Lai Lai Restaurant

I love their pork buns and Cashew chicken. Place is a little bit of a dive but that’s fine. food is really good

This place is by far one my favorite Chinese spot. The good is great quality, family owned and great people. I’d highly recommend fried wontons, shzechuan chicken (I thinks that’s how you spell it.) broccoli beef, and the lo mein. I’ve been eating here for years and the taste is always consistent and delicious. The walnut prawn is also amazing. Fried rice is also good and so are the potstickers. Fair priced and good portions! I always leave with a lil food baby (:

The service is great and the food is decent but it’s so greasy, even more than normal Chinese food! It was just a little too much for us but I loved their service!

We have been going to Lai Lai for over 30 years — food is OK — but last nights was delicious — only thing that bothered me was the cost. I order ½ orders of Chow Mein, Sze-​chun chicken and mongolian beef. My husband and I are senior citizens so we don’t eat alot. Even with the ½ orders we still have leftovers. My bill came to $ 40.00 — when i got home realized that seemed a little high so I re calculated the cost and came up with $ 30.00. — went back in now to get my refund and was rudely told that half orders are not charged half — Something that cost $ 9.75 their math says $ 7.95 — I think they need to learn how to calculate ½ — also the old adage «the customer is always right» For a $ 10.00 over charge, they just lost a customer! and I will tell others of this shoddy practice.
Judy J

This is a solid restaurant for Chinese food if you like Mandarin/​Beijing cuisine. Nothing strikes me as authentic or I haven’t found their signature dishes, but every entrée is edible and tasty. For example, the Mongolian beef, Peking spare ribs, and wonton soups are good, but not the best compared to places that specialize in these dishes. Given the local authentic competition, I’ll have to come back and try their Peking duck, zhajiang mian, and other chef specials.
The service can be slow to hail a waiter, but they are friendly, helpful and fast once you get their attention The décor is your typical sit-​down restaurant to dine-​in that tries to be more upscale compared to most Chinese restaurants. Parking in the nearby public lot is available if you can’t find street parking.

A weekly favorite! We love everything about this place– the food is SO good, the service is warm and genuine (you will love these people) and it’s super affordable! Honestly, check it out. You won’t regret it.

This place is awesome. Great food, great prices, and great service. Place is nice and neat. I love their lunch special and it comes with soup which for me either the Wonton or hot & sour. Neither to salty nor they use MSG.

This is one of my favor restaurant in town!
Very good for Chinese American style food here! My kids love to dinning here very good service and friendly! No MSG in all dishes so I don’t feel sleepy after meal! Signature dishes like Walnut prawn, Mongolian beef, Sze-​Chun chicken, Egg fu young, sizzling rice soup… can’t name all, but they are all very delicious! Today We ordered something out of ordinary… Salt and pepper shrimp!

I still eat here often, but not as often as I used to. The flavor is still good, but not overwhelmingly great or horrible. Lots of options for Chinese in Millbrae, and I’m sure lots are better, but I can put an order in here and pick it up 5 minutes later… It’s just easy, and some days, I’m all about easy :)
I think the Sze-​Chun Chicken, Salt and Pepper Fish, Wor Won Ton Soup and Green Onion Pancakes are my staples here.

Stopped by here for lunch based on the Unilocal reviews and was happy I did. Warm greeting and friendly service. Very good food — the soup (that came with lunch) was excellent as was the lunch special chicken curry. I also ordered some potstickers which were very good. Overall, a very good Chinese place — and I’m not sure what other reviewers meant by food adapted to American palate (which I’d view as a negative). I didn’t see any of that.
Overall: super

First night in town and had no clue where to go. Drove around and found Lai Lai.
SO glad we did! Fantastic food and service. Clean and welcoming place and crowded on a Tuesday night. We asked a few people for order recommendations as they were leaving and they said EVERYTHING is great!
We opted for a 2 person dinner, they were happy to make a substitution we requested at no extra cost. From the soup to the end of the meal fortune cookie, we were more than satisfied. Highly recommend the Mongolian Beef!
Fast, Friendly service! There were several «locals» in that night and were greeted by name. Definitely a place to try for authentic, delicious Mandarin Chinese.

This not your traditional Chinese restaurant. Don’t let the name fool you. The way the food is cooked caters to the american tastebuds. I ordered Szechuan Chicken which on the menu was a must try on the menu. This is basically your Orange Chicken from Panda Express. I also ordered the String Beans with Tofu. There wasn’t that much tofu in the dish and it’s a dried fried bean curd. Overall the food is not terrible. It is cooked with less salt and probably no msg. So if you are looking for a healthier alternative type of Chinese food this is a good place to try.

I love this place! My family and I have come to eat here ever since I needed a seat booster (I wanna say around 20 years ago) and the food is simply delicious! Jimmy as well as the rest of the staff are excellent on checking up on customers, polite, and friendly. The food comes out quickly and fresh from the kitchen. We usually order a bunch of plates and pass them around but they also have a lunch/​dinner plate to choose from which are pretty affordable.
Today we arrived here for dinner from my sister’s graduation. We ordered the following, to all of which I would recommend anyone to try: Fried Won Ton, Egg Rolls, Pecking Beef, Mongolian Beef, Fried Rice, Steam Rice, Chicken Chow Mein, and Kung Pao Prawns.
My personal favorites of this place would be the Pecking Beef (a unique sweet sauce with tender beef), Walnut Prawns (a honey like type of sauce with walnuts), the Chicken Chow Mein (the noodles are tasty and the chow mein is not oily as some other restaurants do), and the Lemon Chicken (sweet citrus taste with good chicken). I definitely will return to this restaurant, as I have many times before.

I don’t understand the bad reviews.
Maybe it is not the best food in the Bay Area but it is tasty. Some of my food was a little too salty but I recommend the place for a meal.
I’ve only had dinner once in the restaurant and the service was decent. We usually take out food since we live close. It is our go to place for Chinese. The employees are friendly as well.
One of my favorites in Millbrae!

Hadnt been here in years. After almost giving up Chinese food due to the low quality of the meats most places use, i was pleasantly surprised when ordering the Mongolian beef how good the beef us. Not fatty like most places.
Also I had them make it spicy and my nose ran. Really good, although I could use a little more sauce.
They gave me Wonton Soup at no extra charge which was nice since I am not a big fan of Hot and Sour soup.
The lunch special is good every day, unlike most places who do not have it on week ends.

I try not to give too many 5-​stars so my reviews mean something but I just love this place. I’m going try my hardest not to be biased since I live close to it and the owner (Gary and his brother Vincent) are such ridiculously cool, nice guys. So service and attitude is just awesome. ⁹⁄₁₀
Décor — eh — you know. It’s a somewhat reasonably priced Chinese restaurant in Millbrae. What do you expect? ⁵⁄₁₀
Okay onto the main reason why you go to Chinese restaurants: food. So «objectively» here’s how some of the dishes stack up:
Spicy green bean — ask them to add ground pork. If you ask Gary, he’ll know immediately what you want. ⁸⁄₁₀. Solid.
Lemon Chicken — I don’t know why I like this dish so much despite how overly sweet it really is. Perhaps it’s the meat quality (juicy chicken breast — sorry I know it’s kind of a non-​Asian thing to order). Perhaps it’s the flakiness of the batter — almost tempura-​like. But it’s just really good. So whatever, add a little salt or a touch of soy sauce to balance out the sweetness but I just love it. ⁸⁄₁₀ in my book.
Chicken Broccoli — I know I know — another very non-​Asian thing to order. But it’s friggin good. A classic. ⁸⁄₁₀.
Kung Pao Chicken — look it’s not a Sichuan place okay? So it’s not that good whatever. Doesn’t have the right tingle. Not enough peanuts, etc. Fine don’t order it. ⁵⁄₁₀.
Hot and sour soup and egg drop soup — weirdly on the sweet side actually. Whatever it’s fine if you really need a hit. ⁴⁄₁₀
Mongolian Beef — You know, decent. I’d say it’s probably a ⁶⁄₁₀ but I’m rounding up to ⁷⁄₁₀ since I usually get take-​out so that probably contributes to the non-​optimal serving experience.
Pan fried dumpling — nearly perfectly done. Surprisingly can rival the near by Shanghai Dumpling house’s guotie. That’s right I said it. Maybe it was just the couple times I had it there and was just really craving it so maybe I’m being overly generous but I say ⁸⁄₁₀
Overall, between super attitude/​service, solid Chinese food (except for the soups), and somewhat reasonable prices (I dunno I’m from Oklahoma so I’m probably spoiled on really cheap Asian food), this is a definitely thumbs up in my book.

I come here on Sunday’s and it’s not packed and quiet. Food here is amazing and is always perfect. Great for big groups and family’s

GUNG HAY FAT CHOY!
My sister talked me into driving down to Millbrae (her hubby is away on a business trip) and we ordered To-​Go from their favorite Chinese restaurant. Keep in mind, we had her THREE HUNGRY TEENAGERS which meant a lot of food was to be ordered.
My sister called & placed the order and within 15 minutes we went to pick it up. Everything was hot, smelled delicious & the owners are so friendly. We had:
Won Ton Soup
BBQ Pork Buns
Potstickers
Walnut Prawns
Sweet & Sour Chicken
Mongolian Beef
House Fried Rice
It was all pretty tasty. I didn’t eat every dish but tried most. It seemec like an exorbitant amount of food but as I said, with three teenagers their wasn’t a drop left.
We watched the Chinese New Year’s Parade on tv. Fun night had by all!

Lai Lai’s is my family’s favorite Chinese restaurant in the area. The place has funky décor with the woodpanelled walls and model airplanes, but the food is consistently good and the wait staff is very diligent. The main man (I wish I knew his name) cracks us up. He is always smiling and shuffling around to assist everyone promptly. He always recognizes my dad right away and automatically brings my dad a full glass of wine to the brim right after we are seated.
There was one occasion where my dad was not happy with the potstickers– they were doughy with a minimal amount of meat. The waiter could tell my dad was dissatisfied with something and insisted he tell him. My dad shared that the potstickers were not the usual deliciousness we remembered. The waiter immediately brought out a glass of wine for my dad on the house and took the potstickers off the bill. We were impressed with their customer service and have been loyal customers ever since.

We were a party of 3, craving some Chinese food. After trying to get into a couple of places and finding them closed, we ended up at Lai Lai at around 4pm for some really late lunch.
First of all, the service was really good. The staff was truly friendly and attentive.
We started our meal with some delicious Pot stickers. Six decent sized pieces that were juicy.
For the main, we shared some veggies fried rice, Szechuan chicken, mongolian beef and peking spareribs. The rice was tasty and the portion was generous. The chicken was the highlight of the meal. It was so juicy and tender, and the flavors were great. Our second favorite was the mongolian beef, my only comment is that the ratio of beef to veggies is little low, but nonetheless it’s good.
As for the spareribs, they were ok, we didn’t find them that mind-​blowing.