Lau’s Kitchen

My husband ordered take-​out from this restaurant. He ordered mongolian beef and dry scallop fried rice. I found the beef in the mongolian beef to be chewy. The flavor was just okay. The dry scallop fried rice was on the bland side. Based on those two dishes, I would most likely go to another chinese restaurant before coming here.

Lau’s Kitchen has been closed for about a month, and there is no sign in the window saying that a reopening is planned.
The problem, as my experience and the earlier reviews suggest, was that the only good deal here was the lunch specials at $ 4.95. As a consequence, the place was crowded during the midday and nearly empty the rest of the time. Too bad the owner didn’t take warning from this and improve the cooking. But maybe really good Chinese chefs arre not so easy to find.

I usually come here for their lunch specials. Its cooked better than other places, like yummy guide around the block. Not as cheap as yummy guide, but definitely better tasting and still cheap. I usually cant finish the whole dish so I save it for the next day, What A Deal! LOL (I sound cheap). Whats good is their mongolian chicken and sezhuan dish and their… whatever is listed as lunch special dish.
I really like this place because it makes one of my favorite rice plates, fukien fried rice, with quality and deliciousness. Not many places can cook it right because the rice dish has vegetables and seafood along with this seafood gravy sauce. So if the vegetables lumpy or poor quality seafood or sauce is watery, then its just really bad. But this place, did it right. It was a huge plate, so I couldn’t finish it myself, but boy did i want to!
The setting is typical chinese restaurant with its chinese paper banners of food specials that looks like 5^th graders designed it. Theres a nice tv in the middle if you get bored at staring at the wall or other ppls food. And service is good :) Overall im a regular here for lunch and would like to do dinner here too.

I have been here several times during lunch with my coworkers. We come back here because the food is quick, cheap and good. For once — it meets all 3 criteria. If you are looking for A1 prime service then this is not the place. It is good for having lunch in a hole in a wall Chinese Restaurant.
Foodwise — I have usually had the lunch plate specials. Most, if not all, lunch plate specials come with a cup of soup, rice and your «choice» of lunch special. I usually stick to a chicken and vegetable (chicken and string beans, chicken and vegetables) or have a soup. The Wor Wonton Soup is excellent.
Service — Service is quick at lunch time when you get there early. Each of the 3 – 5 times I have gone, we ordered food and within 5 minutes of ordering the food was there — steaming straight from the wok or pot.
Price wise — On par for lunch prices — $ 0.50 — $ 1.00 for what I’d consider cheap BUT for the 3 criteria I stated above, quick, cheap and good — I would pay the extra $ 1.
Parking — It’s Oakland Chinatown. Rare to find street parking. There are plenty of garages around and the walk around downtown is actually pretty good in Chinatown. Remember — at some crosswalks you can actually walk diagonally because they stop all traffic each way.
Did I mention my coworkers were Chinese, grew up in Hong Kong and have lived in San Francisco for the past 20 – 30 years? If native Chinese can come here and recommend it… just think — if you don’t see Japanese in a Japanese restaurant, Filipino’s in a Filipino restaurant… etc… think twice about eating there.
Until next time.

Large menu with many more traditional chinese things, but not very well prepared, at least compared to places in SF. Better than more Americanized chinese options.

I came to this place on a whim and discovered that they make…
*THE BEST* Beef fried rice.
Ever.
It was almost $ 7 bucks though, but definitely worth it! 5 stars just for that.
And the guy who took the order was nice enough, and answered some other questions I had graciously enough.
Yum.

The Beef Chow Fun was not tasty — very plain, not good. Meat that claimed as beef was chewy and couldn’t even bite through. Had to ask for a knife. Waitress gave me a dirty look as I starting cutting the so-​called beef.
The other dish was Beef Stew was had a weird flavor. Not the regular flavor as other Cantonese style restaurant. Had more tendons (don’t eat this stuff anyhow) than meat which was really rubbery and had freezer burn on the beef. Makes you wonder, how old is this crap?
The Hong Kong Style Chicken Chow Mein was OK. But was charged $ 2 extra for having pan fried noodles. I think it was a little too steep, perhaps a dollar? The waitress didn’t know the price to charge me, until the cashier with the raspy voice stepped in, look at me & blurted «$ 2 daller!»
Not a happy camper, especially for LAUZY (lousy) Food that was not edible. The name of the restaurant should be named LAUZY Kitchen.

The ambiance of this restaurant gives me a strange feeling. Like I can’t really get too comfortable in here.
It’s because they use a short paper thin divider to keep things ‘private.‘
I would order take-​out from this restaurant, and it was just ok.
I personally think it’s overpriced for the quality of food.
We ordered about 5 courses from this restaurant and the best thing I had was the fried sanddab.
The sanddab had a nice crust and it was well cooked. The fish was moist inside.

Been here a few times. I’ve tried their sweet n sour chicken, sesame chicken, and lemon chicken. The lemon chicken is the best. Fried fresh and just right. Lemon sauce is not too tangy, just enough. I would order their sweet n sour chicken again. Not the sesame because the previous owners did a better job at it.
Had their salt n pepper squid. It was ok, wasn’t salty or spicy enough for me, not bad for 7.50. I had their duck egg and meat rice porrige, I wouldn’t order again I know there’s better out there. It was too watery and the egg and meat were minimal. Their chow fun and fried rice were nice and tasty. Tried their tofu and eggplant clay pot which wasn’t as seasoned as I liked but it was generous portion wise.
Service is attentive and as quick as they can be. I like their customer friendly hours. I hate some food businesses esp in Oakland like to close at 2Pm and reopen at 5Pm. They are open throughout all hours of the day. They offer free house soup and dessert with your meal, which differs daily. Their menu is pretty diverse. I try to order something I never tried or had before. This place is worth a try for lunch or dinner.

Rather middle of the road Chinese food. It’s really about 2.5.
It’s still under new ownership, so they have some kinks to work out. If it gets really busy, I can see them being a bit unprepared.
The food was kinda all over the place. The pepper beef was a bit too salty, the ox tail was not braised long enough so it was really chewy, and the chicken was rubbery. The walnut prawns and catfish were done well however. Also, they don’t have a liquor license so no beer here.
Probably a lot of other choices to go to before you come here.

Lau’s Kitchen is a newly opened «hong kong style café». didn’t really look but didn’t see section for boba drinks nor milk tea. (didn’t want to keep looking at menu or they would think i’m not ready. it was taking long enough already –10 minutes? at least 5)
décor: basic cream/​white walls with flatscreen tuned to disney/​tnt
«lunch special (4.95)
«fried rice, spaghetti, steamed rice (choice of one)»
lunch special (4.95) kung pao chicken (choice of many items)
Me: «kung pao chicken with fried rice» (in english)
waitress: (seem lost or not understanding)
Me: (pointing to lunch special section)
«waitress»: «$ 1 more, fried rice is $ 1 more»
Me: «menu doesn’t say»
«waitress»: «steamed rice comes with it. fried rice $ 1 more»
Me: «ok, kung pao chicken with steamed rice.»
never saw this person at my table again.
sampling:
–soup: corn nibblets. tofu, egg flower, corn starch, kind of sweet
–potsticker (1): nearly cold, good sized potsticker with almost nothing inside. (obviously commercially made)
–brocculli florets (3) –ok
–2 cups steamed rice
–tall glass of really hot tea.
–kung pao chicken, nice mix of fresh bell peppers, onions, carrot, chicken, no sauce.
–chicken cooled fast, probably precooked.
leftovers:
–grandma in front of me looked like she had the same thing, barely touched it, didn’t take it home.
–quality — 2 stars, quantity 4 stars
–service good for those they recognize, otherwise it takes a while.
–2 «waitresses» adept at picking up soiled dishes and putting new ones in it’s place. poor at taking orders, service.
–more of a restaurant than a café
–specials written in chinese on blackboard (frog, seafood, etc.
–chinese translation for sweet & sour fish: kung pao chicken.
–might return to try beef stew noodle (6.50?)
chinese lessons mandarin
sweet & sour fish fillets tian suan yu pian

A new restaurant that took the place of Lucky & Lucky. Décor is similar and the food is good. They serve similar Chinese Cuisine and I have yet to enough info to give a detailed review. More to come.
Lunch specials are better than L&L’s. Lau’s Kitchen has a couple of specials to choose from including Mongolian beef. The specials are $ 4.95. Good deal for lunch. Cheaper than the other place on the corner.
So far so good for a new restaurant. New owner Danny knows his stuff. The phone number is the same as the previous establishment. Four stars for now.