions on the menu are a bit difficult to navigate. Familiar names for food are not necessarily used her – for example, the Shanghai style dumpling or steamed dumpling is called Steamed Pork here. Look under the dim sum category for lunch orders and you’ll find the majority of their specialty items.

- Tofu with Bean Thread Soup – Fried hard tofu cubes are served with bean threads and bok choy in a light broth. It’s got a very light and subtle flavor and the tofu cubes are a bit on the harder side, probably because they haven’t been freshly fried, otherwise the soup would be more oily. Fair. $5.95

- Steamed Pork – Six handmade dumplings are filled with pork and served in a bamboo steamer. The dish is accompanied by a bowl of thinly sliced ginger and vinegar. Of all the dishes, this one was the best. The thin wrapper was delicious and the juices within the dumpling were plentiful. Five stars for this dish – a must have item. $5.50

- Sesame Panroll Sliced Five-Spice Beef – A pancake is rolled around slices of five spice beef, and is sprinkled with sesame. The roll is then fried until golden. I had never had this dish before, so it was pretty interesting. Inside the roll, there is also some hoisin sauce and slivers of green onion. It’s a lot like eating peking duck buns, but fried and with beef. The roll is a little thick, meaning heavily layered, on the bottom, but the sesame flavor comes through well. Good. $3.25

- Chinese Chives Pastry - It looks like a giant pastry and it is. Chopped Chinese chives, egg, and baby dried shrimp are cooked together and stuffed inside the pastry wrapper. The pastry is then either deep fried or pan fried. I had a little trouble determining the method used to cook it since it didn’t come out crispy, nor was it like a pan fried consistency. If the wrapper had been cooked to the point of being more crispy, it would have been even better. Fair. $2.50

- Sauteed Green Pea Sprout – Green pea sprouts are sautéed with oil, salt, and a touch of wine. Although very tender, the pea sprouts were overly salted today. Either the chef forgot and salted twice or some other mishap occurred, but it was super salty. $6.95

Overall, the food was just fair today. The Steamed Pork (aka dumplings) was the best item of the day and they ran out of the dish while we were there. The company at the table made up for the lack of pizzazz of the food, so it was another one of those times where the food was definitely secondary to the whole experience.