It’s not off the beaten path, exactly, yet it isn’t a place one would just stumble upon. Chef Zhao Kitchen is tucked into Palo Alto’s Edgewood Plaza on West Bayshore Road, just off Embarcadero Road and Hwy. 101.
There is an unrelated Chef Zhao Bistro in Mountain View that serves Szechuan-style cuisine, while Chef Zhao Kitchen specializes in Shanghainese cuisine. Owner Jun Zhao and wife Hong Xia, who also own Shanghai Garden in Cupertino, opened Chef Zhao Kitchen last May. Their Shanghainese food is delicious and well worth seeking out.
The restaurant is divided into a sit-down section in front, with seating for 46, and three small private dining rooms. For those on the go, the back of the restaurant offers a variety of steam table eats to create your own to-go boxes.
The dining room menu is lengthy, and the pages were tattered. It wasn’t an encouraging start, but everything after that was four-star.
Shanghainese cuisine, also known as Hu cuisine, is the youngest of China’s 10 defined regional cuisines, though it is centuries old. Influenced by a half dozen neighboring provinces, Shanghai’s culinary history was also inspired by its strategic position at the mouth of the Yangtze River. Sugar, soy sauce, wine, rice wine and rice vinegar are used more than in any other regional cuisine.
During our first foray into Chef Zhao Kitchen, we were overwhelmed by the choices and had no idea of portion size or what combinations went well together. No fear, an attentive waitress guided us and assured us that whatever we ordered would be fresh and made to order, including the noodles, which are house-made.
The wait wasn’t long. The parade of food started with steamed xiao long bao ($7.95), a signature dim sum dish of Shanghai. The half dozen thin, soup-filled pork dumplings exploded in the mouth with a warm, soothing liquid that teased the taste buds.
The spicy flounder fillet ($14.95) — served in a small pot filled with the reds, greens and oranges of Napa cabbage, potent Sichuan peppers, scallions and hot chili oil — made a colorful mosaic of flavors and aromas. I mistakenly chewed a blazing hot Sichuan pepper and frantically waved for more water. Happily, after a minute of intense discomfort, my taste buds were fully restored.
My favorite dish was the wok-cooked eggplant ($10.95) with sliced jalapenos and green bell peppers in a syrupy soy sauce glaze. The jalapenos tasted like candy after that Sichuan pepper. The soy glaze glistened with the parquet of purple and green ingredients and the flavors were slightly sweet, not quite caramelized, yet meaty and earthy.
The tan tan noodles ($8.95) were house-made, pale, but not translucent and slippery to corral with one serving fork. The noodles cradled ground pork, baby bok choy and a peanut-butter chili sauce. The ingredients were nested — meat over vegetables over noodles — so diners could take more or less of any ingredient. The peanut-butter chili sauce had just enough zing to energize the dish without making it too fiery.
The thick, wok-fried salt-and-pepper calamari ($11.95) with sliced onion and jalapeno was light, airy and tasted like squid, not saturated oil. No sauce is necessary, although the restaurant serves a light, sweet rice vinegar sauce on the side.
The pork-filled potstickers ($8.95) were the perfect pan-fried dumpling with golden brown, crisp-fried bottoms and skins that were springy and chewy but not doughy. The potstickers were more elongated than crescent-shaped — less plump, but just as enticing. In Shanghai, potstickers are street food, often eaten for breakfast. I could do that.
Mongolian beef slices ($13.95) were intertwined with onions, scallions, dried red chilies and a hot black sauce, somewhat similar to a hoisin sauce. The beef was fork tender with clean, lean flavors. The onion added a sweet crunch, the scallions gave color and the black sauce was just enough to bind the ingredients without upstaging the beef.
Thick stir-fried noodles ($9.25) were woven with spinach, chunks of Napa cabbage and shredded pork and bound with a brown sauce. The noodles were fat and dense (twice as thick as Italian bucatini) and easier to handle than the tan tan noodles. They were fresh, malleable and delicious.
Chef Zhao Kitchen is not undiscovered; the place is usually packed, so go early. Now that I’ve figured out how to get to get there, I will be going back. It’s easy, once you’ve done it.
Chef Zhao Kitchen
2180 Bayshore Road #120, Palo Alto
650-485-2221
Hours: Lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; Dinner, 5-9:30 p.m.
Reservations: no
Credit cards: yes
Parking: shopping center lot
Alcohol: beer and wine
Happy hour: no
Children: yes
Takeout: yes
Outdoor dining: no
Noise level: moderate
Bathroom cleanliness: good
We have to try this place. Always happy to see Asian restaurants sticking to their roots and instead of the overly sweetened American “fusion” trend.
This place is authentic and has generally good food but is too expensive. When they are packed and out of seats, they will seat different parties together at the large round table, as they do in Asia.
Dumpling City sells frozen dumplings that are excellent, perfect for busy parents. https://www.yelp.com/biz/dumpling-city-palo-alto-2 C Boil for 9 minutes an voila! Located next to the vape shop. Curbside parking.
Too oily and too much MSG for my family.
I like Dumpling City though! Really clean food for my family.
Chef Zhao has been busy since it opened. They have a good chef. They are fast and consistent. The restaurant is busy at lunch and dinner. We don’t mind sharing a table for lunch. We’ve learned to call in for take out for dinner. Sometimes they don’t answer the phone because they are too busy. So wait 5 mihnutes and call back. We keep their menu on our microwave, and have not been disappointed with any dish. We can call ahead and food is hot and ready when they say it will be. It’s often just enough time to stop by the new grocery market at Edgewood and pick up milk eggs and half and half. I recommend this restaurant.
So pleased that this restaurant, which we have gone to and enjoyed very much about five times, is within walking distance of our home. This is great.
They are the highlight of Edgewood Shopping Center. It would be great if they could expand (not sure what’s next door – a nail salon? (yawn).
Now if we only had the sandwich shop that was once rumored to go in there, then the center would be more complete….
Our family have been going there often since it opened last year. We like the meat buns. Food is authentic. Not the American Chinese style. Price is the Bayarea price, not in the cheap side.
You can buy freshly made sandwiches at both House of Bagels and the Market ….
I took a guy from Shanghai here to get his opinion. He deemed it authentic. I love their sweet and sour ribs. The first time I was there, the server explained the S&S was different from that red gooey stuff. I have been told, however, that Shanghai cuisine is sweeter than others. @anonymous as somebody else has said, House if Bagels, has delicious sandwiches with freshly baked bagels and freshly made fillings and side dishes. Better than most sandwich places
@ChrisC
Not criticizing the placed named above, it’s an option for many and reputable, but something like Erik’s Deli Cafe would match my diet. My Dr. discourages things like bagels, even cereal! Meanwhile, I admit I like sandwiches.
And I think the vegetables along with everything else taste great at Chef Zhao’s, so for that I am thankful.