Hot Wok Cafe in San Mateo

Update: they are open for dine in. The beef stir fry noodles is hands down the best. And the deep fried pork chop is so delicious too.They are now open, but for take out only. No dine in but I am not comparing because this place rocks, authentic Hong Kong dishes! I am ordering some dishes for this Saturday gathering!

How does this place have such a high rating? The hot and sour soup I ordered looked nothing like the photo on here. Zero flavor except for white pepper and no sour flavor. The thickness of the soup is closer to a corn chowder than hot and sour soup. The potstickers had an off flavor. The meat inside tasted more like sausage you get at Denny’s. The mu shu is bland and comes with hoisin sauce packets. Any good/decent Chinese restaurant knows hoisin sauce is a base for the mu shu sauce. Even a basic plum sauce would have been better. Go somewhere else please. I think the market over here is overly saturated with Asian restaurants in general. Some are ok, few are great, but many are not good.

Been going here for years. My favorite is Salt n Pepper pork and Shrimp fried rice.

Poor food quality. It was my first time not enjoying a Chinese dish.

Price was average, chicken fried rice didn’t fill my expectations. Chicken had a weird flavor and rice was bland and unappetizing 🫤

Too salty and greasy, not real Chinese food.

Salt and pepper pork!

We have been eating here since 1987 and still the best ever!

Best Chinese food we have ever had! Friendly and attentive staff. The food was served hot and very fast.

Although I ordered more than 30 minutes before they closed, got my order canceled abot 5 minutes after the order was placed. Will never order from them again.

Overpriced for the portion size. Also does not taste as good as the other options in the area.

I’ve been going here for over 15 years.. HANDS DOWN THE BEST POTSTICKERS IN THE WORLD..Seriously I drive 2.5 hours one way just to get my potstickers... sad I just found out about the kitchen fire. Hope they reopen soon. Tried hundreds of other places and no one makes them like they do.

One of the worst Chinese food places I’ve been to. Food is bland!

I love this place, very friendly and clean!!.. look forward to have a tasty combination fried rice and chow mein...

Best Chinese food for 20+ years!! Great quality with amazing price. Hidden jewel

Great place...The best fried Rice in the East side of san Mateo...Maybe the whole San mateo

I really like their mapo tofu and theyre also very nice.

They have a great menu. Love the Salt and Pepper Pork and Braised Beef. We went there again for Xmas Eve dinner and there was no wait and they took good care of us. We will be back next year. Oh yeah they have great take out service too!

Great food, very tasty 😋, very reasonable and good service. Ask for Tim he is the owner and he’s super nice.

I really enjoyed this place. The lady working was super friendly and attentive. I asked for recommendation, and her favorite is Kung Pao Shrimp. It was really good with A LOT of peanuts. Shrimp was crunchy and plentiful. I wasn’t impressed with the steamed rice but that’s probably because they serve it al dente while I prefer super soft rice.The pot stickers were tasty. The meat inside is plentiful if a bit heavy handed on ginger. Dipped in vinegar, hot oil, and soy sauce - so good!The condiments on the table had vinegar! I usually have to ask for them in other restaurants.It’s a no frills Chinese restaurant with outdated decor but tasty food and clean restroom. Customer service was really good. Price was reasonable.

Yeap its my second time out lunch for my family. Its a great yummy, happy tummy food. The lady owner is friendly. Come and check it out

Really nice lunch I had though the quantity could have been better

Its not bad for the price of their lunch special. I think the only thing they lack is a fly zapper ( or keep their door closed and for the two folks that take the order and payment to be more customer friendly by working on their facial expressions and greet their customers with a smile when they come in, sit down, take their order, and pay.

I loved the food! Not fancy, just delicious!

I live this restaurant I think it is family owned. We get great service eveytime we go. We never wait to long and foor portions are good. Food prices are not high at all and for the portion they give you its well worth it. My husband and two sons definitely love this place. We drive from redwood city to San mateo just for the food

Use yo be one of my go to spots for amazing Chinese food also you must try the Singapore spicy noodles with the rice noodles and make sure ask for chicken and just know you must have a pallet for spicy cause its amazing and taste authentic 😎👍👍 but i no longer go there cause when we asked for no soy sauce on one of are dishes they got mad and said its not possible so we left cause I did not wanna get sick off gluten from the soy sauce.

Amazing food for quite a reasonable price. Meals are really large and tasty and service is exceptional.

Food is okay but definately not worth the price. Dishes ordered like dinner plates are about $11 and then we have to order the rice on sides separately. Where does it occur like that. They need to lower the price and know how to run the business.

Best honey walnut shrimp I have ever had! We also get the BBQ pork fried rice with generals chicken! Very delicious and the staff is busy but very nice! Thank you for the delicious meal! :)

Great food! Great service and friendly staff! Love the Salt & Pepper Pork Chops and Salt & Pepper Tofu! Yum!

Best Honey Walnut Shrimp I have ever had! The food is delicious and the owners are sweet and friendly!

Great service! And very good food! If you cant tolerate spicy but want to try the spicy menu, they let you get it mild :)Great casual place to go to for Chinese food.

I ordered take out, green beans, pork, rice, and some sort of dumpling. The green beans were good however the rice was very dry and tasted old. After eating it left me nauseous and I threw up only the food I ate from the take out. When I called about it, they told me to sue them if I wanted to get any reimbursement or exchange the food.

I have been eating here for over 3 years. Love the food and the love and care that the owners put in to make this place and food so wonderful. My special is rice noodles with shrimp and then go across the mall and get a creme brulee!

I like Iron Plated Peppered Chicken. Taste is good. But the portion is really small. Not worth for $9.95+tax.

Great ambience and good location. The food was really great. The quantity is really reasonable for the money. Also get free unlimited tea. The staff was really pleasing. But, the manager lady was found bit arrogant, but okay.. maybe she can just smile when she talks.. will visit again

Theyre supposed to open at 10. I arrive at 10 and ,they were still closed, so i decided to wait 20 more min, and still closed, and at this point i am frustrated cause im really hungry hungover from last night. 😣 and i waited for 30 min , i dont want to leave , and come back cause I drove 15 min to get here in the first place.

great family owned and operated Chinese restaurant. very tasty a Chinese food. great service and good prices and wide variety of dishes.

Once upon a time this was a great place for family style Chinese (yes Americanizedfood. That was under the previous ownership. The current owner doesnt seem to care about the service, the food quality, the decor, or the overall dining experience. What they do seem to care about is how high they can get the prices. If this was great food, hell if it were even moderately good food, $9-$13 per item would be okay. But for mediocre food in small portions its just too much. Look, I love hole in the wall restaurants and Ill even pay a high price if the food is really good, but when you realize that Panda Express is the same quality and charges much less for it, thats when I have to say goodbye. And understand, even if a Panda Express were right next door to me Id go out of my way to avoid eating their food. Like I will be going out of my way to avoid (and it really pains me to say thisHot Wok Cafe.

Hands down the best Tan Tan Noodles. I have been coming here for over 10 and get it with extra green onions.All the other for I have tried has answered been spot on. Love this place. You have to try it!

Always order take out from here. I hear many great things about their lunch menu. Excellent service, excellent food. Always hot, on time, and exactly what I ordered.

Our go-to local Chinese spot, but also our favorite in the San Mateo area. Everything here is good and the owner always makes good suggestions!

I could eat here everyday. Pleasant staff, cozy seats, and an amazing menu!

The customer service is TERRIBLE. I went with two other people and we were ordering multiple dishes for the table and the male waiter rudely says, "wow thats a lot of food". Later when the food got to the table and we started to eat the waiter stands next to our table for a minute or so then rudely says, "you guys really ate all of it". It made us all feel unwelcome and uncomfortable, I have never been treated so poorly by an establishment before. I couldve seen past this and gave it another star or two if the food wasnt so bland.

No flavor. I got the beef chow mein and the beef looked like fat. Very soggy and chewy. I added hella soy sause and salt so i could get my moneys worth. Never again!

Mongolian beef was fantastic, and they were very nice and quick with service. Couldnt have asked for more.

Great food, friendly service. The lunch special is a great deal

This place doesnt look like much from the outside, but dont let it deceive you. Very well run place with a great menu. Its one of the few places on the peninsula that has a large vegetarian part of the menu (most places have 1-3, this place has 6+). Generous portions (an order of soup will EASILY serve 2that seem all meant to share. The orange chicken was very tasty and reheated nicely.

I go here every so often because its predicable and close to my work. Overall, the experience here is nice, the wait and cook people are very friendly and happy. The chefs are Latino -- and I love South of the border food -- but uh, odd to find Chinese food not made by Asians. Hurrah for diversity anyway :)Ultimately, it comes down to food, and this is where things start to go awry. They do sweet and sour soup fine, though its hard to mess that up, surely.In a nutshell, if you want quick cheap Americanized variations of Chinese-ish slop in okay quantities, this would be perfect.If youre seeking good authentic Chinese food, like most mall places, this is not.Pros:Reasonably priced for the area.Decent parking around the oddly designed strip mall.Takeout pickup is separate from the main restaurant (its in back, sorta).Clean restaurant and bathrooms.Cons:Too dang salty.A bit flavorless.My experience (think 2.5 stars):Having been away for a few weeks and anticipating a nice dish with the characteristic flavors of Clay Pot, on my most recent experience I ordered their Hot Wok Deluxe Clay Pot.Either they gave me someone elses order by mistake, or their version of Clay Pot is like an over sauced and over salted beef and broccoli with some extra veggies and stuff thrown in. No rice, no noodles, definitely not made in a clay pot.My tongue is burning from all the salt on this thing, and believe me, I like to put salt on stuff, but this didnt require any of that or soy sauce.Maybe it was loaded with MSG, I dont know. It was a bit gross and I have a bit woozy headache now but I was hungry, so I ate it anyway. I have an iron stomach.Preparation:This came to me in a styrofoam container like what youd get a burger in, with a plastic fork. I was rather expecting something more, er, bowl like. With chopsticks.Thats just me.

used to be quiet good and i ordered from there maybe once every 2 weeksthe last 2 times i have the noddles have been tasteless and the meat was disgusting...my last order had more chicken bones than chickenmaybe it was a bad night but thats the last time i will go here