Yan’s Restaurant

Yans used to be better when they were in Lafayette. We went there all the time back in the day. Not sure what happened. It’s A-​OK however. They have a discount if you get take out. Thumbs up there. Staff is nice.

Rude staff. They were closing in 15 mins. And so even though they seated us, they wanted us to order without even looking at their menu. Give us 2 minutes to breathe and atleat look through your many people!!!

One of our favorite Chinese spots here in the East Bay! Love the salt and pepper shrimp and tomoto beef chow mien.

Had take out ugh. First woman that took order, on PMS. Chicken salad, like out of a dumpster
Plus almost no chicken. Next combo chow mein tasted like old sauce. Next asp w/​beef same
thing tasted bad. Sweet/​sour fish Dow right UGH ! What a waste of $ 50.00. I tossed the
whlole thing. Went and had a buger.

Review #067 — 2016
Yan’s is one of those spots that you head to when you are short on time to pick up take outs because all of the authentic Chinese restaurants are too far out.
I’ve been to Yan’s many times. I remember going to their Lafayette location many years back when the food was actually deserving of a 4-​star rating. Now, it seems the flavor has been so Americanized that it probably rates at a 2.5-star, but I bumped it up to a 3-​star because it’s pretty much a life-​saver when we are out of ideas on what we want for lunch or dinner.
We usually order the same things:
Sizzling rice soup — simple and clean tasting. Not much flavor, but I usually add my own flavoring & spices to adjust it to my liking.
Westlake Beef soup — Plain & simple. Not much flavor, but still filling enough.
Chicken chow mein — my son is the only one who eats this dish so I assume it’s decent enough for him to continue ordering every time we pick up from Yan’s.
Chicken chow fun (no gravy) — I like the fact that they use fresh ho fun noodles, but the flavor can be hit or miss. Sometimes, it can be good, but other times it’ll be too plain or a little on the salty side.
Black bean sauce beef chow fun — this is one of my favorite because they don’t over salt the dish like other places where it tends to get too salty.

Good food with exception of overcopked pot stickers which were so hard and chewy! Great fried rice and Szechuan chicken. They don’t serve tea or water unless you request it. Under new ownership and much better than before. Just don’t order pot stickers. Chow mein was also dry.

I love Yan’s in Walnut Creek, so I made the mistake of thinking that this would be the same experience. It was definitively NOT. Service beyond horrible. It was probably the longest lunch of our lives — by the end we were literally BEGGING for our bill so we could just get out of there. And THEN, after all that, we got so sick of waiting for our credit cards to be charged ¹⁄₃ to each we walked up to the counter and asked for credit cards back and paid cash just to LEAVE. And guess what? They had freaking run my credit card anyway (for the full amount, not even ¹⁄₃ like we asked) and I had to hassle with getting a refund. I cannot say enough bad things about the service here and I will never go back again in my life.

Recently, I have gone to this restaurant and services mostly liked me. We ordered many different dishes cooked from the seafood. But when we wanted to order some apple juice for kids they couldn’t bring.

Reasonably priced Chinese food, and 10% off if you order to go! We normally make a phone call and the dishes are ready within 20 minutes, super convenient. Some dishes are somewhat Americanized and not as authentic…
Btw, they are closed on Tuesdays.
Favorites:
Mu-​Shu Pork (comes with 4 pancakes) $ 9.50
mild wine sauce Fish Filet $ 12.95
Salt and pepper Baby Pork Chops $ 9.95
Other orders:
Kung Pao chicken $ 9.50
Kung Pao Three Combo $ 13.95
General Chicken $ 10.95
Szechuan Fried beef $ 10.50

Reasonably priced Chinese food, and 10% off if you order to go! We normally make a phone call and the dishes are ready within 20 minutes, super convenient. Just make sure you order the authentic dishes, they taste way better!
Favorites:
Mu-​Shu Pork (comes with 4 pancakes) $ 9.50
mild wine sauce Fish Filet $ 12.95
Salt and pepper Baby Pork Chops $ 9.95
Cons:
Some dishes are somewhat Americanized and not as authentic
Kung Pao chicken $ 9.50
Kung Pao Three Combo $ 13.95
General Chicken $ 10.95
Szechuan Fried beef $ 10.50
Ps. They are closed on Tuesdays

My husband and love this place! Great food, great lunch deal, and great service! You should try it out!

Our first experience was take-​out the Saturday after Christmas. The phone ordering went smoothly but we did have to wait an extra 10 – 15 minutes after our promised pick-​up time to get our food. The restaurant had a nice ambiance and diners seemed to be enjoying themselves.
The food itself was hit or miss. For appetizers, the vegetarian spring rolls were excellent, but we had a very hard time finding any filling in the crabmeat cheese puffs. They were basically just fried wontons and disappointing. The eggflower soup was quite tasty.
We enjoyed the chicken with broccoli and unlike most chinese restaurants, Yan’s cooked the broccoli perfectly: not too hard and not too soft. The salt & pepper baby pork chops were delicious but they were greasy and many of the chops contained hard gristle; we also never knew when we were going to bite into a bone. It was quite unappealing. The sesame chicken was adequate and the dry cooked string beans with pork tasty. The vegetarian chow mein was more of a lo mein, and the fried rice was good but dry.
The bill with tax was under $ 80, which I thought was pretty reasonable. While very convenient to home, we will try one of the other Chinese restaurants in the area for a more consistent meal.

Decent Chinese, a bit too expensive, would encourage it to be more authentic, I think people can handle that at this point.

My family and I have frequented Yan’s since they were in El Sobrante, it was our family’s favorite restaurant for anything from birthdays to holidays to just a lazy night when we didn’t want to cook.
Visited their Orinda location on a Saturday evening with a party of 8, very easy to make a reservation. Clean and pleasant décor, very roomy and lots of tables, at this time the restaurant was only about ¹⁄₃ filled but Orinda is a pretty quiet place, in general.
We ordered egg and ground beef soup, tofu green beans, honey walnut prawns, braised flounder, sweet and sour chicken, Chinese sausage fried rice, and orange beef. Everything was tasty! My absolute fave (since I was 5) are the honey walnut prawns, 20 yrs later and they’re still amazing! I don’t think I’ve ever found any elsewhere that can compare. Portions could be a little bigger for the price but still reasonable. We ordered the perfect amount and had zero leftovers. I ordered Mongolian beef to go for my boyfriend and he enjoyed it as well, even 3 hours later.
Now that my family has rediscovered Yan’s and the fact that it’s less than 15 min from where we live, we will most likely be regulars here again.

Since I have arrived back in the country after being abroad for quite sometime — my mom and spouse had switched Chinese Restaurants not once but twice! They finally settled on Yan’s. I think the décor and seating is nice and the hostesses are usually quite friendly. I came and ate while I was pregnant, then again when my dd was quite small and more recently with her at 6 months old.
The staff are very friendly and the place is family friendly except for one area — no diaper changing table in the women’s or men’s bathrooms. I had to go out to my car mid meal to change my dd’s diaper in my car which is why this place does not get five stars.
I have ordered Pot stickers (heads up it is heavy on the ginger), crispy chicken, rice, mongolian beef, fried rice, paper chicken, and a couple of other dishes with my family everyone has been spot on except for the Happy Family dish.
We will keep going back as the food is generally great in our opinion.

Went with 2 friends to celebrate my wife’s birthday. It was comfortable inside and they were very nice.
We ordered a lot of food and we liked it all except the eggplant dish which was unremarkable. We had vegetable mu shu, duck fried rice, veg chow fun, green beans, clay pot wor won ton soup, asparagus beef, etc. We also brought a cake — called ahead to make sure that was ok — but had to ask for plates.
All in all a good experience.

Ordered WON TON noodle soup. Not a fan. Cost me almost $ 10 for soup for 1 person. Will not be ordering the won ton noodle soup again but would be wiling to try something else on the menu.

Okay Chinese food.
For some reason, ethnic restaurants in the area just aren’t that great.
We ordered Hot & Sour Soup, Dry Sauteed Green Beans, General Tsao’s Chicken, Tofu & Veggies with Curry Sauce, and Veggie Chow Fun. It was just okay, none of the dishes really stood out.
Service was good — they refilled water & tea. It’s clean inside, bright and cheery with the big screen TV for game updates. The fish tank is fun to watch for the little ones by the front door.
However, even on a Thurs night, the phone was constantly ringing. Take out business is where it’s at for Yan’s.

Good veggie chow mien and egg rolls. Had a tofu dish that was blah. I did take my order to go so I am hopeful the dish would have been better if I ate it in house.
I had great service, the lady was super sweet and that’s reason enough to go back and eat decent Chinese food again.

I love this restaurant. The food is amazing and delicious!
Me and my husband come here a lot. They owner and the stuff are friendly and professional. We enjoy this place a lot.

The food was great when the previous owners were there, now the food is even more delicious. The vegetable fried rice actually has vegetables in it and tastes great, the kung pao chicken is now with white meat chicken and tastes even better than before.
Excellent service, I called in my order and it was ready in 10 minutes like they said it would be. Great prices as well.

My Dad and my two younger brothers felt like getting Chinese food for dinner yesterday, and because my Dad likes Yan’s Szechuan prawns, we decided to just get take-​out. We live closer to Moraga and there are a number of Chinese restaurants over there; and, well, after our meal last night, I think I’ll check those places out next time any of us feel a hankering for Chinese. But not from China Moon unless we’re feeling reallyyy low on our sodium intake. I guess that’s one thing that Yan’s has going for them — they don’t absolutely douse all of their food in salt.
We got:
Chicken Chow Mein
2 orders of Steamed Rice
Szechuan Prawns
Orange Chicken
Honey Walnut Prawns
None of these dishes really stood out as being something particularly delicious, something that one might get a craving for and absolutely HAVE to order from this restaurant. It was all pretty average, except for the Orange Chicken, which looked really red when we opened the box, and had far too much breading. I made the mistake of not asking if they could perhaps keep the sauce separate. As a result, the breading was soaked by the time we picked it up and got home, and soggy food is never a winner.
The woman on the phone was very polite and gave us a 10 – 15 minute estimate on when our food would be ready. The timing was perfect and we had no problems driving over and picking up our food. A couple of side notes, I really appreciate them poking holes into the Styrofoam containers to mitigate the effects of condensation — very thoughtful. Also, their fortune cookies are pretty good, haha. I think China Moon in Moraga has the same supplier as, say, Panda Express, and the cookies are just a semi-​orange, semi-​edible container for your wax paper-​y fortune.
This place isn’t terrible, but it also isn’t fantastic… so 3 stars is just about right. I’m not against trying to dine-​in the next time around to see if my opinion changes.

I randomly decided I wanted Chinese food for lunch!
I haven’t had Chinese food for a LONG TIME! I haven’t found many good Chinese restaurants around Berkeley to Lafayette area (or hair stylists lol)
I arrived around 11:45. It was nice and calm. I love the décor and ambience. It’s super clean and they play nice music. I went to the bathroom which was immaculate (I’m terrified of public bathrooms). I came back and the server set a salad, water and the lunch specials menu down for me. Super sweet.
I ordered the deluxe veggie lunch special (added black mushrooms for $ 1) with brown rice. It came with salad (which I was already served) and soup. I also ordered hot tea.
The tea had a teabag. I’m a huge fan of restaurants that serve loose leaf teas. So eh, but it was free.
The food was served in about 7 minutes. Super fast!
Salad– had a wasabi/​horseradish flavor to it. I didn’t really like that. But I ate all of the salad.
Veggies– very plain with garlic and a little sauce. Zucchini, carrots, water chestnuts, broccoli, Bok choy, black mushrooms.
Rice-​good basic nutty brown rice.
Soup-​egg flower with chicken and corn. Very yellow and tasty. Comforting.
I added hot sauce to my veggies and I ate all of them.
I hung out here for a little while to finish my tea.
Overall, service was great, food was pretty good. The lunch special (plus tip) was $ 11. I’ll be back!

I really like this place, and I’m fairly particular about Chinese food. We normally order takeout but recently ate in the restaurant itself and enjoyed the meal a great deal. We had a small plate of fried quail that was exquisite. Also the salt & pepper calamari (with jalepenos) is not to be missed. The wor wonton soup was excellent as well.
We’ve sampled a wide variety of their offerings and everything we’ve ever tried at Yan’s has been quite good.

Not a fan of the new location, but the décor is much better than the Lafayette location.
The lunch menu is very fairly priced, quick and tasty. They provide a great take out service as well!!!

This was by far the best Chinese restaurant I have been to and I have been to many. My girl friend and I ordered the Mongolian Beef, Mongolian Chicken, brown rice and steamed rice. Everything came out very hot and fresh. They give a very large portion of steamed rice with your meal. More then you will be able to eat, but the brown rice is a normal portion size. The meat at this place was to die for. The chicken and beef seemed very authentic and not as sketchy compared to some other places. The service was great as well. Very friendly and always kept up on refilling our waters. Reasonably prices, it was 8 bucks a meal during lunch for soup, salad, entrée, and rice. Highly recommend and I will be coming back again!

This is a pretty standard Chinese restaurant. Parking is plentiful. The interior is spacious. The service is good and attentive.
The food is pretty standard compared to what you would find at other Chinese restaurants.
If you make a pick up order they take 10% off the cost. That’s a nice plus and a decent draw for the local lunch crowd.

Food here is as good as I remember. Salt and pepper calamari, tomato beef chow mein, and chow fun are the best. Take out service is terrific. Only one encounter where it was a long wait but they were busy so I’ll overlook.
Gotta try it! Support local.

We’ve been coming to Yan’s for seven years at this point, when it used to be in Lafayette.
Now it’s moved to Orinda, over by the library. Same wonderful owners, but the waitstaff has changed, and they’re all new, which can lead to some slower service, but nothing that is too horrible.
I always get the twice cooked pork, which I ask for with less sauce, but it’s seriously delicious. I definitely recommend it.
Come during lunch, where you get a tasty salad and egg drop soup with your order!