Chef Zhao Bistro

Ridiculously tasty Sichuan food. Recommended dishes:- Spare rib with cumin- Chongqing chilly chicken- sweet and sour cabbage Service is ok, typical of Chinese restaurants. Ambiance is on the brighter side and not as fancy but it is still nice enough to go on a date.

I was pleasantly surprised by this restaurant. Ordered takeout and the food was fast - they made 5 dishes in about 20 minutes. The pork belly with chestnut was really good. The meat was soft and not too rich. The string beans were also delicious. Their spicy dishes looked really spicy but pretty authentic. Not a lot of parking in front of the restaurant so may need to park around the corner.

Parking can be difficult to find, but food is very good.We ordered boiled fish filet with flaming chili and Chongqing chili chicken. The fish came with noodles and mushrooms, and the Chongqing chicken was some of the best I've had - perfectly cripsy and flavorful.Overall, this restaurant is a solid pick for authentic Chinese food.

It's been a while! Chilly nice calls for chicken! Still one of our faves!!Order two new dishes last night. Lotus roots is delish! 5/5. Will order that again for sure. Lamb casserole is underwhelming. Not much flavors to it. Will skip next time. Nevertheless, it remains one of our favorite spots for dinner!!

Definitely a regular at this humble Szechuan joint. Nestled just out of downtown San Mateo, this place offers delicious authentic Szechuan cuisine. We always get some form of boiling beef or fish, a vegetable dish (garlic pea sprouts today), and our absolute favorite dish that leaves us begging for me is the tofu and crab in clay pot. The texture and flavors are absolutely DIVINE. Hope to see this place flourish and thrive over the next decade because they deserve it.

Excellent sichuan food. Best shredded potato's, boiled fish. Ching Qing chicken is also good

Really good food. Must get the fried chicken and Szechuan spicy fried shrimp. Casual, unassuming spot but sneaky good food with authentic dishes. Would recommend for a big group.

Came here with friends and had an amazing dinner! Truly spicy and mala numbness. Love it!

Went here on the advice of Kenji Lopez-Alt and suffice to say, extremely happy. Hands down the best chicken wings I've had. They only use the middle part of the wing, and chop it in half so they can get just that extra bit of batter on it. Perfect amount of heat and mala, with just the barest hint of sweetness made this dish worth the 30 minute drive. The cold spicy jelly noodles had wonderful flavor, definitely will reorder.the mapo tofu - flavor was on point, again, the perfect amount of heat and numbing. my only complaint was that tofu cubes are a bit larger than I personally like (I tend to mix everything with white rice, and the larger cubes makes it just a tad longer.The leaf tripe - I didn't have it, but the wife loved it.Scallion pancake - perfectly crispy, and thin.It's not a fancy place, but for authentic Sichuan taste, this is so far the best in the bay we've had.

I mainly wanted to try Chef Zhao because of the food on the menu has some of our favorites, and we wanted to compare them to our other go-tos. Everything is decent but unfortunately we still like our go-tos better. Hence the 3 star rating. We did take out, the boss lady seemed nice but since we didn't eat-in, I can't rate her service. The street parking wasn't bad. It was during lunch, although I picked up early at around 11:3oam.Hope this review helps you decide if you want to give this place a try!