Elite Restaurant

This place is closed.

Standard Chinese food. nothing special but their lunch specials are cheap. $ 6.50. I haven’t tried anything that’s like a WOW but its convenient & the portion is just right.

I have stuck to the basics (Beef Fried Rice) Always took care of me except one time when the rice was burnt. I was so hunrty… like a bear, I did not care. The next time I told them about it and they made sure it was not burnt and even top it off with a free coke. Since I did not complain at time of the mistake, it was nice gesture.

OH, I am once again so sad to see the recent bad reviews for this place. I feel like I need to give my opinion once more since we had another wonderful meal here last weekend. The usual person was out last month after recently giving birth to her daughter. This made things a bit hectic since it is always a little slow when new people start. We came here once when she was gone and was greeted by a really nice guy that turned out to be a HS classmate of my bf. You can tell he was really working hard and trying to make the transition as smooth and fast as possible. This past weekend, the owner is back! She resumed the peace and organized everything. Our food came out fast and people were all very happy. We even tried the fried flounder on her recommendation and loved it. I don’t know if we always come on good days but I think we have been here a total of 10 times and it has never failed us. Maybe next time, try to be here when the main lady is here or if she isn’t, if you can speak Mandarin, order with the other Chinese man. He knows everything on the menu and is super friendly, but his English isn’t the best so be patient.

The staff were very nice except a woman yelling at workers in the kitchen. I got the roasted duck and it was what I imagine eating a phone book would be like. Incredibly dry. Maybe that’s why she was yelling at the cooks. The spring rolls were great and I enjoyed the sauce as well.
I probably won’t go back. The only reason I went in was because Tango Sushi was closed.

This is no longer the best Sheng Jian Bao in the Bay Area. Shanghai Flavor Shop beats this place hands down.
The service here had also gone from average to poor to absolutely don’t care. I waited 30 minutes for my food, asked the waiter a few times and every time he said it’s coming. At the end, he asked me if I wanted to cancel the order because the kitchen hadn’t even started cooking my order. I’m just going to leave it at that.

Best dishes:
–sauteed green beans
–honey walnut shrimp
Questionable dish:
–pot stickers
We had the hot and sour soup, which no one at our table touched. There was this smell that we couldn’t figure out. It was so strong we couldn’t eat it so we ordered the wor won ton soup, which was good.
The potstickers had a funny smell to them as you fork them open. The rangoons were enjoyable, crispy outside with that creamy goodness inside.

The staff is very friendly! The food is affordable and also NOT greasy. It’s also more unique in the Chinese world, which I why my family and I prefer this place. I’m sick of feeling gross and super-​heavy after leaving chinese restaurants because of the grease, but the food here is flavored well without being overly salty or greasy.

It must be opposite day because I can’t think of a name more contrary to my food and experience at this restaurant than «Elite» other than maybe the word tasty.
Came here for lunch because I just happened to be in the area and I couldn’t pass up the allure of a $ 6.50 lunch menu. Maybe I accidentally ordered off of the gross food lunch menu because nothing I ate tasted quite right. The sweet and sour soup smelled septic and tasted like hot gel and black pepper, I couldn’t even get it half down and I was starved. The spring roll had ambiguous chunks in it that I couldn’t distinguish although I was told it was all veggies. And the eggplant with tofu in garlic sauce was a hot mess, literally, it was under flavoured but somehow over spiced.
And the worst part? I was so hungry that I ate most of it and now I’m laying on my couch watching Avatar with some serious indigestion and the lingering taste of a nauseating meal in my mouth.

Good little restaurant between 3 – 4 starts. Friendly service, pretty good Northern Chinese style food, and good price.

I had to update my review since last year. I dropped a star because I have tried other items on their lunch menu and was not impressed at most of their dishes. The honey walnut shrimp is still pretty good. The meat dumplings in a spicy sauce and the salt and pepper fish fillet are other good choices.
I didn’t care too much for the Mandarin Chicken. The chicken seemed dry and tasteless. The sauce was a bit too salty for my taste. The Wor Won ton Soup was just okay. Broth had no real flavor but at least the veggies were fresh.
The staff is always very friendly and efficient. Overall, this place is still a good spot to get some fast take out during the lunch hour.

This review is based on multiple visits.
I have been here several times and tried something different each time. it was usually empty whenever I ate here for some reason. The food is generally good with OK prices. The only thing that I did not care for was the Lemon Chicken. It was prepared much differently than I have had before. It wasn’t bad but I have had better.
The entrees and soups are good. I brought a friend and my family to join me on separate occasions and everyone liked their food.

Knocking it a star. They no longer have their delicious sheng jian bao on weekdays! Boo!

Authentic, delicious Chinese food, but sometimes a little slow.
Order the pan-​fried pork buns (I think that’s what they’re called) — they’re like giant xiao long bao, except with a doughy outside instead of a dumpling wrapper. Also, if you like red bean, the smashed bean something (it’s about ¾ths of the way down on the dimsum menu). Another great (and pretty unique) thing is the savory soy milk (I think they call it «bean milk») — I wish I could have this for breakfast everyday.
«Pastries» aside, I have no idea what their food is like… My understanding is that it’s two different chefs and the pastry one rocks, and I have no idea about the other one.
Edit (March 17, 2013): I hear their pastry chef has left. My heart is full of despair that their fried pork buns probably won’t be as good…

Dear Elite kitchen staff,
Please wear a hat while cooking and making Sheng Jian Bao.
a strand of black hair stuck straight out from the Sheng Jian Bao skin after I took a bite. The hair was embedded in the bao skin dough.

I’ve been here for lunch on two separate occasions and have tried the following: small wonton soup, shanghai style shrimp (I can’t seem to recall the english name but the seasoning is dark and sweet), cong you bing (green onion pancakes), shanghai fried noodles, sheng jian bao, xiao long bao, and the baked red bean cakes. I was most impressed with the shrimp, XLB, and sheng jian bao. I highly suggest these three dishes because these are particularly hard to cook right. My family is from Shanghai, so I tend to judge Shanghainese establishments quite harshly because of certain expectations. To get this type of quality baos here is pretty good so I’ll sure be back here for the sheng jian bao in particular. Note that these run out fast and are not available on Mondays or Tuesdays.
That being said, the other dishes were so-​so in my opinion: decent, but nothing striking.

I came here because it was close to the hotel we were staying at. There wasn’t a huge selection and was disappointed that they didn’t know what bok choy or choi sum was. I ordered beef broccoli and sweet and sour chicken to go. The wait wasn’t long and they were very friendly. It came in clear plastic containers and the portion size was worth the $$$$. They gave us 2 egg rolls for free.
When I got back to the hotel, I realized that they didn’t give us an utensils. I guess they expected us to eat with our fingers. Thank goodness la Quinta gave us some forks. Some of the meat was on the raw side in the beef broccoli. My daughter enjoyed the sweet and sour chicken.

I got lunch here twice. First time was tofu w/​fish filet. Overly greasy (which isn’t always bad) but there wasn’t enough flavor. Not as spicy as I would have liked. More salty than spicy. Unimpressed but not heinous, so I went a second time.
Got mongolian beef the second time, which i figured was relatively safe. Yuck. Beef was rubbery and had a weird flavor to it. Like bad pork or something. And it had a weird sugary aftertaste. I can’t even explain that. And NO spice! Where’s the heat? Goddammit, I wanna cry tears of pain when I eat a supposedly «spicy» dish. Or at least make a little snot dribble out of my nose.
Only the ignorant eat here.

The steamed pork buns were so-​so. The dough was too thick but the flavors were acceptable. ⁷⁄₁₀
By the way, like most of the menu, the English translation was pretty bad for this item. These were not steamed BBQ pork buns. These were the famous Shanghai little basket dumplings.
Also, this restaurant has been open only for about 6 weeks and one of the menu items (Lion head soup) was already unavailable. I asked. It was not only out for the day of my visit, but no longer available, period.
The tea smoked duck was terrible. I could not taste any tea or smoke. Some of the meat was tender but all of it was oily. Some was extremely dry. The four plain buns that came with the duck were awful. I complained about two of them because they were so hard they were inedible. Even the new ones were extremely chewy and some were very dry inside even when I tried them hot. ⁴⁄₁₀
The yellow chives and fish spring rolls were wonderful. ¹⁰⁄₁₀
The baked radish cakes were OK. The cakes were nicely flaky but the fillings were too mild. ⁸⁄₁₀
The two-​sided yellow fried noodles were great except it was too salty. They did an excellent job with the texture of the noodles and the pork and veggies were nicely cooked. ⁸⁄₁₀ due to saltiness.
The five-​spice beef (cold appetizer) was mediocre. The first few pieces I tried were like beef jerky. The texture was rough and the meat was extremely dry. The seasoning was heavy on the soy-​based marinade and too light on the sesame oil and other flavors. ⁷⁄₁₀
The cold jellyfish appetizer had great texture but was too bland. Jellyfish is almost flavorless. The flavors of this dish should come from the seasonings, which were sadly lacking. ⁵⁄₁₀
They gave me a complimentary serving of a traditional Chinese dessert. It was Chung Yeung cake. That steamed cake had several layers: red bean, sesame, sticky rice, and a pink layer that could have been flavored sticky rice. The flavors were OK but the cake was hard and dry, especially the bottom layer of sticky rice.
The service was friendly, courteous, and fast. As I often do, I gave no indication that I understood Mandarin… so I could hear what the employees say to each other. It was disheartening to hear one person tell my server to just reheat the unsatisfactory buns I rejected — especially since the server handled them with his bare hands. After I asked him, in English, if he was going to steam the old buns or give me new ones, he told me he would give me new ones… and another employee then told him to give me four (instead of two) new buns.
The biggest problem I observed was a full tray of bowls of raw meat left at room temperature in the hallway leading to the restrooms. Each bowl was covered with plastic wrap, with a big piece of meat or liver in it. It looked like the meat/​internal organs were left there to thaw or to marinate. Either way, that was not safe food handling practice.
I was surprised at the prices. I thought they were too low for the large portion sizes.

Elite Restaurant has different menus, a northern dim sum menu, a lunch menu, and the regular menu. the lunch menu has only a few shanghai items on it.
Elite is off hwy 880, cushing exit. it’s located between mcdonalds and the korean eatery (bo sang). nice, comfy décor
flatscreen: chinese news
sampling:
pan fried pork dumpling (sheng1 jian1 bao1, 6/5.95)
–very good bun texture, nice moist meat stuffing within
sweet sour pork, (tian3 zhi1 rou3)9.95
–it was actually braised pork belly, fat was melt in your mouth, the pork meat wasn’t quite there but sill tasty
–asked for blackened spareribs (wu xi pai gu) which they didn’t have, recommended this. pretty good but too fatty for me.
leftovers:
–friendly, helpful service
–late afternoon, no patrons
–lots of parking in lot.
chinese lessons mandarin
braised pork belly hong2 shao1 wu3 hua1 rou4