Chef Lau’s

I’m so sad that this place has closed! I came here for the sole person of eating their delectable postickers, which were always so fresh & packed with meaty goodness. I’m curious to know if the owner/​chefs have relocated and if so, WHERE can I track down these amazing postickers? Please help a sister out if you have any leads!

The food here is home style Chinese cooking. I was told to check this place out as it wasn’t too crowded and hipster filled in Oakland Chinatown. Walking in, the place felt like a good old restaurant down south in Monterey Park. All the of specials are written on the wall and in Chinese. This is not exactly an english reading friendly place. But if you’re willing to get some amazing authentic Chinese food and play a little pick a dish roulette then Chef Lau’s is a must stop place.

I was there a few weeks ago with my aunt and uncle for lunch. Everything was absolutely delicious. I was shocked, lunch for 5 was abt $ 35 and my aunt and uncle had left overs for another meal.
Definitely will return the next time we r in the area.
Great food. Great service. Great prices.

My wife and I loved this charming little Chinese Seafood restaurant on the corner of 8^th & Harrison. Great food with very affordable prices (cash preferred) and the most lovely circular windows. The free corn and carrot soup was a delicious surprise and the seafood was excellent. Big thanks, to the local guy that recommended it to us this weekend!

Home style cooking and you don’t even have to break the bank. Ask for their 6 – 7 dollar menu and have at it. One dish per person family style is more than enough. Every dish has the perfect amount of «wok-​hey», the sign of great Chinese cooking, when you a sense the essence of the seasoned cookware. If you have had great Chinese cooking you know what I am talking about.
Nuff said go eat!

Came here to eat with the family. Ordered many dishes of food. The chicken tasted like it has been made and then reboiled to be sold again. The scallop was definitely bad because there was a bad taste to it. The fried rice had no kind of taste. It tasted like plain white rice. The fish was extremely overcooked. The soup also had no taste. The only thing that was decent was the lobster. Overall i wouldnt recommend this place. There are better restaurants around.

Bad experience here for dinner. The restaurant isn’t that large, but it is narrow. They’ve decided to not turn away large parties for dinners, so most of the tables are for 10 people. Five of us walked in and were told that we had to sit at a table of 10 and share thee table with others. We talked our way into another table that was empty, but was told we had to leave within a hour because a larger party had reserved it. In other words, you have to show up with a party of ten or you share tables with others.
Food wasn’t all that great either. Service was extremely surly. Seemed like they were upset having to serve diners.
Décor seems to have taken a turn for the worse.

There are only 2 chinese restaurants (not dim sum) that I would eat at and this is one of them. The food always comes out hot and delicious. My favorite is the garlic fried pork chop. Best fried garlic around. They give complementary soup of the day and also fruit dessert at the end. My other favorite dish here is the shrimp scrambled egg. The scramble is perfectly done to my taste. The service is fast and courteous. For a group of 6 people for lunch, we never pay more than $ 9 per person. Now that is a deal.

I am glutton for pain when I come here. The food is good but service sucks. I placed a to-​go order for two items totaling $ 17.33. No where did it post $ 25 min for credit card transaction. I’ve eaten in a couple times but mostly place take-​out orders since the place is so small and noisy. The young waitress snatched the credit card when I didn’t have cash to pay. How rude. I’ll take my business elsewhere and pay cash!

My husband and I went here for lunch. He ordered the Mongolian Beef lunch and it was 2 star quality. My lemon chicken lunch was served 12 minutes after his lunch was served. I thought this strange and waited. It’s obvious the chef was looking for lemons. He never found any and my chicken came out orangish. If it had tasted orange I could accept it but it just tasted weird. I could not eat it and told 2 staff members. They did not offer to bring me something else or take it off the bill. Therefore 1 star rating.

Ambiance: Came here for dinner with the grandparents on a Sunday night. For a Sunday night after a festival, I would say that this place was kind of empty. It like any typical Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. Small, squished, and dirty. Because I grew up coming to these restaurants often, it feels like eating at home where my mom cooks the food but not as good nor as healthy as my mom cooks it. Still, this place had decent business last night with a cozy family oriented chatty atmosphere!
Service: Service was good. The wait staff was in a jokester mood and joked a lot with my alcohol-​induced grandpa, which made him happy and that makes me happy. :) My grandpa is as much of a peanutholic as he is an alcoholic so the waitress gave him a small bag of peanuts! Either gramps knows how to sweet talk or the waitress was a sweetie. Or both. :P
Food: Too many dishes to list but my favorite was the tofu seafood clay pot! Yum! :) sweet and sour sauce is always amazing. The roasted chicken was pretty dry so I wouldn’t recommend it. Overall, it was okay food. I personally wouldn’t come here but because my Chinese family loves their Chinese food and they’re paying for their Chinese food, I’m not gonna be fighting with them.
Price: for about 8 plates, it cost is about $ 80
Tip: — get the tofu seafood claypot :)
Conclusion: Decent Chinese restaurant but I would only come here with family

Came here after my Aunt’s retirement party at her work. An early dinner at 5:30pm for 9 and the place was empty. We ordered a could veggie dishes, chicken chow mein, and some seafood dishes. Food was decent, but nothing amazing. For 5 dishes + rice, the cost was about $ 55.

Chef Lau has been around for 10ish years. it’s that eatery at the corner of 8^th & Harrison as you turn into chinatown from the posey tube.
came across a «Special Siu Choy» 7.25: «small dishes»
–orders looked the same as regular orders
–almost 80 choices, many claypots,
eats: black bean clams & braised bean curd
— good portions, fresh, braised bean very good
–meat, seafood ok
–packed every night.
— to go available.

Look, here’s why we come here:
If mom doesn’t want to cook, we come here.
If there’s a birthday, we come here.
If there’s a get together, we come here.
If there’s a CNY dinner, we come here.
If there’s a graduation, we come here.
So, you get the legist, this is our default dining spot when there’s a need for a meal. On the weekends, mom always book reservations because this place can get busy. It’s tiny, it’s popular and it gets so packed that Chinese people will start spilling out the door and will literally stand on the back of your seated area while your munching away on good eats. But it’s fine, you’ll learn to ignore them since full concentration is on food that is stuffed up your mouths.
What’s great about this place is the food is good, the price is good and more importantly, the food is not slathered with MSG and you don’t feel like gulping down a gallon of water when you get home.
Here’s a list of must tries:
1) House soup
2) Salt and pepper pork chops
3) Shrimp with scrambled eggs
4) Lotus roots with Chinese sausages
5) Mapo tofu
6) Honey Walnut shrimp
7) Fish cod clay pot
8) Preserved egg crabs
9) Deep fried pumpkin squares
10) Giant pot stickers
We consider Chef Lau’s as an extension to my mom’s dining room. Where we are always welcomed, where everyone knows my mom’s name and where the food is as comforting as mom’s cooking…

The salty egg /​pumpkin deep fried thing was outstanding (not listed on the menu):
It takes 20 minutes to make, but worth the wait. Here’s the cross-​sectional analysis:
The potstickers were OK:

Welll… I LOVE the salty egg bitter melon/​pumpkin dish here and the food overall is good. I would say one of the better places in chinatown. Prices are decent — you know average chinatown prices, not pricey but not as cheap as you can get. The place itself is like any typical chinatown food joint. Though the shape of the place sucks, narrow and long and gets very crowded.
BUT… I HATE the service. So we come here pretty often and the service has sucked almost each time. The last time I was there (last Friday night)… We had reservations at 5:30, we didn’t order til about 5:45… the food started coming out a little before 6… so at 6:40, the owner of the place comes over and starts collecting dishes… mind you… we were NOT finished eating. We had 2 tables of about 9 people per table. She then brings over some boxes and pretty much started helping us pack our food and hands us our check and says sorry but we are busy. Talk about RUDE!!!
Anyways, bottlomline, I will come here again. I really do like their food/​prices… I would give it more than 3 starts but because of the bad service… they only get a 3. I will however try to avoid busy nights because we have just been kicked out soooo many times… it makes me want to scream! OH and one last thing, the waitresses suck too, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of them smile there… EVER.

Likes: Chinese food is good. Place is narrow but lots of window.
Dislikes: located in Oakland Chinatown. be wary of your surroundings.

Ghetto-​fab place to satisfy your craving for Cantonese style Chinese food. Been here a few times with my co-​workers. Most dishes are above average and some are just fabulous.
You can’t go wrong with the ox-​tail clay pot stew. Hearty, meaty flavors with unctuous tendon and tofu pieces. Wow, it’s a classic done right!
Another favorite dish they’re good at making: the salted egg encrusted deep fried kabocha squash. Or salty egg pumpkin for short! I normally avoid the preserved eggs, but it adds a nice salty/​savory punch when added to the deep frying batter. I shamelessly piled the pieces onto my plate. The squash is always cooked through.
We also got a vegetarian pan fried noodle (we had a veggie friend come along) and it was okay, but could have been crispier.
Not my idea, but someone ordered bittermelon omelet. It was huge. And bitter. But not too bitter! I’m not a fan of the stuff, but other people thought it was good.
The large pea sprouts with minced garlic were also good. The stems were edible (not too tough). It was a little undersalted, but nothing a touch of soy sauce couldn’t fix.
Service was good, but it didn’t seem too busy for a weekday lunch. We do speak Cantonese and we’re regulars, so perhaps that made a difference. This place is a great value too. We ate until we were quite full and it was less than $ 10/​head. They gave us complimentary soup and orange slices.

Great lunch spot and surprisingly the service is smiley. WHA?!?
Perfect Chinese brunch with mom:
–10 perfectly crispy potstickers w/​fresh loosely packed filling of pork & chives
–rice porridge w/​fish fillet, so comforting and not overly salty. Plenty o’ fish.
–rice noodles w/​shredded bbq pork, chicken, pork, mung beans & garlic chives, light and flavorful.
Total tab for 2: $ 24 including tip & tax, w/​plenty left over to snack on later.
Looking for the loo? It’s the first unmarked swinging door on your right.
Clean facilities in a humble setting. This will be a regular spot for me. No greasy salty hangovers here!

If your looking for a cheap meal and great food, come here!
On a Sunday afternoon it gets very busy after the churches get out so time yourself accordingly. Its a small place on the corner but they have a good amount of big tables for big parties.
I love their house soup. I don’t know what it is called, but something in chinese. Sorry I am not Asian enough to know the names of the Chinese dishes, but trust me on this one, their soup is A-​mazing.
If your going with a big party, expect nothing more than $ 10. Every time I come here we order a great amount of dishes for 8 – 10 people and we paid able 7 – 10 per person! including tax and tip!
So if you don’t take my word for the food (since im not that asian as I seem) come for the great price and good service!