Lee Wah Restaurant

They finally closed! Sorry folks — no matter what you say I’m not giving a restaurant that serves me still-​frozen food another chance. There are way too many great restaurants in the bay area vying for my business to bother with a place that commits the second most unforgivable restaurant sin, after vermin in your food. I know it’s a moot point now, but I wanted to reply to the people who think I’m being too picky. Because that’s hilarious.

This place was cheap and delicious, but it’s definitely closed now :(.

The food here is really good. This place appears to have gone out of business. They haven’t looked open in at least a week. I hope they’re just on vacation or something.

This place is way to quiet for me. Not only could i hear the voices in my head as i sipped my salt and starch veggie soup deal I could hear the voices in the heads of the other person in the joint. Maybe it was just to much salt

This is my favorite restaurant, No matter the foods, the prices and the most important is, who works at this place, They are super nice, I still go to this restaurant every 2 — 3 weeks, From the first day, that I went untill now, NO CHANGE, I still go to this place every 2 — 3 weeks, But They will be ~ CLOSED EVERY TUESDAY ONLY, So, 6 days a week, Not: 7 days a week:

Fresh xiaolongbao in Berkeley? I’m a fan.
I discovered Lee Wah while randomly wandering in San Pablo ave.
Noticed they had xiaolongbao (Shaghai style soup-​filled dumplings) and I just had to order some. I usually have to go all they way to inner Richmond in the city to find some, so being able to get them in Berkeley is awesome.
The xiaolongbao were pretty good. Fresh, homemade, hot, juicy, and not too salty.
The other dim sum items I tried were also good. I particularly liked the chive pancake. The pork potstickers were not the best I’ve had, but were fresh and homemade. The vegetable and pork buns were also fine, but they were different from the usual sweet BBQ kind I was expecting.
The dim sum menu is not as extensive as other dedicated places, but there should be enough options to compliment the xiaolongbao! All items are inexpensive and affordable. Service is friendly, but the place is pretty casual so don’t surprised if not everything is spotless.
Definitely worth a try!

We’ve done take out from Lee Wah over five times now. Every single dish tried has just been SO delicious. YAY!

The best thing on the menu I have had is the Kung Pao Chicken. I love it and it has a great flavor to it. I would try to avoid ordering the fried rice as it was a little on the salty side. It might have been bad night, so maybe I will try it again. The food does not come with rice, so don’t forget to order some if you would like to have rice with your entrée.

Super nice people running this restaurant. The onion pancakes are the best I’ve had. Dumplings, potstickers, chow fun and chow mein are all great as well. Prices are a bargain. A hidden gem.

Lee Wah’s cuisine has gone north. now includes:
–cantonese (egg foo yung, chow fun/​mein, sweet & sour…)
— mandarin/​sichuan (mongolian/​general tso chicken)
–northern chinese specialities (soup dumplings, lion’s head)
–northern chinese appetizers (spicy beef tendon, etc.)
–northern chinese dim sum (xiao lung bao, green onion pancakes, pan fried pork buns, etc.
–low, cheap pricing.
music: soft rock
décor: 2 tones with pics of lunch specials and specialty items on wall
eats:
–xiao long bao (8/5.95)
small delightful globs with juice and meat within.
–Peking noodle with paste (4.99) aka ja zang mein
cold nooldles with miso paste, sliced cucumbers, carrots.
*very filling, noodles commercial kind, not hand made
–hot & sour soup (free)
lots of flavor, almost replicates the best
foodnotes:
–many cheap northern eats
–staffed by mandarin speakers
–menu reminiscent of «yangtze river» menu (different people here).

Read my friend Jesse D.‘s review. That will tell you all you need to know.
That said, as someone who *hasn’t* been to mainland China (I know, totally lame, right?) I’ve been really impressed with the selection here (including a wide variety of dumplings!), and I’ve really enjoyed most all of the dishes I’ve had. And the staff is wonderful — opening our beers from next door (pretty sure they will have a liquor license soon) with a soup spoon. Love it.
Try the «Chinese hamburger» (misleading title, it’s delicious), if you want something you probably haven’t had before.
$$ pricetag isn’t really accurate — you can order a mountain of food here for «$ 11 to $ 30».
I really hope these guys make it — there haven’t been many people there when I’ve been by, but it’s gotta be brutal starting out as a restaurant in Berkeley. /​tangent over.

Since moving to this neighborhood in 2010, I have been a man in search of delicious cheap Chinese food. I had just spent a year in Beijing, where you can eat like a king for a couple of bucks a day, and I have missed the food there like crazy ever since. Other than Shanghai Dumpling King over in the Outer Richmond, China Village in Berkeley (which I thought was good, but expensive) and a few places at the Ranch 99 mall in Richmond, I’d never found anything that really satisfied me… until this little establishment opened up a couple of months ago right down the street.
You may not have had Chinese food quite like this before. The folks who run Lee Wah are from Tianjin, a megalopolis a few hours from Beijing, which means that their food is mostly North-​eastern style (apparently Unilocal doesn’t allow you to use Chinese characters in reviews… lame), with a few dishes from Shanghai thrown in as well. Since most Chinese immigrants to the U.S. have traditionally been from Southern China, that means that Lee Wah has tasty things on their menu that you may be unfamiliar with.
In this case, that first and foremost means buns (bao) and dumplings. They have a great variety of these, ranging from the Shanghai-​style soup dumplings and ‘shengjian bao’ (bao steamed with sesame on top, then briefly fried on the bottom) to more North-​eastern style bao with fillings such as pork, green vegetables and radish (these are particularly delicious!). Lee Wah really nails their dumplings and bao. Soup dumplings are notoriously hard to make well, but these are excellent. I think the best way to order is just to ask for batches of their freshest bao and/​or dumplings. They are all homemade. You can’t go wrong. You can also buy a batch of frozen dumplings to go, which is something I haven’t taken advantage of yet.
In response to a review below, I did once have one batch of dumplings where I thought the inside was still not totally cooked through… but the other 15 – 20 batches I’ve had have all been excellent. Just tell them next time!
Their menu shifts around a fair bit. They have a bunch of pictures on the wall so you more or less know what you’re getting. If you’re just in there for a few minutes while waiting for loads of laundry to finish drying at the laundromat next door, they also have a few solid little offerings that’ll fill you up, such as the Peking noodles and the beef tendon noodles for $ 6. I have yet to try any of their lunch specials, but those look a little more Americanized to me, although still tasty I’m sure. Their kungpao chicken is pretty legit. Lately they’ve had something like a ‘rou jia mo’ on their menu that’s translated as a «Chinese-​style beef burger» — the name sounds a little crazy, but they are way tasty.
What really pushes them into the ratings stratosphere is how unbelievably generous and friendly they are. I try to bring big groups of friends here when I can, and every time we end up receiving incredibly friendly service, including two or three extra plates of food. Even when I come in here on my own they’ll usually throw in a few odds and ends. Soup dumplings. piping-​fresh bao. Pancakes filled with red bean paste. You never know quite what to expect.
Last night was my friends’s birthday. We wanted some beer with our meal but they don’t have a liquor license right now. Can we go to the liquor store down the street and pick up some beer, we ask them? No problem. Then when we come back with beer in hand we realize that no one has an opener. No problem again — the waiter goes into full-​on boss mode and cracks open all six of our beers with a soup spoon. Then we sit down and order food to our hearts content, includings lots of plates of bao and dumplings and a tasty lamb clay pot stew, and we wound up being gifted a plate of steamed vegetables, a pan of lamb pot stickers and my absolute favorite, mini-​sesame pancakes with red bean paste inside, lightly toasted.
Final bill? $ 74 for 7 people. Most of us are pretty heavy eaters. We all left stuffed. I always make sure to toss down a great tip. This time we left $ 20 or so. It was worth it. I love these guys.

Best Kung Pao Chicken I’ve ever had, seriously awesome. $ 5.95 lunch special. I’ll be coming back.

My kids and I tried the Shanghai dumplings, salted meat and vegetable clay pot, chow mein, All were executed perfectly.
The menu is fairly standard, with all the American Chinese classics (chow mein, General chicken, sweet and sour, etc), but it also has a few dishes that seem like more authentic Chinese as well.
Service was a little uneven, but I’m guessing that’s because the place is brand new (it just opened a couple weeks ago or so).
The atmosphere was nice, and appropriate for a mid-​range Chinese restaurant — handwritten signs (in Chinese and English), a little fountain, lanterns with tassels, an aquarium lamp.
This is definitely the best Chinese food within walking distance of University and San Pablo — much much much better than Blessed Garden. It’s great to have this as a choice!

Nothing could ever replace the wonderful Chinese food found in our old neighborhood in SF, but Lee Wah is way better than previously having NO Chinese food in our new ‘hood.
They’ve been open for a week now and we were pleasantly surprised to walk by it today. We had the pork dumplings with napa cabbage, eggplant with tofu, and the peking noodle with special sauce. Portions were generous, prices were decent. We paid about $ 20 for our meal. Pork dumplings were delicious, eggplant with tofu was spicy and served hot in a clay hot pot. The only thing I wasn’t wild about was the peking noodle, which was just pork, mushroom, and julienned carrots and cucumber over noodles. They do have other items that I’m looking forward to trying, like their dim sum and lamb noodle soup.
Service was standard. The staff were pleasant, although we sat down to eat just as the entire staff were, so they were understandably distracted. We’ll definitely be back though, since we are pretty stoked to have Chinese food within walking distance to us again!