Milbrae - Zen Pinensula Dim Sum Restaurant

Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Ohmigosh! The search for our new dim sum place is officially over!!!!! Many thanks go out to my bf's co-worker who is all hooked up with the great Chinese places to eat around the area and gave him a few recommendations for us to try out. We went to the first one on the list and BAM! It just blew us away!

There are so many people dining at this restaurant that there were barely any spots left when we got there at around noon, we were lucky that we didn't have to wait for a spot or park on the street. And apparently the food is so good here that people are willing to park illegally, partially blocking the driveway and risking getting their car towed away just to eat at this establishment.

I will be consistent and use the three criterias that I judged the other dim sum places: service, taste, and value.

Service/Speed:

They definitely mean business here at Zen Pinensula, it almost feel like each of these ladies that are circuling around the restaurant have a radar to spot new customers. Before we even got our tea and warmed up our seat, three ladies with push carts filled with hot and yummy food came right to our table! I don't think they can be any faster than that, and with that said, they past my service/speed criteria with flying colors!



Taste: As our usual practice when visiting a new restaurant, we ordered a wide array of dishes so we can get a good sense of what is good and what is bad here; and I am happy to report that there was not a single dish that we did not like. Every dish was excellent, and it tasted even better than Lychee Garden.

There was a good variety of dishes. They have the standard ha gau (shrimp dumpling), siu mai (pork dumpling), and BBQ pork bun. The dumplings were light, juicy, and full of flavor!

My personal favorite is the scallop and mellon dish that you can see in the lower picture. I didn't think my bf would like this dish, cause he's a big meat eater, but after I took a bite and savored the dish, I knew my bf would love it, too.

To me this is one of those dishes that reminds me why I love food so much! The dish is so simple, but the flavors are so intricate, and the chef blended the savory scallop with the sweet taste of the mellon perfectly. It has been over a month since we visited the restaurant, and I am still thinking about that dish!

The sticky rice on the bottom is very tasty and although I did not have the sticky rice in lotus leaf on the right, my bf's dad said that it was better than the one that he used to have at Lychee Garden in San Francisco, and he enjoyed it a lot.

These last two photos I have are the fried tofu and fried pork dumpling which is the sticky mochi like thingy with groud pork in the middle. Although these dishes are deep fried, they do not taste oily at all.

Lastly, I'll talk a little about the value. We got more food than I photographed here, we were full, happy, and had leftovers to take home and for the 3 of us, I think it was a little bit over $40. All the dishes that we ordered were between $2.60 - $4.00, and in my opinion it is worth every penny.

If you would like to see their complete menu and some more photos of what the food look like, they got it on their website: http://www.zenpeninsula.com/

I am so happy to have found this dim sum restaurant, I just wish that I knew about it sooner, and one other plus is it's about 15 miles closer to home, so we'll be able to save on gas and order more food!

Zen Peninsula 采蝶軒
1180 El Camino Real, Millbrae, CA 94030
650-616-9388