Ming’s Diner

Today is Chinese New Year’s day, and also my husband birthday, we did not feel like to cook, so we decide to go outside to eat, since ming’s Diner is close by and also they have the vegetarian options, it works for the whole family vegetarian and non vegetarian. total nine of us, they are kind of full, there no big table lift downstairs, so went upstairs, those tables might not been used for while, there are a lots of dust on the table and plates, we are all used the paper towel to wipe our plate, we order eight plates, the food are taste pretty good, the service is little slow, we had to wait for long time to get our last dish pine nuts fried rice, it is very tasty, but it is little pretty price, it is $ 10 for the fried rice.

What a pleasant surprise. For under $ 9 including tip, you get a big bowl of wonderful homestyle soup, and lots of expertly wokked chicken, green beans and mushrooms in a savory sauce with a giant bowl of rice.
A normal person would make two meals out of it. Heh heh
I like how the free tea is also loose leaf and not bags.
They could turn on the heater, but bundle up and you’ll be fine. Really tasty.

Nice sized portions. Extensive menu with plenty of seafood. Prices very reasonable. Haven’t had anything that I haven’t liked. If you’re in the area check it out.

I was driving down Taraval looking for vegetarian options, this popped up on Unilocal,so I parked and went in.
Straight up, I didn’t want to spend $ 10 on a dish, but simply, that was pretty much the range.
It wasn’t too busy, there are tons of places to sit.
The server was nice, but maybe we had some communication issues as I asked for water with ice and he told me no ice… I dont know why there’s no ice.
I got sweat and sour ribs — $ 10.
I got their dragon tofu balls — $ 10.
They were good and again, I kinda didn’t like the price, but to be fair the portions matched. I had left overs for the lunch the next day.

I can’t believe you over charged me $ 30.70 for crappy serving of Oxtail Stew, that tasted like corn starch and overcooked oily vegetables. So disappointed in this place. It’s a shame you’d rip off a local wanting to support your business.

Always do take out. My staples are beef chow fun, shredded pork and bean sprouts pan fried noodles, salted fish and chicken fried rice. Simple, fulfilling and you cannot get it wrong. Prices reasonable and keeps the belly happy, so why not check it out?

This place has been the go-​to restaurant for my family after the Dragon House on Geary closed in 2007. As several family members are vegetarian or pescatarian, Ming’s Diner has turned out to be our favorite restaurant in the city. For reference, my experience has only been dine-​in.
+Vegetarian Pi-​Pa Tofu: I think the English equivalent is «Dragon Balls», which is about as awful a name as you can get, but they are delicious.
+Green onion pancakes: The best I’ve had in SF, though they don’t fare well if not eaten straight away.
+Salt and Pepper Shrimp: Delivered hot and delightfully delicious every time.
+Fried Rice: I have no idea which one it is, but it’s a vegetarian option that includes pine nuts, some form of fake ham (?), and seaweed on top of the standard ingredients.
–Parking around the area can be hellish.
–It’s not as clean as one would hope a restaurant to be…
Service has always been unfailingly polite and quick, and the quality of the food has always been consistently tasty.

Let me first state that the service was exceptionally helpful and very friendly when choosing my dish I really appreciated how keen he was by helping me select what I wanted on the other hand the food that we received was terrible the fish was definitely not fresh the chow fun was overcooked and the noodles were stuck together in a lumpy gravy mess the sauce was bland and the wonton soup also had no flavor pretty disappointed by this place

Ming’s is a decent restaurant for a family wanting to eat out. But having eaten here a few times, it’s a hit and miss on quality, probably due to different cooks. I’ll say they have consistently served sizeable portions, and the waiter is very amicable. Of special note is their Dragon Balls & Broccoli, made of seasoned tofu, from their vegetarian menu.

This review and five stars is for dining in, and not take out. Not impressed with take out chowmein. What I have enjoyed here is the fried chicken stuffed with sticky rice, oxtails with XO sauce. Looking forward to trying more things here since I’ve moved back to the Sunset. Pictures here on Unilocal look yummy!

worst string beans ever, salt and pepper fish without pepper, decent potstickers. Heavy MSG.
Better places in the neighborhood.

I came here on a Wednesday evening with my familiy. It was quite empty.
The plates and everything were already set up. We asked for waters and unfortunately I found some old food stain inside of my glass… Gross.
I can’t remember everything we ordered but it was one of the combo family dinners that they provide. We got the Hot and sour soup, Deep fried flounder, Mabo tofu. Shredded pork & bak choy — all decent but not really satisfying… I had to pour a lot of pepper into my hot and sour soup to make it taste decent =/​. The friend flounder didn’t come with much soy sauce at the bottom so it was quite dry from the skin… The mabo tofu was semi-​salty but nothing rice can’t help! The shredded pork and bak choy was decent. I would get that again if I came here.
The bill came out to be quite expensive for what we got… 5 or 6 dishes (including the soup) was $ 60 or so, like wtheck. I can definitely get a better price else where.

Okay… so granted the night that we came also happened to be a night that SF decided to pour, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that we were the only table for most of our meal. But because we were, I was disappointed that some of the dishes we ordered still came out incorrect — what’s the excuse for that?
The rundown: the deep fried pork chops were delivered piping hot and as a platter full. Woot! The tofu and fish claypot was equally yummy. Fried tofu was plenty and the fish was pretty good as well. Our sliced rock cod and string beans came with bok choy instead, which was pretty disappointing. The rock cod was also less than stellar. Pieces just kind of fell apart. And our black pepper beef came with way more onions than beef which was pretty lame as well. But at least they provided soup to start and dessert to finish.
Their lotus root soup is very yummy. Just like how grandma makes it. As for dessert, last time we came, they had eggettes… but this time it was a more traditional green bean soup. Bleh.

Very decent Chinese food with both delicious vegetarian and meat options. Came here for my grandma’s birthday dinner on a Saturday and it so happens another birthday dinner was going on with the entire floor booked. so I guess while we had reservations around 7 we didn’t get seated until 730−8pm.
Food came out very fast. Love the sweet and sour spare ribs, duck, fried noodles with enoki, chicken and egg soup and especially the greens&enoki soaked in sauce. I wasn’t a big fan of their fish or lobster. Sadly the fish was too fishy for me, and the lobster was too salty; tasted like they put too much oyster sauce for flavoring.
All in all, good restaurant with good service. The waiter we had was really funny and super attentive. Too bad we got stuck at the top where the air circulation wasn’t so great and it got super stuffy especially with another party next to us. I wouldn’t mind coming back for more yummy Chinese food. Really cool how they are known for vegetarians loving their stuff!

I only come here with my bf and his family but the food never disappoints. I just shut up and let them order cuz I know it’ll be good.
Get the fried flounder. It’s sooo good w/​the sauce and don’t forget to eat the small bones on the outer edges (seriously addicting).
Other dishes that are worth getting off the top of my head (i’ve never had a bad dish):
salt + pepper pork w/​fried tofu
salt + pepper shrimp
chicken w/​the shrimp chips
seafood tofu soup (omg)
baked oysters
The service is always friendly and quick, always refilling our tea! I read some of the negative reviews on here and maybe we’re just lucky but this place is pretty damn good.

I never knew this place existed of all the years I lived in the Sunset. Based on the way it looks, I would have never walked in here, and my friends never mentioned this place, and for good reason.
I was with my worker doing some light construction jobs nearby, and he brought me here for lunch. He ordered some beef stew with rice dish & I ordered Mongolian Beef w/​rice. My dish was sweet, and not a bit of spicy kick that I come to expect from all the years that I’ve had this elsewhere. There were no peppers at all. His beef stew dish appeared dull & gray. I tried a couple of bites and the beef was tough, bland & very chewy. They used the cheapest parts of the cow. (at least I hope it caem from a cow)
This restaurant strikes me as a place for Chinese contractors and mechanics to get a quick, cheap lunch. The guy who brought me here also knew some guys at another table that looked like they were taking a break from doing remodeling work.
I’m not sure about the other menu items but our lunch experience was enough to help me decide I am not coming back. The service is what you might expect from a truly authentic Chinese dive, lacking, as was flavor of the food.

Referred by a friend, I chose to order off the menu for a family dinner for four at home. Like me, she is local, growing up in the City and familiar with all the old staple restaurants that the «Lo Wah Kue», long-​time immigrants, would know and loved. Having a similar palate, I trusted her recommendation of trying this sleepy spot in the Sunset right on the L streetcar line. She painted a picture of their ox tail dish in my mind that made me bookmark this place on my ‘to try’ list. On a recent Saturday evening, here’s what I ordered:
1) West Lake beef soup — Hard to do wrong and all elements were there especially not being too thick. Parents were too hungry to wait for my camera to click this one.
2) Ox tail in wine sauce (
) — Main reason for coming here. Loved that they use the smaller pieces which are more tender. The wine sauce with onions and carrot chunks are great with rice.
3) Pei Pa Tofu (
) — Seeing photos from other reviews, I ordered this. Tasty deep fried tofu balls mixed with ham pieces. The broccoli was perfectly cooked, still crunchy yet cooked. Like the ox tail, the gravy/​sauce on this pairs well with rice.
4) Surf clam (3) stir fry with bean sprouts, chives, and ginger (
) — Ordered this by mistake, wanting the traditional steamed open shell version with vermicelli, this was just okay. The clam flavors were dominated by the ginger and bean sprouts. Will make sure to order correctly the next time.
5) Fook-​chow style fried rice (
) — Decent version of this ‘wet’ fried rice though more of a poor man’s version with the main ingredients being shrimp, chicken, shiitake mushrooms, and Chinese broccoli slices (gai lan). The true version usually includes dried and/​or bay scallops which were MIA here. Again, the sauce was nicely done.
If you grew up on the ’60’s and ’70’s in San Francisco’s Chinatown community, you’ll remember that rice and gravy was extremely popular, meeting two big requirements: a) filling and b) flavorful. The cooking style here fits that profile based on the dishes that our family tried. The dining room is average in size with about four large banquet size tables and six or seven four-​seat tables. At around 5 pm on a Saturday, there were four or five occupied tables already. The cashier was kind and efficient in accepting my payment and packing my meal. Based on these dishes, I would rate the food 3.5 stars, adding 0.5 star for satisfying my family’s tastes.

Zero if only Unilocal would let me!!!
Dad ask politely in Chinese ‘how much longer will the wait be for a table’
Host lady barks back in Chinese ‘you will be seated when I tell you you’ll be seated’
–_​–
An hour later we’re seated. After hearing the host lady b*tch and complain about us not making a reservation for 6 on a Sunday night for dinner.
We order food and they are out of two dish…
–_​–
We wait another good 45 minutes for our food.
While waiting we
1. got to hear one of the waiter guys basically yelled at the top of his lungs, in the middle of the diner, cursing a lil host girl and her entire family b c he did not see her serving a table and almost ran into her bc the restaurants layout is a complete mess…
2. Hear the waiter tell a table behind me how crappy the kitchen staff is and that they ran out a dish, b c they ran out of ingredients…
Food comes after 45 min…
Soup comes first. It tasted old…
The dishes…
Greasy. And someone from my group brings up the pt that every single dish looks exactly the same…
We finish dinner after 30 minutes.
Dad asked in Chinese ‘will there be dessert’
Host lady responds in Chinese ‘yea, of course’ (except her attitude/​demeanor was more like duh! Of course)
To which it tastes like water with a lil sugar…
–_​_​–
… … … No words can describe how I feel about this place. Smh

We were on a mission to restock the freezer with bundles from the KIngdom of Dumpling shop, and thought we’d try their restaurant, because we’d never been there. When we saw a line coming out the door, we knew this was not going to be the day. We were too hungry.
So with so many Chinese restaurants on Taraval, and not having a particular fave, we let the proximity of parking (which is VERY tricky in these parts) determine which one we picked. For something so random, Ming’s turned out so much better than we expected. My husband had the Szechuan chicken on the lunch and I got the vermicelli with duck and snow cabbage. We both started off with the soup, which didn’t look very inviting, but turned out tasting like cabbage borscht, in a good way. Both portions were large, and although it hadn’t been our original intent, we ended up sharing both.
Mine was a little bland, but the noodles were a perfect texture. I am suspicious that it was not duck, though. Tasted more like chicken, and I didn’t see anything that looked like what I imagined snow cabbage would look like, but I enjoyed it especially with some Szechuan chicken and it’s very flavorful sauce mixed in. The chicken by itself was a little too strong, although I didn’t object to any of the flavors, it was just too much sauce for the amount of chicken, so perfect on intensity when mixed with my vermicelli. We spent a total of $ 15, including tax and tip; can’t beat that!
I loved that we were the only non Chinese there. There were lots of interesting items I’d like to go back and try. It wasn’t until after I left that I read Unilocal and saw they specialize in vegetarian. Also, there was a separate menu (all in Chinese) that was given out to most of the other tables (but not us). I wonder what was on it? I saw the Dragon Balls on some one else’s table and wondered what they were. I would definitely try those!, and after Ken K.‘s description, I would definitely try the #147 clay pot.
It was really a 3.5 for me at this point, but I’ll round up anticipating the good things I’ve yet to try.

This place has the best PORK CHOPS! Period.
So yummy. That’s definitely their star dish that I crave for. =)